When you can't score...

[RobLV1]

do you own it, or do you blame the bowling center?

[J Anderson]

do you own it, or do you blame the bowling center?

Well of course if I’m not striking it has to be the the center has deliberately put a pattern out that won’t let me play my favorite part of the lane:mad:

Seriously, all it takes is a quick look to see that other bowlers are scoring well and that either something is wrong with my technique or lane play.

[SRB57]

I own it. The way the house shots are you have no one really to blame but yourself.

[boatman37]

I own it. Even on my worst nights there are always bowlers that bowl very well. If they can then I can, I just wasn't able to figure it out like they did. Last week was a good example. 2 of us on my team really struggled but 2 did very good and one about average. On the other team they had a couple guys that were quite a bit over their average. We had another guy roll a 300. They figured it out. If I didn't then it's on me. I have a teammate that leaves quite a few 10's with pocket hits and always blames it on the lanes. He is starting to come around now since I have been working with explaining to him why and have had others back me on my explanation. If they don't accept it then they will never fix it.

[bubba809]

I blame Aslan.

[Hammer]

When I bowl terrible I get a little angry and then just go oh well, it is just one of those days. It is amazing how this game can turn on you and you can't figure out how to get out of the barrel. Other times you bowl league and it seems like their is a groove in the alleys that your ball keeps riding in on every shot. So I always own it because I know it is me.

[J Daisy]

I own it. I know I have a lot to learn, and I'm pretty bad.

The only time I'll blame the center is if the equipment and machines there are obviously at fault, i.e. the ball won't return, the ball sticks in the return and gets messed up, not all the pins are removed, not all the pins get set up, or the score is inaccurate. It bugs me if that happens.

[mc_runner]

Own it. Everyone's bowling on the same conditions.

You're on a bowling enthusiast website, the people here are more involved, more passionate etc. than your typical league bowler who will blame the house for their struggles.

[J Daisy]

But if people don't own it, do you really think they would own up to not owning it? ;) haha

[RobLV1]

It's all about entitlement, like most everything in our modern society. I bowl in a very high average senior league and routinely hear the most ridiculous accusations; "the center uses cheap oil, the center dilutes the oil to save money, the center is too cheap to hire knowledgeable lane men," etc. When they see some bowlers who are scoring well, it's just because those bowlers throw a shot that the strugglers can't throw. It's really sad!

[boatman37]

If only a couple of bowlers bowled good every week and it was always the same bowlers then MAYBE there is something there but like I posted earlier, last week me and a teammate struggled but others did well. And it's not always the same guys each week doing good. That tells me that on some nights some guys figure it out while other nights others do. And that's on me to figure it out.

[ALazySavage]

The biggest issue that is not recognized is that at the core scoring is really a relative concept. People go from house to house, tournament to tournament, even night to night, under the assumption that they are a "X" bowler (let's use 215 for this). On every occasion the lanes are going to break down different, a pair may have a different topography, the oil may actually be different or the laneperson may be different, etc. - yet a majority go into the night saying "I bowled bad, I shot 580 and I'm a 215" but fail to acknowledge that they covered almost all spares, the lanes were not stripped and oiled but just filled, and stayed near the pocket the entire night compared to "I bowled great and shot 712" but the lane was so open they had 4-5 boards of area and that covered bad execution and missed spares.


Everything is on the bowler, including identifying scoring pace.