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Thread: Too many balls and too much equipment!

  1. #1
    High Roller Phonetek's Avatar
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    Default Too many balls and too much equipment!

    One thing I did notice last Monday I forgot about is people have too many balls on the ball return. On 3 different occasions the pair next to me had balls getting knocked off the return rack bouncing on the floor. The upper rack was full and so was the lower. They had balls sitting on the floor on their thumb holes beyond the rack. Had I been bowling better than a 12 yr old I may have had grounds to get annoyed with it but I wasn't so I didn't. I've always been a less is more type of guy. Does everyone NEED 3 balls up there? All I had was my one ball on the rack and I kept my spare ball on my chair until I needed it. I'd use it then bring it back. It also looked like someone dumped a laundry bag of towels and shammies on the rack which didn't help matters much. I think there was a hand fan under there somewhere.

    Not only that but in the sette area the floor looked like a pro shop exploded, there was a sea of bags leaving little to no room to walk and plenty to trip on. I can't even recall what the floor itself even looks like because it covered. I'm sure if a fire marshal came in there he'd have had a grabber. Bowling centers need to deepen the sette area 15 more feet behind the approaches with shelving units just for equipment storage and add another 10 feet in length to the ball return rack itself. Then again, the more room available then the more it will get filled. A longer ball return rack would just mean people could put 6 balls up there at once. It's getting a little ridiculous and way out of hand if you ask me.
    Last edited by Phonetek; 09-08-2018 at 11:19 PM.
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    Our top rack holds about 10 or 11 balls and the bottom 8-10 balls and those are usually both full for 2 5 man teams and usually about 4 or 5 balls in ball cups on the floor behind the ball rack. Even the summer league with 4 bowlers we would often have 8-10 balls up there. I keep 1 ball on the top rack and the other on a ball cup on the floor. Funny story...there is a guy on another team that has a not so good attitude. Last season he yelled up to us asking who had 2 balls on the rack. We all looked at each other and all said we only had 1. He said fine then I'll just start putting all balls down below. Our captain said you touch my ball there will be problems. Turns out it was one of their guys that had 2 balls on the top rack.
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  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Phonetek View Post
    One thing I did notice last Monday I forgot about is people have too many balls on the ball return. On 3 different occasions the pair next to me had balls getting knocked off the return rack bouncing on the floor. The upper rack was full and so was the lower. They had balls sitting on the floor on their thumb holes beyond the rack. Had I been bowling better than a 12 yr old I may have had grounds to get annoyed with it but I wasn't so I didn't. I've always been a less is more type of guy. Does everyone NEED 3 balls up there? All I had was my one ball on the rack and I kept my spare ball on my chair until I needed it. I'd use it then bring it back. It also looked like someone dumped a laundry bag of towels and shammies on the rack which didn't help matters much. I think there was a hand fan under there somewhere.

    Not only that but in the sette area the floor looked like a pro shop exploded, there was a sea of bags leaving little to no room to walk and plenty to trip on. I can't even recall what the floor itself even looks like because it covered. I'm sure if a fire marshal came in there he'd have had a grabber. Bowling centers need to deepen the sette area 15 more feet behind the approaches with shelving units just for equipment storage and add another 10 feet in length to the ball return rack itself. Then again, the more room available then the more it will get filled. A longer ball return rack would just mean people could put 6 balls up there at once. It's getting a little ridiculous and way out of hand if you ask me.
    This is why, in my opinion, Bowling will never be an Olympic sport. It has become too dependent on having the right ball for the lane conditions.

    I must confess that I drag at least four balls to each league. However I almost never use more than two, one of them being just for spares, and since I bowl two and three person team leagues, it's not a problem to have two balls on the rack. On Wednesdays, since we almost never have fresh oil at 9:00 p.m. we never know what combination of open bowling house ball carry-down and 'Let's all throw 500 grit reactive resin down second arrow' league burn up we will get. It is nice to have a few choices to see what might work.

    I suspect the main reason so many people bring three or more balls is that so few are unwilling or unable to move out of their comfort zone as the lanes transition.
    John

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by J Anderson View Post
    This is why, in my opinion, Bowling will never be an Olympic sport. It has become too dependent on having the right ball for the lane conditions.
    That's why the World Bowling Association has talked about the idea of having a standardized ball or two for the Olympics. That would almost certainly be what they would do. Effective layouts and surface changes day to day would be the trick. Similarly to the team USA trails i'm guessing multiple patterns and days would be used as well.
    Last edited by bowl1820; 09-09-2018 at 07:26 PM. Reason: fix quote tag

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    Pin Crusher classygranny's Avatar
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    Yes, our 5 man team league finally put a rule in the league rules that basically says a bowler can only have 1 ball on the upper rack at a time. Our upper racks really only hold about 12 but that's crowded...10 is good. The other issue we have is the lower rack only holds 6 and is 2" off the ground and some of the guys don't like bending over or walking around to be able to get their second ball off the lower rack.

    With my other league, the next person up takes the spare ball of the bowler they follow and place in on the lower rack, so we don't have to wait for people shuffling balls all the time.
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  6. #6
    Bowling God Aslan's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by classygranny View Post
    With my other league, the next person up takes the spare ball of the bowler they follow and place in on the lower rack, so we don't have to wait for people shuffling balls all the time.
    That's actually a pretty cool rule.

    Quote Originally Posted by J Anderson View Post
    I suspect the main reason so many people bring three or more balls is that so few are unwilling or unable to move out of their comfort zone as the lanes transition.
    I don't know about this. Rob and I disagreed about this quite a bit. I don't the answer to every bowling question is "move inside to find more oil". Bowlers value only one thing...scoring. They roll the track because the track is where they score.

    If they could score better against the left gutter or up the 1-5 board...they would change. I lay the ball down (current house) about 14 and cross the arrows at 11-12. Using my progression arsenal system, I usually get to Ball #2 somewhere between the end of Game 2 and end of Game 3. Some nights I get to ball #3, some nights I don't. That 'system' allows me to play in that 9-14 (at arrows) area all night.

    Trying to play further right (my B-Game/2-5 board) or further inside (my C-game/15-22) just doesn't work as well. The old 2-5 board game just doesn't work well with the newer, stronger balls. And the inside game requires revs and/or a lower speed. I can't magically add more revs...so that means lowering my speed. And, at my level...messing with speed means messing with timing.

    I've found the better talent leagues...the guys seem better about making sure they only have one ball on the return and usually one in the bottom rack. Mixed/Fun leagues...thats where you usually have problems or you have that one really old lady that acts as the "hall monitor" the whole night making dang sure nobody has two balls on the rack.
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  7. #7

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    I talked to a bowler last week who came up with a great analogy for his inability to move left of the track: he likens the track to the shallow end of the pool and as he moves deeper he's afraid he'll drown!

  8. #8
    Bowling God Aslan's Avatar
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    Tell him that technically you can drown in an inch of water.

  9. #9

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    Our Tuesday league has 5-person teams. So, with a minimum of 10 balls, you really can't keep more than one up there. One of my teammates is rather vocal about this so, I don't worry about having to say something.

    Of course, there are people in both my leagues that show up with as many as 8 balls, which confuses the heck out of me. As I was informed, the houses in Cincinnati generally don't go beyond a medium oil pattern so, it confuses me to see people show up at league with what my inexperienced mind would perceive as a tournament arsenal.

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