Playing the Oil Line
Last month we discussed how the lane oil is distributed on the house shot. This month we'll look at where you should aim to get the most benefit out of the oil pattern.
The Oil line.
The graph shows the oil depth as seen from floor level at the foul line, looking toward the pins. Each vertical line represents a board on the lane. As you can see, there is an area on each side where the oil depth increases steeply toward the lane center. In this case, it is from the 9th through the 13th board. If your ball is hooking in this area of the lane, it will hook less in the heavier oil, and more in the lighter. For example, if a shot rolled at the 11 board would hook perfectly into the pocket, a shot wide of that, hooking more in the lighter oil, may also hook into the pocket. Inside the 11 board, a shot in the heavier oil, rather than overshoot the pocket, may hook less, and also be in the pocket. Using this technique is "playing the oil line".
The Break Point.
Playing the oil line may get you some room for error, but you need to know how long the oil pattern is to figure out what part of the line to play. A 35 foot pattern will play much differently than a 45 foot pattern. Longer patterns leave less dry lane for hooking action, so balls rolled on the outside edges can't easily get back to the pocket. Conversely, shots played inside in the longer dry areas of shorter patterns tend to over-hook. To determine where to play, subtract 31 from the pattern length, and use the result as a target break point (the closest your hook gets to the lane edge). A 41 foot pattern (41-31=10) would suggest a break point at the 10 board.
The Whole Picture.
So, how to get there...and with what equipment? The more you hook the ball, the further inside you need to start it to get it to the pocket from the 10-board break point in this example. A straighter player may even be outside the 10 board at the arrows, in the lighter oil all the way to the break point. Bigger hookers will need to start far inside, especially on the lighter patterns or with the most aggressive balls. In that case, hitting the drier areas at a severe angle may cause the ball to overreact. In either case, you may lose the advantage of the steeply increasing oil line. Straighter players might consider using a more aggressive ball that allows them to play deeper; bigger hookers might go the other way, opting for a weaker ball so they can play a more direct line.
