nmcgrawj said:
Anyone care to give me a overview on the arrows?
There are 2 sets of arrows, and 3 sets of dots. The arrows are on the lane, and the dots are on the floor. All of the dots and arrows line up with each other, i.e. the left most arrow on the lane lines up with the leftmost dot on the floor. The dots/arrows are on one board, which is a term you hear a lot.
"I was a couple of boards off", meaning instead of hitting the arrow he wanted, he missed by a couple boards left or right"
There are 7 dots/arrows on every row. Each dot lines up with one of the pins.....i.e. the left most dot lines up with the #7 pin, the center arrow lines up with the #1 pin, etc.
3 keys to staying consistent.
#1 - Start out with your left foot on a dot, and after taking your 3-5 steps to throw the ball, make sure your left foot is inline with the same dot on the row at the base of the lane. This ensures you are walking straight, so you consistently throw from the same exact location, every time. Practice walking the lane, imitating throwing the ball, and keep doing it until you can walk straight. It will take time, trust me, you have no idea how hard it is to actually walk straight. Also, there are 2 rows of dots that you can choose to start from. I always choose the closest set, as the more steps you take, the easier you can miss your mark.
#2 - You need to choose an arrow on the lane, and try to hit that arrow each time. The center of the ball needs to run across the mark every time. That way you throw the ball at the same spot every time, thus you should hit the same exact pin every time. Now sometimes you cannot use the arrow for the mark, rather you need to be between 2 arrrows to hit the right pins. So instead of aiming at the 3rd arrow from the right, you aim 2 boards over to the right, essentially smack in the middle of the 2nd and 3rd arrow.
When you are taking your steps to throw, always look at your mark, and dont take your eyes off of it. Once you throw the ball, watch how the ball runs across the mark. Like I said, don't take your eyes off of the mark until the ball crosses it. It's imperitive that you watch how the ball hits the mark, so you can make corrections if necessary. Next, verify that you walked straight and hit your mark with your left foot. Finally, see how the ball hits tracks, and make small adjustments as necessary.
#3 - Throwing the ball consistently. This is the hardest thing to master, hardest thing to teach and hardest to self-correct. Kinda like a golf swing, you can't see what you do unless you are standing behind you watching.
The most important thing is to draw the ball straight back, and throw it straight forward. Your arm should be extented straight out, not to the left or the right. This increases consistency. Someone should watch you, and tell you if you are tracking straight.
Hope this helps.
Scott
Anyway, i was thinking about getting a new ball...but dont know anything about them. I know i can go to a Pro shop but i didnt want to get caught up in the sales pitch and the real info. 
a couple years ago because it was dirt cheap. Well I learned a few things last year when I worked for a Sears that used to be a K-Mart. One of those things is that the people that drilled the balls are not specialized or anything. They don't even go through training to learn how to do it, they just use a drill press and have at it with the size that you pick out. Yeah I know how foolish of me to think that there was a real person that worked there that was the bowling ball 'master' and made all the bowling balls.
