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Thread: what to do when nothing works???

  1. #1
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    Default what to do when nothing works???

    So last night I tried everything I could think of and just couldn't get it. Part of it was me being inconsistent but last night was one of those nights where nothing went my way. My spare game was decent so no complaints there but in a 4 game set I only had 14 strikes. Normally I'm around 20-22 or so.

    Lanes seemed a little dry but ball wasn't reacting much. I say dry cause usually I see at least some oil ring. I saw none lsat night at all. I started out around the 6-7 board at the arrows and kept leaving a pin. Moved in to the 10 board and still couldn't carry. Switched from the Conspiracy to the Kingpin, no change. Spread pinky wide, tried pinky tight, ended up the last 3 games with the pinky tucked just to get movement. Varied my ball speed by over 2 MPH. Nothing helped. Can't say t was the lanes cause the teams we bowled against killed it last night. A guy we bowled against was also a lefty with a similar line to mine rolled a 266 and 245 against us. Sure he was more consistent but when he hit the pocket he struck. When I hit the pocket I got an 8 or 9 count. Seemed like most of the night I was hitting light when I did miss the pocket. I probably hit between the 1 and 2 pin on about 90% of my shots with maybe 50% being nice looking pocket hits.

    Last night in 4 games I left the following:

    7 pin - 5 times
    4 pin - 3 times
    4-7 - 3 times
    2-4 - times
    3-5-6 - 2 times

    and a bunch of others that I left once but those were the most common.

    The only thing I didn't try was the Hammer BWG and I didn't try anything inside the 10 board. I'm a speed dominant bowler so anytime I get inside the 10 board my ball goes straight.

    So what else can we do when we face this? Like I said, I can't blame it on the lanes cause our opponents killed it all night so obviously it was something either me or the ball was causing. If you suggest a ball change then to what? Both my Kingpin and Conspiracy are very similar in shape and reaction. The Conspiracy (which I used most of the night) was coming back very dry and with what looks kinda like rub marks on it. Not from the return but from the lanes. I have seen it before with this ball. The track looks almost like somebody took an eraser the whole way around the track. Should I have went with something with less surface? Ball burning up? I didn't try the BWG cause it hooks less than the others and they weren't coming in.

    Just trying to figure this out here. Lots of guys that face these conditions blame it on the lanes and say there was nothing they could do. I don't buy that when others are scoring good on the same lanes so I know there is something I can do differently, just need to figure out what that is. Lanes have been on the dryer side like this most of the summer.
    Arsenal "15# Global Eternity Pi-45x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Xponent-60x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Zen Soul-60x4.5x40" "15# Roto Grip Idol Helios-90 x 2.25 x 45" "15# 900 Global Altered Reality-50x3.625x30" "15# Brunswick Uppercut-80x3.625x35" "15# Brunswick Igniter-70x5.5x35" "15# Raw Hammer Pearl 45x5.75x40" "15# Brunswick T-Zone"
    Rev Rate about 270 @ about 15.5 MPH at the pins* High Game: 290 - High Series: 733. PAP: 5 1/8"x1" up; tilt 20*, rotation 75*. YTD highs - 290-733
    Oh, and LEFTY!!!

  2. #2
    Bowling Guru Amyers's Avatar
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    Default

    I think you probably answered your own question here. My guesstimate is you were burning up a bit causing your issues. The 2 balls that your using are both oil monsters as a speed dominate bowler you get a way with that quite a bit but if your lanes tend to be like mine they have less volume during the summer or at least it feels that way. The move here was probably to switch to BWG. On the right condition that ball will actually hook more than your Conspiracy or King Pin at least on the back end.

    Sometime nothing works and you just have one of those nights but if you eliminate your options before you start that's often a big mistake
    I am a proud member of Bowlingboards.com bowling forums and ball contest winner

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  3. #3
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    Looking at your other post that shows what pins you left each frame, you had 44 shots at a full rack. The one pin or the two pin was missed 9 times so your pocket percentage was only 80%, using the loosest possible definition of the pocket. Using a more traditional definition of the pocket, we would eliminate those shots where the 3 pin or the 4 pin were left standing. That means that of the 35 times you hit the one & the two pin, 28 were traditional pocket hits, so 80% of the time when you technically hit the pocket it probably looked good. Extremely frustrating when the other team is carrying like crazy.

    So enough statistics. Two suggestions:
    One. If there is any other lefty on the pair having success, watch where they are playing. See it you can get one of your balls to his or her breakpoint.
    Two. Try to watch your ball all the way through the pins. I say try because I’m terrible at this. I can tell you what board I hit at the arrows, where my ball started to hook, where it hit the pins, but 3 out of 4 times I don’t see where it goes off the pin deck.
    John

  4. #4
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    lol. good suggestions. Yeah i can usually tell where my ball hits at the arrows but not usually much past that. just seems everything goes too fast at that point...lol. I didn't do awful, just not as good as I would have liked and the fact that nothing I did helped. My average is 180 and I averaged 178 last night so not too far off. The other lefty had alot more revs with his release so that wasn't something I could replicate but he was laying it down about the same spot I was.

    Actually last I bowled 2 weeks ago (we have a 3 man team and rotate) I ended up using my BWG and it did seem to work best that night and I had a decent night. The BWG does go a little longer with a little more angularity at the back. I actually made a conscious decision not to take the BWG out of the bag as it seems if I have too many choices I'm too quick to jump around and not work through an issue. Might have to rethink that BWG this summer...lol

    Something our PSO said last week (he rolled a 300 last week). He said he likes to use a ball that reads earlier and has a smoother arc in the summer. Said it is too hard and too much work to use more of a backend ball in the summer. He didn't elaborate on why.

    Added my scores to make it easier to see what i left

    Arsenal "15# Global Eternity Pi-45x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Xponent-60x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Zen Soul-60x4.5x40" "15# Roto Grip Idol Helios-90 x 2.25 x 45" "15# 900 Global Altered Reality-50x3.625x30" "15# Brunswick Uppercut-80x3.625x35" "15# Brunswick Igniter-70x5.5x35" "15# Raw Hammer Pearl 45x5.75x40" "15# Brunswick T-Zone"
    Rev Rate about 270 @ about 15.5 MPH at the pins* High Game: 290 - High Series: 733. PAP: 5 1/8"x1" up; tilt 20*, rotation 75*. YTD highs - 290-733
    Oh, and LEFTY!!!

  5. #5

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    You talk about where you were playing at the arrows compared to the other lefty, but where were each of you playing at the end of the pattern. The arrows are meaningless. It's all about utilizing oil at the end of the pattern. By the way, when you assume that you can't move inside of ten, you make an *** out of U and ME!

  6. #6
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    I would agree... summer oil conditions and oil hungry balls... even with speed and revs, **** can happen.

    Maybe a new medium hook ball (for medium/dry conditions) is called for.
    Recently retired and returning to bowing after a 12 year break
    Slower ball speed with dominate revs, prefer strait at the pocket but deep is fine too
    In my bag... Storm Phase 3, Roto Grip Idol Pearl, Storm IQ Tour Emerald, 900 Global White Hot Badger, Motiv Venom Recoil, and Motiv Supra Enzo

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by RobLV1 View Post
    You talk about where you were playing at the arrows compared to the other lefty, but where were each of you playing at the end of the pattern. The arrows are meaningless. It's all about utilizing oil at the end of the pattern. By the way, when you assume that you can't move inside of ten, you make an *** out of U and ME!
    Didn't say I CAN'T play inside the 10, just that my balls goes straight. But looking back I probably should have tried it.

    I haven't been able to tell where I am that far downlane. Probably cause I'm too focused on my release and seeing where I crossed the arrows at that I miss where it was downlane. I know you mentioned before about looking downlane but it's hard to do since I have been doing that since about 1980...lol.

    If it is like this next week I will try the BWG and try going inside the 10 board. I will try to get a look at the breakpoint but not sure how that will go.
    Arsenal "15# Global Eternity Pi-45x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Xponent-60x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Zen Soul-60x4.5x40" "15# Roto Grip Idol Helios-90 x 2.25 x 45" "15# 900 Global Altered Reality-50x3.625x30" "15# Brunswick Uppercut-80x3.625x35" "15# Brunswick Igniter-70x5.5x35" "15# Raw Hammer Pearl 45x5.75x40" "15# Brunswick T-Zone"
    Rev Rate about 270 @ about 15.5 MPH at the pins* High Game: 290 - High Series: 733. PAP: 5 1/8"x1" up; tilt 20*, rotation 75*. YTD highs - 290-733
    Oh, and LEFTY!!!

  8. #8

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    Note that I did not say that you should target down lane, but regardless of where you look, you should always notice where your ball is at all points as it travels down the lane. Personally, I always look at the reflection of the pins during my set up and approach, but I always notice where the ball is at the arrows as well, even though I don't target there. Also, please show me where the ball has to hook to knock down ten pins. Often straighter really is greater.

  9. #9
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    I tried looking down lane awhile back when you mentioned it before but it was hard to tell where it was as far as what board. I see some lanes have 4 darker boards down lane but ours doesn't have those so it makes it harder to tell if it is the 12 or 15 board. I did do a better job last night of slowing my speed down.

    Also, last night one of our opponents mentioned he has to throw urethane. He didn't elaborate or say why but would a urethane have worked if my other stuff was burning up?
    Arsenal "15# Global Eternity Pi-45x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Xponent-60x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Zen Soul-60x4.5x40" "15# Roto Grip Idol Helios-90 x 2.25 x 45" "15# 900 Global Altered Reality-50x3.625x30" "15# Brunswick Uppercut-80x3.625x35" "15# Brunswick Igniter-70x5.5x35" "15# Raw Hammer Pearl 45x5.75x40" "15# Brunswick T-Zone"
    Rev Rate about 270 @ about 15.5 MPH at the pins* High Game: 290 - High Series: 733. PAP: 5 1/8"x1" up; tilt 20*, rotation 75*. YTD highs - 290-733
    Oh, and LEFTY!!!

  10. #10
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    So looking at my options I have the Brunswick Rhino Black which I use for 7 pins. It hardly hooks at all so probably not strong enough for a strike ball? Then the BWG. It seems to be better than the Conspiracy or Kingpin in these conditions. Maybe take a little surface off the BWG and try it? How about the new Radical Counter Attack? PSO has the solid and Pearl on the shelf. Hate to buy another ball so would hope to be able to use one of the ones I have now.
    Arsenal "15# Global Eternity Pi-45x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Xponent-60x4.5x40" "15# 900 Global Zen Soul-60x4.5x40" "15# Roto Grip Idol Helios-90 x 2.25 x 45" "15# 900 Global Altered Reality-50x3.625x30" "15# Brunswick Uppercut-80x3.625x35" "15# Brunswick Igniter-70x5.5x35" "15# Raw Hammer Pearl 45x5.75x40" "15# Brunswick T-Zone"
    Rev Rate about 270 @ about 15.5 MPH at the pins* High Game: 290 - High Series: 733. PAP: 5 1/8"x1" up; tilt 20*, rotation 75*. YTD highs - 290-733
    Oh, and LEFTY!!!

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