Author Topic: PBA Summer log 2008 (Read 2444 times)

Strider · « **on:** June 03, 2008, 11:46:35 AM »

I did a summary of each week last year, so I figured I'd do another. Last year was at a different house, was 4 games and each person moved independently to a new pair for each game. A new pattern was applied each week. This year, it's three games, we don't move, and we see each pattern three weeks before changing. I do bowl some PBA pattern tournaments at this house, so I'm somewhat familiar with the conditions. Please see my profile for drilling's, surfaces, and pictures.

Week #1: Chameleon

I did well my last tournament on Chameleon up the ditch, so that's where I started. The B/G Centaur was perfect right up the 3 board, for about a game. Then carry down like I've never seen took hold. Right up the ditch was good for the 3 pin, moving inside wasn't much better. My Silver Streak SE which went sideways at the break point during practice did nothing. My BW Bite (might have still been 4000 grit OOB since I just got it) hooked a few boards around the track area, but it was feast or famine (mostly the latter). I did finish the night with the Bite because it was a new toy, and it least game me some lane read. A promising night went to the dogs.

192-161-165 = 518 (nice 173 average)

Week #2 Chameleon

This week played a little more reasonable. Started off way outside with the B/G Centaur which again worked for about a game. I started to see some carry down, but nothing like the week before. I threw the last two game more or less with the Bite (now at 2000 abralon), starting out with a small swing near the first arrow, and moving in to around 15-10 by the end of the night. I stayed after and practiced a few games. I threw my Morich WMB and had about 5 in a row right off the bat. Filed that away for the next week.

I didn't keep the recap, but remember shooting 583, all the games were pretty consistent. (183 average for 6 games)

Week #3 Chameleon

I was ready for the Centaur up the ditch or the WMB with a decent swing around 15-7. However, the lanes seemed pretty different tonight. More hook and lots more back end. Threw the BW Bite all night, starting around 12-5 and finishing the night around 18-9. Either they finally double stripped, or they forgot and put out the house shot by mistake. It seemed like every one's score were up by quite a bit. Didn't have much tug room, but had 2 boards right at the arrows and 3-5 boards at the break point.

220-257-219 = 696 Dropped the fill ball, missing the head pin for a 6 count and costing me the 700. (199 average for 9 games, obviously same average for Chameleon)

Week 4: Scorpion

I hadn't bowled this since last year's league and it wasn't my favorite. I knew I wanted something strong since I don't get a lot of movement on this pattern.

Found a nice shot with the Tour Power around 17-10 again for only a game. Carry down time again. Moved my feet and target in a few boards which was OK for a few frames, then either had bad carry, or missed the pocket. Fished all game. Tried the BW Bite straight down 10 (had to be too fine), and a small swing between that and where I was playing the Tour Power keeping my speed soft, but again, had no room for error. From previous experience with these patterns locally, there's often a shot down the outside, so tried that the last game, figuring it couldn't be any worse that where I was already at. Threw the WMB right down 5 and had a great look. Had to keep my speed a little soft, but finally had a line I didn't have to be absolutely perfect with.

203-152-264 = 619 (201 average for 12 games)
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Strider · « **Reply #1 on:** June 10, 2008, 07:28:31 PM »

Week 5: Scorpion

Ever have one of those nights when your mechanics just stunk? It's bad enough on a house shot, but just plain brutal on the PBA patterns. I bet I missed the head pin 12+ times. Mostly washouts, but occasionally managed to knock out the 10 and leave just the 1-2-4 or something. It didn't matter what line or ball I used, I whiffed it right enough to make me puke. I would have made FleaBoy (ZMan800) VERY proud. I did dull the BW Bite down to 1000 grit and took the Tour Power back up to 2000 grit so each ball would play more to their strengths.

Had an OK look inside around 17 out to 10, but opted for a more direct shot outside with the WMB since I finished so well with it last week. Started OK, but either was too firm or managed to find some kind of flaw missing my target wide a few boards. Tried the inside shot with the Bite and did the same thing. A (very) few decent shots followed by a bunch of garbage. I even tried pointing the ball off the corner with the Bite and my hand up the back of the ball to try (poorly) to minimize mistakes. No matter what I tried, it didn't work for more than a shot or two. I knew it was me not the equipment or lines played, but sometimes you can find something that you do less bad than the others. My spare game was pretty solid which was good because I used it just about every frame. A few splits, a ton of wash outs, and one or two chops. Even though the series stunk, without my plastic ball, that could have been a 425 series pretty easy.

189-170-159 = 518 (196 average for 15 games)

Now the REALLY good news. Since I'll be out of town next week, we had to prebowl right after my dismal performance. Sure, I wasn't smart enough to prebowl after finishing strong last week...

Week 6: Scorpion

We moved to a fresh pair (league rules) for 5 minutes of practice. This pair had a little more hook than when we came from. I have noticed that a lot so far this league. From week to week or pair to pair, it's amazing how different the lanes can play.

Since neither inside or outside was good for me the first set, I tried to play a small (3-4 board) swing near the track area with the Bite. I've shot well there for Shark at this house and I had nothing to lose. Started flat 10, miss pocket, flat 10, miss pocket, flat 10. Well, this isn't any good either. Figured I didn't have anything to lose, so I pulled out the Tour Power, kept my speed soft, and went back out to the ditch. The right lane had some nice pop on the back, but the left was mushy. Had some hold on some tugs, but anything wide didn't make it back. Maybe slowing down my speed helped my mechanics because I threw it much better the remainder of the night. Still managed a washout and two 2-10's (made all), but at least made decent shots when I missed a little. Turned something out of nothing, which felt great after mt lousy first set and my so-so start for the second.

173-206-232 = 611 (3545/18 = 197 for the league, 194 for Scorpion)

In two weeks, I think we go to Shark next.
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Strider · « **Reply #2 on:** June 23, 2008, 08:32:02 PM »

Week #7: Shark

Tried a little bit of everything in practice. Track area kind of slick, inside kind of speed sensitive plus felt I wouldn't be able to move enough if it dried out. So what else do you do on the longest pattern? Why, play outside of 5 just like all the others.

Had a beautiful shot with a i-2 board swing around the 4 board. The ball (Tour Power back at 1000 grit) would glide through the heads, start to read the mid lane, then make a strong move on the back. Maybe the strongest back end I've seen on the 3 patterns in this house. But the same problem keeps rearing it's ugly head. Carry down. Have a nice solid game going, throw a good shot in the 9th, ball barely wrinkles and leave a wash out that I miss. I don't move on the left lane because I had no reason to, plus if anything, I had a better reaction there. Throw another good shot off my hand and get rewarded with a super wash out. Nice open-open for 185.

Chased the fresh stuff the whole second game. Moved in 4 and 2 on the left lane and 6 and 3 on the right. Good for a few frames. Move another 5 and 2 or so. Good for another two. Make a big move left to finish the game with a 190. Two splits and a flagged spare didn't help. Kept the deeper line (~17 to 11) and went from great (first 4) to garbage (spare spare, open open) quickly again. A decent finish at least got me a 202. A very hard fought 577.

185-190-202 = 577 (4122/21 = 196 for the league)

My Black Widow Bite (2000 grit) was basically a dart on the pattern. I'm going to have the pro shop put it on the Determinator and see if I might need to change the weight hole position. No way an aging Tour Power should run rings around it on the heavier stuff. I had a good look with the Tour Power, so I never tried the WMB. Maybe I should have seen if it would have made it through the carry down outside of the first arrow. I hate to leave the shot if it's there, but my experience with this league says once carry down affects the ditch - abandon ship.
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Jay · « **Reply #3 on:** June 23, 2008, 10:15:20 PM »

Good stuff man. A lot better than my sad 176 average for 16 games. Spares are hurting, a couple easy ones, a washout here and there, and splits are killer especially if you have more than one being open.

I agree though, your BWB should be moving more than it is. Not that your older ball shouldn't be hooking more, but the Bite should have worked on the Scorpion and/or Shark the best.

Strider · « **Reply #4 on:** July 04, 2008, 09:58:07 AM »

Week #8: Shark

Ugh. This made my second week of Scorpion look absolutely optimistic. For whatever reason, they finally took away the gutter (at least on my pair). First shot in practice I tried from the ditch with the Tour Power took out the 6-9 from a full rack. A 500 grit Weapon of Mass Bias made it weakly to the 3 pin. I knew I was in trouble when an entire part of the lane was useless. Once a zone starts carrying down here, you need to move a bunch. So if the inside gets messy, I'd have no where to go. Of course my friend on the next pair (the only other guy who can play the gutter) still has a nice shot outside. I still can't figure out how fresh lanes can be so different from one another.

Anyway, used my Tour Power inside since it started off nice. Nice mid lane and a fairly strong back end for most of a game. But once I needed to move, I completely forgot how to throw the ball. I'd either tug it two boards finding the face, which somehow I only left 1 or 2 splits, or miss wide 3 boards resulting in a ton of wash outs. My spare game wasn't very sharp, so I missed a few easy spares and converted very few of the challenging ones. I tried moving my feet and mark left keeping my speed soft, tried the ditch again just in case, tried a direct line near 12..., but couldn't execute anything for the life of me. The last game I managed 4 or 5 good shots with the Bite playing direct around 12, striking out the 10th for my only turkey (two doubles max the rest of the night) and at least winning one game by a few pins. Between me being clueless on my strike ball and way below average on my spares, I didn't think I had a chance to break 500 after two games.

156-164-187 = 507

(4629/24 = 193 for the league.)

I took my Bite over to the pro shop last night. The "flare increasing" weight hole as suggested by Brunswick didn't make any appreciable difference. It's getting plugged and we're adding a new one based on MoRich's "gradient line" theory. The strongest reaction should be on the PSA, so that's where it will go. If that's not enough, I'll either have to plug and re drill the entire ball stronger, or just save it for wetter house shots and cut my losses.
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Strider · « **Reply #5 on:** July 10, 2008, 05:39:36 PM »

Week #9: Shark

Ugh, again. I'm not sure if this pattern is tough at this house or if I just enjoy making it hard. I got my Bite back with the new weight hole and decided to throw it because it looked as good as anything else in practice. We didn't have the nice back ends that we normally have for 5-8 frames, so I decided to force it straighter with an up the back release and about a 2 board swing near the 12 board. That worked well the end of last week, but I continued to tug the ball 1 board (less hold than normal) through the face or 2 wide for a wash out type leave. Figured I was playing them wrong, so I moved in about 7-8 boards and came around it more. Again I wasn't terribly accurate so I continued to leave lots of things you don't want to shoot at regularly. I finally moved in another 5 boards and softened my speed and had a much better look. Better spare shooting could have at least netted me a 570+

149-177-199 = 523 (5152/27 = 191 for the league, 178 for Shark

)

I did ask the right person and found out that they definitely don't double strip for the league (it's not sanctioned, but it still blows that they want to run a "PBA" league, then do it however they want). But they make sure to double strip afterwards so they don't have extra oil left over for the THS leagues! Wow. I know the majority of bowlers want a THS, but when I'm paying a pretty hefty premium to bowl on a PBA pattern I should get the benefit of the extra labor, not every one else. I understand not running tapes and such, but at least do what it takes to make it a PBA league. They said their machine (wick, I think) has a hard time putting out the patterns properly and they have to go to a lot of effort to get the lanes to pass for sanctioned sport type patterns. That might also explain the massive differences from pair to pair and week to week.

Next up, Viper.
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Jay · « **Reply #6 on:** July 10, 2008, 06:04:36 PM »

quote:
They said their machine (wick, I think) has a hard time putting out the patterns properly and they have to go to a lot of effort to get the lanes to pass for sanctioned sport type patterns. That might also explain the massive differences from pair to pair and week to week.

In our PBA League we experience significant differences in each pair of lanes as well. We do 4 games, switch after the first two. Every time I switch, I get pretty lost because of the change in carry or how the lanes play in general compared to the ones I was previously on. They don't double strip here either, at least not if double stripping is what I think it is. Plus we have wood lanes with a plastic overlay and that's the lane man's reason for why the patterns are hardly correct. In my 7 weeks of this league, I've bowled on each pattern once and the Chameleon and Cheetah twice. Neither of those patterns were the same as the last time around, although this time they seemed more accurate.

Nonsense about how they run these leagues aside, the Chameleon is my least favorite pattern. I can never find a consistent way to play it, except maybe up the boards no further inside than 6(which i need to try next time). Swinging it inside gives no room, and if I try a 5 or less board swing outside 10 I either can't carry or can't find consistency, or both.

Edited on 7/10/2008 6:05 PM

BigBaller · « **Reply #7 on:** July 11, 2008, 11:40:13 AM »

What is nice about our league is that we bowl in Dave Husteds house and he makes sure it is right. They tape the lanes every week after they oil them.

We bowled on the scorpion last night. I was playing the trach, and if i could have quit leaving splits i would have shot 950 last night.
clean 207 first game, then 2 opens (splits in the second) for a 226, 9 strikes 2 splits and a 9 fill in the 10th for a 237, and a stupid ball change in the 3rd game for a 191 with 2 opens (splits) for an 861 on my favorite pattern so far.
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Strider · « **Reply #8 on:** July 18, 2008, 09:36:23 PM »

Week #10: Viper

Kind of an odd look. Outside was playable, inside was kind of spotty. One shot would turn hard, others would hang like crazy, even on shots that appeared the same. Opted for a 3-4 board swing around the 5 board with the B/G Centaur. The carry down took much longer to appear, but when it did, it was just as tough as ever. I'm really getting sick of massive carry down every single week.

Two games with little problems, then my best look was a stronger ball (BW Bite) on pretty much the same line with softer speed. Inside still wanted to skate more often than not, but anything firm or wide outside didn't hit the head pin either. I think I had as many opens the last game as the first two combined.

204-200-161 = 565 (5717/30 = 190 for the league)
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Strider · « **Reply #9 on:** August 09, 2008, 10:32:05 AM »

Guess I forgot about my own post...

Week #11: Viper

It's been a few weeks, so I don't remember many details other than not throwing it well and having no area to work with. Viper at this house just doesn't seem to have a defined area to play the lanes best. Probably tried straight down the gutter with the B/G Centaur, medium swing around the track area with the Bite, and a bigger swing further inside with the Tour Power. Left a lot of multi pin spares to shoot at and didn't make much of what I left.

157-193-152 = 502 (6219/33 = 188 for the league)

Week #12: Viper

For at lest one week, we actually had strong back ends all night and the pattern played like it "should". Unfortunately, my carry was awful to start. Used the Tour Power from around 17 at the arrows out to 7. Left 3 wrap 10's, an 8 and a 9 in the first 7 frames. Figured I was playing the lanes wrong since my carry was so bad, so I tried fishing around. Bad idea as usual. Left several messes the last few frames that turned a solid game into a 150 in a hurry. Kept fishing the second without much luck. Finally the 3rd game I went back to where I started and found some carry. I still left a few wrap 10's the first few frames, but managed a nice string to finish strong. If all three weeks were like this, I would have done much better on Viper.

155-164-227 = 546 (6765/36 = 188 for the league, 179 for Viper)

Week #13: Cheetah

I asked someone whether we were using the old (spark off the ditch) or new (more volume outside) version of Cheetah and they didn't have a clue what I was asking. There didn't seem to be the hard spark off the ditch like what the old version is supposed to have, but it wasn't near as difficult as what people who have thrown on the new shot have described.

I could hit the pocket with either the B/G Centaur or my Bite, but I liked the mid lane read of the Bite better. With my weaker drilling and 2000 grit abralon cover, the ball really excels at smoothing out the back ends. Unfortunately, the right lane wouldn't settle down to start. It hooked more (earlier) than the left, but moving in just made it read even earlier. One shot from deep inside during practice told me everything I wanted to know about that part of the lane. There was an OK shot there, but strong covers would hook early. I tried the Bite down the edge on the left lane and the B/G Centaur inside around the 4th arrow for most of the first game, but even the Centaur was over/under from inside. That basically killed my first game and a chance for a decent set, but live and learn. The rest of the night, I used the Bite around 7 to 2 with a cupped wrist on the left lane and around 5 to 2 with a straight wrist and more up the back release on the right lane.

153-204-214 = 571 (7336/39 = 188 for the league)

Week #14: Cheetah

We had to pre bowl since I will be out of town the following week. We got 5 minutes of practice on a fresh pair and found that both lanes were similar to the right lane as I described above. Both lanes also seemed to have a little more defined move off the edge. I couldn't carry the left lane to start or else I might have had a pretty big game. A real nice look down the gutter gives me great carry. I could miss a little right (almost threw two in the ditch managed to roll two 2 pins for strikes instead of a gutter and a 6/7 count), but even a slight tug was trouble. At least I finally avoided big trouble by leaving mostly easy spares and the few splits I left were makable.

199-212-208 = 619 (7955/42 = 189 for the league)

One more week of Cheetah, then our position round is on something completely different, the UP Open pattern I believe.
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Author Topic: PBA Summer log 2008 (Read 2444 times)

Strider

PBA Summer log 2008

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Jay

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Jay

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BigBaller

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