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Thread: How to prepare for difficult conditions

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    Default How to prepare for difficult conditions

    This weekend I had the humbling experience of bowling a tournament on a virtually flat 46 ft oil pattern. I finished middle of the pack, but it was very eye opening to see how much the house shot covers up.

    This brings up the question, how do you prepare for difficult conditions when you only have a house shot to practice on? I thought I was always pretty honest with myself on a good strike versus a bad strike, but after today it feels like I need to be more strict when bowling on a house shot.

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    Pin Crusher
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    Practice 8-10 hours a day. Give up everything else. Then when you get really good you will probably still not make enough to eat or buy a car, house or have a family. Don't quit your day job.
    How's that for a downer?

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    Ringer ep1977's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by fordman1 View Post
    Practice 8-10 hours a day. Give up everything else. Then when you get really good you will probably still not make enough to eat or buy a car, house or have a family. Don't quit your day job.
    How's that for a downer?
    This answer has NOTHING to do with the question that was asked!

    To speak to the original question: This is a ongoing issue with tournament and/or sport shot bowling these days that most bowlers have no access to practice on these conditions. One of the houses I bowl in will put a pattern down for a few select PBA bowlers when they request but not for anyone else. The rest of the houses will not put it down for anyone and act like if you ask them to do so you are asking them to give you naming rights of there first born child.
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    Cranker
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    Unless you actually practice on the pattern it's tough to get better on it. I would say work on accuracy, work on hitting a mark, then work on hitting a break point and then work on hitting mark and breakpoint.

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by baker View Post
    This weekend I had the humbling experience of bowling a tournament on a virtually flat 46 ft oil pattern. I finished middle of the pack, but it was very eye opening to see how much the house shot covers up.

    This brings up the question, how do you prepare for difficult conditions when you only have a house shot to practice on? I thought I was always pretty honest with myself on a good strike versus a bad strike, but after today it feels like I need to be more strict when bowling on a house shot.
    Whether the patters are short or long, anything outside of the THS is very humbling, and this a where a diverse arsenal comes in to play, along with being able to make adjustments on your approach.

    The volume of oil for sport patterns is much heavier and takes longer to break down, especially on flat patterns.

    Your arsenal should include a ball(s) for medium to heavy oil, low to medium and for burned conditions.

    You also need to be able make adjustments by moving left or right to find a path where your ball is going to react the best going to the pocket, and you need to have forethought about how and when the transition is going to happen.

    And. of course, all of this is going to depend on who is bowling not only on your pair, but the other pairs you could be moving to.

    There a few of us here who are fortunate enough where we can ask somebody at the bowling center to see if they can put down one of these patterns so that we can practice on it.

    The THS is a very forgiving pattern. Outside of that it's gong to be tough. Real tough! lol
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  6. #6

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    To practice to prepare for a difficult condition on a house shot, play an area of the lane where there is no shot. Stay away from the second arrow, particularly using a very non-aggressive ball, and you will get the experience of bowling with no miss room which is exactly what a tough sport condition calls for.

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    I feel my arsenal covers all possible conditions. This case was a bit different in that my heavy oil ball cracked the night before and I had to run out and buy a new one the night before.

    On any condition that is greater than a 4:1 ratio I feel pretty confident (house shot typically 10:1 or greater). I think I'll start tracking how many shots I'm actually hitting my break point during league. Typically I consider any shot where I'm within a board on either side a good shot, but I've never tracked how many good shots I make a night.

    Are there any apps that let you enter notes for each frame?

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    I received the info below in an email from the IAB on how to make practice on a house pattern tougher in preparation for bowling on a more difficult pattern.

    "There are a couple of things you can do to make the house pattern tougher. First you can play outside the oil line, more in the dry. You might have to go as far out as the first arrow to get away from having mistaken room. The oil is normally flat from the gutter to about the 8-9 board on house patterns so you would be playing on a flat hooking pattern. To do this you also want to use a much weaker ball than you would normally use, for many using your spare ball would be a good choice or a urethane ball. The second option is to play well inside the oil line. You will probably need to go to about the 3rd arrow to stay away from the oil line. You will probably need a ball that is stronger and with some surface on it. The house pattern gives you two different ways to make it harder.

    At this time of year a lot of bowling centers will be putting out the Open Ch ampionship patterns (there are two, one for the team event and one for singles and doubles) for their customers to practice on to get ready for the Open event. This pattern is a normally about a 2 to 1 blend, medium length 38 to 40 feet and is sport compliant. You should find out if any centers in your area are putting these patterns out, when they are doing it, how many lanes they are oiling and if they require a reservation or not. Even if you are not going to the Open Championships you can still go and practice on these patterns. It doesn’t matter if you practice on the team or the S/D’s pattern, you just want something that’s harder than the typical house condition to practice on that gives you better feedback of the quality of your shots."

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