It's all a matter of traffic on the lanes. Yesterday after our trios league, a friend of mine came up to me complaining about how much the lanes were hooking. He told me that by the fourth game (we bowl two games on a pair, move one pair to the right, and bowl two more games against the same team) he was using a plastic spare ball. He is a typical house bowler who stands on the big dot in the center and targets the second arrow. Now, here's the deal: during the course of the four games, I used two very aggressive bowling balls, the Mastermind and the Mastermind Genius. I started out standing 32, crossing the arrows around 16, throwing out to around 10 at the tracers. By the end of the fourth game, I was standing 35, crossing around 17, throwing out to around 12 at the tracers. I never "balled down," and had to move only three boards over the course of four games for the simple reason that I was the only one playing that line. If you insist on playing the outside part of the lane with everyone else, to answer your question of "how far and fast do I have to move left to stay ahead of oil pattern changes," the answer is very far and very fast if you choose to play with everyone else. If, and when, you decide that you can use the friction that is past the pattern, rather than the friction that is outside the pattern, then the answer becomes not too far, and not too fast. It's your choice!
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