Sounds like all those "great averages" should really be credited to the lane man, not the bowlers.Originally Posted by MICHAEL
Gladstone just hired the lane mechanic from NKC lanes!!! EXTRA,,, EXTRA!!!!
The house shot has went to hell this summer at Gladstone Bowling alley. Many long time bowler on the seniors leages, with great averages, and good bowlers, were getting ready to jump ship.
The own knew about the unrest, and wanted to nip it in the bud, before he lost a bunch of bowlers.
The guy from NKC, is a damn good mechanic, that was unhappy working for Bowlmore/AMF.
Gladstone pick him up as a Free Agent.... for a signing bonus of 500.00 bucks! I look to see my average, and many other bowlers start going back up North!
(The mechanic that did a GREAT job at Gladstone, fulfilled a life long dream and purchased a 24 lane alley in Excelsior Springs Missouri.)
He is a good man,,, I was very happy for him, but wow did things go down hill after he departed.
Don't walk on Thin Ice!
Sounds like all those "great averages" should really be credited to the lane man, not the bowlers.
Oil and correct setting matter...
This is not the mechanic that I had when I did my 300's, that was vivion AMF. This is the guy that did the lanes where I had a number of high games that first 298, 290, 279's.. ect.. NKC lanes.
Mike you know as well as anyone that the screwed up machine that is not putting down a pattern that even has a name other then Fuc@ up will not give you good games. I remember the time Aslan beat you pretty good. You said it was crappy oil... as I remember...
Was he the better bowler, or was it a crappy application of oil? OIL MATTERS as to how its applied.
All I ask is a consistent clear cut pattern, rather then one that defies all ways to adjust. If a machine is not maintained and run properly it give you crap, to bowl on. Are sports patterns what real men bowl on? Maybe, but they are very hard, next to impossible to find now days.
That's all I am saying
That day I did my last 300, that league had a Huge number of 200 plus bowlers, one of them on my team had a 230 average, I beat him that day. He had a 191 638 series on the same lanes I bowled when I had my 300, 780 series.
You make it sound like the lanes are BLOCK JUST FOR ICEMAN.... LOL.... that day I had that high series,,,, 300 216 and 264!
Don't walk on Thin Ice!
The "great averages" I was referring to were the same ones you referred to.. "Many long time bowler on the seniors leages, with great averages, and good bowlers, were getting ready to jump ship."
The oil pattern may have been perfect, I don't know.
The problem was with the wood itself.
The first 15 feet was full of patched boards, that hadn't been sanded flat.
So as the ball attempted to slide towards the arrows, it literally would bounce from board to board, creating so much friction that even a plastic ball would be heading left at the arrows.
The lanes were is such bad condition, they were scheduled to be torn out that night when the center closed.
Sport Patterns appear to be a gimmick to achieve lower averages.
Not only do bad shots not work on Sport Patterns, good shots don't work well either.
Because of the amount of oil required to be Sport Compliant, you are pretty much mandated to use high end equipment.
For me, high end equipment would snap left too much on sport shots.
In an attempt to keep the back ends under control, I increased my speed on the approach.
That created a different problem. We bowled on Sunday Morning at 8am, and it appeared that they didn't clean the approaches after the cosmic bowling the night before.
Quite frequently, to throw the ball with speed, I had to risk taking a nose dive across the foul line.
Finally I gave up and just decided to slow the ball down, and dead hand the shot hoping the ball would roll somewhat.
From that point I was just counting down the days until the punishment for making a bad choice to bowl would be done.
Easy conditions doesn't mean you can just throw the ball anywhere and it will work.
What it means is there may be 3-4 boards (right up against the oil line), if played at the proper angle can make you look invincible.
When you come back the next week, for whatever reason, the 3-4 board are in a different place, and/or require a different angle.
If you happen to find those boards, the game appears easy.
But if you get reliant on the help, not finding it makes you look real bad.
Last winter a guy on my team who is barely a 200 average bowler on easy conditions was complaining that the lane had too much oil on it during warmups.
These same lanes allowed my urethane ball to hook plenty.
So I got him to try changing his line a little, and by the time league started he felt better about the situation.
I think the whole night he was still feeling bad because he struggled in warmups.
What he didn't seem to notice was he was having a "career" night.
In game 3, if he would shoot 279 his last game he would hit an 800 series.
He started off with a spare, then a bunch in a row, finally leaving a 10 pin is the 9th frame.
He ended up shooting 268 for a 789 series, which I think was only his 2nd 700 series, and he didn't shoot another one that season.
Those 230-240 house bowlers are mainly very good at finding those 3-4 boards.
If they don't find the 3-4 boards, they become closer to 200 bowlers based on how well they've maintained the fundamentals.
What you will find using urethane, is you can't score from those 3-4 boards, because the oil that helps guide the resin ball, will keep your ball from getting a good roll.
So you have to arc the ball outside of the oil line.
But that means you don't get any help from the pattern.
It's all on you to execute consistently and effectively to score.
And you won't have 3-4 boards to score from, 1-2 is more normal.
However if you can keep in those 1-2 boards, and not pull shots into the oil, you can feel proud that you earned any high scores you achieve.
That is what I call steroid free bowling.
Stay away from the performance enhancing drug that is resin balls and walled up lanes.
Lane conditions are a huge part of maintaining your average these days. My original home Center is easy for me to shoot 220s at pretty often because its modern synthetic lanes with an easy pattern, but I'm not a 200+ average yet.
Good to heat the owner is fixing issues before people leave.
Easy house shots????? Really....
Are all house patterns EASY?
Maybe, but I know a lot of bowlers who have bowled for many years, and bowl more then a couple leagues that have averages well below
200. YOU STILL have to be a good bowler to know how to play a house shot, and even then may NEVER hit that pentacle.
The machines that apply the oil, have numeric numbers that one selects for what ever pattern. (((NONE of the buttons say,,, "easy high score pattern, blocked to the pocket")
That being said, most complaints are that the Machines are not laying down what the selections states it is.
There can be MANY REASONS for this to happen. ONE of the most frequent ones is machine maintenance
Even the newer (ink-jet) types have their problems. I remember last year many quit the NKC AMF due to a house pattern that in no way resembled any know pattern to mankind.
They said it was the bowlers, not the $ 75,000 keger oil machine.
Come to find out after a month or so, and a factory rep coming out to take a look, they found out that the part of the machine that evacuates and cleans the lanes had an obstruction in one of the tubes, causing it to spray oil on top of oil!
What a bowler expects on a house league pattern is consistency!
Would be like going to a golf course and some times the grass on the fairways are cut, and sometimes not,, sometimes trash all over the fairways to shoot around....
A house shot even for you MIKE, is not all that easy, or you with ALL YOUR KNOWLEDGE would have at least a 220 average on, as you say easy house patterns.
On a HOUSE shot you still need to be, and demonstrate, good fundamental bowling skills!
What hurts many like YOU, and myself is when the machines don't do what they are designed to do, and in many cases because of worn parts, or poorly maintained!
Last edited by MICHAEL; 08-19-2015 at 01:58 PM.
Don't walk on Thin Ice!
You have to be a good bowler to hit the house shot on a regular basis.
A hack can hit it occasionally.
A stubborn/clueless hack may never hit it.
If you don't know what the numbers mean, then to you, no, they don't says :easy high scoring", but if you recognize the numbers, they can scream "easy", or "tough"
If the bowler doesn't bring consistency of their own, how are they going to identify inconsistency of the oil?
Bad example.... I spend such a small amount of time on the fairways, if they are cut or not would only effect maybe 10% of my shots.
[/QUOTE]
If I can stay healthy, I expect to average 220 this season.
1st having hurt the arm made me throw the ball very straight for a season+.
I averaged in the low 190s doing that... it was pure hell.
When I felt healthy enough to hook the ball, I drilled up a urethane ball, and shot 300 within a couple of weeks.
But again, I injured the arm a couple of weeks after that.
My average moved up to 199.
So I was back to throwing the ball straight.
Last season I switched to 14 lbs hoping that I could hook the ball and not damage the arm.
That was successful, I averaged 210, but I feel that 14 lbs cost me a lot of carry.
This season I'm going back to 15 lbs because the arm feels stronger, so I expect some more improvement.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks