I was the only right hander on my set and it didn't matter if I stood 30, 20, 10 or 5 if the ball got outside of the 5 board it was in the ditch. THAT is no Cheetah, no matter how you wanna spin it.

I have found in my area that there are no Sport/PBA leagues during the fall/winter and only 1 during the summer. My summer league was 6 teams of 3 last season. This season we have 10 teams. Around me, there isn't much of a push for it though. Most bowlers would rather have bloated averages and honor scores than actually learn how to bowl properly.

The debate about mandating harder shots for all leagues has been going on for years, and it will never happen. Those who don't want the challenge will quickly quit, and I'm referring to the high average house bowler that tries to play the same line no matter what. You would also have more and more houses not certify because they don't want to have to put out the conditions that will make them lose bowlers, and eventually less and less bowling centers. In general forcing this on people will kill this sport.

There has also been suggestions of a tiered system for a few years, Kegel has even came up with a plan for it, including several different patterns in each tier. You can't go Social, Sport then PBA, because as Lefty said PBA patterns are Sport compliant patterns. Also there are many Sport patterns that are harder than the 5 PBA patterns, as well was many that are easier. The whole idea of the PBAX leagues was to help Sport bowling by introducing this gimmick of bowling on the same exact patterns as the Pros. It initially worked in some areas, but now many want nothing to do with it since they can't just throw the ball the same way they always did on house shots and put up good scores, deflated their egos some. In the centers that have tried PBA league, those that choose not to do it again because of the lack of interest.

Another issue with the tiered system, would be that some bowlers that could and should step up would remain down at the easy level and take advantage of the less skilled, yet if forced to move on might decide to quit. I do think in a tiered system scratch leagues might be able to make a comeback as many of the bowlers that would move up probably don't like having to compete in all handicap leagues.

I understand your frustration about wanting tougher conditions Dennis. I hear people complain way too much when the lanes aren't to their liking, or are slightly different than every other week of bowling. I like tougher lane conditions myself. I know of at least 20 people from one league that are not returning to the center I bowled my Tuesday mens league in, this includes my whole team. Most of them are because they don't like the lane conditions which were hard. Yes there was a huge drop in league average from last season. I dropped 15+ pins, but I take full responsibility for it, I wasn't consistent with anything through a whole night much less the season. If other things at this center such as customer service and a few others were better I would have no problem bowling their next season, but since it won't change I won't return to that center even for open play.

Last night was my first night in the Fort Walton Beach PBAX league, and the Cheetah was pretty much as advertised. The lanes are all wood, so the back ends were absolutely screaming. The major weaknes in my game is having to play a break-point outside the 5 board, and so I got absolutely run over as one might imagine . 5 splits in a row at one point, before I finally resigned myself to throwing the White Dot the rest of the night just to avoid the train wrecks. Here's the kicker, though; I've never had so much fun throwing a 480 in my whole life, because the few times that I did cowboy up and get the ball out to the 3 board I was rewarded with 10 straight back. I now know without doubt that I need to log some serious hours playing the twig. I've rarely been more pumped to get out for practice because getting my butt kicked has always been the best motivator. On the other hand there were a couple crankers on my pair that kept talking about how they were ready to give up bowling just because they couldn't (more like wouldn't) adapt to what the lane was giving them. I've never been able to understand that way of thinking, but I agree that is a major reason why the PBAX program is floundering.

Chubbs, it is the crankers, no thumbers, high rev guys who are failing and disgruntled on these patterns. When they have to play an outside shot, or come straight up they flat out stop. It is not their game. Banking off a dry house shot is where their level of comfort lies.

I would like to see a league where the USBC National shot was used exclusively, I would like to see what I could average on that for a whole season. It rewards good shots and penalizes bad shots, there are no advantages for crankers or strokers it is just about as fair of a shot as you could have.

The biggest reason the PBAX and sport patterns are failing is the inconsistency of the shot from week to week either because of the incompetence of the person putting the shot down or because of faulty equipment. I really don't want to bowl on someone's twist on the Cheetah I want to bowl on the actual cheetah pattern, so if you don't have the actual program in a machine that is capable of putting the shot down, then don't bother because these are the things that are scaring people away from competitive bowling. My house can't even put down an easy house pattern, much less a sport pattern.

At the center I bowl at, the machine has the shot programmed in and it's still not the same week to week.

I think that would be a great idea, and I think a lot of people would be interested in it. It would make a lot of people much better bowlers because they would have to consistantly throw good shots to succeed. Howvere, people can get annoyed very quickly, and a much lower average then they are used to might discourage them and keep them out of the league.

My house is the same way with its pattterns. It was unbelieveable. Not onlyare the patterns sometimes off so is the volume of oil on the lane.

We have a Kegel machine at our house, and the patterns are close each week. Some times it's earlier, or later, or sharper on the backends, but that's how bowling is. There are so many variables. The Cheetah does not play the same for the pros every week either - it is learning to adjust and find a playable area.

DD, if you were standing on 5 and throwing over 5 you would have been pointing to the pocket. Did you try throwing straight up the boards, keeping it outside 5 the whole time? Laydown on 4, going up 4?

PBAX is big in Tucson. We have four adult leagues and two junior leagues this year, and the league at my house has about 30 bowlers.

I got into a scratch league instead, and that league went from 12 teams last summer to 7 this summer. The traveling league was there last night, and they seem to be suffering, too.