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199-221-206-197 = 823 on Sydney. gently caress yes making so progress.
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Sep 7, 2013 08:01
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I threw my first games in about four months this past week: 123-161-146. My ending average last season in the same house was 150, so it could've been much worse. Had some good shots, but five splits in that first game killed me, and I missed some easy spares all night. I was having to relearn a couple things about adjusting my throw and approach as the oil broke down, since I've only had a reactive ball since January and it's not all muscle memory yet, but I think I'm back on the right track. Improved my average about 15 pins over the course of last season, and I'm shooting for another 10 this time around. It really does feel good to bowl again.
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Sep 9, 2013 19:45
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We're super hard up for bowlers for our Monday night league at the club. Apparently some dickheads in the Tuesday league have been talking poo poo to potential new bowlers saying we're "not fun" and "too competitive." Why the gently caress would you try and sabotage someone else's league like that?
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Sep 10, 2013 16:45
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Scarf posted:We're super hard up for bowlers for our Monday night league at the club. Apparently some dickheads in the Tuesday league have been talking poo poo to potential new bowlers saying we're "not fun" and "too competitive." Why the gently caress would you try and sabotage someone else's league like that? Well, are you not fun and too competitive? I have heard those reasons for not joining leagues before, bowling is a long rear end commitment and can get pretty expensive. I would want to make sure I was in the right type of league with people I enjoy before committing to it. But, maybe they are just assholes and they hate you and your league, who knows. Just trying to give you a different perspective on it other than sabotage.
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Sep 13, 2013 15:44
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Thom P. Tiers posted:Well, are you not fun and too competitive? I have heard those reasons for not joining leagues before, bowling is a long rear end commitment and can get pretty expensive. I would want to make sure I was in the right type of league with people I enjoy before committing to it. But, maybe they are just assholes and they hate you and your league, who knows. Just trying to give you a different perspective on it other than sabotage. I'd say we're plenty fun and just the right amount of competitive. Everyone roots for everyone, high-fives to opposing teams, lots of joking around. I will say that looking at averages our league compared to the Tuesday night crowd, we're higher. But I don't think that really matters considering it's handicapped. They also crossed the line and implied that we didn't drink while bowling. That dog won't hunt  I think we've remedied the situation though. I started spreading the word and came up with about 2-3 more teams, and I know a lot of the other guys are looking to do the same. Now the problem may be that we'll have TOO MANY people interested. We've only got 12 lanes at the club.
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Sep 13, 2013 19:50
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It's always better to have too many teams because bowlers are unreliable assholes that drop out on you at the last minute. Yes, I went from 21 teams to 18 in the last week before bowling started. No, I'm not bitter after hearing how they all wanted to bowl all summer.
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Sep 13, 2013 20:43
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Caught Cubs Posting
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Ball care time again.. Into the sink with a 1/4 cup of Dawn dish soap and hot HOT water . Frightful amounts of crud and oil will sweat off . Good time to pull out the tape and setup you grip .
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Sep 25, 2013 04:31
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Just became a member of an Underground Bowling Association team. The champion carries a loving wrestling belt at all times and drunk (and sober) call outs for money matches are made at the events and on-line. Trash talking is not only allowed but encouraged (except during a shot.) Can't loving wait for events to start.
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Oct 3, 2013 00:47
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Just came in to revive this thread and announce the 300 I bowled last night. That makes number 4 for me. As you were.
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Oct 11, 2013 22:51
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buffto posted:Just came in to revive this thread and announce the 300 I bowled last night. That makes number 4 for me. As you were. Nice! Congrats! Our fall league just started tonight due to low initial turnout, we took a few weeks to drum up support. Bill Murray is bowling with us this season, so that's cool  I went 172-178-200, not too bad for first night back. We finally got a good oiler programed with kegel patterns, so we'll finally be rolling on something other than a house shot. I think we were on Stone Street tonight.
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Oct 15, 2013 04:23
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Bowling goons: I'm setting up a bowling tournament between three student organizations at the university I go to. We've reserved three lanes, and I expect that there will be about fifteen people there total. I want it to be a competition between the three organizations, and the number of bowlers for each will be mismatched - three in one, five in the next, and seven in the third. Our deal with the alley is that we have two hours of unlimited bowling, and if we get the fifteen people we're hoping for, that'll be five people per lane. I'm trying to figure out a good way to score each organization (team) during this tournament. My best guess so far has been to record the final score of each game each bowler's game, add all final scores together, then divide by the total number of games bowled by a given team to generate their team average. However I'm not really sure how to generate scores out of incomplete games started toward the end of the two hours (i.e., we get to the middle of the fourth frame and are then locked out due to it turning 8:00 and our time is up). Anyone have experience scoring an event like this? I'm a complete amateur in this respect, as you may have been able to guess.
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Oct 16, 2013 21:36
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bytebark posted:Bowling goons: I'm setting up a bowling tournament between three student organizations at the university I go to. We've reserved three lanes, and I expect that there will be about fifteen people there total. I want it to be a competition between the three organizations, and the number of bowlers for each will be mismatched - three in one, five in the next, and seven in the third. Our deal with the alley is that we have two hours of unlimited bowling, and if we get the fifteen people we're hoping for, that'll be five people per lane. You could take the top 3 (or however many the smallest team is) scores from each team for each game and then average. You'd need to discard any unfinished games though... But that'd introduce a kind of fun incentive to bowl quickly, to try and get more scores in to up your average, but at the same time, speeding up can throw you off and screw up your game. Went 190-198 -213 last night. Pretty happy with that. Usually second week of the season I poo poo a brick. Ordered a DV8 Brutal Nightmare which should be here tomorrow. Going to try and get it drilled later this week. Also I've noticed that Bill Murray has almost the exact same delivery as he did in Kingpin. Pretty awesome to watch. Scarf fucked around with this message at 14:24 on Oct 22, 2013 |
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Oct 22, 2013 14:18
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Brutal Nightmare came in. It looks like a chunk of unicorn poo poo. I love it.
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Oct 24, 2013 21:59
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So here's a thing. That's that Cheetah pattern on the TV pair at the WSOB. That is not an overlay. The oil is dyed. So the fans can see how the oil transitions. I'm really torn on this. I think it's cool as hell, but the fun part about bowling at a high level is that the playing surface is invisible. This eliminates that. I know it won't spread to leagues and poo poo but part of me is terrified that it will.
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Nov 1, 2013 17:18
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Critical posted:So here's a thing. This is cool as hell. I would love to see a random league bowl on this, and then pros bowl on this, and see how different the oil looks afterwards. E: I also don't really think it will affect someone ability to throw better scores as it breaks down either. Sure you see where the oil is, but you have no idea how much on each board. It's still all about how your ball reacts down the lane when the pattern begins to break down. In my opinion of course. If there is an after shot of this when its all done, please post it. Thom P. Tiers fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Nov 1, 2013 |
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Nov 1, 2013 17:37
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Thom P. Tiers posted:This is cool as hell. I would love to see a random league bowl on this, and then pros bowl on this, and see how different the oil looks afterwards. Agreed this is really awesome and would be a good tool to new league bowlers to show how exactly the lanes break down and whatnot.
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Nov 1, 2013 17:42
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Critical posted:So here's a thing. I could see it as a good coaching tool... We've got a ton of new, first-time-league bowlers this season. I'd love it if we could lay this out to teach them about oil patterns and what happens as the game progresses. In other news I got my DV8 Brutal Nightmare drilled. I like it so far, have it starting it's roll a bit earlier than my MCP (drilled 60ºx3.25"x25º I think). Still very skid-snap for me, but a bit more predictable motion now. At least it would be if I could keep my form consistent. I went up a pound to a 15, and it's taking some time to get my form back in order.
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Nov 1, 2013 20:35
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Critical posted:I know it won't spread to leagues and poo poo but part of me is terrified that it will.
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Nov 4, 2013 01:12
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nmfree posted:If any of the alleys that I've ever bowled on are an indication, if the dyed stuff is even a penny more expensive than the regular stuff it will never catch on. It always amazes me how people will spend hundreds on new equipment every year, but whine about a 35 cent increase in a fee (for example). I just found this thread, so apologies if this has been posted somewhere already but Critical do you do any of the NEBA tournaments? Been thinking about getting into them as I slowly get better (185 avg now), and have bowled a few handicap tournaments here and there.
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Nov 5, 2013 02:31
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The Man The Legend posted:It always amazes me how people will spend hundreds on new equipment every year, but whine about a 35 cent increase in a fee (for example). Yes sir. Right now I bowl the ones around my area (anything in MA or RI basically) but next year I plan on doing the full tour to most of New England This weekend is actually a reduced entry fee tournament at Westgate Lanes in Brockton, MA (my home house, btw.) $50 for entry plus a $15 non-members fee if you haven't bowled in one this year. I'll be bowling Saturday night in that one and Sunday morning if I miss the squad cut, which I probably will. I'm bowling the Non-Champions tournament down in Cranston, RI next month as well. NEBAs are amazingly run tournaments and ultra competitive on multiple conditions. Just as a warning, if you enter one prepare to get trounced unless you can average 225 on a mid level sport shot. But even bowling for the experience is awesome and it's the closest thing to a PBA run tournament you'll get without going to a regional.
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Nov 7, 2013 04:44
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So I've been slowly progressing, have raised that 104 book average up to a 120, but I'm running into a major road block that happens pretty much ONLY when I'm bowling league. For some reason, and I have no idea why because bowling in our league is supposed to be fun, but I bowl TERRIBLE in league. When I'm just out with friends or practicing by myself, I bowl more regularly 140s all the way up to my highest game ever of a 216 a few weeks back. (How many people get upset by bowling a 216? I do, but only because I can't seem to do it in league!) Do any of you have hints/tips/tricks on how to deal with performance anxiety in league/tournaments? I've tried bowling with my headphones in to tune everything else out, but it physically threw me off with having my phone in my pocket and headphone wires tucked everywhere. I know I'm capable of far more, but get super frustrated when I barely crack 125 with my team.
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Nov 8, 2013 17:31
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hockeyfrog posted:So I've been slowly progressing, have raised that 104 book average up to a 120, but I'm running into a major road block that happens pretty much ONLY when I'm bowling league. For some reason, and I have no idea why because bowling in our league is supposed to be fun, but I bowl TERRIBLE in league. When I'm just out with friends or practicing by myself, I bowl more regularly 140s all the way up to my highest game ever of a 216 a few weeks back. (How many people get upset by bowling a 216? I do, but only because I can't seem to do it in league!) Could be the fresh oil and breakdown of the oil vs probably no oil when you bowl with friends?
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Nov 8, 2013 17:35
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hockeyfrog posted:So I've been slowly progressing, have raised that 104 book average up to a 120, but I'm running into a major road block that happens pretty much ONLY when I'm bowling league. For some reason, and I have no idea why because bowling in our league is supposed to be fun, but I bowl TERRIBLE in league. When I'm just out with friends or practicing by myself, I bowl more regularly 140s all the way up to my highest game ever of a 216 a few weeks back. (How many people get upset by bowling a 216? I do, but only because I can't seem to do it in league!) Like mattfl said, your lane conditions are probably completely different in open bowling than in league play. Even if it's the same alley it can be like night and day. Critical posted:
Yeah, there are definitely a few milestones I'd like to hit before entering any... 300 game, consistent 200+ average. That's mainly it though, I've always heard the experience is pretty great. I'm in CT and see it coming around every so often, will get there one day. Good luck this weekend!
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Nov 8, 2013 23:44
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Bowled my squad at NEBA last night. Averaged 160 over five games (-220) and wanted to quit the sport. Went back today under urging of my girlfriend and averaged 221 on burnt to poo poo Route 66 to make my first NEBA cut at +107, which is huge and just under cashing in a PBA regional on the achievement scale. Plus I shot a 269 in front of Parker Bohn while wearing a DV8 shirt and throwing an Aura Mystic and got to rave about my ball reaction to him. Amazing day and awesome progress all around.
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Nov 11, 2013 04:45
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How far do you usually travel for these tournaments, or are you lucky and live in close proximity to them?
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Nov 11, 2013 16:43
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Thom P. Tiers posted:How far do you usually travel for these tournaments, or are you lucky and live in close proximity to them? Yesterday it was at my home center, which is literally two minutes up the road. I'm lucky in that practice requires basically zero effort to get to the lanes. Next NEBA is in Cranston, RI which is about 45 minutes from me. The farthest away it gets is in the rear end end of Connecticut which takes about a three hour drive. As of now I try to stay within an hour except for special events since my chances of making a profit with a $50 gas bill tacked on are low. But in a year I'll start putting together a resume for sponsorship and bowling lots of tournaments looks good. NEBA has been running for 50 years and championships are coveted around here. Mark Roth, Patrick Allen, and Mike Fagan are all former NEBA champs and PBIII comes out to the big events to add support. Except for tournaments here and there winning a NEBA is just short of winning a regional competition wise so making a cut is a huge deal for me.
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Nov 11, 2013 17:34
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So the week we're supposed to bowl against Bill Murray's team, he's not there... Figures. On the plus side, I'm finally getting used to both the reaction and weight of my DV8 Brutal Nightmare (went from a 14 lbs. Mutant Cell Pearl to the 15 lbs. DV8). I've been really happy with it, especially now that I've kind of got it figured out. Went 248-211-193.
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Nov 12, 2013 15:18
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Just finished a 7 hour(!) long clinic with Robert Smith and Brian Voss. Paid $200 for the day but it was worth it. Max Bob got me out of my crouch at address and I'm able to hinge after my first step instead of using a huge push away, making my approach a lot smoother. Said my style reminded him a lot of a mid-level pro he used to bowl with, so that's good I guess. I've been working on getting the ball more behind my body and apparently I went overboard because Voss tore me apart. Went from feeling really good to absolute garbage in about two minutes. He wasn't mean or impolite, he's just a lot more mechanical than I am. But I do agree that I need to change my swing plane and spent nearly 4 hours trying to get the ball in line with my head. By the end he said it was a lot better but I still need to work on my spine tilt to get it in line. Smith is still an absolute beast and throws about a 27 mph spare shot along with about 600 revs on his strike shot when he leans on it. Ball moves left like it's shot at 40 feet. Voss has amazing touch and is able to make a 15 board move left or right on command by adjust hand position on release. With the same ball. That wasn't his. Basically an awesome day that made me feel like I can do some damage in the second third on my sport league if I keep working and maybe get my PBA card and start bowling regionals in about a year or so.
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Nov 15, 2013 01:12
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So I did something pretty dumb in my Tuesday league... I decided my Storm Vivid (pretty new ball, only had it for a few months) was reacting way too early, so I bumped it up to 4000 grit finish right before the league started. Didn't throw a game with it, just went for it. It was like throwing an entirely new ball, and to top it off I apparently wasn't following through properly (my teammate helpfully informed me of that on the 8th frame of the last game). Finished 100+ pins below average. Decided for my league last night to move it back to 3000 grit - it had started at 2000 - and focus on follow through. The ball did what I had envisioned it doing! Left a lot of 10 pins but at least I was finding the pocket regularly. Lesson learned, don't mess with the ball without really knowing what you're doing!
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Nov 16, 2013 00:46
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Was at the club last night with some friends just dicking around and managed to throw a 266 (and a few lower 200 games) on relatively dry lanes with a LOT of beer in me... I might have to rethink my "no drinking on league night" policy.
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Nov 16, 2013 20:36
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Scarf posted:Was at the club last night with some friends just dicking around and managed to throw a 266 (and a few lower 200 games) on relatively dry lanes with a LOT of beer in me... I might have to rethink my "no drinking on league night" policy. I had an experience similar last night. Managed to bowl my season low game and season high game in the same series, leading to a season series high for me. (92, 155, 171, 418 series.) The only thing that changed? I was so upset by the second game I had a beer, and another in the third. Also started to not care when I'd throw a crappy shot. My team told me to show up half an hour early and get tipsy beforehand if that is what it takes for me to do well.
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Nov 16, 2013 22:52
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The Man The Legend posted:So I did something pretty dumb in my Tuesday league... I decided my Storm Vivid (pretty new ball, only had it for a few months) was reacting way too early, so I bumped it up to 4000 grit finish right before the league started. Didn't throw a game with it, just went for it. It was like throwing an entirely new ball, and to top it off I apparently wasn't following through properly (my teammate helpfully informed me of that on the 8th frame of the last game). Finished 100+ pins below average. Two things here: 1. Never be afraid to alter a ball surface. It's what keeps 200 average bowlers from being 220 average bowlers. Take a practice session and learn what your ball does when it's surface is changed. You can't do it in competition once it has hit the lane, but being able to say "My ball is coming in a smidge light, I can hit it with 2000 and fix that" during practice makes all the difference in the world. 2. Ok, rant time incoming, and this has nothing to do with you TMTL, but since you mention 10 pins, I'm going to mention this. 10 pins are not blameless crimes. If I had a nickel for every time someone has said to me "That should have been a 300 but I left 6 ten pins" I would have a shitload of nickels. Bonus points if they missed 3 of those and shot 180. If half your shots are not carrying the ten pin something is wrong. You can improve your carry without even changing balls most times. Ready for this? There are two kinds of 10 pin leaves. The first is a flat 10. This is when the 6 pin goes in the channel in front of the 10 and just lays there, kind of like that cute girl in high school you really wanted to bang but then found out she was awful in bed. Flat 10s mean your ball is losing energy at the break point. Either you missed it a bit at the bottom of the swing and didn't put as many revs on the ball as usual, or the ball is too strong and burning all it's energy before it gets to the pins. A flat 10 once in a while is normal, multiple in quick succession means you have a serious carry problem that mus be corrected. Now, you may be thinking "I can fix that! I'll just move a board right." Wrong. Now your ball is still burning up at the break point but it's also going high. So it has no energy to carry bad hits and you're leaving big splits. You should actually move a board left. The ball will find oil, have more energy in the back, hit harder and snap the 10 out. If you leave another flat 10, move another board left. If you're suddenly missing the pocket right, you're in an over/under situation and have more problems and will have to make a ball change. The other leave is a solid 10, where the 6 wraps around the 10. This is an entry angle issue. If you leave a few of these, the fix is simple. Move backward on the approach about 6 inches from where you normally stand. This will increase the entry angle into the pins a touch and you should start getting the hard 10s to fall.
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Nov 17, 2013 16:07
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Critical posted:Two things here: Thanks for this. I knew the adjustment for solid 10s, but I've never heard that solution for flat 10s. Comedy option: bowl in a house with a WAHSAM.
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Nov 17, 2013 18:48
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Scarf posted:Comedy option: bowl in a house with a WAHSAM. Those things are so stupid. This sport is broken.
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Nov 17, 2013 18:55
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Devo posted:Those things are so stupid. This sport is broken. Luckily I've never seen a house with them installed... but yeah. Screw getting better through improved mechanics and practice, just install trampolines in the channel!
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Nov 17, 2013 19:17
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I've found that to start carrying solid 10s, I actually move up on the approach about 6 inches. This makes me take slightly smaller steps, thus taking off about a quarter of a mile an hour off my velocity and typically kicks out the 10. Also, though you should never blame the shot for your lovely bowling, sometimes leaving tons of 10s is a result of a bad matchup of oil conditions and lane surface. One house that I bowl in has a very slick and hard lane surface and they put a 42 foot pattern down on top of it. That lane surface will naturally delay reaction, so putting anything more than a 40 foot pattern isn't really necessary. Also the dry boards don't start until board 7 or 8, so you are forced to push your breakpoint farther outside than what is ideal for a pattern of that length. So your reaction is delayed and your breakpoint is too far outside resulting in tons of 10 pins. It is the only house I bowl in where I leave more than 3 or so 10 pins a night, and I typically leave 7 or 8 there. It's a 16 lane house and you can usually see 4 10 pins across the house at any given time. The people putting the shot down there don't really know what they're doing (their head mechanic makes a little more than minimum wage) and they only look at oil volume and side-to-side ratio. Somehow, my average there is about normal, but everyone else is averaging 10 to 15 pins lower than a couple of seasons ago.
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Nov 17, 2013 19:23
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Thanks for the 10 pin advice - I'd always heard "move back an inch or two". That certainly didn't always work, will definitely have to give the flat vs. solid approach a try.
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Nov 18, 2013 23:15
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Hello Bowlers, A question for you. I don't bowl very often. I have my own balls (Storm second dimension and spare ball). I usually go to the Southpoint Casino (in Vegas), and I can do ok there. But occasionally I go to the Orleans casino, and I find it just absolutely impossible to find a line there. I finally asked someone at the Orleans what was going on with the oil. And I was told that the Southpoint uses a 10 by 10 pattern, but the Orleans uses 5 by 5. He said it as though I should understand what that means, but I don't. So.. what does that mean? Capt. Sticl fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Nov 20, 2013 |
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Nov 20, 2013 15:20
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Capt. Sticl posted:Hello Bowlers, No earthly idea. Maybe he means that South Point uses a 10.0 ratio shot and Orleans uses a 5 ratio? The lower the ratio the flatter and harder the pattern is. That's the only thing I can think of but I've never heard it put into those terms.
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Nov 20, 2013 22:37
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 16:03 |
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Speaking of patterns ours has gone to poo poo :\ Apparently the shot we were on was illegal... The guy who lays everything out for us said there was too much of an out-of-bounds area. Maybe I was the only one, but I found it quite the opposite. I had absolutely no problem getting to the pocket from most any angle. Supposedly he took us back to something close to a house shot. gently caress that, I've never seen a house shot with so little leeway. I was over/under all night. Took me 3 games to find a line that worked and I was still 15 pins under my average. I was sitting at a 199 avg and needed to shoot a 611 to get to 200. Shot a 507 
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Nov 21, 2013 16:10
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