High Scoring House turned into Low Scoring House- Your thoughts?

[Aslan]

I started bowling on wood lanes and there were probably 16 guys with 200+ averages in the league. 6-7 boards of miss room to the right...3-4 inside. Then they tore those out and put in new synthetics. For the first 1-3 seasons afterwards...only like 6-7 guys averaged over 190...only 2 over 200 and one was a sub.

Bowlers get used to a certain shot. Then they switch houses, they bowl in a tournament, or their center renovates and suddenly they have to adjust.

I get flack all the time because I bring 6 strike balls with me each night. People think I should have a good idea of what balls will work or not work...so why bother bringing 6 balls with you? Those are people that have been bowling in the same center for going on a decade. They know what will work and what won't. They know where they need to play. They know that certain pairs act differently.

Knowing all those things...after years of bowling in one place on one condition...averages creep upward. Then there's a change or the center closes or whatnot...suddenly everyone's averages drop. The reason it's shocking to some more than others is people out West...we're used to this dilemma. We call it "sweeps" and it's a once per season trip to Vegas...to bowl on different conditions. And what do you think usually happens? Everyone struggles. Guys used to an easy house shot on dry lanes...now their playing on slicker lanes. The breakpoint is in a slightly different place. The oil length, width, or even kind of oil is different. The high level bowlers can adapt...those that are used to playing in multiple centers or travel leagues can adapt. But everyone else spends most of the sweeps day biznithching about how horrible the lanes are. Not because they're horrible...Vegas centers are actually quite nice if you've never been. Instead, it's because they're "hard". And they really aren't even that hard. They're just "different".

In the league/center I initially referenced...after 3 seasons on the new synthetics...now there's 9-10 bowlers over 200. It takes time...but eventually everyone learns and adjusts.

[Cdolcejr]

Sorry but I have to laugh here.

Across the boards theres always post after post about how the scores and averages are too high, the conditions too easy. Usually from high average bowlers.

Now here you have a house that fixes everything up and the shot gets a little harder and what happens?

Everyone starts complainng about losing all the easy carry they had and their scores and averages went down.

Now you see why the houses and the usbc are reluctant to make changes.

Honestly, I don't mind a challenge. In fact, I pride myself on the fact that I am within sight of the top 10 averages in the league despite the changes and struggles thusfar. My biggest complaint is not knowing what I'll be bowling on each week. I don't see how one can be consistent if they are bowling on an unknown pattern with unknown length/volume of oil. I personally don't feel like bring 5-6 balls to the lane for league night and trying them all out to see what works the best on a given night. I feel that is plausible.

[Aslan]

My biggest complaint is not knowing what I'll be bowling on each week.

I said the same thing to the Pro Shop guy at my old home center.

My main reason (70%) for leaving there (after 4 seasons) was that I moved next door to another center and didn't feel like dealing with the traffic to stay there. But the rest of my reasoning (30%) wasn't the lanes got harder. It was that they would refuse to oil pre-league...which made every night different. Sometimes the lanes would be freshly oiled...the next week somebody practiced on the lanes or kids threw house balls all over the place...and the pattern was unrecognizable.

They did it two seasons ago, I complained...and when enough people complained, the owner reluctantly would oil pre-league...then eventually stop again. He makes a ton of money at that center...lots of parties, lots of executive functions, Christmas parties, a big college crowd...so he treats league bowlers almost like an annoyance. But it's a nice place, good peeps, the leagues are run very, very well...so they have a ton of league participation...thus...the owner has no real reason to behave any differently. He makes money, that's what matters. He doesn't host tournaments, he doesn't participate with the local USBC regarding events and such. But the place is full and the people are drunk and he gets positive feedback in the form of $$$.

If you want things to change, sometimes you have to vote with your feet. Will me leaving hurt the guy's income? Probably not. But neither will me staying there and sucking it up.

I'd prefer sport shots actually. I even threw out the idea to the pro shop owner about doing a 3-person sport shot league some time on the weekend and he (pro shop owner) said he had already pitched the idea and the owner wouldn't even hear of it. Weekends are for birthday parties...and there was no way he was going to deal with putting down special patterns and sanctioning a sport league...no money in it.

[Amyers]

One of the houses I currently bowl in has older wood lanes and an oil machine that looks like it come out of a 70's sci-fi flick. You never know what the lanes are going to be like from one week to the next. The proprietor also randomly decides to save money by only reoiling the heads. I've learned to just adapt bowling there because I like the people.

[foreverincamo]

We had the same problem for the first 6 weeks of our league. Then they decided it would be a good idea to completely clean the lane machine. Doing that created the ability to consistently lay down a pattern instead of sputtering oil everywhere and not cleaning anything.