Advice wanted

[foreverincamo]

Anyone bowl in a PBA Experience League? May be joining one in a few weeks.

[Aslan]

I bowled in a sport shot league that alternated patterns, primarily PBA patterns, every 2-3 weeks. So, essentially a PBA Experience league.


It was tough. I was averaging 168-178 in my THS leagues and both times averaged 149 in the sport shot league.

[KYDave]

There are a few PBA patterns I'd love to bowl on. Some I'd want nothing to do with it haha. There are a few tournaments this summer that use PBA patterns but with zero experience I don't think I would do too well.

We have a sport shot practice league here in the summer but not sure what patterns they are. If they had them at a good time I'd consider joining.

[J Anderson]

Anyone bowl in a PBA Experience League? May be joining one in a few weeks.

I have bowled in a sport league for most of the last seven years. I had been told that it would make me a better bowler. In my experience, that was a lie. I've known several bowlers who went into months long slumps on the regular house shot after a season on the sport shot. I am not saying this will happen to you, but just bowling on a few PBA patterns for a couple months does not instantly increase your skill level.

My advice:
1. Use a plastic spare ball for all your spares except for the 5 pin and the 2-8.
2. Watch where the guys throwing strikes are playing the lanes.
3. Learn to observe your ball all the way until it goes off the lane.
4. Resist the temptation to use your plastic spare ball as your strike ball when you can't figure out the pattern. That just pisses off the other bowlers.
5. Relax and have fun!

[KYDave]

4. Resist the temptation to use your plastic spare ball as your strike ball when you can't figure out the pattern. That just pisses off the other bowlers.


On a related note, I recently picked up a black hammer before they went extinct. I've been having great success throwing at the center I'm bowling this summer. It is a medium oil short pattern. I have a feeling some people are gonna be crappy about me throwing urethane, altho it is only a doubles league. I don't care that much, I'm gonna throw what I want. Just rather not have drama about it.

[JasonNJ]

I did a sport shot league last summer and it was fun and a bit humbling. I finished my mixed league last year with a 190 avg and only averaged 160 on the sport shot. The 2 things that happened with the sport leagues, it convinced me to shoot almost all my spares straight with plastic. 2nd thing, I actually developed some bad habits trying to get my ball to react on the different patterns which put me in a bad slump the beginning of the winter leagues.

[foreverincamo]

Thanks everyone. I do have a Brunswick Fanatic BTU I've yet to get drilled. Perhaps I'll do that this week. I don't have a plastic spare ball, but I do have older reactive ball I use for 10-pins that I've taken the surface to 4000 Abralon and polished with a polish that contains a slip agent.
Last summer I did a sport shot league. Some of those patterns seemed gimmicky to me. Averaged around 160's. Hopefully this league will be better.

[chip82901]

On a related note, I recently picked up a black hammer before they went extinct. I've been having great success throwing at the center I'm bowling this summer. It is a medium oil short pattern. I have a feeling some people are gonna be crappy about me throwing urethane, altho it is only a doubles league. I don't care that much, I'm gonna throw what I want. Just rather not have drama about it.

Sometime's I throw urethane just because that's the look I want. Whether is on a THS, harder sport pattern, whatever. We just did a challenge tourney in my home center with a 36' pattern on the left lane and a 42' pattern on the right lane. Not exactly sport shots, but tougher than a THS. I ended up going with surface on the short pattern for the most part (Phaze II) and a Timeless on the long pattern. I bowled a sport league during the summer here as well a few years back. Was stupid expensive for being a doubles league (was 20 weeks at $20 a week). My partner didn't show half the time, "we" ended up winning the league, I ended up covering his dues for 15 weeks, and ended up getting back $180 between the 2 of us, which I kept it all as I covered his dues for 75% of the season

[panbanger]

Anyone bowl in a PBA Experience League? May be joining one in a few weeks.

I have, but it's been a few years. I remember the first week we bowled on the Viper pattern. In the 8th frame I think my score was 85 and I was thinking "why the hell did I join this league"
Ended up averaging 161 for the 8 weeks. i also bowled a "house shot" league that summer, and averaged 193. So my highest ever league average happened when I was bowling on a sport shot once a week. Could have been a coincidence, but it probably wasn't.

[Aslan]

Despite JAnderson's Debbie Downer assessment...

...I'm thinking of joining 1-2 sport/PBA Experience leagues when I get out to Iowa. I probably will do 2 leagues a week...just THS...see if I can get on a team late since I'll be getting there beginning of June. Then, Fall/Winter, I'll have to see where I'm at. If the lanes are a lot different than they are in Cali....might take me a season or two to get to optimal performance...where I'd feel comfortable doing a sport/PBA league. And then, I gotta decide...if there's two PBA Experience/Sport leagues available...do I want to just join both of them and forget about THSs?? I dunno.

[J Anderson]

Despite JAnderson's Debbie Downer assessment...

...I'm thinking of joining 1-2 sport/PBA Experience leagues when I get out to Iowa. I probably will do 2 leagues a week...just THS...see if I can get on a team late since I'll be getting there beginning of June. Then, Fall/Winter, I'll have to see where I'm at. If the lanes are a lot different than they are in Cali....might take me a season or two to get to optimal performance...where I'd feel comfortable doing a sport/PBA league. And then, I gotta decide...if there's two PBA Experience/Sport leagues available...do I want to just join both of them and forget about THSs?? I dunno.

I did not intend to come off with a completely negative tone. After all, I'd have to be a complete masochist to do this for seven years if it was all bad. I just don't want people to think that there is some magic to bowling on PBA or sport patterns that automatically makes you a better bowler.

Bowling sport patterns is like the machine in one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books that shows you your importance in the universe. It shows the typical house bowler that they aren't nearly as skilled as they think they are. Sometimes this breaks a bowler's confidence and they get worse instead of better. The difficulty of the patterns should cause bowlers to become more accurate. Yet this can make some bowlers tense up, losing revs and speed.

People who look at their average as a source of self esteem should probably stay far away from PBA EXPERIENCE LEAGUES. If any one has an interest in bowling on challenging conditions they should jump right in and not wait until they think that they're good enough.

[Timmyb]

Despite JAnderson's Debbie Downer assessment...

...I'm thinking of joining 1-2 sport/PBA Experience leagues when I get out to Iowa. I probably will do 2 leagues a week...just THS...see if I can get on a team late since I'll be getting there beginning of June. Then, Fall/Winter, I'll have to see where I'm at. If the lanes are a lot different than they are in Cali....might take me a season or two to get to optimal performance...where I'd feel comfortable doing a sport/PBA league. And then, I gotta decide...if there's two PBA Experience/Sport leagues available...do I want to just join both of them and forget about THSs?? I dunno.


Come to Milwaukee. You can't land on the same condition two weeks in a row if you held hostages....

[fordman1]

I wrote much the same thing as J Anderson a few years ago after 3 different summers on sport-pba patterns. The changed every week and you had no idea how to play any of them and by the end of the season you timing was off so much it took months to get back to normal. Bowlers who throw very little hook and don't have much hand do fairly well. Really good bowlers can have trouble. So go into it with low expectations. Try something new and don't expect it to cure all your problems.
I will never do it again.

[foreverincamo]

I happy to see that some people like the PBA leagues, and some don't. I did a USBC Sport Shot league last year. My home house, which is tough enough with their house shot, was impossible with the Sport Shot. 60 year old wooden lanes on their last legs is no place to play a sport shot
Where I'm thinking of going has very new synthetic lanes. We shall see what happens if I join. League meeting is the 24th. Thanks for the advice.