Why don't professional bowlers score higher?

Question

It appears the average professional bowler scores around 230-240 out of 300. In my opinion, this should be much higher.

In bowling, unlike other sports, there is one movement you need to perfect: the movement that gets you a strike. There are no other players to tackle you; just you, the ball, and stationary pins. The fact that pros rarely get a perfect 300 leads me to believe that there must be significant variables that I am missing. All I can think of is the ball being used (size, weight, etc.), floor friction, and pin size and weight. However, this doesn't seem enough to account for this semi-low average as these variables will only ever differ by a minuscule amount.

Why is this average so low? What factors contribute to this "semi-low" average?

Answer 1

There are several "environmental" factors, such as oil patterns and consistency, as depicted in comments above.

However, given your expectation that the professional bowler's scoring average should be 280-290 (as opposed to the actual average of 230-240), let's consider bowling's scoring mechanism.

A strike is worth 10, plus the value of your next two rolls.

A spare is worth 10, plus the value of your next roll.

Imagine the scenario of bowling eleven strikes and one nine-spare in a game. If the spare took place in the first frame, your max score is 290. If the spare took place in the second frame, your max score is 280. If the spare took place from the third to ninth frames, your max score is 279. 279 is still the max score if you finish the 10th frame "9/X." However, if you finish the 10th frame "X9/", the max score becomes 289.

What I am attempting to illustrate is that in order to have an average between 280-290, one would have to bowl, on average, eleven strikes and one (nine-)spare a game. Aforementioned factors along with a low margin of error would make this feat quite impressive.

Answer 2

Professional bowlers bowl on 'sport bowling', or 'sport shot' lane conditions, where the oil is applied much more evenly to the lane, in comparison with what recreational and league bowlers bowl on, known commonly as a 'house condition', or 'house shot'. On a 'house shot', the middle of the lane is routinely oiled with a much greater amount than what's put down on the outsides of the lane, closer to each of the gutters, or channels. This is done for the 'house bowlers', so their strike shots stand a much greater chance to reach the strike pocket, even if they miss their targets inside (closer to the headpin), or outside (closer to the gutters). The result is that they get a 'funnel effect': shots outside hit dry earlier, and hook back to the pocket as the ball gets down lane; shots inside hit oil immediately near the foul line and skid almost all the way to the pocket, preventing the ball from getting left of the headpin. Shots like these result in strikes very often. If this doesn't happen, then typically an easy, routine spare is left for the bowler to shoot at on their next shot.

Also, pros bowl far more games in a typical professional event during a week, than an amateur would. As a result, lane conditions tend to transition more significantly for the pros during a tournament, than what a league bowler experiences. Plus, the league bowler typically has the 'consistent house shot' week to week, whereas the 'sport shots' for the pros typically change from week to week, as sport conditions can yield a vast array of different oil patterns, pattern lengths down the lane, as well as overall amounts applied. Lastly, the lane maintenance crew may or may not strip and re-oil between blocks of qualifying, match play, or final rounds (typically step ladder format), depending on the specific parameters or circumstances of the tournament.

So, to sum all this up, if the 'house bowler' is fairly accomplished and experienced, they can, and often do these days, post averages in excess of 200, with little to no coaching from anyone, or practice to help get there. If a particular 'house bowler' has ever competed at an elite level, such as the PBA and/or Team USA, they may indeed post an average that might exceed 240 or 250, because of this, plus today's overly-aggressive reactive resin bowling balls, which literally drink up oil from the lane, and not push or carry oil down the lane anymore, like their non-resin predecessors did.

As you now know the rest of the story, this would be why a PBA tour member has yet to break the 230 average mark for an entire year on the national tour.

Answer 3

There is no way for the lane to be the same every time. When you throw the ball, especially if you put a good amount of spin on it, it's going to pick up oil. Then the oil on your ball is wiped off, if you want it to keep hooking, but the ball absorbs some oil every time you throw it down the lane. If you start a tournament with a typical house shot oil pattern, by the end of the tounament, the lanes aren't going to have near as much oil. This doesn't just make the ball hook more; it also gives a lot less room for error.

Also, in the last parts a tournament, your body will be exausted. Throwing a 15 pound ball at 20 mph, 300 or more times is exausting. That's just for qualifying. Match play is close to another 200. At 500 shots, your fingers start to blister and bleed. The oil patterns that they use will frequently give you less than 3 boards of miss room. To be able to hit a target the size of a dime (board 17.5 to be exact) 12 times in a row, and do it consistently, I think isn't humanly possible.

Even a robot that can throw the exact same angle again and again, can't bowl a 280 average. This robot, named EARL, is the pinnacle of consistency. But it doesn't matter, because the oil, the ball, and even the way the pins might be the slightest bit off aren't consistent. Ask any of the top bowlers in the world and they'll tell you the same thing.

Answer 4

Stringing 12 strikes in a row is no easy task, and as explained above all it takes is one frame to mess you up. Depending on where you open or even spare one frame without a strike in a game is all it takes to blow the kind of average you think they should have.

Lane condition and oil pattern is everything. The more a lane is bowled on before being cleaned and re-oiled, the more the oil becomes unpredictable. As your ball rolls through the oil it carries it down the lane. The oil is what allows your ball to spin up and hold revs, then when it comes out of the oil on the backend, it hits dry lane and that's when it turns.

But if oil is carried down from your previous ball or your opponent's ball, then it can become unpredictable and might not turn enough because there is oil where there was none the previous throw. Or it can turn earlier as the oil on the front of the lane is not as thick.

This is why often, left-handed bowlers have a advantage. If several people are bowling on a lane and they are all right-handed, then they have to contend with each others' carried-down oil, but a left-handed bowler is on the lane on the left side by themselves, so they only have to worry about their own oil.

Not to mention, you have to set the ball down repeatedly in the same speed and rotation and place on the lane every throw. There is a lot more to it than that but that is some of the basic things to consider. Some of the sport shots they put down on the lane with the oil pattern leave a pretty small target for the bowler to hit where a typical house pattern is more forgiving.

Most leagues have a house shot where the oil is in a Christmas tree pattern. The further you place the ball on the outside of the lane, the more it hooks because it has less oil, whereas you throw more down the middle, it slides in the oil more. So on a house pattern, the place you set your ball down could be 2 or 3 boards wide or more and still get a strike, but for a sport shot, you have to set the ball in the exact same places over and over.

I hope this makes some sense, not to mention it is a very mental game as well to be able to shake off the last ball and adjust and get back in the pocket.

Answer 5

People answering this question bring up many of the answers that are true that the OP did not know. It is not a house block shot, some of those patterns are quite long and even. Carrydown still happens, balls drink up too much oil and then the "human error" part should cover most but, let us consider the Tiger Woods phenomena.

Even at the height of his prowess, he did not score the same on every hole. Why? Two reasons: they move the hole daily and the wind changes daily.

Similarly, there are different oil patterns that break down differently, kind of like the wind. As for the positioning, the pieces of wood aren't put in the same place on every frame. Just go to a red pin league and watch it move around... and sometimes it will make a "clunk" instead of just bounding away.

Also, the tolerance on pins spotted is roughly 1/2 an inch. 10 lined up in a myriad of ways that means that it is possible to shoot correctly and get 9 or 8 or whatever. Add to that all the approach possibilities and come to the conclusion that it only looks easy. Trust me, the Chameleon Pattern in particular is not!