desertdog, about a year ago, we had a thread here that turned into a battle. The subject was House shots versus heavier oil patterns. The are really polarized views on this subject.

I am glad to see many here finally taking part in the PBAX. That will give them a totally new respect for the game. But, sadly, there are still very few participating to make an impact.

So, we leave that subject alone out of respect for the other side, whichever it was.

In terms of entry angle, outside of foot position movement on the approach, the most common remedy is a change in your axis of rotation, which can be achieved in quite a few ways: more or less side rotation, flattening the ball, etc. You have to find the correct release to combat it.

Most here don't remember or weren't around when a bowler had to manipulate their hand to make the ball respond. It was bowler hand manipulation that got the desired reaction needed. A turn of your wrist. Pull of your arm. Tighter finger grips. Even, pulling your thumb out a shade to rely more on your fingers.

Then fingertips came around, and everyone had a hook.

Watch some old videos of Varipapa or Fazzio. They actually turned their hand backwards in the swing, and turned it back before they released the ball. The figure 8 hand movement was tough to Master.

See the below article to see about the USBC's reaction to the ball study.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/05/22/bowling-ball-tech.html

I won't stir this up anymore than I already have. Yeah I do remember when you had to manipulate your release to get different reactions, and rolling a suitcase ball wasn't the preferred method.

People still manipulate their release to get different reactions. I couldn't even think about throwing the ball the same on the Cheetah as I do on the Shark. There are articles in BTM about diferent releases and "finger dancing" and the results. Ron Clifton has an article on the same thing along with other ways to make adjustments.

It's true that equipment plays a bigger role in todays game than it did 20 years ago, but that doesn't mean that everything else goes out the window. On tougher conditions, the cream still rises to the top, and the better bowlers will out score those who are not as good. Yes, even a 5 rev'er can score on tough conditions if they've got a solid game.

No doubt, I used to bowl with a certain exempt pro that gets ridiculed for lack of revs. The guy was like a machine though and never missed his mark. I even went as far as having him give me some tips on changing my release and arm swing. We both agreed after a while to abandon that approach, and work with what I did well.

This was the beginning of the end and how the game evolved into what it is now. They used to oil all the way to the pin deck, now that was a challenge, but they used maybe a small fraction of the oil they use these days and the oil is much lower in viscosity back then too.

A 24ft pattern would be easier to score on with old school balls, give me a white dot on that one vs a modern hook machine any day.

A 24ft pattern with old school balls is way easier than the old 60ft pattern or a modern 50 ft flat pattern even with a modern ball. It is the easy lane conditions that have made the game easier, the ball is just a tool to take advantage of it and if you have the wrong ball in your hand you will not do well.

The reason the 5 rever shoots the occasional 300 is he/she hit the break point and played the lanes properly, or got extremely lucky.

If anyone feels jipped it is not you it is me, I spent my whole youth learning to rev the ball up just so they could put a pattern so short that I blew my arm out trying to get the ball to a point that I could hit the head pin with a blue dot and people who I would beat like a drum were keeping up with me because they could now hook the ball, so don't act like you are the only one who is unhappy with the way things are.

You posed the topic about entry angle and since you have been out of bowling many things have changed, most of which the sharing of information. Tips and secrets used to be locked away in a golden vault only to be learned if you stumbled across them yourself or were lucky enough to know someone out on tour who was willing to give you a tip or two.

Now they have coaches, magazines, websites dedicated to helping people learn to bowl properly so it doesn't take someone 20 years to learn how to Master one way of bowling, now people are much more versatile they can play the lanes from any angle on pretty much any condition, only one angle will be optimum, but they can usually get there from several angles without changing balls.

Re: not having to do anything anymore, I go through about 3 different releases with 3 different balls in 4 games on the Cheetah, across 4 lanes.

We are moving on to the Viper this week. I think I will have 4 balls I can use. I will probably have 3 or 4 release I use, and they will not all be the same as the ones I used on the Cheetah.

Wow, that sounds familiar.

I am not going to perpetuate this discussion though. It is indeed pointless, the game is what it is, and likely will not change.

The ball companies drive the industry now, and that's just the way it is. Like I said before, I still like the game and have returned for a reason. I came hear to get some help getting my game back on Track and you were very helpful with that so I appreciate it. The subject is closed as far as I am concerned.

I have no problem with the PBAX shots, they do what they were intended to do.

Getting this thread back on topic, when you said you have no use for a skid/snap type reaction, or a dull ball, because of your high rev rate, maybe I could shed some light here.

When I posted about the subtracting 31 from the length of the pattern to find the board the ball should leave the oil on, I was trying to get you to see that if your ball didn't finish strong enough because it was burning out due to your high rev rate, that maybe a ball with more skid/snap type reaction would allow you to play the lane from this angle and optimize your scoring.

The same would hold true with a dull ball, if the ball leaves the oil on the 8 board and the ball was jumping too high because of the high rev rate allowing the ball to store so much energy then a dull surface would smooth things out on the back end.

The point I was trying to make was that dull or polished balls don't just help you hook the ball, they help you shape your ball reaction to what you need to score your best, and sometimes more surface is less hook and vise versa.