So I was messing around online and somehow I'm now in a PBA experience league

[zdawg]

PBA experience leagues might use the same name as a PBA pattern, but might not use the actual specs on the pattern.

I've seen some PBA Experience patterns listed as a few feet shorter than the equivalent PBA pattern.

Ah, well that's good to know, since we play each pattern for four weeks I'll ask around next week and see if anybody knows. Unfortunately, unlike my home alley, I don't know anybody that works there so I may get mixed answers

[Aslan]

That said, I bowled a: 185, 168, 151, and 157 and we were on the USBC Nationals Single/Doubles pattern

So in other words...it isn't that tough and the pros aren't as good as Rob thinks.

Supposedly Badger plays like Temecula but without ANY dry area.

So expect to play near the center of the lane and pretty much throw the ball at the head pin.

I forgot to mention, MWhite called and said "as long as they don't oil a reverse block zdawg should be fine".

That mythical "reverse block"...it's like the Loch Ness Monster of bowling!

[zdawg]

So in other words...it isn't that tough and the pros aren't as good as Rob thinks.

LOL, I certainly wouldn't go that far, and of the patterns we're going to play on this was the closest in length to a regular THS pattern.

That said, now I KNOW what a flat oil pattern feels like without the nice dry zones, I don't miss right very often, I'm more of a pulling to the left kinda guy when I throw a crap shot - however, the 3 or so shots that I missed right had NO/ZERO/ZIPPY chance of coming back, in fact I think I clipped the 10 pin and that's about it on those shots

All in all, I enjoyed the experience, and if you find a handicap sports league I highly recommend it. Oh, and we smoked the pair we were playing, my partner threw the high series and I think I had the second highest (within our pairing there are some really good bowlers that we didn't have to face last night) although it was close between me and the better of the 2 bowlers on the other team.

[zdawg]

So tonight was the first night of Badger and my second night of my sports league.

I shot a: 155, 180, 154...ANNND then the wheels completely fell off...129

Learned a couple of things:

1) My worst game my first time out on a challenging 52 foot oil pattern tonight was higher than my average was just six months ago (in my first league ever)

2) A 52 foot oil pattern might as well be 60 feet when there is no dry area and the only ball you have is an entry level ball designed for low oil - still waiting to start work so I can justify spending money on building an arsenal, and my Brunswick Aura was drilled by someone incompetent so it has to be completely plugged and redrilled by somebody who isn't.

3) When you're used to bowling on a 5 person team/3 games per night, and switch to doubles/4 games per night the pace speeds up and so does the potential for wrist/arm/mental/etc fatigue

4) Sometimes slower ball speed is helpful

We get this pattern again for the next three weeks, so I'm gonna take some of the lessons I learned tonight and try to put them to use next week. The sucky thing is that the alley that the league is at really doesn't provide league bowlers with any significant discount, and I don't even think its worth wasting my breath asking them to set down a special pattern for me to practice on. Maybe I'm just biased because everybody at my home lane are so friendly, but the Brunswick experience so far leaves a WHOLE lot to be desired from a customer service standpoint.