I start my PBA league on Monday, no idea what pattern we're starting with either.

I start my PBA league on Thursday. From what I hear we will be starting out on the Cheetah pattern. This will be my third summer on the PBA shot. Last year I finished with a 162, the year before I did a little better with a 171.

I enjoy the challenge, and hopefully it will make me a better bowler in the long run. So far its been ,....a looong run..LOL.

The only advice I can give you is to start be picking up your spares and work your way up. And try to meet a set amount of open frames a game. For instance, right now I'm trying to in my non-sports shot league to have no more than 3 open frames a game. then I decrease from there from 3 open to 2 to 1 and then a clean game. Also I try to final the cardinal rule of bowling aside from not losing your cool: Don't open in the 1st frame because it sets the tone and don't open in the 9th frame because a mark going into the 10th is always nice. A 220 game can be achieved by throwing a double and hitting all of your spares. So aim for hitting your spares.

One of my friends went from 200+ in house conditions to 170 in a PBA league. He says he liked the experience, though.

I expect I'll try it eventually, and I might even do a bit better than some bowlers at my level, since I'm able to shoot all of the recommended shots. Still, I'd like to clean up my spares and maybe get more comfortable working around the ball return before I sign up.

In the 3 or 4 games plus practice, I have never seen anyone get anywhere near the ball return, and there are some high rev guys in my league that can hook it a lot. You won't need to get deeper than you do on a house shot.

Sounds like someone's just makin' excuses cause they're scared :P

Unless you have the rev rate of a Robert Smith, Ken Simard or maybe Tommy Jones and a few others, having to work around the return isn't something to worry about on the PBA patterns. Last summer on a house pattern, where the lanes were probably oiled every other day (two sided house alternating sides) and a new ball I had to try to step in front of the ball return to hit between fourth and fifth arrow. Of course I had quite a bit less speed. Now its not so much an issue .

Yeah, to say I'm rev-dominant is probably an understatement. Plus, I walk directly towards the target, and it's not a short walk, so with the double-barrel return, I have trouble getting left of 20 at the arrows.

Besides, all the pros play fifth arrow on the Shark pattern.

Correction to that, working around the ball return isn't something you have to worry about unless you're bowling a ton of games on the PBA patterns. The reason they get in so deep is because a pattern like the Shark plays tight, so they're in around 3rd arrow and only get it out to about 10. As the shot breaks down, they have to move deeper and deeper. When they bowl with 4 right handers on a pair and bowl 8 games, they end up real deep.

If the break point is at 12 or 13, wouldn't you want to get as deep as possible, right from the start? Since I've got the revs already, couldn't I buy one of those really strong balls and give myself a board or two of bounce right away?

No, on flatter patterns you want to play as straight as possible. There's no reward for crossing as many boards as possible. It's not like a house shot where you essentially have an adult version of bumper bowling and get rewarded for swinging the ball.