Advice wanted

[J Anderson]

Despite JAnderson's Debbie Downer assessment...

...I'm thinking of joining 1-2 sport/PBA Experience leagues when I get out to Iowa. I probably will do 2 leagues a week...just THS...see if I can get on a team late since I'll be getting there beginning of June. Then, Fall/Winter, I'll have to see where I'm at. If the lanes are a lot different than they are in Cali....might take me a season or two to get to optimal performance...where I'd feel comfortable doing a sport/PBA league. And then, I gotta decide...if there's two PBA Experience/Sport leagues available...do I want to just join both of them and forget about THSs?? I dunno.

I did not intend to come off with a completely negative tone. After all, I'd have to be a complete masochist to do this for seven years if it was all bad. I just don't want people to think that there is some magic to bowling on PBA or sport patterns that automatically makes you a better bowler.

Bowling sport patterns is like the machine in one of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books that shows you your importance in the universe. It shows the typical house bowler that they aren't nearly as skilled as they think they are. Sometimes this breaks a bowler's confidence and they get worse instead of better. The difficulty of the patterns should cause bowlers to become more accurate. Yet this can make some bowlers tense up, losing revs and speed.

People who look at their average as a source of self esteem should probably stay far away from PBA EXPERIENCE LEAGUES. If any one has an interest in bowling on challenging conditions they should jump right in and not wait until they think that they're good enough.

[Timmyb]

Despite JAnderson's Debbie Downer assessment...

...I'm thinking of joining 1-2 sport/PBA Experience leagues when I get out to Iowa. I probably will do 2 leagues a week...just THS...see if I can get on a team late since I'll be getting there beginning of June. Then, Fall/Winter, I'll have to see where I'm at. If the lanes are a lot different than they are in Cali....might take me a season or two to get to optimal performance...where I'd feel comfortable doing a sport/PBA league. And then, I gotta decide...if there's two PBA Experience/Sport leagues available...do I want to just join both of them and forget about THSs?? I dunno.

Come to Milwaukee. You can't land on the same condition two weeks in a row if you held hostages....

[fordman1]

I wrote much the same thing as J Anderson a few years ago after 3 different summers on sport-pba patterns. The changed every week and you had no idea how to play any of them and by the end of the season you timing was off so much it took months to get back to normal. Bowlers who throw very little hook and don't have much hand do fairly well. Really good bowlers can have trouble. So go into it with low expectations. Try something new and don't expect it to cure all your problems.
I will never do it again.

[foreverincamo]

I happy to see that some people like the PBA leagues, and some don't. I did a USBC Sport Shot league last year. My home house, which is tough enough with their house shot, was impossible with the Sport Shot. 60 year old wooden lanes on their last legs is no place to play a sport shot
Where I'm thinking of going has very new synthetic lanes. We shall see what happens if I join. League meeting is the 24th. Thanks for the advice.