Three nights and three shots

[xthe_charismatic_enigmax]

First off, I know I post books as threads and I thank everyone for reading them that do. So, as the title says, I bowl in three leagues on different nights (sometimes I sub in the Tuesday morning league as well), on what it seems like different variations of the house shot. Monday's and Thursday's don't give me trouble usually, but Tuesday's have for the most part been horrific for me. And I don't understand why. I find something nice in practice, stick with it until I have to make an adjustment. After I make it, like, moving left a board after I was hitting heavy for a couple shots, three of four shots later, I'm moving right three boards. But I know in that league there are people who use plastic balls and I know that plastic balls usually push oil wherever they go; could this be the problem, because that's the best explanation I can come up with. Do I make bad shots, yeah, they happen, and I'm bringing that into account also. Like the tenth frame of my last game working off of a double, my ball made an unexpected turn early and I left the Big Four.

[AZBowla]

If you can't beat 'em, get a plastic ball and join 'em! Spend the night trashing the other guy's line and see how they like it.

In all seriousness, there's probably not much you can do other than try a line that no one else is playing that night and hope for the best. There are some times even with open bowling where I just can't seem to buy a strike and when that happens I just quit looking at the score board and practice picking up spares. Not much else you can do.

[10-in-the-pit]

Yeah, if you bowl with people on your set with plastic balls, it will make the oil go longer. Like AZBowla says, try a different line so it doesn't affect you as much. If you have a ball that hooks early, that might be the ball to use in general.

[billf]

When I encounter a lot of carry down I go with a ball that will read the lane earlier and a little more aggressive ball over all. This way when it gets to the oil it's strong enough to still hook. This is also when I usually play outside the 5 board with a lot of revs. Goes long and hooks sharp through the sludge.

[ArtVandelay]

Frustrating, for sure! Years ago I was in a fall league with about 40 teams and there was a rotation system, so you basically ended up following the same teams around from week to week. The team that was following us on our left would always show up way early to throw practice games, but you can't practice on the lanes you're about to bowl on, so they would always practice on OUR lanes and just stomp all over our fresh oil right before league starts.

My buddy and I both left work early after they had done this to us 3 weeks in a row, and requested the lanes to the LEFT of our assigned lanes (their lanes). We spent the whole "practice" just throwing house balls down the right hand side of their lanes. They got the message. (full disclosure: that team was a bunch of jerks anyway... Almost everyone in that league just bowled for fun, but those guys were just awful...)

Yours isn't that cut and dry. I wish you luck!

[Ludeth]

This is a huge bummer! I had no idea those of use using house balls caused so many issues!

[Tampabaybob]

Watch where the other bowlers on your lanes are playing, where their breakpoints are, and try finding an area where they aren't playing. If they're all over the lane then I'd go for a very aggressive ball that will bite through any and all oil and shoot from the 3rd or 4th arrow out to the 7 or 8 board. That "should" overcome the oil moving around.