How do/would you bowl this pattern??

[Aslan]

Okay...

Quick backstory:
My home center, about 4-5 weeks back, stopped cleaning and re-oiling before league play. Their new policy is to "flood the lanes in the morning and leave them alone". Now, I don't know "why" they are doing that.

- Maybe it's a $$$ thing. I don't know how much oil costs.
- Maybe it's a seasonal thing and they figure the oil won't evaporate as fast in cooler weather.
- Maybe they are tyying to make the conditions harder so people will do better in Vegas at sweeps.

I don't know.

Result:

The result is that by the evening, the lanes have a HEAVY THS shot in the middle...with a great deal of carrydown up the right side and some up the left side.

What is carrydown?
"Carrydown" is what bowlers used to have to deal with BEFORE reactive resin technology. It's the oil that is "pushed" by plastic and urethane balls rather than absorbed by reactive resin balls.

We don't factor carrydown into play usually, because reactive resin balls tend to soak up oil, not push it...and the pushing from an occasional spare ball or house ball or urethane ball has been shown to be minimal. Nowadays, we're much more concerned about the track left by reactive resin balls that soak up the oil...which has been shown to be much more significant.

BUT...because this center doesn't strip and re-oil before league play....and has decided just to increase volumes in the morning...they've created a carrydown situation. All day long, there might be a few old timer leagues or disabled leagues...not much reactive equipment. And the rest of the play is mostly with house balls. That means the oil is being pushed up primarily the right side.

It has led to a rather odd pattern where there is a good deal of oil in the middle...some carry down on the left...and the right side of the lane has oil pushed all the way to the pin deck. It's lighter in volume than it is in the center...but it's still there, where it shouldn't be.

QUESTION: So how do you play that?Assuming you're right handed...how do you play a pattern that is heavy in the middle, longer than a typical house shot, and has significant oil up the right side....to the point that there is no longer "dry"...ANYWHERE except a little bit on the left side?

I've played long sport patterns like the PBA Shark. And the strategy is to stay inside the 10-board. But even a long sport pattern assumes that you are going to have dry area. I can't think of a pattern that DOESN'T assume you will have SOME dry area.

I was able to bowl a 233 on that condition by slowing my ball down CONSIDERABLY. But many of those strikes were rather weak and quite a bit "lucky". The ball just didn't seem to have the energy coming in from the 6-board 'gradually'. I tried playing inside the 10-board, but missed right every time.

On the one hand, I feel like complaining to the center that they've essentailly created a very difficult sport shot. ANd everyone's averages have suffered. We used to have many players over 200 back in the "wood" days. Now we have ONE...out of 161 bowlers in the league...we have ONE guy at 204 and he's only bowled 9 games, probably before the new oiling policy. We only have about 13 or so even in the 190s.

On the other hand...is increasing the difficulty "bad"? Maybe this new pattern they've created makes people better bowlers. Maybe it makes them more accurate...better able to control their speeds...maybe they will do better in tournaments and in Vegas?

Last night, our best bowler with a 195 average bowled a 532...and he's a LEFTY. The best bowler on the other team...one of the better rightys in the league...189 average thereabouts...bowled a 604. Nobody in the league has a 700 scratch series. I think there have been a total of TWO 800 handicap series so far with 161 bowlers over 11 weeks.

[RobLV1]

That's nasty! If I were you, I get your entire team together, get everyone to bring one ball sanded down to 360 grit, decide where you are all going to play, and burn in a line just to the right of where you are all going to play. This should create some miss room to the right for all of you. Doing this takes some degree of accuracy, and a whole lot of COOPERATION from the entire team.

[foreverincamo]

Another thought is something I did back in the 80's when my house pulled the same thing -- learned to play where no one else would, which was outside of first arrow. Used a ball that reacted quickly at midlane then went into a heavy roll. The ball cut through the oil at the proper angle and I did quite well. Just had to get used to flirting with the gutter all night long.

[Aslan]

Another thought is something I did back in the 80's when my house pulled the same thing -- learned to play where no one else would, which was outside of first arrow. Used a ball that reacted quickly at midlane then went into a heavy roll. The ball cut through the oil at the proper angle and I did quite well. Just had to get used to flirting with the gutter all night long.

Thats what I'm afraid of doing. There likely ist still some dry on boards 1-2. But man...the degree of accuracy needed to play that old 1980s urethane shot up the 2-board...thats a tough line to play. I played 5.5-7.5 that whole night and still would often not get back to the pocket. Maybe I try 3-5 next week.

[ALazySavage]

Thats what I'm afraid of doing. There likely ist still some dry on boards 1-2. But man...the degree of accuracy needed to play that old 1980s urethane shot up the 2-board...thats a tough line to play. I played 5.5-7.5 that whole night and still would often not get back to the pocket. Maybe I try 3-5 next week.

If you are going to commit to playing the extreme outside line I would say to try and play up the three board, this way you are still given a two board bump. First couple shots in practice/warmup you would play the true 1-2 board and then move inside to 3 so that you feel that you have that extra little bit of room. Playing out there is going to create the illusion that you are throwing towards the gutter because of how the lanes "narrow" the further away they get (think of a picture that is looking down a railroad track to better understand this). Committing through the entire shot is the most important part (not trying to point the ball).

[ALazySavage]

That's nasty! If I were you, I get your entire team together, get everyone to bring one ball sanded down to 360 grit, decide where you are all going to play, and burn in a line just to the right of where you are all going to play. This should create some miss room to the right for all of you. Doing this takes some degree of accuracy, and a whole lot of COOPERATION from the entire team.

To put a little bit of additional strategy into Rob's point you will want to consider who you are bowling against when doing this. This is a strategy that should be a common place during tournaments since you are bowling against the entire field (which it baffles me how many teams don't do this), but should be thought about before league play. What you have to make sure about is which team will benefit more from the creation of area. For example, if you are bowling against a team that throws plastic straight you have the green light since they will receive little to no benefit from the carved out shot. If you are bowling against a team that places revs over accuracy though, you may give them just enough room that they can string much more than you can because of the reduced premium on accuracy.

[Aslan]

Last night, our best bowler with a 195 average bowled a 532...and he's a LEFTY. The best bowler on the other team...one of the better rightys in the league...189 average thereabouts...bowled a 604. Nobody in the league has a 700 scratch series. I think there have been a total of TWO 800 handicap series so far with 161 bowlers over 11 weeks.

And the madness continues...

- 2 weeks ago the league had 15 bowlers with a 190 or greater average.
- Last week we were down to 13 bowlers.
- We now have 12 bowlers out of 161 that are 190 or higher.
- Still only the ONE guy with 200+ average and I think he's a sub that may have bowled most of his games before the oiling policy change.
- Last week, nearly every bowler on the list (190 or higher) saw their averages drop by 1-2 pins.
- Nobody had a series of 650 or higher scratch. High scratch game was 251.

My 233 gave me a 286 handicap game which was tied for top honors last week. The guy that threw the 251 also had a 286 handicap game.

Man...all I can hope is that bowling on these conditions makes me a better bowler. I don't know quite how thats gonna happen...but it's my only hope at this point. I guess it feels better that it's not just me that is struggling...