Bowling Glossary

Carry
How well the pins are falling for strikes. Some bowling alleys have better carry than others because of adjustments made in the pin deck area. Other factors effecting carry include lane conditions and the bowling balls.

Carrydown
Happens after several shots are thrown. The ball carries oil and moves it down lane causing less friction on the back end part of the lane. Adjustments are usually made to compensate for the difference in ball reaction.

Center of Gravity
The heavy spot on a the surface of a bowling ball. The CG is a punch mark or some other mark showing where the lowest or heaviest spot would be if you were to float the ball in water. This is normally near the center of the grip when the ball is drilled without an extra hole.

Channel
Name of the gutter on either side of the lane. Guides a ball that rolls off the lane to the back ball return machinery.

Cheater Ball
A name used in jest for a high performance ball that seems to give the bowler more power than he should possess. Kind of like the huge headed drivers in golf.

Chicken Wing
A flying elbow at the point of release. Usually causes a bowler to top the ball.

Choke
To blow it under pressure. Nuff said.

Chop
To miss a combination spare by knocking the front pin straight back and having the ball following it straight back narrowly missing the pin next to it. It hurts a little.

Clean Game
A game with no open frames.

Closed Pocket
The pocket pins are off spot and too close together and often the cause of bad carry. A good time to take a rerack and hopefully get them back on spot.

Come Around The Ball
The act of creating side rotation and hook on the ball. Use a firm wrist and come around the ball, but keep your elbow in so you don't go too far around and top it.

Coming In Behind The Head Pin
The balls reaction is not quite right and is hooking to late into the pocket causing fewer strikes. Sometimes not easy for the bowler to detect.

Coming Through The Ball
The act of following through smoothly and not hitting up or forcing the shot at release.

Concourse
Open space behind the lanes where people have room to move around in the bowling center.

Condition
Lane oil patterns are called conditions. They can be hard to easy and also dry to oily among other things.

Conditioner Another name for lane oil. Originally used as a protective coating to prevent the friction of bowling balls from ruining the lanes. A discovery was made that oil could be used to control how the ball "reacted" to it and effect the difficultly of the game. Since then an unlimited number of "oil patterns" have been used to control the sport which have sometimes favored one type of player over another such as a righty vs lefty or a power vs accurate type.

Conventional Grip
A bowling ball grip used mostly for beginners where the fingers go in up to the second joint. Most house balls are drilled this way.

Convert
To make a spare after a split leave; loosely, to make any spare.

Core
The center part of the ball. This is usually very dense and has a symmetrical or asymmetrical shape and also determines the "radius of gyration" of a bowling ball. The denser the core is with the weight being more towards the center of the ball the lower the RG number is and the faster the ball will spin given the same release.

Core Torque
A term relating to the cores potential for making the ball flare. Greater core torque means a ball will have a higher rg differential and therefore flare potential.

Count
The last digit of a bowlers score. A bowler with 179 has good or high count and a bowler with 182 has poor or low count. Consistently getting a lower number of pins on the first ball will cause a bowler to lose count rapidly. Often refers to the last shot of a match where someone needs count to win.

Cover
To make any kind of spare conversion. Nice cover.

Coverstock
The outer shell of the bowling ball. High performance coverstocks are made of urethane with a resin additive. Spare balls and recreational balls have polyester coverstocks.

Cranker
A power player that has a high revolution rate on the bowling ball. They usually create more area and are less accurate players.

Crossing with a Player
In tournament competition you bowl will the same group and move to a new pair of lanes after every game across the bowling center. You cross with other players.

Crossover
A ball thrown for a strike that misses the pocket and hits on the other side of the head pin somewhere.

Cupping Your Wrist
A hand position that creates heavy roll or more revolutions. When dealing with heavy oil try cupping your wrist more.

Cushion
The back part of the lane that absorbs the impact of the bowling ball. Could also refer to any kind of lead over the other competitors in an event.