29 Comments on “How To Bowl Better On Long Oil Patterns”

  1. Hi I love your vids and I went to state my first year and the first day the oil pattern was hard to figure out

  2. So for people with lower rev rates, would it make more sense to use a stronger, more aggressive ball? I’ve gotten a few suggestions from teammates from league and from a few people I bowled with in nationals this year, like a few people said a Gem or a Nova might be ideal, or even a Zen or Proton Physix. I can consistently hit the pocket on a House shot, but when I bowled nationals, I found that my ball path was all over the place. Brad and Kyle, you guys are so good at giving bowling advice. See you guys on Tuesday at Bayside Bowl. 😀

    1. A stronger ball is definitely the way to go. Look at some of the specs of the balls that have been recommended to you. A lot of them will have asymmetrical cores, providing stronger down lane reaction. Some will be stronger than others, so I would recommend watching some videos of the balls in action before you commit to a purchase.

    2. Something along the nova or gem would be perfect for longer patterns,
      Zen would be a good step down of bowling multiple game tournaments

    3. As someone with the Dark code as a benchmark ball, I can say stronger balls are awesome. I also throw the ball 18-20 mph on average, and I don’t hook much

    4. Just my stupid opinion from experience: If you have a low rev rate (under 350) your ONLY option on long patterns is the following:

      -Throw the MOST AGGRESSIVE ball in your bag. Solid asyms that move as early as possible. Nothing else will work. Everything else will slide like a spare ball and I mean EVERYTHING.
      -Apply as MUCH SURFACE as you can. We’re talking 360 at the HIGHEST. Nothing else will do.
      -Stay aggressive. Most low rev players think they need to throw it super soft to get their ball to hook on super long patterns but that is a trap. It’s a trap that will lead you to 5-7-10 variations throughout the entire day. Keep your damn ball speed UP.
      -Your target at the dots, arrows, AND the breakpoint is TEN. Nowhere right, nowhere left. Just DIRECTLY UP TEN. Maybe, MAYBE feed it to 10 from 15 if you’re feeling limber. This is how Liz Johnson, a bowler with a rev rate UNDER 200 (that’s WITH a wrist brace), has won title after title…on SUPER long patterns. She doesn’t need to do the next thing because she has superhuman accuracy, but still.
      -This one is the MOST important. You NEED to LOFT. HIGH. And Very, VERYYYYYYY FAAAARRRRR. We’re talking to the down lane markers. Jason Eubanks/Hit it Harder has a really good video on this. Lofting makes oil patterns shorter. Eubanks himself has a rev rate approaching the 600s. If HE is lofting it to the markers on Dragon (which is 45′) then what do you think you should be doing if you have half the rotation he does?

      Yes. Doing this is not conventional. Yes. it WILL earn you dirty looks. Yes, it WILL take a lot out of you. NO, it will NOT be comfortable. But it works. REALLY well.

      Speed dominant/low rev bowlers have very good looks when the lanes turn into sandpaper. So what do you do when there is a lot of oil? You need to replicate that sandpaper like environment. The above is how you do it.

  3. Been a bowler for decades. Too many times have I bowled a long oil pattern where I can’t get a wrinkle out of my ball.
    Solution slow ball down and move in to between 3rd and 4th arrows an play a frozen rope

    1. Nope. That’ll leave you 5-7-10 variations all day, if not the 5-7-10 itself. If you can’t get a wrinkle out of your ball, what does that mean? It means you don’t have enough surface to counteract the oil. Slowing down doesn’t help either because you don’t have the rotation to get it to create power and motion.

      If you don’t have rotation, you need to generate power from a different source. That source is SPEED. You have the right idea about the frozen rope, or what I call “riding the track” which entails feeding the ball to the 10 board from the 3rd arrow. However, to do this properly you need an aggressive ball with a lot of surface. And you need to loft it. This will make the pattern shorter and will make it resemble the shorter patterns most low rotation bowlers succeed on.

  4. Another cool thing to see on videos like this is 3 different strength of balls. Show a line for a strong ball, medium ball, weak ball. Just for comparison as to different methods to play the lanes! Otherwise, love the videos!

  5. That third shot that you threw Kyle to the right was a typical Norm Duke shot. Made a career doing that. He has a great touch to the ball.😉😉😉😉👍👍👍👍

  6. Okay… for someone who is a very casual bowler who is looking to improve his game… shim? Can I get some clarification in layman’s terms?

    1. That’s an excellent question. B&K themselves will probably do a video on this but I hope my explanation works for now.

      Shim = Push = Hold. They all mean the same.

      When a bowler is telling a ball to do ANY of those three actions, they want the ball to STOP hooking and stay where it is. They want it to “shim” away from the entry point that they don’t want, they want it to “push” through where it is right now, or they want it to “hold” onto the line that it’s currently traveling at.

  7. Loft. LOTS of it. HIGH and FARRRRRRRR. Jason Eubanks from Hit it Harder has a REALLY good video about it.

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