You're trying to hook the ball entirely to much on a sport pattern. Straighter is greater. You are not rewarded for the number of boards you cross. The only time you see the pros crossing that many boards is when there are a LOT of games on a lane and/or the TV lights evaporate the oil off the lane. One guy spraying the ball all over the lane for a game or two doesn't burn up the lane and require someone to move that deep. And it certainly wouldn't cause your ball NOT to hook. If anything, him throwing a sanded ball would cause your weaker vibe to grab and hook more.

Also, if you're standing on 40 and aiming at 20, you're putting the ball down at about 30 maybe? That would mean you're crossing 10 boards in 12 feet. That also means that you'd be crossing another 10 boards in the next 12 feet, which would put the ball at about 10 by the time it's 24 feet down the lane. Since there's still oil out there, it would continue to go right, and I'd imagine either end up outside 5 or in the gutter.



This to me sounds more like you beat yourself.

Lefty, thanks for the advice. I was starting this post to help others that have never bowled on this pattern get a starting point to work with. My speed is under 16, and my ball revs under 300. I am very good about watching my flair to read the oil on the lanes. My ball has 6 rings of flair in about a 4.5 to 5 inch pattern. If I have all 6 rings with oil I know I didn't get it to the right break point. I like to see 3 good rings of oil and the rest get dryer as they go out. I know it is a bow tie but I am giving you the best description I can for you to understand my method. If you have never thrown a Virtual Gravity I can not stress how much energy stays in this ball through the pin deck. I have NEVER had reaction like this before. I was a down and in bowler until 3 months ago. I needed to change my release to use this ball. I can hook the entire lane if I want but I am not happy unless I play as straight as I can with ALL TEN in the pit. Don't like messengers or swish strikes if I can avoid them. Normal line for this pattern is 21 to 11. Not 21 to 11 out to 8 or 5. When I need to move and find oil I will move little by little left, Target and arrow if 1 or 2 boards left with just the feet don't work. Please try to keep this post to the Kegel Patterns. All the help is appreciated but I intended for others to share their experiences not for a help ME out post. Again thank you so much!

You should know if you hit your breakpoint by watching which board the ball breaks on. And you're not going to see the rings get lighter if the ball gets more right because unlike a house shot, there's still a decent amount of oil out at the gutter. You pitch the ball right on a house shot, your oil rings will get lighter because there's drastically less oil out there. Not so on a sport shot. there's only marginally less so you'll see the same amount of oil on the ball until it exits the pattern, at which point you'll see the rings end. If you're seeing more or less oil rings, it's because you're releasing the ball differently and getting more or less revolutions.

As for the line, there is no "normal line". Different bowlers will need to get to the pocket in different ways. A good way to start would be to take the pattern length minus 31 to figure out where a good breakpoint might be. For this pattern, that would be 9, so that's where I'd start. Someone with more revs would need to get deeper to use 9 as their breakpoint and someone with less revs would have to move out more to use 9 as their breakpoint. You also have to keep in mind that the pattern won't play the same from house to house or even lane to lane. There could even be an issue with the oil machine that caused the pattern to be put down differently or all the lanes (or even some of them) to not be stripped properly.

If you go into it thinking you need to play a "normal line", odds are that you're not going to have success. It would be pure luck for that to work when the bowler or the equipment wasn't taken into consideration coming up with it.

What line did you play on this pattern? What ball? What rev rate and speed worked best for you?

We bowl on the PBA patterns, but even if I did bowl on this pattern, it's not going to be the same as what's in your center. I've bowled on the same PBA patterns in different centers and they never play the same. Heck, they don't even play the same from one week to the next in the same center, or even from one pair to another.

A similar PBA pattern is the Chameleon pattern. Some weeks I played that pattern standing on 20 and crossing about 10, and others I had to play outside 5. There were some weeks where I'd have to move in more because there were 4 lefties on the pattern and the lane got burned up and for whatever reason, outside 5 wouldn't hook at all. And some weeks you don't end up figuring it out at all and you walk out of the bowling center talking to yourself because you felt like you threw the ball well and every time you found something, it went away. And other times you don't throw the ball well and pay for it.

As far as equipment, it would also vary depending on how that lane or pair was reacting.

Also, I don't change my rev rate and ball speed. I throw the ball about 16MPH and my rev rate is about 350.

I bowled on Dead man's curve in a tournament a lit bit ago. I posted where I played and my analysis on it here-

http://www.bowlingcommunity.com/b/ubbthr....html#Post92958

Also, look at my post after Dennis' replies. Might be helpful

Great tips on that other thread, mikhial and Dennis. I will be bowling a shootout on Dead Man's Curve tomorrow and post the results.

Ended up getting third in the small shootout on Dead Man's Curve.

Shot 584 for first set to make the cut, then 247-226 to make the PBA-style bowloff. Ended up losing the first game as the lanes were too dry for me to handle, but I learned a lot that will be great for next time.

I found that even with a very small amount of participants, this shot dries out very quickly after starting off as an extremely wet pattern.