Cross-lane, spot, pin, and line bowling are the major aiming methods or techniques to help you take aim and focus your attention on where you want the ball to go to get a strike, a spare, or simply to read the lane. Your aiming procedure allows you to be more consistent in squaring your body and shot over a target line to obtain a strike or a spare. This may involve using a visual line from your feet to the foul line to the lane target or you could look and aim directly at the pins.
Your bowling will improve when you select the aiming method best suited for you (a personal decision) and then develop it until it becomes automatic.
Below are listed frequently used aiming techniques, with spot, pin, and line bowling the top choices of most bowlers. Be aware that not all bowlers use the same methods, and you may select the one or a combination of these three that is the easiest and best suited to you and your bowling style.
1. Cross-lane Bowling — This is a mixture of aiming methods that often is seen in the young and newer bowlers who, without instructions, use the cross-lane aiming principle to bowl. For spares, they move naturally across the lane and opposite to the pins they wish to knock down. They square up to the pin or pins, beginning from a comfortable position in the middle of the lane to get a strike or to knock down pins in the middle of the lane, such as the 1-, 2-, 3-, and/or 5-pin in a spare leave. The right-handed bowlers instinctively move their stance to the far right when aiming at the 7-pin or a combination of left-side corner pins, squaring their shot over the area of the third arrow to the pins.
For the 10-pin shot, they move to the far left of the approach, open their shoulders, and again swing their shot over the area around the third arrow for the best possibility of hitting the pin. (Left-handed bowlers move to the opposite side and use the third arrow from the left gutter.)
It is interesting to note most spare-making systems employ the simple cross-lane alignment to maximize the use of the lane area and increase the probability of hitting the target.
2. Spot Bowling — As a new or even an average bowler, it is hard for you to hit a target at a distance as far away as the pinsetter since your accuracy decreases as the distance increases. It is a long 60 feet from the foul line to the headpin but only 15 feet to the arrows. The "spot" bowler lines up from his starting position with the spot and the headpin. He ignores the pins and concentrates on a straight approach and rolling his ball over the spot selected.
There are major benefits to spot bowling at the arrows. The targeted arrow functions as both a rangefinder for the proper extension of your body at delivery and as a target pivot point, allowing you to accurately move your stance position left or right as necessary to keep your ball on target at the pins.
Caution: As you make lateral stance moves, your bowling shoulder should stay in line and parallel with your target line. If the ball goes right of your target, move your stance right—keeping the same target, of course. If the ball goes left, move left. Better scores happen when you master this simple technique of spot bowling.
Some bowlers aim even closer and use the dots about seven-to-eight feet out on the lane. If you use these dots for spotting purposes, be aware of the possibility of dropping the ball early, releasing the ball into the lane with a premature roll, and finishing with a shortened follow-through and its related disadvantages.
3. Board Bowling — Instead of the arrows or dots, many bowlers choose a board at the arrows or dots as their target, which may better suit their selection of intended targets and target lines. The bowler uses the board as he would a spot on the lane. Which method feels the most comfortable is probably the best for you.
4. Area Bowling — This is recommended for the tense bowler who can relax more by hitting an area better than he can a narrow spot. He merely opens the width of the spot by looking at a board on each side of the spot, giving him a bigger target area of three boards instead of one. He aims his ball delivery at the middle of the three-board area. Without the extra tension required to hit a single board, he will be more relaxed and his accuracy will improve. Again, the key is to aim at the middle of the larger three-board target area.
5. Pin Bowling or Headpin Bowling — This is how most of us started bowling: We simply looked at the pins and tried to throw the ball over the foul line from our starting position at the headpin or to the strike pocket. We then positioned ourself carefully in our stance and concentrated our eyes on the strike pocket throughout the approach and delivery of the ball. This type of aim and delivery is best used by the naturally athletic-type bowler with good coordination and the ability to hit a target 60 feet away.
6. Line Bowling — This is a combination of pin and spot bowling. The bowler selects a line on the lane over which he wants his ball to travel, again ignoring the pins. He may select a board, a dot, or a spot at the foul line and another one further out on the lane, as far away as the arrows and beyond. This line becomes the pathway over which he aims his ball.
Taking his approach, he concentrates on laying the ball down at the foul line spot and then shifts his attention to the second spot to aim the ball (this method is sometimes called "double spot" bowling). All four checkpoints are used in line bowling-the starting position, a spot at the foul line, a spot out on the lane, and the strike pocket at the pins. As he goes through his delivery, the bowler shifts from one sighting spot to another.
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.