LASER, Revisited – Part 1

When I went through my USBC Silver Certification class some years ago, I was fortunate to have Rod Ross as my instructor. Rod, now the head coach of Team USA, suggested coaches use LASER as a tool to help solve bowlers’ problems (actually, the USBC prefers to call them “areas of concern”).

Susie Minshew wrote a great series of articles on LASER some years back (see links below), and I touched on this concept several articles ago myself. But, I know that with league season drawing to a close, many bowlers will be spending part of the off-season working on their games. So, maybe it’s time to revisit the concept of LASER, starting with, “Just what is LASER?”

LASER is an acronym for the five components of bowling that you can change in order to increase your scores. Those five components are:

• loft,
• angle,
• speed,
• equipment, and
• release.

At first glance, it may seem that LASER is the magic lantern of bowling, that it contains all solutions to all problems. Some people may think they can rummage around in the nooks and crannies of LASER and find the keys to success, no matter what ails their games.

But, of course, it isn’t that simple. There are no plug-and-play solutions to our problems. Adjusting means taking risks, sometimes drawing on our knowledge, and sometimes just taking a leap. The truth is, LASER isn’t a fix-all; it just puts our bowling troubles in a ...