Bowling strikes, bioinspired enamel materials, and unbeatable squash shot strategies

Your new Strategy Toolkit newsletter (November 10, 2025)

(1) It’s all about the spin, the speed, and the surface

Every once in a while, along comes a straightforward explanation from one field of research applied to another. In this case, a physicist who also happens to be a champion ten-pin bowler. Curtis Hooper, of Loughborough University, shared, from a physics perspective, the combination of factors that lead to perfect strikes, time after time. Strategists will love this.

“Amid the chaos and variety of pin action, there is a particular sequence that consistently results in a strike and relies on very little luck: what’s known as the perfect strike…

“It is in a bowler’s best interest to increase the area of the headpin that can be hit such that the perfect strike results. That can be achieved through a strategy that involves imparting spin to the ball and uses the oil pattern applied to the lane to one’s advantage…

“As the entry angle is increased up to 6°, the area of the headpin that can be hit to produce the correct deflection increases…. Though 6° may not seem large, angles greater than 2° can be achieved only by spinning the ball. When the ball is imparted with rotation, it skids along the oil and then gains traction at the unoiled end of the lane. There, it transitions from a skid into a pure roll, in which its translational velocity is equal to the radius of the ball multiplied by its angular velocity. During that transition, the rotation causes the ball to change direction and creates the desired entry angle into the headpin. If bowlers can hit the right speed, rotation, and area of the lane, they can bowl perfect strikes time and time again.”*

* Hooper, C., “The perfect strike in tenpin bowling,” Physics Today (Quick Study): October 2025 (54-5); DOI: 10.1063/pt.bvxu.amgq; https://physicstoday.aip.org/quick-study/the-perfect-strike-in-tenpin-bowling