In warm up take your most aggressive ball and sand it down to 250 grit. Play 18 out to 10 don't allow the ball to travel outside the 10 board.Now your burning up a spot outside of the crankers shot. Your tying to get the crankers ball reacting to hook earlier so the ball doesn't get out to the 5 board. This way your saving your outside line as well.
Something else a aggressive ball don't hook as much as a weaker ball on dry lanes.

The adage is, "On dry lanes, strong balls become weak and weak balls become strong".

Few of us can generate enough RPM's to wear out the oil pattern during 'shadow balls'. A more prudent approach would be to use 'shadow balls' to get lined up, not to influence someone else's shot.

Instead, as conditions degenerate, use someone else's track to influence you own.

Let your opponent create the track with their RPM's and simply throw less aggressive equipment across your opponent's track and let your opponent's track make your weak ball strong.

It's not about who can get farther left, but who can hit the end of the pattern with a ball that has enough speed and RPM's to recover and carry.

It seems more and more people are playing a offensive game.

"Simply" - LOL. It's all "simply" until you have to do it.

It's much more difficult when you have someone who CAN and DOES burn up a line in three shots and then moves to burn up another. Nice buy, but as W9JAB (You're an amateur radio operator, right? ) said, he's playing a very offensive-minded game.



I might just do something like that. I've an aggressive ball that I could make my "burner" ball. I don't know when I'll run against these guys, but having an offensive weapon might not be a bad idea.

Yes not so active anymore, this is my "shack"

Where's your D-104?

wow - nice!

we bowled a team who seemed to steamroll every team that they played. 5man teams. 3 of us including myself decided to use urethane and make sure we threw in the other teams breakpoint area. as the night wore on we tightened up our shot.

they started burning up the heads with all their usual reactive stuff. the high series on the pair was myself at 569. our offensive tactics took away their breakpoint after about 5 frames of the first game. because of our urethane carrydown, they were having no consistent breakpoint. that sent them fishing for their "house shot".

once the burnt the heads up, they had overreaction then no back ends. worked great. we just took their favorite shot away from them and they were lost.

we didn't bowl great, but, we had a plan and at least we knew what was going to happen. we won with low scores. not sure if that's offensive or defensive but maybe a combination of the two.

RayRay< I experienced the same against our team whether intentional or not it had the effect you are describing.

Usually someone bowling with Urethane doesn't bother me but a few weeks ago one person wrecked havoc on our pair. He used a dull Urethane. Every time his ball returned he cleaned the ball of noticeable oil. He did not use any specific line. He would lay the ball down anywhere from the 5B to 15B. Being Brunswick lanes there is no oil the first 18 inches so he was further depleting oil upfront on every throw. I really didn't have a ball that week that was very consistent. My lowest series of the year.

I have no Urethane but thinking of getting one just to use when this instance occurs.

Also I added my polished Morich NSANEs to my bag that works well playing an outside line around 6 to 3. I am mentioning this because as posted in this thread with the right equipment, speed, release, etc , playing right of everyone else can be successful.

You might look at the symptoms you're experiencing a little different. wiping off 'any' surface after each delivery will contribute to oil dissipation during league.

While urethane might push lane oil down lane, how many on that pair are throwing urethane? If you have 4 person teams, maybe 7 on a pair are throwing reactive resin and one is throwing urethane. Who's really winning the lane pattern battle?

As lane oil dissipates, for non-pros, strong balls become weaker. Urethane balls become stronger. While a urethane ball may seem like a reasonable choice, it's only reasonable if you have RPM's to burn.

Urethane rolls sooner, but the longer a ball rolls the straighter it rolls. If a bowler can't create enough axis rotation, using urethane is not a solution, unless you like shooting 10 pins.

Even on the PBA Tour, how many are successfully using urethane? What makes that guy unique?

Personally, I go with reactive balls with a weaker surface, a longer pin-to-pap distance and a wider VAL angle. "Of course, that's my opinion, I could be wrong." -- Dennis Miller.