Thanks, RayRay. The picture below should give you a good idea of what to expect with Shark. At 43 feet, your target should be around 11-12 board downlane (re: Joe Slowinski's pattern length - 31 exit point formula). With the out-of-bounds 7 and out, you will want to play straighter up the lane to avoid it, and be prepared to move deeper as the head oil disappears. I would suggest using the ball that gives you the most entry angle because of the deeper line, perhaps with some surface adjustment to consistently make the turn depending on what gives you the best backend reaction.

thanks joe,
I am not far off from my approach looking at the chart. I was thinking starting out around 16-20bd at the arrows and playing into the area at 30' from 7-12 bd depending on what i find. again. i'm not going to rule out the gutter, but, i want to be able to move as the heads dry and inside looks better because that area at 30' may burn better . also, the lanes there are a fairly old urethane with wood approaches that are worn.

I don't know if that makes any difference on the chart I think the lanes are the QuibicaAMF surface, but, not sure. the scoring technology is Quibica so that is what made me think the lanes are the same company.

R/R

Oh well, the Bear turned out to be a Grizzly with a full set of claws and teeth. My teammates and I managed only one point each against the bowling center manager's team. My best game was a 217. The others were muuuch lower. Besides the challenge of the pattern itself, I was having difficulty getting a clean release. It was a very humid day here and I had to break out the EZ-Slide the very first game just to get my thumb out of the ball. That's usually not a good sign for me, and I missed a bunch of single pin spares. I did much better in practice. At least we will get another chance to wrestle the Bear next week.

Finished shark tonite. I only missed the pocket 3x the entire session. My problem was carry. I would have had 3 - 300 no tap games . anyway, i started in practice 25->12 with each ball. The Violet Quantum was the best of the 3 balls. I was hitting dead on the headpin every shot. So i had something i knew i could adjust from.

So, I stood 30 and was hitting light to flush pocket hits. I didn't double until the 10th frame with a 7-10 pocket leave in the 4th frame my only open. Fortunately, I needed the double to win the game by 2 pins with a 9-count fill shot for a 192.
I had to make a move in and was 33->17 mixing the pocket and blowing out a few racks nicely. then came the 10 pins...placed strategically enough to keep the games from being big...;)

2nd game a little better as the shot wore out. I advised my team mate to keep it between the 2nd and 3rd arrows before we started so we could burn up the oil a bit. Still difficult carry but managed a 4-bagger for 227. Won by 3 pins.

3rd game went 9/ and 5 bagger. Still hitting light and flush but all the sudden up ever so slightly high for a solid 9pin leave. Next shot up high for a 3-6-10, converted both then decided the lanes need a 2:1 shift and doubled in the 9th and 10 for a better 245. 2nd ball in the 10th solid 9 pin. with a little luck that would have been a great game.

Won that game by 5 pins. The other team seemed visibly upset by our close victories. My partner was having troubles but was helping my shot out by sticking to his line. He was having release consistency problems so it my night to hold him up.

Last game I was in 35-> 18 and managed 225, but, again 10-pin leaves scattered throughout the game until finally the last fill ball was 10inthePit. If I went over 13.6 mph i was in for a 10pin all night. I tried spotting earlier to get a little more power and was flirting with high hits. That Violet Quantum can take a left turn at the wrong time playing tight pocket hits. I feel like i missed an opportunity to score 100 pins more tonite even though i scored fairly well.

The funny thing about tonite was that some shots carried so well on some hits that seemed no different from others that left 10-pins.

Well, I have another shot at it next week and if it is anything similar to last nite, I sure need to find a way to carry better.

anyway, first Shark under my belt.

Good luck out there!

R/R

That's some great bowling, RayRay...tough pattern, good scores, winning matches...way to go!

Unusual night last night not for the scoring but by what happen. Last game a lot of distractions. I already had to chase down my finger grip that came out of my ball. I get ragged for that. Everybody tells me you are suppose to glue them in. Really? Couple of frames later I am up on the right lane. Bowler on the left leaves the 6-10 and the machine knocks it down so call goes in to reset the 6-10. I didn't think anything about it. I go ahead and bowl. I roll the ball that looks to be rolling perfectly in the pocket but the sweep comes down. Bam. They were resetting the wrong lane. Now everybody is looking at me again. I get ragged again. I get my ball back and have to remove the yellow paint from the ball. After all that I struck the last 5.

Good night bowling made it easy to take all the ragging in fun from everyone. 214, 236, 237, 687

I hope everybody had a nice Independence Day holiday. I took the weekend off to enjoy, so I missed my usual Friday night sweeper and Sunday practice session.

On Monday, I wanted to try something a little different on the Bear pattern in my PBAX league. I was thinking most of the inconsistency bowlers experience on this and other tough patterns comes from their release. It's not so much the direction of the ball, but the variance in when and how much the ball hooks that causes so much grief. So, to take the release out of the equation, I tried using my hard rubber spare ball for strikes as well as spares. I wanted to see if that would increase my pocket percentage, if not my carry percentage. I was pointing the ball, standing 11, targeting 7 at the arrows and 10 at the downlane markers. The ball was still skidding when it hit the pins, but it kept me in the pocket most of the night. Scores were low, 700ish for 4 games, but it was enough to win 3 of 4 points against the other team's anchor bowler. This was essentially my strategy that won several ABT tournaments, to keep shelling down until I was using my spare ball for strikes because the patterns were so whacked. Because, if you are not hitting the pocket, chances are you are not carrying, either. Kudos to the pros for averaging 200+ on these difficult lane conditions. Next week, Chameleon.

Tonigh'ts bowling, frame-by-frame

A problem I've been having with a "flying shoulder" cropped up in the first game, but I was eventually able to get my shoulder under control and bowled one pin over my average.

Result: 163-182-202=547
Average (24 games): 182
Average for last 9 games: 174
Next week's AVG+1 score: 563

We were giving 163 pins per game to our opponents, and they caught enough of a fire that, while we beat them scratch every game, it was just not by enough to overcome the handicap difference. The net result was that we lost all eight.

hey all,

my 2nd Shark didnt go so well. The shot seemed nothing like last week, -- like a short version of the Shark. I know it could have been me. But the shot seemed much shorter than last Shark. I tried my [newly] fitted [old] Cherry Bomb that was given to me by a friend. As it turned out, my thumb pitch in my old ball was 9/16 reverse and 3/8 under. This ball has 1/8 - 1/8 reverse/under. A big change but, I have been tearing up the THSs I've bowled on with the ball so far so, decided to give it a try on Shark.

With OOB outside of 9 board (like gutter or a 3 count OOB). I was able to find a way to the pocket, but, high hits unless i lofted the ball. I missed the pocket 3x the first game trying to figure out what to do. Not fast enough though. Ended up 182 with a double in the 10th to get there feeling like an accomplishment. Second game not much better. Pocket 7-10 on a light mix hit that missed and a few other high hits as i kept small parallel moves giving me light pocket strike then high and 2:1 move - same thing. ball speed stayed around 14-14.5 at deck. Speeding up past 15mph left solid 10's. 187 second game.

Third game again. High hits and then a 3 count trying to go out past 9 board at 'break' point. Spared that with a good pocket shot. Stuck next frame. Ended up at 184.

Last game, i made a 2bd inside move but kept same mark for a slightly different angle and found an easier line and began to hit the pocket better finally, but the move too late for 198. i figured it out with more strikes coming but the beginning of the game started out in the early frames with two 3-6-4-7 splits and i converted one of them but count was killing me already.

as a team we swept all the points so opponents were not doing well at all.

looking back, i should have made bigger moves because i did find some area on the lane - 3 boards maybe around 12-15 board at break point. It was the only shot on the lanes and if i had found it quicker, i would have put up better numbers. spare shooting was ok but could have been better with easier leaves.

Next week will be 1st of two weeks on the USBC Blue pattern.

R/R

175+166+184=525, worst night of the summer. Actually started out strong with a double, 9/ and another double then completely lost it. Had 3 opens after that with a whiffed 7 pin, followed by a 6,7,8,10 which I actually almost converted by cutting the 6 into the 8 but didn't push it quite enough over to take out the 7. Same kinda deal in the second game with a few opens, but only 1 strike total in that game. 3rd game had just 1 strike going into the 9th but was clean and had a chance to get to 200 possibly but left a 2,4 and chopped out the 2 only. Did manage to double in the 10th however to get the 184. Disappointed especially since my average has dipped below 200 for the first time all summer.

Gotta shake it off though. Making my tournament debut on Sunday and hoping to bounce back. Fortunately it's at another center that uses more oil on the lanes so I hope to be able to use my Sync which I haven't been able to use very much in league.