I started my PBA shot league last night, and after being told we would start on the Cheetah pattern, we were met by the Shark pattern instead. Turns out that the house could not quite get the Cheetah pattern right when it was inspected by the USBC. The house also had the Shark pattern down when the inspection took place, and that tested out ok so they went with that.

Needless to say I did'nt fair too well, I had brought balls I thought would work on the Cheetah, and left my duller balls at home. Oh well you are supposed to adjust right? So that what I tried to do. I had some success but I was brutal on my spares. I averaged 157 over four games using my BW Bite, but it was fun and I expect to do better next week. It looks like I have to keep the speed down on this pattern.

As a team we won three of four games. We have 26 teams taking part, so its a nice size league. All in all , an enjoyable start on a pretty challenging pattern.

There was a opening in the PBA experience league at my center and I decided to join it. Before this I never bowled on a PBA oil pattern. I bowled on the Shark last night. Let me tell you what. I had to make a huge adjustment to even come close to the pocket. Basically I went extremely down and in with my BVP Rampage. 4 games I bowled were 164 163 202 163. Overall I did better than what I thought I would have. Next week is the Viper. This is all a new experience to me. I have no clue how to play the lanes lol.

Reconbbs,

That's not bad shooting at all for not knowing what you're doing. Good job.


I guess it's a matter of trying my equipment on each pattern because each ball usually rolls differently for each bowler. I just figured someone could give a general idea because each ball also has a specific design for what its supposed to do, which is slightly modified by layout and release.

I started on the Viper pattern last night. Its definitely an experience and my main focus was just to hit my mark and stay consistant. I was able to do that most of the night but even then I have to learn how to make better adjustments now instead of the general ones you can make on a house shot. I brought a notebook with me though and am keeping frame by frame Track of my pinfall, where I stand, what my target is and if I hit or miss it and by how much, how the ball reacts and how it hits the pins on each shot. One of the guys on the pair next to me was picking on me a bit about it, but he said its a great idea and most people probably do that, I'm just the only one "with enough balls to have it out in the open."

I went over to my regular house to practice last night, and they had an experience league there that was just letting up. So, I watched them finish, then went over to the desk to rent a lane...long story short, I was offered the pair next to the league, where the pattern had been put down but not used at all. Needless to say, all my thoughts of practice went out the window.

The pattern was Viper, and the sheet I swiped recommended crankers start between 12 and 9 at the arrows, so I got out my Doom and stood on the 29 board, aiming for 12. It worked well enough, but I obviously would have been better off with a more rounded shot; at one point I missed outside a board, and the ball floated out to the 2 before snapping back (leaving the headpin standing). After a while, I switched to a Liberator, the second-strongest ball in my bag, and by the middle of the second game I'd switched to a Urethane Groove. By the end of my fourth game, with a weaker ball and the carry-down, I was standing on 6, aiming for 6.

My first four games were 196-215-149-234. The 149, I missed four 'makeable' spares with the Zone; the next game, I switched to the Groove for spares and mainly had trouble with the 10pin from then on.

I still had plenty of room to move after the fourth game, but there didn't seem to be much point to staying with the Groove, so I switched back to the Doom to see what I could do with it. The ball wanted to break outside and I wanted it to break inside, so I struggled with consistency, and the sixth and seventh games I repeatedly moved forward and left, trying to find a line that would put that snap to good use. By the middle of the seventh game I was back to standing on the 38 board aiming for 18, and with no more room to move, that's where I finished. My last four games went 169-201-174-200.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised--I was expecting I'd need to put the ball on a board or suffer extreme consequences, but especially with the Groove, that wasn't close to being the case. I admit you guys had scared me, but now I'm back to where I was before: if I clean up my spares, buy some oil balls and get better working around the ball return, I'll be in pretty good shape for an experience league next summer.

In the meantime, it looks like I'd have a decent chance making my average just by showing up with a Groove and a White Dot and playing the mid-revs line. I have no idea whether that would hold true for any of the other patterns, obviously.

I'll try to be back at the same time next week, so maybe I'll find out.

Nice shooting. Do you happen to know if the league you were following is a sport sanctioned league?

I went to bowl.com, to the sport bowling section, did 'find a league' and it came up as one of the leagues, so I guess so.

I would have to ask if I wanted to make sure.

If it's there then it means that they're sanctioning sport and they have to tape the lanes, etc. That way you know that they're actually putting out a 3:1 shot and not just putting down something they say is a sport pattern.