Overall, I have enjoyed reading Instructor Harlin Matkins’ articles. With all due respect, however, I would like to take exception to his article (5 bowling quotes to grow on) in the April/May issue in which he writes that a correctly delivered ball, from a properly thrown shot, will “skid, roll, and hook.” Actually, what a well-executed shot does, on most conditions, nearly all the time, is “skid, hook, and roll.”
An explanation is in order. The precessional process of a well executed delivery (on most conditions, by most bowlers) starts with projecting the ball approximately 18 inches past the foul line in which the primary force on the ball is the translational energy imparted by the bowler in the act of projecting the ball towards the pins. This energy produces the initial skid (or “no roll”) and should last for 20 to 25 feet.
Due to the forces of gravity and the friction caused by the ball surface-lane surface contact, the ball begins to slow, thus allowing the second force imparted by the bowler, the rotational energy, to start taking effect. This rotational energy is demonstrated when the axis of the ball begins to migrate to its preferred spin—that is, the ball’s axis begins to spin clockwise. (If the release axis point, also known as the “positive axis point,” is marked, this process can be clearly seen.) This rotational energy results in “side roll,” which has its correlation demonstrated as “hook.”
In other words, the thrown ball (by a right-handed bowler with counter-clockwise rotation) may travel left-to-right due to the translational energy direction but is actually attempting, due to the rotational energy, to travel right-to-left and thus is actually “hooking.” This “hooking” process is demonstrated by the ball in its “side roll” mode and should last for 20 to 25 feet.
At approximately 40 to 45 feet from the foul line, the vectors of the two applied forces align. This point has become to be known as the “breakpoint,” and its proper location on the lane, to maximize “carry,” is correlated with the distance, distributional pattern, and amount of oil existentially applied on the given lane surface that is cleanly stripped.
At the given breakpoint, the ball rapidly starts to lose its skid, or translational energy, and its side roll, or its rotational energy, and thus the process, at this stage, results in the increasing of “forward roll” revolutions, which is correlated with decreasing hook.
The perfect shot is one when the ball, at contact with the 5-pin, loses all of its rotational energy, that is, its hook or side roll, and nearly all of its translational energy or skid. At this point, the ball, which has displaced or “lost” these two applied energies, comes into contact with the 5-pin and “hooks out”—that is, it goes into a pure forward roll that results in the ball deflecting into the 9-pin, forcing the 5-pin into the 8-pin.
Thus, a properly delivered bowling ball “skids, hooks, rolls” or, in other words, it “no rolls, side rolls, forward rolls” in its precessional process towards the “perfect strike.”
The above observation may read as “picky” or a mere semantic contention. However, I assure the reader that if a bowler has an ambition to become a higher-level scratch player, then he or she needs to know, to quote Norm Duke, “breakpoint is god” and therefore, the understanding of, coupled with the physical ability to achieve, the proper breakpoint with a delivered ball (that, assumingly, is properly “mapped out” and drilled for the given lane condition) is what playing the sport of bowling, on its higher levels, is all about. This insight is part of the ongoing learning process in the attempt to achieve the goal of “knowing how to bowl.”
Gary Parsons
Suitland, Md.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The writer is Operational Manager, Bowling Division, Red Nelson’s Bowlers World; Member: PBA, BWAA, IBPSIA, PBPI, The Foundation; Technically Certified Equipment Technician, IBPSIA; Certified USA Bowling Silver Level (Gold Pending) Coach; Certified Level 3 Dick Ritger Instructor; Certified Level 1 YABA Instructor; and former “Bowling This Month” Super School Instructor.
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I was pleased that Gary Parsons read my article, 5 bowling quotes to grow on. I am disappointed, however, that he ignored the instructional content of the bowling quote or skill level implied by the name of my column—"Bowling 101"—or does it matter to him? Instructional material in "Bowling 101" is addressed to the average and less-than-average bowlers and not World Tour candidates or rocket scientists.
As I struggle to simplify the overabundant high-tech bowling material, I often have to remind myself that bowling is an "art" and not "science fiction." Having said that, let me comment on the Mailbag criticism of my article.
Mr. Parsons, as a Certified Level 3 Dick Ritger Instructor, was taught by Dick Ritger instructions (page 29) that 1) We are teaching what we see when we bowl, and the real effect of a ball is to skid-roll-hook-roll. We teach skid-hook-roll because it is difficult to see the roll after the skid, but we can see the hook. 2) The ball will skid beyond the area of oil application and then will begin to roll, and then hook (the bowler can see the hook or change of direction the ball takes).
(I teach skid-roll-hook because a bowler with a consistent delivery can be taught to make adjustments in skid, roll, and hook with simple lane position changes or by moving his target to effectively control the "almighty breakpoint." [It appears to me the "breakpoint" is managing the "advanced" bowler and not the advanced bowler managing the breakpoint.])
Let me get picky with Mr. Parsons: I am an engineer and understand and appreciate the underlying principles of what he has written regarding the ball roll. However, he is whistling Dixie to the majority of bowlers, even at his level. We do not have a calibrated eyeball and cannot see the various forces he reports working on and within a perfect ball roll as depicted in his lengthy description. To mention a few of the terms he postulated but did not effectively explain: "force vectors alignment," "translational energy direction," "distribution pattern," "the amount of oil existentially applied on the given lane surface that is clearly stripped," etc., etc., etc.!
It is difficult for a bowler to see or an instructor teach unseen forces on or within a ball as it rolls down the lane. Unfortunately, the ball goes where you "throw" it, and you get what you see. Fortunately, a bowler does know a strike when he sees one.
Harlin Matkins
Springfield, Va.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Harlin Matkins is a retired Naval architect, a certified instructor and graduate of Dick Ritger’s Bowling Academy for Instructors, and a certified youth and bowling development instructor for Bowl America.
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I am pleased that Mr. Matkins read my observations and chose to respond. I will, if I may, offer a counterpoint to the previous point-counterpoint exchange.
My counterresponse will be numbered for Mr. Matkins' and the readers' convenience.
1. Certainly I recognized that the thrust of Mr. Matkins' articles is geared towards the "average and less-than-average bowlers," and I thought I indirectly addressed that criticism with the observation that "if [any] bowler has an ambition to become a higher-level scratch player...."
2. Even teaching lower-average bowlers, correctness should be taught. After all, unless one is a member of the Flat Earth Society, we do not teach children the world is flat—no matter how hard it is for him/her to "see" it.
3. Using inductive and deductive logic along with empirical data that can be verified or falsified, the developing player can use valid information and integrate that information into a personal expression of maximizing his or her scores and thus bowling becomes an "art." But, of course, I thought "science fiction" was an expression of art. Maybe I was wrong.
4. As a longtime observer of the Ritger methodology and a certified Ritger instructor since 1995, I have seen his position evolve and change on the topic of ball precession. In The Complete Guide to Bowling Principles by George Allen & Dick Ritger (1982/ 1986 second edition, page RH-79), it states that a properly thrown ball "skids-rolls-hooks." In the revised 1998 third edition, however, the reader is informed that the ball skids-hooks-rolls with this explanation: "The real effect of a ball is to skid-roll-hook-[forward] roll." This reads as corresponding to my stated position of skid (no roll)-(side)roll-breakpoint (hook)-(forward) roll.
Now, all ego aside, I may have been instrumental in this conceptual and/or semantic change due to a long conversation with Bob Rea (Dick Ritger's Head Instructor) on this topic along with the topic of "breakpoint theory" in 1994 or '95 in Reno or Vegas at an International Bowling Pro Shop and Instructors Association conference as well as a shorter conversation with Mr. Ritger at his Ithaca [New York] camp a year later.
5. If any bowler has "a consistent delivery" and has a problem in "see[ing] the roll after the skid," then the marking of the positive or release axis point will clearly demonstrate the precessional process of skid (no roll)—side roll (hook)—forward roll.
6. Actually, what I teach lower-average bowlers (who do not have a "consistent release" and/or who do not seem to be intellectually curious) is that a ball, with a proper release, skids and hooks, but I also add a qualifying statement such as the following: "For our purposes right now, what I want you to see is the skid and the hook, but remember that there is much more to this process. As you become better, you will be introduced to a more detailed explanation of what is going on as the ball 'rolls down the lane.'"
Yes, son, the world is closer to being round than flat, but as you walk, it might as well be flat and yet remember, when you talk on your cell phone, the voice commuication is going to a satelite circling a somewhat round Earth.
7. Ah, yes, "the almighty breakpoint." Actually, in the evolutionary development of the breakpoint hypothesis, from Tom Kouros (Par Bowling) to Sam Baca (two-time PBA champion, co-developer of the PBA lane maintence program, developer of Legends oil, and Gold Level USA coach) to Gary Parsons (developer of "Breakpoint Seminars"), we see not the either/or dichotomy of managing the breakpoint or being managed by it but actually an ongoing dialectical process between the bowler and the breakpoint as a functional ideal and as it is experienced.
8. Mr. Matkins, I recognize that you are "a retired Naval architect" and thus should appreciate the correctness of "the underlying [valid] principles" of what I wrote—thank you. But! I need not be "whistling Dixie" to any bowler, especially the ones on my "level," if they are intellectually curious at all.
9. We do not need "a calibrated eyeball," just a tracer on the positive axis and/or a speed gun to "see the various forces [I] report[ed] working on and within a perfect ball roll." In other words, while I cannot see gravity, I can see its effects, e.g., hold a bowling ball four feet high in close proximity of a bowler's foot and let go.
10. While it is true "a bowler does know a strike when he [or she] sees one," an aspiring "player" should want to know more. Is that why the Kegel Training Institute in Sebring, Fla., has become so popular?
11. If the reader wants to pursue his/her study of the technical aspects of this exchange, then I recommend the following video: Don Johnson's "A Pro's Guide to Better Bowling — Volume 2" as well as the following books: Tom Kouros' Par Bowling: The Challenge; Mo Pinel's The See it, Feel it, DO IT! System; Bill Taylor's Balance; and Remo Picchietti's Science of Bowling Maintenance 2000. The reader may also want to consider subscribing to Bowling This Month and/or Bowling Equipment Concepts.
Incidentally, I wish there was "the overabundant high-tech bowling material." If there were, bowling-as-a-sport might be given a greater degree of serious consideration by those in the sports community.
12. My observations should in no way reflect upon Mr. Matkins' writings nor his teaching ability. Overall, I find his articles solid and interesting, and while I have not seen him instruct, I have heard from a couple of reliable sources that he is a very good instructor. Also, I fully recommend anyone, especially the sub-par bowler, to seriously entertain the idea of attending a Dick Ritger Bowling Camp. The Ritger program is first-rate, and those who attend will have their game grounded solidly in the fundamentals. Dial 1-800/535-0678 for more information.
— Gary Parsons