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Research Questions on Topography

Posted: October 1st, 2019, 8:03 pm
by RobMautner
If you bowl on synthetic lanes, please answer the following questions about topography. If you are one of the dozens of members who just browse this site, PLEASE answer.

Do you believe that topography affects modern bowling?

What is topography?

Can you overcome lane topography?

If you can, how?

Re: Research Questions on Topography

Posted: October 1st, 2019, 10:45 pm
by Viper
RobMautner wrote:If you bowl on synthetic lanes, please answer the following questions about topography. If you are one of the dozens of members who just browse this site, PLEASE answer.

Do you believe that topography affects modern bowling?

Yes

What is topography?

Type of Product used (even if synthetic); Installation (proper? level? flat?); Maintenance/upkeep (done? properly?); Inspected?; Age (things move and shift over time, the product itself and everything it sits on). I don't include the oil or oil pattern in this. That's a category of its own.

Can you overcome lane topography? Yes.

If you can, how? If you are a regular at the house and/or keep good notes on every lane you bowl on, then you will know in advance some of the topography issues (but no guarantees--nothing is static). Regular or not, if you are paying attention to your own shot, or better yet (for me), watching other bowlers on the lane, you can get a sense of the topography. BUT, I don't think it's easy. There is so much going on with each shot, so much to take note of that I think it's only the very practiced and deliberate bowler that can factor the topography.
That's my two-cents.

Good luck, happy bowling and high scores,

Viper/Joe

Re: Research Questions on Topography

Posted: October 2nd, 2019, 2:46 am
by ballspoint
yep i believe there is such a think, i am not on top of my bowling to have noticed it.

Re: Research Questions on Topography

Posted: October 2nd, 2019, 12:17 pm
by MegaMav
RobMautner wrote:If you bowl on synthetic lanes, please answer the following questions about topography. If you are one of the dozens of members who just browse this site, PLEASE answer.

Do you believe that topography affects modern bowling?

What is topography?

Can you overcome lane topography?

If you can, how?
Yes, significantly, in some cases even more so than the oil pattern on the lane.
Its a change in the physical shape of the lane as a deviation from flat.
You cant fight it, you have to work around it depending upon how the lane is shaped.

Re: Research Questions on Topography

Posted: October 3rd, 2019, 8:30 am
by krava
Do you believe that topography affects modern bowling?
It does depending on how old the lanes are and how good the people did when they first put the lanes down. Also how used and abused the lanes get.

What is topography? It is the up and down measurement of the actual surface area of the bowling lane where the bowling ball travels (talking about hills and valleys)

Can you overcome lane topography?
The better question is can you overcome changes in lane topography or a lane with bad topography. Yes you can.

If you can, how?
First you have to identify that you have a lane with bad topography. (which I have never been able to do.) once you do that, you then figure out where the bad parts of the lane are and avoid the area. Suppose you have a bad spot on the 10 board at 40 feet and you want to avoid that area. You could move inside of that and get a stronger ball or go outside of it and get a weeker ball or if you have a lot of hand in it then soften the hand.