Why do lessons go so damn well...then it doesn't translate into success!!?

[RobLV1]

"I mean, on the last 4 of those strikes...I wasn't even trying to strike...I was aiming right of my line trying to burn in some miss room."

Unless you are playing inside of the third arrow, why would you possibly try to "burn in a shot" on a house pattern? By definition, the THS has a shot already burned in for you.

[Aslan]

Unless you are playing inside of the third arrow, why would you possibly try to "burn in a shot" on a house pattern? By definition, the THS has a shot already burned in for you.

As this guy I know, Rob, once said; not all house (THS) shots are the same.

If I have a ball/release where I tend to struggle to make it back to the pocket if I miss by 2 boards right…DESPITE the magical dry area that apparently a THS is SUPPOSED to have…according to some things I read at one point online…if you have your line figured out…and you have the right ball/surface….AND you have some time to spare…you throw a reactive resin ball just right of your line to soak in the line…and it SUPPOSEDLY gives you a little more miss room to the right.

Now, most modern bowlers don't bother with that because usually their problem is their ball starts hooking too much after 4-5 frames or so of other bowlers playing on their line. As a much straighter bowler…I'm not AS worried that my ball is going to start hooking "too much"…I'm MORE concerned that the ball will miss 2.5 boards right and miss the headpin.

That being said, it's more of a "theory" really because:
1) I rarely, in a 5-man team league, have the time to figure out my line and ball in 15mins of practice…much less throw shots to burn in a line.
2) Even when I've done it…there didn't appear to be a noticeable difference. That might be because my release is too inconsistent to take advantage of it.

[dnhoffman]

So basically, you're hopeless when it comes to keeping things simple. Got it.

[RobLV1]

Right, not all house shots are the same, BUT they do have one thing in common: there is more oil in the middle than there is on the outside. The oil line is usually at ten, but not always. Once you find the oil line, you have heavy oil to the left of you, and dry to the right of you. IF you try to burn in some miss area, what you are doing is to take the part of the lane that has around three to five units of oil, and dry it out until you have zero to three units of oil. Three to five units give you miss room right, while zero to three units of oil give you bowling ball death that results in flat ten pins. If you don't have miss room right on a typical house shot, the solution is not to try to burn in a shot, the solution is to work on your release so that you can take advantage of the built in miss room to the right.

[Amyers]

Right, not all house shots are the same, BUT they do have one thing in common: there is more oil in the middle than there is on the outside. The oil line is usually at ten, but not always. Once you find the oil line, you have heavy oil to the left of you, and dry to the right of you. IF you try to burn in some miss area, what you are doing is to take the part of the lane that has around three to five units of oil, and dry it out until you have zero to three units of oil. Three to five units give you miss room right, while zero to three units of oil give you bowling ball death that results in flat ten pins. If you don't have miss room right on a typical house shot, the solution is not to try to burn in a shot, the solution is to work on your release so that you can take advantage of the built in miss room to the right.

In other words there is no point in drying out what's dry already

[RobLV1]

In other words there is no point in drying out what's dry already

Exactly!

[Aslan]

In other words there is no point in drying out what's dry already

Exactly!

No, not so much.

I'm telling you…there's no miss room anywhere on my THS. I just practiced all the **** I leanred Wednesday…only difference was I was in my home center. And wow…my ole friends the 1-2 and 1-2-8 and 1-2-10…they all were BACK baby!!

I don't have "Miss Room". I USED TO…on wood lanes. That was fun. Throw the ball at an area…ya miss a couple boards…still hit the pocket. Heck, you could miss 5-7 boards right and still hit the pocket. It was good times.

Now I got a board if I'm lucky. So this magical dry area that supposedly exists on a house shot…I'm not seeing it. And neither is anyone else. The pro shop guy caught me on my way out and asked me if I was getting any reaction because everyone was sayin they weren't getting any reaction…and HE with his super duper rev rate…also was getting virtually no movement when he bowled on the lanes last week. I'm telling ya…it's like bowling on the PBA Shark except one of Iceman's wood lane guys came out with a mop and threw down a little oil around the breakpoint area. Thats how it plays. And thats how it's played ever since they stopped cleaning/re-oiling the lanes twice a day.

So no…Rob didn't say there was already dry area out there…his advice was to work on a release that would allow me to hook a bowling ball in moderate to heavy oil volumes. That would be something. I like that idea. Except….every attempt I've made at it where my thumb had a part to play has failed:

1) High loft/high axis rotation/very little axis tilt: Thats bad. Ball hooks, but too early and loses energy.
2) Stay behind the ball! That also tends to fail because when I stay "behind the ball" the ball has a tendency to go end over end… = 0 hook. At which point, the experts will say, "Well, not THAT behind the ball".
3) Suitcase release….45 degree release…90 degree starting position…even added an adjustable wrist brace. ALL failed. The wrist brace added revs…for certain. But, so did bowling thumbless with a 9lb ball. The downside of both was the loss of accuracy and consistency.

So, we'll see. Obviously not in a good mood after that **** poor practice.

[Hampe]

Aslan, dude.....you are getting WAY too far ahead of yourself. You're worried about stuff that is WAY too advanced for where your game is right now. Manipulating the lane, using abralon pads while on the lanes.....these are pretty much the last things you need to be concerned with as a competitive bowler. What you're doing is akin to a golfer (I've only ever played on playstation....so I don't know if this is a terribly accurate analogy) trying to put spin on the ball to make up for not being able to hit the ball far enough. You need to worry about the fundamentals before you start worrying about things like burning a line or trying to influence someone else's line (like you pointed out yourself.....you're probably too inaccurate to make much of a difference anyway).

As for playing on poorly maintained lanes.....welcome to my hell. There's nothing you can do about poorly maintained lanes, dirty backends, etc. You just have to go with it, keep your head in the game, and keep looking for a line that gets you to the pocket. If you have to resort to playing straight to the pocket then so be it. If the lanes are poorly maintained, there is pretty much nothing you can do that will give you more miss room.

2) Stay behind the ball! That also tends to fail because when I stay "behind the ball" the ball has a tendency to go end over end… = 0 hook. At which point, the experts will say, "Well, not THAT behind the ball".

I'd like to know which "expert" told you that.....

You can not have your hand "too much" behind the ball. There is no such thing. If you really are behind the ball, and you are just rolling it end over end, then it's your finger positioning that's causing that. If that is the case then your FINGERS are probably too much behind the ball. To generate the right amount of axis rotation you need to have your hand behind the ball, and your fingers inside (and underneath).

[RobLV1]

Aslan: Here's a suggestion for you. Instead of thinking about keeping your hand behind the ball, think about keeping your arm behind the ball. Stand facing a target, with your right arm down with your palm facing the target. Put your left hand on the inside of your right elbow, and turn your right hand until your thumb is pointing upward, without turning your elbow. That's how you "stay behind the ball" and still are able to hook it. Try different hand positions at the start of your set up to see if you can find one that will get you to be able to end up in that thumb up position without coming over the top of the ball (elbow also goes left).

[manke]

If you bowl at the same house you should know were to stand and throw your ball. Unless they change the pattern, the warm up should just be to get loose and dialed in.