How do you know if your on heavy oil?

[BearFan]

Hey guys, I went to a Brunswick Zone yesterday. Never been to this alley before. I haven't bowled since league ended and wanted to get in some practice. First thing I noticed was my ball was barely turning. By no means to I consider myself a cranker type bowler but I've reached the point where I thought I was at least a low level tweener. Usually roll around 13 board at the arrows to around 7 at the break during league at my regular alley. Even in the 1st game, on fresh oil I am not able to play up 5 board without taking hand out or crossing over. Yet yesterday this is what I had to use for my strike line. I use a Hammer Hot Sauce pearl which I have at 4000 with polish, so I know this would not be considered a heavy oiler. Just surprised at how little it turned though.

My question is, should I assume I was just on heavy oil and not worry about it? I'm wondering if I was possibly doing something different in my release. I sorta always thought one THS was the same as the next. Is there a way of knowing your on heavy oil besides just the ball reaction?

[J Anderson]

Most likely it was the oil. Could you see the rotation on the ball as it went down the lane? Did it look like it usually does? When the ball came back, was the oil track where it normally is relative to the finger and thumb holes? If anything looked different, then you might have been doing something odd with your release. One other thought, were you throwing faster than normal? I know that for me 1 mph faster means just barely touching the head pin instead of being dead flush.

[JAnderson]

Is your "regular alley" a wood surface? I have yet to visit a Brunswick Zone that didn't have Anvilane or ProAnvilane which is a much slicker surface than AMF's HPL and even slicker than wood or wood with a Guardian overlay.

If the pattern is "heavy", meaning a larger volume of oil, you'll usually have a larger amount of oil on the surface of the ball when it returns.

Longer oil, meaning length from the foul line until the end of the pattern, can usually be determined visually by noting at what point down the lane the ball begins to hook (note that the pattern length can be different whether in the middle of the lane or along the gutters). That method generally takes a trained eye. Alternately, you can look at the number of flare rings in the oil on your ball when it returns. Generally speaking and all other things being equal, the more flare rings of oil on the ball, the longer the pattern.