If You’re a Serious Bowler, You Need to Know About Bowling Lane Oil

如果你是一位认真的保龄球手，你需要了解保龄球道的涂油知识

Each time EJ Tackett steps to his lane to throw a shot in the upcoming Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) World Championships, he’ll be thinking about more than just ball spin or angle. 每当 EJ Tackett 走上球道，准备在即将到来的职业保龄球协会（PBA）世界锦标赛中投球时，他所考虑的绝不仅仅是球的旋转或角度。

Tackett has won the last three world titles, and there’s a convincing case that he’s currently the best bowler on Earth. While his ability to throw a consistent ball is certainly key to his success, there’s another factor he and his fellow PBA pros are paying closer attention to during matches: lane oil patterns. Tackett 已经连续赢得了三届世界冠军，目前他被公认为世界上最优秀的保龄球手。虽然他能够稳定投球的能力无疑是他成功的关键，但还有一个因素是他和 PBA 的职业选手们在比赛中格外关注的：球道涂油模式（lane oil patterns）。

Most of us amateurs have never thought about the thin layer of oil that coats the surface of the bowling lane—unless someone at our local bowling center slips and falls on it hilariously. But at the highest levels of the sport, lane oil is a foundational element of tactics and game-planning. The oil is applied in a distinct pattern that reduces the friction of specific parts of the lane, allowing a well thrown ball to slide across certain areas, then grab ahold of the surface and curl when it’s supposed to. 我们大多数业余爱好者从未考虑过覆盖在保龄球道表面的那层薄薄的油——除非有人在我们当地的保龄球馆滑倒并闹出笑话。但在该项运动的最高水平比赛中，球道油是战术和比赛规划的基础要素。油以特定的模式涂抹，减少了球道特定部位的摩擦力，使投掷良好的球能够滑过某些区域，然后在预定位置抓住表面并产生弧线。

But lane oil patterns aren’t always identical. Oil distribution can change over the course of a game, and in fact the starting pattern is intentionally redrawn for various PBA events, forcing pros to adjust on the fly. 但球道涂油模式并非一成不变。油的分布会在比赛过程中发生变化，事实上，为了各种 PBA 赛事，初始模式会被刻意重新设计，迫使职业选手必须临场调整。

“All of us as professionals are playing a guessing game by watching our bowling ball go down the lane,” Tackett tells me. “And trying to figure out where the oil has moved from and has moved to.” “我们所有职业选手都在玩一场猜谜游戏，通过观察保龄球在球道上的滚动，”Tackett 告诉我，“并试图弄清楚油从哪里移走，又移到了哪里。”

Tackett says understanding and reacting to lane oil patterns has become one of the single most important skills for a pro bowler in recent years. Tackett 表示，理解并应对球道涂油模式已成为近年来职业保龄球手最重要的技能之一。

Technology plays a growing role in the way lane oil is understood and applied. And as the tech has continued to improve, the sport’s powers that be are increasingly relying on those advances to keep the top pros guessing. 科技在理解和应用球道油的方式中发挥着越来越大的作用。随着技术的不断进步，该运动的管理机构也越来越依赖这些进步来让顶尖职业选手们不断进行猜测。

Back when bowling lanes were made from actual wood like maple or pine in the 1970s and earlier, lane oil’s primary purpose was protective. It provided a lubricating barrier between ball and wood, helping reduce the wear and tear on both. 回溯到 20 世纪 70 年代及以前，当保龄球道还是由枫木或松木等实木制成时，球道油的主要目的是保护。它在球和木材之间提供了一层润滑屏障，有助于减少两者的磨损。

During that era—and even into the early 1980s when synthetic lane materials began replacing wood—lane oil drew the ire of serious bowlers due to the inconsistency of how it was applied. There was no method for ensuring standardized oil applications; sections of lanes would often have too much or too little oil. Bowlers would essentially be blind to the lane’s conditions until partway through a game, after enough balls had been thrown to get a gauge of which areas were light or heavy on oil. Maybe certain bowlers enjoyed the randomness, but it was untenable for professionals. 在那个时代，甚至到 20 世纪 80 年代初合成球道材料开始取代木材时，由于涂油方式的不一致，球道油引起了严肃球手们的不满。当时没有确保标准化涂油的方法；球道的某些部分往往油太多或太少。球手们在比赛进行到一半之前，基本上对球道状况一无所知，必须投出足够多的球才能判断哪些区域油多或油少。也许有些球手喜欢这种随机性，但这对于职业选手来说是无法接受的。

John Davis, at the time a mechanic who oiled lanes for his local bowling center in Arizona, was the first to address this issue. He invented a lane cleaning tool in the early ’80s to address lanes that were often cleaned inconsistently, allowing oil to pool or run as a result. By the early ’90s, he had started a company named Kegel that had perfected what’s known as Sanction technology, which is still used today. The bowling equipment giant Brunswick, the other major player in the space, uses similar technology in its Max lane machines. 当时在亚利桑那州当地保龄球馆负责球道涂油的机械师 John Davis 是第一个解决这个问题的人。他在 80 年代初发明了一种球道清洁工具，以解决球道清洁不一致导致油液积聚或流淌的问题。到 90 年代初，他创办了一家名为 Kegel 的公司，完善了至今仍在使用、被称为“Sanction”的技术。保龄球设备巨头 Brunswick（该领域的另一大玩家）在其 Max 球道机器中也使用了类似的技术。

“It looks almost like an inkjet printer,” Chris Chartrand, Kegel’s CEO, says about the Sanction tech. “You have this head that travels back and forth, and it applies that stream on whatever board we want to apply it to.” “它看起来几乎就像一台喷墨打印机，”Kegel 的首席执行官 Chris Chartrand 在谈到 Sanction 技术时说，“你有一个来回移动的喷头，它可以在我们想要涂抹的任何木板（球道板条）上喷涂油流。”

The technology has kept improving. Kegel used to produce two separate machines, one for lane cleaning and one for oil; now both steps are handled by a single machine. More recently, the machines have become battery-powered, removing issues of power cords stretching across lanes. 这项技术一直在改进。Kegel 过去生产两台独立的机器，一台用于清洁球道，一台用于涂油；现在这两个步骤都由一台机器完成。最近，这些机器已改为电池供电，消除了电源线横跨球道带来的问题。

Lately, Kegel has been steadily improving its automation, to the point where today’s machines do the entire job without any human intervention. 最近，Kegel 一直在稳步提升其自动化水平，以至于今天的机器可以在没有任何人工干预的情况下完成全部工作。

The lanes you and I bowl on as amateurs are oiled very differently from the ones pros use. 你我作为业余爱好者所使用的球道，其涂油方式与职业选手使用的球道截然不同。

At your local bowling center, public lanes are oiled in what’s referred to as a “high” ratio: The level of oil present in the middle of a lane is eight to 10 times higher than what’s on the outside. At the far left and right of the lane, many public bowling alleys have no oil at all. 在你当地的保龄球馆，公共球道采用所谓的“高”比例涂油：球道中间的油量是外侧的 8 到 10 倍。在球道的最左侧和最右侧，许多公共保龄球馆根本没有任何油。

“On a normal pattern at your normal bowling center, there is some autocorrect,” Tackett says. Because the edges of the lane have very little oil, shots that drift to either side will slow down; if the ball has been thrown with the proper spin to guide it back toward the middle of the lane, it will curl more effectively on the drier surface. “It makes it easier to hit the pocket.” “在普通保龄球馆的常规模式下，会有一些自动修正，”Tackett 说。因为球道边缘油很少，偏向两侧的球会减速；如果球以适当的旋转投出以引导它回到球道中间，它会在较干燥的表面上更有效地产生弧线。“这使得击中‘口袋区’（the pocket）变得更容易。”

(By “the pocket,” Tacket means that sweet spot at the front corner of the standard 10-pin configuration. For right-handed bowlers that’s the space between the first and third pins slightly right of center; for lefties, it’s on the left side.) （Tackett 所说的“口袋区”，是指标准 10 瓶阵列前角的那个最佳击球点。对于右手球手来说，那是第一瓶和第三瓶之间略偏中心右侧的空间；对于左手球手，则是在左侧。）

In the pros, though, the patterns are far tougher. Instead of 8:1 or even 10:1 ratios of oil in the middle of the lane to the outside, the PBA uses ratios of 3:1 and under—even as low as nearly 1:1 in some cases. Learning how each board is oiled at the start of a match allows the pros to map their ideal shots. “You have to be a lot more precise, not only with where you’re placing the ball on the lane, but with your speed that you’re throwing it and the revolutions that you’re applying to the ball,” Tackett says. 然而，在职业比赛中，模式要困难得多。PBA 使用的不是 8:1 甚至 10:1 的中间对边缘涂油比例，而是 3:1 及以下的比例——在某些情况下甚至低至接近 1:1。了解比赛开始时每一块板条是如何涂油的，可以让职业选手规划出他们理想的投球路线。“你必须更加精确，不仅是在球道上的落点，还有投球的速度以及施加给球的旋转，”Tackett 说。

Oil patterns also vary in terms of their length up the 60-foot lane. Many common patterns run for the first 40 feet before the oil tapers off near the pins, but several variations exist. 涂油模式在 60 英尺长的球道上的长度也各不相同。许多常见的模式在前 40 英尺处涂油，然后在靠近球瓶的地方逐渐减少，但也存在多种变体。

As lane oil technology has improved, understanding and adjusting to lane oil patterns and ratios has become an outsize tactical element for professional bowlers. Tackett likens it in some ways to golf. 随着球道涂油技术的进步，理解并适应球道涂油模式和比例已成为职业保龄球手极其重要的战术要素。Tackett 在某些方面将其比作高尔夫。

“An oil pattern basically adds water and trees and bunkers,” he says. “It’s adding obstacles to the lane.” “涂油模式基本上就像增加了水障碍、树木和沙坑，”他说，“它是在给球道增加障碍。”

The PBA, the sport’s governing body, likes those comparisons. Rather than using the latest advances in lane oil tech to standardize lanes across every PBA competition, the… 该运动的管理机构 PBA 很喜欢这种类比。他们并没有利用球道涂油技术的最新进展来统一每一场 PBA 比赛的球道标准，而是……