Sh, I thought about that too. Centers being "white" "red" or "blue" centers. But how are you going to assume that they are going to stay that way throughout the season. Let's say the hardest house shot is "blue" and at the beginning of the season it is blue. But around 1/2 way people start dropping out, the house starts losing bowlers and they adjust the shot. Or lets say they lose their mechanic and hire another. That mechanic puts in what they thing is a "blue" shot or not. Hiring and firing happen all the time and getting new machines happesn too. Our center has two machines. But if one machine runs the "blue" shot and the other runs the "white" how are you going to tell from week to week besides bowlers' perception.

Althought its been explained how golf courses can change their degree of difficulty, I still thing its easier for a bowling lane to do so with one pass of a machine. You can also tilt the pin decks, lower the gutters things like that, which to me kind of equae to the golf course changes. But the machine is programed and you push a button. Which means that each time that machine passes the shot would have to be verified somehow. I've just rarely bowled in any center where the shot stayed the same all year, house shot or not, easy or not. Week to week you sometimes see variences.

Don't get me wrong. I don't think this is a bad idea. However, I do think its impossible logistially to enact. Since USBC cannot be concerned with having all centers put at least 3 units of oil on the outside boards. I doubt they are going to be all that concerned with the integridy of their Red/White/Blue shots.

Erin

Dennis, these new lane conditions are going to be house shots with varying degrees of difficulty then on top of that there will be the Sport Shots, which include the PBA conditions and some are more difficult than the PBA shots.

I guess I misread that. But, in the houses where I bowl, the vast majority of leagues would be standard House shots.

Now, does that have to conform to other house oil patterns? If so, I see objection in our area. Why? Because there is a big competition for bowlers between houses, and the ones with the easier shots are currently winning. Bowlers will gravitate to the house with the higher scores.

Yep, "Come to Joe's Bowl, score high, tons of fun, no membership needed".

Erin

Oh no. They are USBC sanctioned leagues. But, I just shake my head and wonder why is it that 2 houses of the 13 in our association have over 60% of all of the honor scores.

I have only bowled in one of those. And frankly, I don't have a ball that I could roll on that shot. I'd have to replace all of my equipment with balls that are more relaxed. A fellow who I know that bowls in the other told me that no one uses a Virtual Gravity, and the house Pro Shop can't sell them because they are too strong for the lanes

A team left our normal house to bowl at one of these houses. I see a couple of those bowlers occasionally. All he does is rave about how much better they all are doing. But, he says it in a way that blames our normal house for not putting out a better shot. Of course, we disagree. But, his last year's 189 has turned into this year's 210. And, he says the "same improvement" has been experienced by the others as well. I just can't see how the entire team can jump 20 pins in average just by changing the house they bowl in, unless it is the house.

I guess if they color coded that league, it would be pink, for its prissy shot.

That's not an improvement in the bowler, just an improvement in the score. If they just bowl for fun, that's fine. If they want more out of the sport, they're hurting themselves - not necessarily by bowling on the easy shot, but by not realizing that it's the shot creating those scores.

There are centers where it is dang near impossible to put out a very high scoring shot. The centers are so old, or the lanes not installed well, etc.....

Erin

I mentioned that I had the House averages of all men's leagues in each House of our Association. Now, there may be a difference between the experience and ability level from House to House. But, the spread was from 169 up to 202. That's a huge difference. My main House is at 187.9.

I do know that the House I bowl in is noted for cutting 10 pins off your average. And, I do have a higher average at other league Houses. I have a higher PBA average at another House.

This just leads to the speculation that there is no consistency between Houses, even on a House shot.

Then again, my main House just inspected the lanes, and found 17 of the 32 were out of level, and fixed them. So, I may have been bowling on uneven lanes for the past 4 years.

What's funny, Dennis is that the way you describe your house, I'd almost rather bowl there because I'd feel better about bowling well on a difficult shot or lanes than on an easy shot or lanes. My competitive nature I guess.

Then center I've done the bulk of my bowling over the last two years is one of those houses that has all types of honor scores coming out of it. I think they even announced once that they had the most honor scores in the nation the previous season when handing out a 300 Jacket to the first guy to toss one after the New Year this season. The house is known all around as a high scoring house and some stay away from it for that reason but all manner of equipment is used there from the VG down to plastic(obviously straight bowlers using that).