I totally agree about the typical house pattern. It's a form of "bumper bowling", really. I usually aim at 10 and my plastic ball will hook some as long as I get the release right. At least when using plastic, it still feels like somewhat of a challenge even with the walled house shot. If I miss my target by a couple of boards then I usually don't get a strike

I don't know this for sure, but I wouldn't be surprised if the pros sanded up their plastic bowling balls a bit back in the day. It's not illegal now and it probably wasn't back then. Of course, we all know about the Yellow Dot "bleeder", which met the PBA hardness spec but was still very grippy compared to other bowling balls at the time. That's probably why it was the ball of choice for a few years running.

We used to sand our balls for heavy oiled lanes back then, but the lanes had to be very oily. you could also just sand the Track either with it or across it.

I was bowling in the late '70s but as a youth leaguer, my only knowledge of "surface conditioning" was tossing the ball in the Lustre King every now and then

Lusterking is still around, but it ruins reactive resin balls by filling the pores with wax.

The PBA is a circus, and the USBC has been run by clowns

The LK sure did a good job on plastic, though. My scratched-up bowling ball would come out looking like new.

There was also the original "soaker" ball, as in soak the ball in acetone to soften the surface to get better grip. Thats why acetone is now illegal to use on bowling balls.

As for the whole technology thing, bowling balls are what they are and thats not going to change. If the USBC really tried to make stricter rules for the balls and the manufacturers declined to follow them, who is going to win? The manufacturers, because the bowlers will want to be able to use the next big hooking ball. Lane conditions aren't going to get tougher either, the USBC is getting into bed with the BPAA who is going to defend the right to have the easy house china and again will win if USBC tries to make the rules stricter. There would be less sanctioned bowlers and the USBC will eventually fold.

So the conditions in your everyday leagues are going to stay the same. At the Pro Level these guys want a challenge, they want to bowl against and beat the best of them on tough conditions so implementing some of those ideas would probably be possible there.

The PBA format for 08'09, from the PBA:

http://www.pba.com/news/feature.asp?ID=841

It's so juicy, you need to read it all. Go read it. I'll wait.

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Ok, back?

Some things that excite me:

• New pattern! (Earl Anthony)
• Multiple patterns for some tournaments. Shark + Cheetah in the same tournament, good stuff. Similar to what they have done at the Teen Masters.
• Plastic ball tournament, provided by the PBA, on the Cheetah
• League shot tourney
• Marathon championship on all 6 patterns (animals + Earl), top seed chooses the pattern for TV.

The 3 swings seem interesting as well... I am very excited to sit my [censored] on the couch and watch some TV this fall/winter/spring!

That was a lot of info. Thanks CG.

I am interested to see the Earl and the Dick Weber patterns as well as watching the bowlers bowl on different patterns on each lane. One of the hardest things for a lot of bowlers is to remember that each lane may play different. With throwing 2 completely different patterns out there, it will be stressed a lot more. Watching them bowl on a house pattern will be fun too. I hope to be seeing a 300 or 2. I am wondering how tame of equipment they will be using.

For bowling geeks like us, I think that this is pretty cool. For the Pros, a chance to show what they are made of. For the casual fan, eh. They could care less.

I'm a newer bowler but I would have to agree with you Dave. The house shots are kind of like bumper bowling. I'm speaking simply from comparision between the PBA shot league (where you get punished for bad shots) that I'm in and normal house shot league that I'm in. When I screw up on a house shot I'm like, "D**n it!" But then magically, I get a strike. I couldn't have made anymore mistakes, and I get rewarded with a strike. I'm a little upset but I let it go and try to fix it on the next shot and chalk it up to I now have some useful information. However this kind play with easy house patterns only perpetuates the "I'd rather be lucky than good" mindset. Really? I'd rather be a skillful bowler who occasionally gets lucky. Also, these easier shots eliminate a lot of technical aspects of bowling from the bowlers possible arsenal. Had I not gone to check out Ron C.'s articles, I probably still wouldn't know about a lot of the things can be done to change your game and be more versatile.

As for the tougher shots and the ability of the bowling ball companies to produce new and innovative technology. The bowling ball companies are winning. No matter how tough a pattern is, there is a ball that is made to conquer it. Something else needs to be done.

Something like putting down tougher shots during leagues (it may not help much in the broad persective but it would make me happy). One thing that I would like to see here in San Diego is more volumes of oil. Very rarely will the ball come back with oil on the Track. I guess that's why I have trouble playing inside and going across the lane becaue I like to play the drier areas of the lane and I'm used to it. I'm not really used to playing in oil.