Each time EJ Tackett steps to his lane to throw a shot in the upcoming Professional Bowlers Association World Championships, he’ll be thinking about more than just ball spin or angle. 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. 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. 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. “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.” 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. 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. 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, he