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It's pretty hard to have an actually illegal shot (unless you're talking sport league). You only need 2 units of oil or more on every board from 2L to 2R. That's it. The only rule USBC has regarding oil patterns on house shots. And if there was less than 2 units anywhere you would know it with the balls that people play these days. I'd guess he just wanted to play with the shot a little and made that excuse since people don't know any better. Happens a lot with tinkering types.
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Nov 21, 2013 17:35
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Caught Cubs Posting
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Yeah, and I believe the only thing illegal in sport is a true reverse block. Those make the US Open pattern look tame.
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Nov 21, 2013 17:40
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Devo posted:It's pretty hard to have an actually illegal shot (unless you're talking sport league). You only need 2 units of oil or more on every board from 2L to 2R. That's it. The only rule USBC has regarding oil patterns on house shots. And if there was less than 2 units anywhere you would know it with the balls that people play these days. Well, he's the USBC rep for the area, so I would assume he knows what he's doing... but who knows. All I know is I want that pattern back  And honestly, our league has a lot of straight-shot bowlers and seniors who have very VERY few revs. So no clue if any of them would even notice if the pattern changed.
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Nov 21, 2013 19:18
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So last weekend when I made the cut at NEBA I got on the fresh for match play and was unable to create any room due to the lanes being so tight. Didn't have anything that would cut through the high volume in the middle. My friend here fixed that. Ball is so strong it was burning out on the fresh house pattern. Anything outside of 10 it lost energy and hit like a pillow. This sounds bad but is a good thing when you face poo poo like WTBA patterns that demand you go no farther outside than 15. Once I got some lane shine on it I shot 279 and it hit like a beast.
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Nov 22, 2013 04:12
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It still amazes me how much of a change a somewhat minor alteration to the ball-surface can have on your game. The last few weeks I've been having a really hard time finding a line that would work for me, was averaging around 199 for a good while but was struggling to get 550 the past two weeks... No league this week so I came in to get some practice and was having the same problem. Went 166-169-179. Pro shop guy suggested knocking the polish off my Brutal Nightmare and wow, world of difference. Still good length but a super predictable ball motion. Proceeded to go 222-246. I wanted to throw one more game but I could feel my elbow starting to wear out. Now I want it to be next Monday already... Scarf fucked around with this message at 03:24 on Dec 3, 2013 |
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Dec 3, 2013 03:21
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Whee, tonight was a banner night for me: 198-213-231, netting me a 642 and my first 600 series.  I was just crushing it all night, finding the pocket consistently and adjusting properly as the oil broke down. (I used to have a tendency to play a line about five frames too long and get about three splits from constantly sending it through the nose.) Not too shabby for a 160 average bowler, although I'm sure being pretty used to the house at this point helps since I know what's gonna happen when I throw. It also bumped my average in this league up about five pins too, so I guess that's nice?
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Dec 5, 2013 05:22
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In the three weeks since I've come back from a broken thumb I've shot 596, 786, 670. And the 670 could have easily been in the mid 700s if I'd carried like I did the week before. I should injure myself in stupid ways more often.
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Dec 5, 2013 21:40
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I subbed twice this past week (I'm not a regular bowler in any league right now). Apparently I shot my wad on Tuesday with a 238-237-279 754 series because on Thursday in the house I typically do better in I went 226-179-213 618. All in all, though, I'm having my best season so far (averaging 220 in both houses) despite not bowling regular.
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Dec 9, 2013 03:38
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I have another newbie question: I'm having trouble recently with the path my ball takes. What I want think should happen: 1) Ball slides down lane, with axis of rotation somewhat perpindicular to the path 2) Ball reaches break point 3) Ball changes direction, DIVES into pocket with direction and rotation in parralel (i.e. the ball rotates end over end in the same direction its moving) What is happening now: The ball seems to slide too far. It never really gets a clear break point. Even when I hit the pocket, the ball is still moving forward but spinning sideways. To me, it just feels like it's hitting really soft every time. For example, I stand with my feet on the middle dot, throwing at the third dot from the outside (I use the dots short of the arrows because i find I'm more accurate that way). The ball will move all the way back to the pocket, but it's more of a glide and never a distinct break point. It never seems to dive into the pocket. I've had a little success trying to slow my ball down, but I don't throw it particularly hard even normally. (I estimate my higher speed throws at 14.5 mph. just under 3 sec down lane) My questions are: 1) Is this a problem I should be worried about? 2) Would this be easily fixable by say, having my ball cleaned and resurfaced (which I have never done even though I know I probably should have by now) 3) What are other fixes I can try?
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Dec 9, 2013 13:00
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Do you wipe your ball off entirely of any surface oil before throwing? Is your ball old? You may need to move everything (feet and mark) a little bit to the right to get it outside of the oil and allow it to come back like you want (I am assuming you are just throwing on a normal house shot?) From what you describe, it seems your ball is just skidding a little bit too long in the oil.
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Dec 9, 2013 16:20
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Thom P. Tiers posted:Do you wipe your ball off entirely of any surface oil before throwing? Is your ball old? You may need to move everything (feet and mark) a little bit to the right to get it outside of the oil and allow it to come back like you want (I am assuming you are just throwing on a normal house shot?) From what you describe, it seems your ball is just skidding a little bit too long in the oil. I probably remember to wipe it about half the time. (Most of the time, I go bowling after a session at Bingo which has an Open Bar). Yes, it's a normal house shot. And yes, it just seems to be skidding too long in the oil.
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Dec 9, 2013 16:24
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Capt. Sticl posted:I probably remember to wipe it about half the time. (Most of the time, I go bowling after a session at Bingo which has an Open Bar). Yes, it's a normal house shot. And yes, it just seems to be skidding too long in the oil. If your ball does happen to be old, it is going to absorb less of the oil into the coverstock, leaving more of it on the surface, which makes wiping all of that surface oil off of the ball important. Otherwise, you will probably see your ball skid just as you are mentioning. A pro shop could bake your ball for you and get a lot of the oil out of it and possibly bring your ball back to life a little bit.
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Dec 9, 2013 16:39
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Capt. Sticl posted:I probably remember to wipe it about half the time. (Most of the time, I go bowling after a session at Bingo which has an Open Bar). Yes, it's a normal house shot. And yes, it just seems to be skidding too long in the oil. What kind of ball are you throwing anyways?
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Dec 9, 2013 17:05
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Thom P. Tiers posted:If your ball does happen to be old, it is going to absorb less of the oil into the coverstock, leaving more of it on the surface, which makes wiping all of that surface oil off of the ball important. Otherwise, you will probably see your ball skid just as you are mentioning. A pro shop could bake your ball for you and get a lot of the oil out of it and possibly bring your ball back to life a little bit. I don't think it's particularly old. It will be 5 years old in Feb. Maybe that's old. I don't know. One of the guys I usually play with has had his ball for like 15 years. In any case, I had been thinking about taking into a pro shop for that purpose. So I will certainly do that now. mattfl posted:What kind of ball are you throwing anyways? Storm Second Dimension Thanks everyone for the advice.
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Dec 9, 2013 22:31
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Capt. Sticl posted:I have another newbie question: Well, if you said you release your ball with the ball spinning perpendicular to the ball path, that is way too much side roll. If total side roll is 90 degrees and complete end over end roll is 0 degrees, then 45 is plenty for your release. The more side roll you have, the longer the ball will go before breaking and the sharper the breakpoint will be. This can be pretty hard to control. Sure, if the ball ever starts to hook, it will hook and hit like a beast, but it has to have the opportunity to hook. So if the oil is even slightly long or if there is any carry down on the back ends, your ball may never start hooking. Try working on keeping your hand more behind the ball.
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Dec 10, 2013 03:04
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Bowled in a squad for a tournament with $20k for first. Missed two 10 pins first game. Missed the squad cut by exactly 20 pins. Make your spares kids.
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Dec 15, 2013 03:14
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I'm doing almost everything right lately, and bowled a freakin' 693 in league this past week. 240-236-217. Needed a second strike in the 10th of my last frame to get 700, and tensed up, sending it way left. One of about four or five balls I'd like to have back that night. Still not gonna complain, I've been rocking it out the last couple of weeks.
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Dec 15, 2013 23:28
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So here's a lesson on what not to do when running a tournament. Kinda long but entertaining. Local schlubs have a backer and advertise a tournament with $20k on top, 48 people qualify for finals. Second place pays $5k. This pretty much guarantees a prize money chop for the top two places but whatever. Tournament is handicap and bowled on Route 66. I shot 685 with handicap Saturday night. I'm sitting in 36th place with two squads to go so I'm pretty much up poo poo's creek. Rumors start circulating that they may take 64 for the finals if they get 360 entries. I show up the next afternoon to see how many people entered. 392. SO 64 are guaranteed for the finals, right? Nope, they moved the number of entries to 400 to guarantee 64 in the finals. gently caress this, I go home. 2 hours later I'm playing a game in my pajamas and get a call that they decided to take 64 after all. AFTER the last squad has finished. People on the highway are turning around cause now they might make it. I throw clothes on and bomb to the lanes 5 minutes away to see if I have a chance. And proceed to wait an HOUR AND A HALF for the cut to be announced. People had already been waiting for 45 minutes before I got the text. 2 hours and 15 minutes for a cut. To put in perspective how bad this is, PBA tournaments have the cut figured out as soon as the last ball goes down the and have checks in players hands within 15 minutes. This tournament has 15 directors. A PBA regional has two at most. Asinine. Anyway, cut is 681. I make it by a hair. We go to the tournament office, which is about 15x15 and has 64 people jammed rear end to dick in it. The assistant director proceeds to treat us like preschoolers, even announcing once "I'm not talking until the people in back stop whispering." After another half hour they finally read lane assignments, where we bowl against the person on the same lane as us. You know, the opposite of every other tournament on Earth. Before they turn the lanes on for practice the call us back into the office because THEY hosed UP THE CUT. We get our lane assignments again, and are miraculously on the same lanes bowling the same people as before. We get a whopping five minutes of practice, in which I get to throw about 7 practice shots. I haven't touched a ball all day. My opponent bowled 6 games that day already. My knee is sore and I am ice cold. I shot a 180 while he went 240 on a pair he had already bowled on. I got $200 for a weekend full of headaches. About 20 people that bowled on Saturday made the cut and almost all of them got eliminated first round. Never loving again. I don't care if they do $100k first place, that organization can kiss my rear end.
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Dec 16, 2013 07:03
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^^^ Yikes... What did it cost you to enter? My club is doing a co-ed Scotch Doubles tournament this coming Saturday, but I won't be around to participate  But hopefully that means they're going to start doing more tournaments like that. I think they're also talking about doing a no-tap. Honestly I'm really hoping they just do some straight-up tournaments.
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Dec 16, 2013 15:56
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Scarf posted:^^^ Yikes... What did it cost you to enter? Technically $150, but I have a backer that allows me to enter tournaments, loaning me money against my league winnings this year. So I paid $50 out of that. So a $150 profit. Still not worth it. The dummy is running the same tournament again next month with another $20k for first. I know of at least 50 people who were livid after yesterday and vowing never to return not matter how much money he gives away. You have to gently caress up spectacularly to get a reaction like that.
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Dec 16, 2013 18:37
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Here is my brag/sad post for the week. Ended up bowling a 172, 186 and a 139 (ack!) for a 497 Friday night... but considering I went in with a 122 average, I'm not too upset about the 139. What I am upset about was the fact that I was 9 pins from getting my 140 Over Series pin, and was 3 pins away from a 500 series. Regardless though, definitely my high series (ever), and high game(s) in a league setting. On top of that, unless something astronomical happened, I'll end up as 3rd highest women's handicap series for the season so far. My next task is to realize what I was doing to make those first two games happen (Yup, making spares helps), and how to work on my third game as it is consistently lower than the first two historically.
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Dec 16, 2013 22:32
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Nothing wrong with your lowest game being 17 poa. The scores will come. Hell, simply practicing 3 or so games a week doing nothing but practicing repetition will help immensely.
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Dec 17, 2013 00:31
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Haha, I wonder how many "scabs" will end up registering for that tournament in the hopes that most of the regulars will boycott, thereby increasing their odds of winning  Last night was "meh" but not too bad considering I had a week off... 163-191-203. Still gonna drop a pin in my average :\ I think I had 8 strikes in that first game and ended with a 163... I made no spares. Had all of these weird splits that I just couldn't convert on. The chances of me being able to finish the league with a 200 average are getting smaller... At this point I just hope to finish with a 195. Bill Murray was back in town this week, unfortunately we weren't bowling his team
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Dec 17, 2013 15:32
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League cancelled tonight due to snow. Bummer, always seems to happen the nights I'm really looking forward to it. Does anyone have the Storm Byte? Almost everything I've read is pumping it up as a ball that absolutely destroys on THS... just wondering if anyone has any personal experience with the ball yet.
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Dec 18, 2013 04:50
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Scarf posted:Haha, I wonder how many "scabs" will end up registering for that tournament in the hopes that most of the regulars will boycott, thereby increasing their odds of winning It's actually turning into ongoing drama. The assistant director came to me last night asking for suggestions to make the tournament run better, since I've bowled in a couple of them and won one in August. My response was "Do you have a couple hours?" and she got pissy and Godzilla'd away. Turns out it was like the 5th time she had gotten a similar response that night. One of the other directors came to me and said the main guy is desperate and wants feedback and is taking everything very seriously. Since I run 50 brackets on Mondays and manage to not gently caress them up ever along with running side pots on other leagues apparently my name was brought up. It's a hard decision because if he listens to me I know I can fix the problems he has and possibly get upwards of 600 people next year, maybe more. However I'm looking for sponsors within the next couple years and the organization is literal bowling cancer at the moment. It's a huge risk reward situation and I don't know if the risk is worth it.
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Dec 18, 2013 07:20
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You should do it! I barely comprehend your situation but that's my vote. I finally bowled my first ~official~ 600 series last week. 210-178-224 for 612. Felt really good about myself when the third game was on its way to going as badly as the second and I took the time to reset and figure out what I was doing and start throwing strikes again. Threw the last four strikes which put me just over. Still throwing two handed if anyone cares. My average is 158 now which is pretty nice compared to the 96 or whatever it was I started with a year and a half ago. Gone up ten pins this season, second most improved behind a guy who's gone from 98 to 115 similar to how I did when I started. Feeling pretty good about tonight's position round which usually means I'll play like garbage but fingers crossed.
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Dec 19, 2013 00:26
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At the risk of sounding like a lovely high school guidance counselor, don't doubt yourself. Confidence plays a HUGE part in good shot making. Throw every shot completely convinced that you are doing the right thing. If it doesn't work, adjust accordingly.
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Dec 20, 2013 00:16
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buffto posted:At the risk of sounding like a lovely high school guidance counselor, don't doubt yourself. Confidence plays a HUGE part in good shot making. Throw every shot completely convinced that you are doing the right thing. If it doesn't work, adjust accordingly. Can't agree with this enough. If you're waffling about making a change, make the goddamn change. Chances are something less that optimal happened to make you think about changing something. My friend drilled into me the four phases of a bowling shot you should be going over after every shot to have a solid mental game. 1. Pre shot, ie where you're standing and where you're throwing the ball. 2. The shot, Optimally your mind should be blank at this point. 3. Post shot. The two outcomes of this are: a. You struck. If it was a good shot you can still take things away from it. Where did the ball exit the pin-deck? Where in the pocket did you hit? Did you happen to miss your mark and did the ball hold pocket/recover from outside? b. You left something. What did you leave and why did you leave it? Did you miss your mark or did you not get enough rotation on the ball? 4. Use the information from step 3 to influence your next shot. Even if it's a strike. Did you trip a 4 pin? Time to move left a couple. You've thrown three good shots and left three flat tens? Maybe a ball change is in order. You just mailed three shots in a row and missed the head pin right every time? Either move right or bring your target left. If you analyze everything this way you very rarely feel caught off guard in making decisions. There are still times when it comes up in higher level play (I have to shoot 250 to make the cut and have to hit a fly's dick at 40 feet, time to make a guess and a big move), but with a little info you can be confident about almost every choice you make. As an aside, I'm probably going to reboot the thread after the holidays, if anyone has any info they would like to see in the first few information posts or suggestions for thread titles, lay them on me.
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Dec 21, 2013 06:59
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Critical posted:As an aside, I'm probably going to reboot the thread after the holidays, if anyone has any info they would like to see in the first few information posts or suggestions for thread titles, lay them on me. An explanation on Dual-Angle Layout would be awesome. I kind of get the gist of it, but would love a good write-up if anyone can provide one.
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Dec 21, 2013 15:54
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All righty. Dual angle drilling is a technique in laying out a bowling ball to get the precise reaction you want. It works on any weight block. It is usually written out as angle1 X pin to PAP X angle2. First a line is drawn from the pin to the mass bias (or the pin to CG if it is a symmetrical core). From this line you draw a second line making your first angle with the pin as the vertex. This angle can be anywhere from 10 to 90 degrees and it controls length. The smaller the angle, the earlier the reaction. Next is to decide how much flare you want your ball to have with the pin to PAP distance. Anywhere between 3-4 inches is max flare. Between 4-5.5 is medium flare and any more than that is minimal flare. Measure out your pin to PAP distance on your second line and mark is as your PAP. Now you will draw a third line to make your second angle with your PAP as the vertex. This angle can be anywhere between 20 and 70 degrees and it controls breakpoint shape. The smaller the angle, the sharper the breakpoint, the larger the angle, the smoother it is. This third line is your vertical axis line. So now you have a ball laid out with your PAP and VAL marked in relation to the pin and mass bias (or CG) to create your desired reaction. Now all you do is measure the proper distances from your PAP to find out where your holes go. If you PAP is 4.5 right and 1 up, then simply measure 1 inch down from your PAP along the VAL, draw a line perpendicular to the VAL and measure 4.5 left and this is where the center of your grip is. So if you wanted a ball to go long with little flare and a sharp breakpoint, you might want to try something like 80 X 6 X 30. If that wasn't clear enough, just let me know.
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Dec 22, 2013 00:09
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192-155-193 last week. Everyone was complaining bitterly about how dry the lanes were but I sort of kept my head down and did okay. That confidence advice couldn't be truer. Probably more than half the time, I wind up in a slump my second game and the difference between getting worse and having a terrible night vs. adjusting and getting out of it is my mood. Our new teammate this year will like openly, vocally give up if he thinks his night is going badly which will really ruin my morale. We have like three weeks without league play so hopefully I can get a bunch of practice in. Speaking of beat, dry lanes: the house where I bowl kind of doesn't seem to give a poo poo and my league is immediately after a five person league so a lot of nights, whether the lanes are even remotely palatable comes down to whether you get on lanes at the far end that haven't been bowled on that night. It's also really far from me so I'd like to find a new league next year but, like, how much luck would I have if I just turned up at a place asking to get on a team? Do people do this? My average is 160 now but I still feel like I barely know what I'm doing after a year and change of playing.
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Dec 24, 2013 18:20
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I get people coming in every once in a while asking to get on a team. It's about a 50/50 proposition really. A lot of times the established teams in the league lose a guy but don't want some random that they've never met bowling with them. On the other hand I've put random dudes on an established team and they've ended up really clicking. But either way your best bet is to get some buddies together and just go in with your own 3/4/5 man team, depending on the league you want to bowl in.
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Dec 24, 2013 18:25
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At the centers I've bowled, you just find out when the beginning of the season's league meeting is supposed to be and show up. Find out who the secretary or president is supposed to be and tell them you are looking to get on a team. Usually there is a team or two who never filled out their roster. It's a lot tougher mid-season, though.
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Dec 24, 2013 18:37
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YMMV - last season I started subbing mid-season at the local center to get some extra practice in. (I was all about getting to bowl for free, can't lie. Just had to pay league sanction fees, as I was already a USBC card holder at a different center.) Teams didn't seem to take issue with the fact my average is pretty low (possibly because of the high handicap), but were just happy to have a sub. Met a lot of people on various teams I played with, and eventually subbed for one person a lot, to the point she was going to quit the league due to personal reasons. The team invited me to join them for the rest of the season, and we stuck together as a team this year.
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Dec 26, 2013 18:08
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If your center has practice leagues, that's a good way to meet some people and find out about different leagues and teams. Not sure if most are like this, but at mine you basically can show up, pay $10 (or whatever) and bowl 3 games on a team as a random sub. No official standings, not sanctioned, but you'll meet other league bowlers and get better/get a feel for the lanes and leagues!
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Dec 28, 2013 23:24
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Bowled in our annual 10 game marathon. Averaged 226 on the European Championship oil pattern, good enough for 5th. Threw the Mastermind all day and never even thought about moving away from it. Feels good man.
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Jan 2, 2014 03:18
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Turns out I wasn't just imagining things... Our pattern is hosed. This was supposed to be just a house-shot pattern since our nice oiler is apparently busted. Well, apparently our backup is too? Apparently it's just laying a flat sheet of oil because 1-8 are absolutely flooded and hold nearly as well as the midlane. It seriously feels like a US Open shot, but even the 1 board is absolutely soaked. edit: And after looking up some more detailed info on the US Open shot... I'm wondering if our mechanic/organizer is legit trolling us and purposefully laid down a US Open-type pattern. The descriptions with the OOB and typical angles seems dead on. There's just absolutely no margin of error on our lanes lately. Shots right never recover, shots left go WAY left. Scarf fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Jan 3, 2014 |
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Jan 3, 2014 16:56
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Yea, the US Open pattern is literally a straight 42 feet of flat oil across every board I believe. That is what I bowled on every other week for 6 games a night in college for practice. It was brutal, but also made me a better bowler. Crazy that you are getting something similar for what is supposed to be a house shot pattern. That seems either like a terribly broken machine, or he is doing it on purpose.
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Jan 3, 2014 18:52
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Yeah, the length and total volume of the US open pattern varies from year to year, but it is always 100% flat. As someone who works on oil machines, there isn't really anything that can break down that would make it put out a flat pattern. The lane man is loving with you.
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Jan 3, 2014 19:50
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Not throwing the ball terrible, but did a lot of work tonight on my consistency. Here's a video of how bad my fat rear end is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ChdvqHtaGQ Bunch of poo poo to work on but the ball is passing through my left pant leg on my release 75% of the time. Also sorry about the vertical video, my friend brought a tripod with a vertical jig on it.
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Jan 11, 2014 08:10
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