Need clarification on terms.

[Mike]

Just started my first Sport Shot league and I need some clarification. I have been researching how to play the Cheetah pattern and keep seeing that it's best to use a "ball with a little bit of surface." What exactly does that mean? Also, the only ball I have right now is the Storm Fringe, polished 1500 oob, any suggestions on surface changes for shorter patterns? Should I go down to 500 or up to 2000 or 4000? Or maybe I really need to look at getting a new ball? Sorry, I don't know any specifics on my bowling style other than I would say I'm between a stroker and a tweener. Any help and advice would be great, thanks.

[Bendial]

I'm a newbie so I don't have much to offer in terms of answering your question...but I can definitely stay whoever told you that probably just likes to hear things come out of thier mouth. Telling someone to "use a ball with a little bit of surface" is like saying "use a vacuum with a little bit of suction" lol

[vdubtx]

My first question would be, what is your average on a house shot?

There comes a time when you can get too technical for your own good. When I have bowled sport shots, I bowl and adjust to the conditions without ball surface changes. I am a 220 average bowler and have never had the need to do anything to balls surface on different lane conditions. Change angle of attack, hand position, ball speed etc. to get the reaction you need from the particular shot.

Just my $.03

[Judy clemons]

hi mike, the purpose in bowling in a sports league is to learn how to read the lanes quicker and to learn to make the
necessary adjustments with your address (where you stand) on the approach in order to hit the strike pocket, not
changing your style ....and not changing your ball. {although it is awesome that you are interested in learning ball surfaces}
i do highly recommend you do learn the surfaces and cores etc.. in good time, it wiill be helpful for future reference but it is
not a neccessity at this time just for this league. the oil depth and patterns on the lanes will be changed weekly from either
heavy to light or med to heavy or heavy to light or vice versa which is why no specific particular ball is going to be able to
do the adjusting for you. that is your job to learn for your own benefit. ENJOY IT!!! You will have fun & love it. Hope this was extremely helpful and answered your questions!

[J Anderson]

Just started my first Sport Shot league and I need some clarification. I have been researching how to play the Cheetah pattern and keep seeing that it's best to use a "ball with a little bit of surface." What exactly does that mean? Also, the only ball I have right now is the Storm Fringe, polished 1500 oob, any suggestions on surface changes for shorter patterns? Should I go down to 500 or up to 2000 or 4000? Or maybe I really need to look at getting a new ball? Sorry, I don't know any specifics on my bowling style other than I would say I'm between a stroker and a tweener. Any help and advice would be great, thanks.

Unfortunately "a little bit of surface" could be interpreted to mean different things. Only the person who wrote it originally knows what they really meant, and given the ease of copy/paste you may be getting a lot of results that are just regurgitating one persons opinion on what type of ball to use.

In sport leagues it's good to go in with a plan for how to play the pattern, but be prepared to adapt. Almost every Monday I hear some one say either, "This pattern didn't play like I expected it to", or "This isn't playing at all like it did last week!" Be aware of how your ball is reacting and watch where the other bowlers on your pair are throwing and how their balls are reacting. The lanes will tell you what line to play.

My experience with Cheetah was that my Hammer Black Widow gave me a better line than my Storm V G Nano.

For a sport league your first new ball should be a plastic spare ball if you don't already have one. You would not believe how many good bowlers miss single pin spares on a sport pattern just because they're trying to shoot them the same way as they do on a THS. And I'm not just talking about the 7 and the 10 pin, they miss the 6, 4, 8, and 9 pins too.

[billf]

Just started my first Sport Shot league and I need some clarification. I have been researching how to play the Cheetah pattern and keep seeing that it's best to use a "ball with a little bit of surface." What exactly does that mean? Also, the only ball I have right now is the Storm Fringe, polished 1500 oob, any suggestions on surface changes for shorter patterns? Should I go down to 500 or up to 2000 or 4000? Or maybe I really need to look at getting a new ball? Sorry, I don't know any specifics on my bowling style other than I would say I'm between a stroker and a tweener. Any help and advice would be great, thanks.

The problem with tutorials like that is that a bowler's ability and style are not taken into consideration. Strokers seem to have an easier time with slight adjustments to stay consistent. Higher rev players, especially if they can't play multiple lines, will struggle more.

Anyway, if all you have is the one ball don't spend time adjusting the surface every week. Learn to play multiple angles first and purcase a polyester (plastic) spare ball.


My first question would be, what is your average on a house shot?

There comes a time when you can get too technical for your own good. When I have bowled sport shots, I bowl and adjust to the conditions without ball surface changes. I am a 220 average bowler and have never had the need to do anything to balls surface on different lane conditions. Change angle of attack, hand position, ball speed etc. to get the reaction you need from the particular shot.

Just my $.03

220 on sport shots or THS? While being able to vary your physical game is great, there are times it's easier to just change balls.


hi mike, the purpose in bowling in a sports league is to learn how to read the lanes quicker and to learn to make the
necessary adjustments with your address (where you stand) on the approach in order to hit the strike pocket, not
changing your style ....and not changing your ball. {although it is awesome that you are interested in learning ball surfaces}
i do highly recommend you do learn the surfaces and cores etc.. in good time, it wiill be helpful for future reference but it is
not a neccessity at this time just for this league. the oil depth and patterns on the lanes will be changed weekly from either
heavy to light or med to heavy or heavy to light or vice versa which is why no specific particular ball is going to be able to
do the adjusting for you. that is your job to learn for your own benefit. ENJOY IT!!! You will have fun & love it. Hope this was extremely helpful and answered your questions!

I thought the purpose was to have fun and win? lol

[Mike]

Thanks for all the great (and fast) responses. You told me exactly what I needed to hear, "don't over think." Funny, because that's what I have to tell myself on the lanes. A spare ball is definitely in the works after missing left quite a few times. I'll still be on the lookout for a new ball, thinking Marauder Madness or similar, for those times my Fringe just won't match up.

[Greenday]

As I always say, spare shooting is the key to doing well on sports shots. On a THS, when I leave a 7 pin, I can just walk up and slow roll the ball knowing it's going to grab and hook all the way over no problem every single time. On a sports pattern, no such luck. I had to develop a new system for picking up my left side spares with my spare ball.

[Zothen]

If I recall the Cheetah pattern is a 34' pattern,which means you'll have about 26' +/- of dry lane. What you will need is a ball that is for light-medium oil or 2000-4000 finish so the ball goes longer befor it starts to hook. Examples of balls that would be good-Slingshot,Shout,Venom Toxin,IQ Pearl,Wrecker,etc. You can also experiment with your balls by changing surface to 2000-4000 with or without polish. Polish may make your ball snap harder in back end.

Good luck in sport league!

Zothen

[nathan]

While I agree with what's been said here, I don't think it would be a bad a idea to ask a pro shop to put a little surface on your Fringe just to see what it does and if you like it. It should be a little smoother and more predictable. If you don't like it, just polish it again.

I have a Storm Fast (1500 polished) that I don't use much anymore. As an experiment, I told my pro shop to "put a little surface" on it just to see what it would do. That's all I told him. I'm not sure what exactly he did (looks like 4000, it's still kind of shiny), but I like the reaction better.

[Tampabaybob]

Maybe this chart will help:

500-grit This reaction causes the ball to read extremely early. This usually on works well on extremely heavy patterns or very direct angles by speed dominate players.

360, 1000-grit This reaction gives the ball more length than 500 alone, but still has a significant ability to generate friction in heavier oil. This works well on heavy patterns with fresh back-ends.

500, 2000-grit This reaction is a very good benchmark reaction as the ball has enough topography to still generate friction in medium to light oil, but not enough to cause the ball to read too early in most cases. This finish delays the hook transition, allowing for a strong entry angle.

500, 4000-grit This reaction works extremely well on multiple patterns, giving the ball easy length through the heads, a subtle but noticeable mid-lane reaction, and an enormous amount of friction at the end of the pattern. This finish can generate some of the strongest entry angles possible on fresh patterns, but may start to skid too far as the pattern carries downline.

Of course, there are multiple methods, resurfacing mediums, and grits available on the market, all of which will yield slightly different results causing a ball to read earlier or later, with more or less on the back-ends.
As a final recommendation, whenever making surface adjustments, our research has shown that the lowest grit should be applied with more pressure, but for a shorter duration. The higher grits should be applied with less pressure, but for a longer time. This will have the desired effect of creating strong surface deviations to displace oil, but will also round the edges, peaks, and valleys enough to get the desired amount of skid.