Expert: Susie Minshew - 9/15/2009

Question
Does the 7 board count applies to everyone in bowling? Just started standing on 20th board and struggling. Use to stand on 25th board but was told by mentor i was too far left.

Answer
I'm not sure what the '7 board count' is. My best guess is that you are referring to the ball laydown point in relation to the inside of the sliding ankle. I'll answer based on that assumption. Most people lay the ball down 5-7 boards outside their sliding ankle. Five is really better as it indicates the ball and swing are close to your body and in your power. Getting the ball farther from your ankle than that causes you to be inaccurate, lose power and revs, and get really tired, really fast. Other than that, it's a good idea!:)

If you are targeting the second arrow (the 10th board), then 25 is indeed too far left. You are 15 boards from where you are looking. You can see that if you walked parallel to the boards and slid on 25, laid the ball down 5 - 7 boards from there, you'd be laying the ball down on the 18th - 20th boards. That's a really long way from 10. So, you either miss 10 way to the left or you walk way to the right to compensate for the fact that you lined up too far left.

Lining up too far left is a fairly common occurrence due to a physical phenomena called vanishing point. It's like if you stood in the middle of the railroad tracks, it appears that the tracks come together at the horizon. They don't, as you know. Our perception of the lane is the same. If you stood on 17 and looked at the second arrow, you would feel like you are standing on top of it. Yet, if you walked parallel to the boards and slid on 17, you'd be perfectly placed to lay the ball down on 10!

No matter what line you are playing, you should always walk parallel to your intended ball path. If you are playing the lanes such that you want the ball to go parallel to the ditch and then turn left somewhere down the lane and into the pocket, you should start and end pretty close to the same board. If you are playing left-to-right, you'll walk left-to-right, albeit your walk angle is MUCH less severe than your playing angle. If you are playing right-to-left (not something right-handers get to do very often), you'll walk right-to-left, sliding left of where you started. (That's really the secret to left side spare conversions!).

The easiest way for you to determine what needs to happen is to start on the 20th board and see where you end up. If it's not 20 or really close to it, your approach path needs to altered. Otherwise, you will spray the ball, be off balance, and just generally not have a good time!