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United States24480 Posts
Jesus Christ the lanes were oily. Everyone (except for the girls) was complaining about it. During the 5 minutes of practice, I noticed that no matter where I stood, my thrown ball would not reach the pocket (it would end up to the right of the pocket). During the first game I managed to adjust to a throw where I'd throw it starting from the right, with as much spin as I could muster, and slightly less than normal speed. As for the 7 pin, I was really struggling until the second game where I found if I throw it with maximum rotation as slow as I possibly can, it would just barely cut across enough to pop the pin into the gutter.
My scores were 136, 215, 192. This is very deceiving though since I was having a ton of trouble and bowled like shit. I was mostly just getting incredibly lucky that any time my ball made contact with the headpin they would all go down (pretty much).
Game 1: As I already described, I didn't have much of a strike ball. I also was missing spares that are usually automatic due to the unusual lack of movement of the ball. Suddenly the 6 pin was cake and the 7 pin was difficult, even though it's usually the opposite for me.
Game 2: I was getting pretty lucky with the strikes, and getting the hang of most of the spares, only missing one or two. IIRC I had a double strike, a spare, and a turkey in succession which racked up a good number of pins.
Game 3: Check out this opening: Strike, Strike, Strike, Strike, 9/, Strike, OPEN, OPEN, OPEN. Needless to say I blew that game haha.
That's a decent series, especially when you consider I needed to adjust a lot during the first game, but I'm not satisfied since I should have bowled much better considering just how lucky I was getting. If the lanes are in this condition again next week I will seriously consider dropping out of the league (which would be a shame for other reasons).
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192 is a pretty good score, why didnt u bowl more to the left then?
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United States24480 Posts
On September 17 2007 11:03 il0seonpurpose wrote: 192 is a pretty good score, why didnt u bowl more to the left then? Well 215 is better than 192...
I can't throw to the left. For the last 10 years, I've thrown 100% of my shots to the right. One time a few weeks ago for a goof I tried throwing a straight ball from the right and angling it in towards the center and I couldn't seem to do it. The muscle memory is just too severe. This is the result of throwing with a strong hook too much haha.
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It sounds like you need to move your feet pretty far to the left and slow your ball speed down. You also could of moved back on the approach assuming you don't stand at the back already. It sounds like you don't have a strong hooking ball. So in that case I'd move back on the approach and aim my ball at the 5 board otherwise called the first arrow going right to left. Bowling allies usually oil the lanes before every league otherwise the lanes will dry out really badly and no one likes super dry lanes.
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United States24480 Posts
On September 17 2007 13:26 DukE_ss wrote: It sounds like you need to move your feet pretty far to the left and slow your ball speed down. You also could of moved back on the approach assuming you don't stand at the back already. It sounds like you don't have a strong hooking ball. So in that case I'd move back on the approach and aim my ball at the 5 board otherwise called the first arrow going right to left. Bowling allies usually oil the lanes before every league otherwise the lanes will dry out really badly and no one likes super dry lanes. First of all I don't understand what you mean by 'move your feet pretty far to the left.' Second of all, my ball speed is pretty slow already. When I was shooting 7 pins I was throwing it as slowly as I could while maintaining a decent spin. My hook is not insanely strong like one guy I watched today, but it has a tendency to turn quite a bit under average conditions. I also start my approach all the way back already, taking 4 large steps to cover the distance. Under today's conditions, if I had started further left than the rightmost of the lane, and had thrown towards the first arrow, the ball would have been extremely low (or maybe it would have drifted into the gutter since the lane provided little resistance?)
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Hah yeah sorry. I meant to move all the way to the right. It's hard for me to comment too much on anything since I can't see how you throw your ball and all. But if you were standing all the way to the right and throwing the ball pretty slow then I don't know what to say. Maybe it's the ball you're using or just the way you are throwing your ball. Either way you should be someone from your proshop you watch you throw a couple balls and have them comment.
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United States24480 Posts
On September 17 2007 14:02 DukE_ss wrote: Hah yeah sorry. I meant to move all the way to the right. It's hard for me to comment too much on anything since I can't see how you throw your ball and all. But if you were standing all the way to the right and throwing the ball pretty slow then I don't know what to say. Maybe it's the ball you're using or just the way you are throwing your ball. Either way you should be someone from your proshop you watch you throw a couple balls and have them comment. Yeah I'm sure there are ways I can adjust my form etc. but to be honest it wasn't that I suck at throwing with spin or anything, it was just abnormally oily. I understand that they like to oil before leagues so it doesn't get too dry, but usually it isn't so bad that the ball almost refuses to hook. I think part of the reason why I did better as the games went on was because we were slowly wiping some of the excess oil away and the hook was becoming more distinguished and therefore easier to control.
Edit: I could get someone to record a clip of me bowling on my digital camera maybe, haha.
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Yeah I understand. Sometimes to oiling machine fucks up and dumps too much oil on a pair of lanes. But I'd rather bowl on oily lanes than dry ones imo.
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United States24480 Posts
On September 17 2007 14:07 DukE_ss wrote: Yeah I understand. Sometimes to oiling machine fucks up and dumps too much oil on a pair of lanes. But I'd rather bowl on oily lanes than dry ones imo.
My perspective on oily vs dry:
Oily - May as well just throw a straight ball, but at least there are few shots you can't make if you can throw a decent straight ball.
Dry - If you throw with a decent hook you are going to start all the way to the left, and kill your arm trying to throw it fast enough to reach the pocket without going high.
Yeah I agree with you for the most part, but it's still frustrating when there's so much oil you have to entirely change your approach to the game (no pun intended).
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