Bowling Ball Pin Placement

In this quick demonstration research tech jason milligan and bowling coach rod ross use earl the robot to show how bowling ball pin placement and surface adjustments affect the way a ball rolls.

Bowling ball pin placement. This is the most popular pin placement for the average bowler. The pin deck is the area of the lane the pins rest on. In the drilling layout the pin placement how close or far the pin is in relationship to your positive axis point determines the ball reaction you will have. Jason sets earl up to throw an undrilled ball down the lane several times adjusting its grip to accommodate pin placements of 3 4 and 5 inches.

In the ball rating matrix i rate the rg on a scale of 1 to 10 with the pin in the leverage position. So if you had two identical bowling balls one with a 2 pin and one with a 4 pin and you put both pins in the same location then the only thing you have to worry about is the final destination of the cg and how much weight it carries. The bowling pin rack consists of 10 pins laid out in an equilateral triangle. When a ball is built the core anchored by a small rod is suspended in a mold and the cover stock is poured into the mold.

With today s high tech bowling balls the ball driller must know where the core is in the ball. Pin to pap distance is one element of a bowling ball s layout. Even standard label drill patterns with the pin at 1 30 from the cg place the pin very near almost everyone s leverage point. The pin rack is the actual set of pins.

The layout of course defines how the core is oriented inside the ball relative to the bowler s pap and relative to the gripping holes. Your axis of rotation is the initial axis of the bowling ball as it first leaves your hand. Often the pin rack is referred to as the pin deck although they re not synonymous. Pin up is going to cause the ball to transition faster because more mass is being removed from the side of the core as opposed to the top.

They use a small pin to support the core during this process. We re often told two main things about how pin to pap distance affects ball motion. Bowling ball manufacturers have to center the cores perfectly inside the ball and to do this they have to suspend the core in a stationary position while the mold hardens. The pin location has the biggest effect on the balls reaction and core location.