Is lofting legal in bowling

Answer 1

Loft is the period during which a Bowling ball is falling through the air before landing on the lane.

In general, excessive loft is undesirable, as the force of a heavy bowling ball landing hard will leave a small indentation, even on today's synthetic lanes. Excessive loft also usually means that the ball was (accidentally or deliberately) thrown rather than rolled, which is bad bowling form.

On very rare occasions, almost always having to do with extremely dry lane conditions, an experienced bowler may find that they have to launch the ball forward with excessive speed, in order to reduce the ball's uncontrollable hook and have any chance of scoring well. This is known as 'lofting the ball'.

(But even experienced bowlers never let the ball land more than 15 feet out on the lane; and they release it from as close to the ground as possible to minimize any potential damage to the lane's surface.)

Loft is distinguishable from lift; the latter is the amount of sideways spin you impart on the ball with your fingers, in the split second after your thumb has come out of the thumb hole and before you release the ball completely.

Answer 2

Lofting is legal, however a center may prohibit lofting as it is damaging to a lane.