Bowling patterns...

[Lloyd6770]

I see quite a few people on here talking about their lane patterns, and to be perfectly honest, I have no idea what that means. Until I joined this site just recently, I'd never heard of lane patterns. Can someone clue me in on what they are and how to recognize different patterns? Maybe it will help me determine how I approach my games this weekend. I appreciate it.

[mc_runner]

Most times when you go bowl, you bowl on what's called a THS (typical house shot). It's oily in the middle, and dry on the outsides - it's a "friendly", easy oil pattern - meaning that when you leave a ball too far outside, it will hit the dry part of the lane and curve back, and if you miss inside it'll hold because there's more oil there for it to skid on. Unless you are in a tournament or go after a league using a different pattern, this is what you'll be bowling on almost 100% of the time.

Sport patterns (which is a lot of the different names you might be seeing around here) are harder more challenging shots. There's less room to miss on the outside because there's more oil, and some patterns are "longer" - meaning there's oil further down the lane, or "shorter" - meaning there's less distance on the oil. Basically these require adjustments and a much more exact shot to do well on. Generally, take your regular average and subtract 20 pins to get your average for these patterns.

There's also PBA experience leagues (the references to "wolf", "cheetah", etc. The animal names) that use the same patterns (or very close to) that the PBA uses. The descriptions of these are similar to the sport shot stuff I mentioned above.

Basically each of the sport/PBA patterns are different. They have graphs showing the oil, where to play, etc that I'm sure someone will post up... but this is a really quick rundown of the differences. For what you're bowling now, basically you just have to worry about doing well on THS. Even THS can have some challenges... like when you're on for open bowl after going behind a party of 6 kids throwing plastic house balls all over the lane, for instance. It spreads the oil all around and makes it feel like a completely different game.

[MiggityMatt]

MC pretty much nailed it.

You can go to here for a visual and a general plan of attack. http://www.bowl.com/Welcome/Welcome_Home/Understanding_oil_patterns/

Here you can view some more challenging patterns that are used by a lot of tournaments. http://www.kegel.net/V3/PatternLibraryPattern.aspx?ID=600

[RobLV1]

Good timing! The latest article that I wrote for Bowling This Month is entitled, "What makes a House Shot Typical." It explains all of the elements that go into determining the relative ease or difficulty of any oil pattern. www.bowlingthismonth.com

[Lloyd6770]

And see here I am thinking oil is oil, and the only thing affecting it was the number of people that'd used the lane since it was oiled... Learn something new every day. You guys are the best!

[classygranny]

Not only will the amount of bowlers, as well as the type of ball being used affect the oil. So will weather...humidity/rain, dryness, fans, air conditioning, excessive heat.

[mike_thomas93]

I'm with classygranny on that. Good example of that is the women's US open in vegas when they bowled outside, and the lanes got so dry the bowlers had to throw their spare balls, including on the first shots in the frames.