Hey all.
I'm not one to usually complain about oil because, of course, you should be able to adjust to whatever is shot is there.
The house I bowl in Ohio has lately been driving most of us
league bowlers insane. I understand that weather conditions and
other factor can change the lanes....but our house has not laid
out a consistent shot night to night since the start of the year.
Example..last tuesday the lanes were so dry i was standing on 36 and throwing the ball out to 3 or 4 and it was breaking back hard. Then on thursday night, they decided to get the Exxon Valdez and lay so much oil on the outside that i was standing 18 and trying to throw down and in but the ball would slide no matter what board I hit. I threw 4 gutter balls and had a 454 series. Mind you..I averaged 226 in one league last year and 216 in my other league. My thursday league doesn't even have one bowler that was in the league last year that has improved on his average. The average drop in average is 16 pins.
Thanx for letting me vent and let me know if anyone else has
this problem with their house. Xndapit

A lot of things go into this.

Lane mechanics can be on power trips and see it as their duty to "keep their bowlers on their toes". That's what one center's mechanic told me flat to my face. He purposely tweaks the machine every couple weeks. But he himself does not bowl. And that house has had to have Kegal come in and reset their machine numerous times and for the last 5 years of 6 years I've bowled there, they could not floor a scratch league. This past couple years, they have gotten more consistent. I don't know if the mechanic had this discussed with the proprietor or not. But its more consistent now and we have a scratch league.

It can also be due to machine maintenance. If the machine needs parts and they have to be ordered that can take some time, so they run it anyway, doing the best they can. Or they just don't maintain it on a regular basis.

Then of course there's the centers where the lane mechanic bowls and sets up the shot for themselves. Or against rivals. That happens too.

Eventually if this continues the higher skilled bowlers will go elsewhere. Not that they don't mind a more difficult shot, but the inconsistency is what drives higher bowlers crazy. Now if you KNEW the shot was going to be different every couple weeks, wouldn't you feel better? Just assume it will be, that's the trend apparently in your house. Good luck

Erin

This is not really a problem X...this is how you train your game to become proficient on different shots. Whenever you walk into a house, regardless of how often you bowl there you should never take for granted that the shot is going to be the same as the week before or the day before.

Different oil patterns give you the opportunity to throw different balls, work on hand positions, consistent targeting, etc. I used to bowl in a house that changed the shot up every week or so...house shot, reverse block, heavy oil in the heads, no oil in the heads, light oil all the way down...it really kept everyone on their toes. Of course, I struggled on the heavy patterns back then, because I didn't know about adjusting ball speed, hand positions and stuff back then, but I like the fact that it made me learn.

Then I would practice the stuff even when I wasn't bowling on those certain conditions just to ingrain it into my bowling mind so I could pull it out when I needed. I finished that league with a 188 average...didn't seem like much at the time, but the next season when I went to a house that laid a house shot every week, I averaged a 209.

I was just talking to a good bowler in my area the other day and he said something that I will never forget..."The truest test of how good a bowler is is knowing when not to use something in your game." Sounds crazy, but it's true...what he was referring to for me is that when I can roll that ball at 100%, I'm money...it's when I have to slow the ball down, create more angle, etc, that I struggle. And he was saying that when I learn to shelve my 100% game and can start learning when to tame it down, I'd have all the tools necessary to become a great bowler as opposed to just being good.

You're not always going to have your 'shot' or be able to play your 'A' game...if you can't still be relatively successful outside of your 'comfort zone', you'll struggle to become a winning bowler.

Just something to think about...

Erin pretty much covered all the bases. I would just like to add my opinion.

The reason I bowl where I bowl is because they change the shot every 3 or 4 weeks and it could be anything. People ask me why I keep a Total Shock and Awe in my locker as well as the other 4 balls I am able to stuff in there ranging down to a blue ice with a 5 1/2" pin to pap distance.

There are a couple of things I don't like about this situation:

1. When they lie when you ask if they changed anything and they treat you like you are a "whiny bowler" and say they didn't change anything and you must just be having an off night, when I know better and find myself in front of the ball return by the beginning of the second game.

2. People who change the shot they themselves are going to bowl on are just plain cheaters.

It is for this reason I learned to bowl, and now I respect the dump I bowl in for holding down the scores a little. It is also the reason I am afraid to get rid of too many bowling balls because you never now when you might need them.

I bowl in a center similar to what Jim describes. The shot can be totally different from week to week or even every few weeks but they will say its the same pattern. Even some of the employees that bowl the leagues will say it. Some of the patterns you can't adapt to other than throwing it straight and hard at the headpin. I started this season going straight up the 10 board with my more aggressive dull equipment, to playing the outside with a Groove, to playing the middle with polished pearl to using the same pearls going up 7 or even pointing towards the pocket. That this season since a new manager took over and a new district manager. Last season wasn't quite as bad but it would change from week to week or even day to day with different leagues. I take pride that I rolled my only 300 at that house and almost an 800 series there. It does help you to learn to get away from your A game, especially when the other house I bowl in has a more consistent shot and is known for high scores.

That being said, the reason for my bad bowling there is more on me not making quality shots and missing too many easy spares.

Well, y'all knew I was going to throw my perspective into this melting pot, so here it is. There are varying reasons for this situation. First, as Erin mentioned, the lane person could be on an "ego trip" or the lane machine could be a piece of junk (or sometimes a combination of both which is like mixing fire and gasoline). Second, Erin briefly mentioned and Show went more in depth with, perhaps the house "likes to throw change-ups". And as Erin said, you might as well "expect the unexpected" by now.

My take on this; I agree with both major points thrown around, but would more lean towards Erin's response. I used some pretty antiquated equipment myself; a walk-behind AMF VLS (vacuum lane stripper) and a 6-wick Century PC, and to say it was tough to maintain some sort of consistency with those two relics and in a place not very well stable in terms of air temperature and humidity, that's being kind. But, even to that end, I did the best I could to battle the inconsistencies and make the shot playable for everyone every night. On hotter or drier nights, I backed off the stripper a bit and added a little length to my reverse passes. One colder or more humid nights, I bumped up the stripper a bit and shortened my reverse passes. But, there too, I am a bowler, which, for those of you who know the "power-tripping, non-bowling lane guy", you appreciate the "non-egomaniac, bowls in the same center" lane guy. I hated inconsistent shots as much as anyone, but tough and fair, I loved those (and still do).

Anyone who complained about how tough the shot was found it tougher the next week. I bowled on those shots, too, and proved that you could score if you just kept your head out of your rear end and focused on your game. I never tricked anyone - all I did was flatten out the shot and created more of a "cliff" backend than "ramp" backend and lessened the ratio gutter to gutter - essentially flattened out the shot. Heck, I laid out a tougher shot for the juniors than I did for the adults just so when they went out of town and found an easy shot, it was like heaven to them.

If I were you, I'd cherish the opportunity to have a different look every night. I know I would. Yes, it's tougher, and some nights you don't feel like working at it, but in the long run, it makes you a sharper bowler who, when faced with a rapidly changing shot sometime later, can draw back on the experience of having many different looks. As Erin said, if you prepare yourself for the unexpected, mentally, that'll put you in a better spot to bowl better.


Haha, yeah, sounds like the guy we first had working in the bowling center I worked in. He never prepped the machine properly, and wasn't a bowler, either, so he wouldn't have known a good shot if it bit him between the legs. He would, um, "tinker", as he put it, just to see if we'd notice. Yeah, Jim, I'm like you - I tend to notice when I'm 10-15 boards different from the night prior. Kind of difficult to hide that.

Depends on how they change it, really. Now, if they set it up for their game, yes, I'm with you there (which, unfortunately, is what 99% of lane people will do). Me, well, as I said, I'd change it for tougher. Did I know what was coming? Yes. But I still had to execute the shot, so in essence, I had no more of an advantage than anyone else.

I was accused of "setting the shot for myself" by one person. This happened to be in a league where I had quit 2/3 of the way through the season due to the same person because, well, he was an a-hole, for lack of any stronger word, and I was fearful of physical violence from myself towards this person. Anyhow, I came back to bowl the last night because one of my bowlers was going to be too late to make the first two games, so he asked me to bowl in his place because the team was bowling for 1st place that night. Reluctantly, I did. I started with a 254 and finished with a 660-something series and we ended up winning first place.

The aforementioned a-hole came up to me after we finished bowling and said, "you only bowled good because you set the shot up for yourself" to which my reply was, "No, I bowled good because I know how to bowl, and don't just chuck the ball down the lane. And I'll have you know that had I set the shot up for myself, I would've been 700+ while you guys would've been scratching your heads and other parts of your bodies you don't talk about at the dinner table and praying to shoot over 500 because, if you never bowled on a reverse block before, you would've tonight."

That wasn't the only time I was accused, mind you, but that was most memorable. I was also accused by the same idiot last year when I shot my 803, and I didn't even run the machine (I chalk it up to jealousy). I did, however, help develop the shot, which was much more conducive to scoring than the shot that was previously in place, which said idiot benefited from, by the way. The other times I've been accused of "setting the shot for myself" I've flattened the shot out to where it would've been considered a sport shot. So, really, I never made it advantageous to myself, rather much more difficult than it already was for people less accurate than myself to score.

"Tough" is completely subjective and relative.

This bugs the heck out of me too. Because I KNOW when they've messed with the machine or there's something off kilter. You don't have to lie to me. Just say, yeah, we had to change oils because we ran out and had to borrow some from the next closest house. Or the part we were expecting didn't come in so we had to hand strip instead of using the machine and none of our secondary mechanics knows how to hand strip and/or cannot find the tools to do so. Or we had two buses of elementary school kids and the mechanic was sick so we didn't re run the lanes for league.

But there seems to be an unspoken pact between the house with the lane guy, to NEVER reveil any problems with the lane condition to the bowlers no matter what. I just hate being lied to, especially when its not really a good lie.

This past weekend was a good example. We had a tournament on Saturday. We arrived one hour early only to find the lane machine on the approach (hood up), two kids (under 25) hovering over it, tool box open. The head lane mechanic not there at all, despite there being a tournament. And the machine was there when we got there, and remained until about 10 min before the squad had to bowl. Then they closed it up and ran the machine. Just because they ran the machine, doesn't mean it actually did anything. Which became clear once you started bowling. So on Sat. morning, in a city tournament, second week of the tournament we had left over cosmic bowling conditions from Friday night. Anyone fess up to it? No. But you cannot tell me that the shot that morning as they ran the machine up and down the lanes we were using (only, the Jr league down the way was just s crewed), was the house shot. Of course some people bowled well, but it was all average and handicapped based. The shot was very squirrely. Then on Sunday we arrived for our second day of competition and it was totally different....go figure. Amazing what a night of tinkering can do to a lane machine.

"don't p iss on my leg and tell me its raining".

Erin

This is why I don't bowl the Hoinke any more. You look up at the leader board and you see all these 800 sets and I say to myself, "there is no way they bowled those scores on this trashed shot", and this was on fresh oil. Huge house some of the best bowlers from my area were there and you had mid 600's for high for the block and low 200s winning pots.

Granted the Hoinke is not supposed to be an easy shot, but I hear they leave the house shot and run squads during the week at this time of year after the mens league, that is why most of the 800s are by local bowlers.

When you roll your first practice ball, you can tell what kind of night it is going to be. Last night was one of those nights. And, you can see the change over in bowlers with the high scores. All of a sudden, the middle of the pack lead the night, while the top of the league struggled.

One fellow jokingly, was passing a plate to take up a collection to purchase oil for the house.

And, the house just laughed.

One note from the other side of the fence, a good friend and teammate on my USBC National team bowled his first 300 a month ago and doesn't want the ring because the house is so easy. I have tried to talk him into getting it because of the award changes, he may never get one if USBC has their way.

I found out about it because another teammate went to the house to practice because it is close to where he lives and saw our teammates name on the board. So he emailed me to try to talk some sense into him and have him get his ring.

One of my other teammates responded to this by congratulating him for shooting 300 on the local skeeball Track and asked if he got enough tickets to get the giant panda.