Bowl - Understanding the Lane

Hi, I am Richard Wolf. I am bowling ball technician. This is introduction to basic bowling. We are going to discuss with you today is the bowling lane itself. You basically have two finishes on the lane. One- wood, which does not exist very much any more, that is back in the older days. Now, we have got a new finish called synthetic.

Now, what you are going to know is about this synthetic lane. It is going to have the same appearances a wood lane would have. If you look down it board by board, there are 39 boards on the lane, just so you know. Now, if you look down here at this lane you are going to see it looks to have the appearance of a wood finish. However, these lanes are put together in larger panels and so thus far, the durability of a synthetic lane versus a wood lane has stood the test of time, but we will see. Now, if you look at the lane also, you are going to see some arrows on the lane. There are seven arrows on the lane; they are in five board increments across the lane. There are also dots on the lane. These dots and arrows are both there for you to target. Now, in general, if you look at the lane, right handers would read the lane or discuss the arrows from right to left.

So, for example, if you look out there the arrow that is farthest right on the lane which is the fifth board or otherwise, known as the first arrow. Now, if you go inwards, you would go to the second arrow, third arrow and then obviously, when you reach the center of the lane that will be the fourth arrow.

Once again, there is a number of different ways to differentiate each board. So, for example, you could call the center arrow the fourth arrow, the twentieth board. Now obviously, the left-handers will read just the opposite. The left-handers are going to read from left to right. For example, the first arrow on the left side will be the fifth board and then across the lane.

So, tell you what, let us get started. Let us go to the bowling stands.