More oil is used on THS patterns then other patterns......WHAT!

[Hammer]

This is according to an article written by Rob Mautner in Bowling This Month magazine. In the March 2013 issue is part two of Susie Minshew's very informative article on "How to read a program sheet." Within the article, she states that, according to Kegel, the average house shot today uses about 23 mL of oil. According to the Kegel web site, the High Street oily pattern uses 21.1 mL, the Main Street medium pattern uses 19.3 mL, the Easy Street dry pattern uses 18.7 mL, and the Winding Road sport pattern uses 22.45 mL of oil.

In terms of volume, all four of the testing patterns uses less oil than the average house shot. The difference, of course, is the length of the patterns and the distribution of the oil. My point here is that if you want to find the ball that is really right for you, you have to have all of the facts. Since the volume of oil on all three test patterns is less than that of a typical house shot, then it stands to reason that the terms oily, medium, and dry refer mainly to the length of the pattern.

So when you are trying to decide what ball to get for yourself you have to consider a lot of things as far as what pattern you will use it on and what target you use on the alley condition you are bowling on. According to the article Rob wrote he said that some bowlers buy too strong of a ball for a THS pattern and use the line across the second arrow which is the dry area and wonder why the ball doesn't hook. What they think is that there is too much oil when in reality the ball is losing energy because of too much friction.

This game can be very confusing sometimes. It can get to be a real head scratcher. I hope that Rob doesn't mind me using a part of his article here.

[Aslan]

A) Rob is suing you for copyright infringement.

B) As my pal/Michigander Mudpuppy would say..."Oil Schmoil...who cares. I just throw the ball and go on feel. Numbers make my head hurt."

[Hammer]

A) Rob is suing you for copyright infringement.

B) As my pal/Michigander Mudpuppy would say..."Oil Schmoil...who cares. I just throw the ball and go on feel. Numbers make my head hurt."

Yeah, but if you want to become a good bowler you have to be an informed bowler. That is how some folks get to be pretty good at this game. It all depends on how good you want to get. I will never have bowling as my job or way to make a living but I still like to know as much as possible. The reason is it is a hobby that I have been interested in for a long time and I like to know as much as possible about different lane conditions and the makings of different kinds of bowling balls.

[RobLV1]

Hammer: Feel free! You hit the nail on the head when you talked about how the oil is distributed. There's more oil used on a THS, but it's all on the middle part of the lane. This is what creates all that wonderful miss area on the outside (lots of friction to bring the ball back), and on the inside for pulled shots to hold pocket. This is how we have bowlers who are pretty much clueless about how to play any pattern that doesn't let them miss in any direction that they see fit. This is how they average 220+. On a sport shot, there is usually less volume of oil, but it is spread evenly, or very close to evenly, to make bowlers play the pattern the way it was designed to be played, use the right ball, and, above all, be accurate and consistent.

[Ptnomore]

I love this. I'll laugh that much harder on Tuesday night when the "Pro-Bowlers" in the league start complaining and yelling at management about the lack of oil on the lanes again. It's a weekly production. One of them even has a license plate that reads "PRO BWLR".

[Trex]

It's not only the length of the pattern, yes you have short/medium/and long oil patterns, but some are for example: 10 to 1 ratio

where as a tournament shot can sometimes be 1 to 1 ratio and totally flat!!!

So that heavy oil ball won't work even if the pattern is 40+ ft long, because the ball will lose too much energy trying to get through the front part of the lane!!!

That's when you need plain urethane or plastic!! :)

[Mudpuppy]

A) Rob is suing you for copyright infringement.

B) As my pal/Michigander Mudpuppy would say..."Oil Schmoil...who cares. I just throw the ball and go on feel. Numbers make my head hurt."

Of course if I knew the viscosity of the oil and what date it was manufactured, with what ingredients, what time of day it was put down, the outside temperature, the ambient inside temperature, relative humidity and barometric pressure I could increase my average 20 pins a game easy.

I wish they would just the entire lane so my ball would rooster tail oil - that is bad a$$.

But watching the PBA it is pretty interesting with the blue oil. Playing anywhere near the 1st arrow is pretty much dry. And based on V dub's recommendation about coming in to the 3rd arrow to stay in the oil definitely makes a difference. I would say 20% less speed - hate to get into too many numbers because it gets Aslan all wound up - and it does not overhook - nice and smooth. Playing 1st-2nd arrow area it always seems you have to throw with some serious speed to keep the ball from overhooking.