Quote Originally Posted by collinwho View Post
We never run into issues of people cheering against us in our league, but there is a lot of poking the bear amongst my teammates. For example, if I leave a baby split, one of my teammates might put a dollar down with a "bet you don't pick that up". Before you know it, you have a dollar bet against everyone on your own team if you are going to cover your spare or not. It is all in fun, and no one is ever upset at the end of the night, but it can definitely lead to some interesting optics when a different teams looks over and sees half my team upset because I just picked up a split.
You don't see that as much anymore. People get weird about even mentioning their bowling or how well they are doing...betting against them...I don't know. I had a teammate, very good bowler, that didn't even want to participate in the card game because he didn't want to put undue pressure on himself.

There's no right or wrong answer (nor planet of origin) concerning this topic. Everyone has different tolerance levels for the mental side of the game. I was illustrating that, FOR ME, the other team's antics backfired and led to me having a well above average night. Had they been more familiar with me, or smarter in general, they could have mentally knocked me off my game any number of other ways. Most people on this site would agree that I'm my own worst enemy and am mentally ruining my game the entire time I'm bowling...so it's not very difficult to get me "off my game" (mentally speaking). They just chose one of the few ways that has the opposite effect...FOR ME.

It's all individual. A lot of the old-timers...you don't dare even get near the ball return when they are standing there. Some guys, you don't talk to them when they're having a bad game. Some guys you don't dare give advice to. I've seen more than one old lady at the ball return, counting bowling balls...and if anyone has more than one ball on the rack...welcome to Hell. Everyone has their own tolerance. Most leagues have 1-3 guys that seem to always get drunk and run around the place...or teams that cheer too loud...or teams that take the game too seriously.

I had to stop myself from going to the league President to report a guy using illegal equipment (i.e. Motiv embarrassment)...because the guy was this old timer...not a good bowler...the ball wasn't giving him any real advantage the way he was throwing it...so why be a jerk? The last thing I want is for a guy who bowled all his life to quit because his ball got reported and taken away. He probably has no idea what happened with the Motiv thing. So, I didn't say anything. In a tournament...absolutely I report it. Everything is relative to the level of bowling you are at. Etiquette is probably gonna be absent on "Drunk Thursday" when the college kids show up for $6 bowling and $2 shots. Yet, at a PBA Regional or God forbid a National event...if you, as a competitor, so much as sit on your chair funny...it could lead to an international incident. It's all relative.