Solid article, but one very important detail that they left out is that this only really applies to at least league level and above players. Most of this is moot for the recreational, a few times a year type bowlers.
80% of the folks that walk in the door of a bowling alley are going to grab plastic house balls and bowl straight (or try to put hook on it, which isn't overly effective for a number of reasons). Most of this information only applies to bowlers using a ball with a coverstock and core that cause the ball to naturally hook a certain way.
Nothing wrong with being a recreational bowler or bowling straight. It's just trying to apply these statistics to a straight ball doesn't quite work.
I love this topic, but this article is literally just "there exists a paper" without any useful information about the paper aside from the inputs they consider in their model.
At this time, the balls rate of revolution is a strong factor in how often the ball hits the pocket and how often it strikes.
This has not always been the case. As the materials used for balls, lanes and oil have changed there have been premiums for different attributes like accuracy, speed, axis tilt, etc.
Todays best bowlers don’t look much like the best from 30 years ago, and probably won’t look much like the best ones 30 years from now.
Isn't a strike effectively a solved problem? Like the pin you're supposed to aim for, and the angle you're supposed to approach the pins at, where you're supposed to stand, and all that?
Like I get that it's super hard to replicate time and time again, and that's why pros are as good as they are.
Fascinating work! I’m not a physicist, but I wonder from what distance down the lane this model’s predictions become reliably accurate. It might be interesting to pair it with a second model—one that helps bowlers achieve the needed initial conditions (release speed, angle, spin) with the required precision. A kind of two-stage approach to managing the chaos in the system.
It's big ball bowling. The ball is nearly as wide as the lane, so it knocks over all the pins. QED.
Candlepin and mini golf are the more advanced versions of their respective sports. Fight me.
The calculations involved in such research are very complicated because there are so many variables that can affect a ball's trajectory after being thrown. Case in point: the thin layer of oil that is applied to bowling lanes, which Hooper found can vary widely in volume and shape among different venues, plus the lack of uniformity in applying the layer, which creates an uneven friction surface.
FWIW, pro bowling events will use one of several predetermined oil patterns. The bowlers will know the pattern in advance & practice for a few frames to get a feel for it. Part of the game is knowing how the oil shifts from the balls rolling over it throughout the course of the round and making adjustments. My buddy was recruited to play on our high school team precisely because he was a lefty in a league where there were relatively few others and thus his ball would be less affected by these variables. https://www.pba.com/player-resources/oil-patterns
Even for fun leagues will probably have someone prepare the lanes ahead of time with a certain pattern and let the bowlers know.