I bowled a Regional a few months ago on Regional Pattern #2 which is pretty close to Cheetah. I was fortunate enough to get past Robert Smith in the Round of 16 only to face a perennial giant in the form of Wayne Garber. Wayne's not known across the world, but in our Region he is among the best players on Regional pattern #2. Wayne plays the shot from an extreme outside angle almost pointing the ball at the pocket. He was using a pretty dull Elite ball, either a Blue Alien or Shark.
I knew my only hope of beating Wayne was to (1)try to affect his chances of carrying and (2) make this happen during the 10 minutes of practice prior to the Round of 8.
Here's the link to the Regional results.....
http://www.pba.com/regional/regionstory.asp?ID=1396Minus the first game in which Wayne smoked me, his reaction was flat 10 or 4 pin. It took 10 minutes of practice and 1 game but I was able to affect his carry.
How did I accomplish this?
I threw my Blue Dot at the 3 pin for the first 7 minutes of practice and then lined myself up to the pocket. I didn't know if it would work and believe me after having 300 bowled at me the first game I was sure that it hadn't.
Why did it work?
This apparently pushed enough oil in front of the pocket that Wayne's carry went away (after the 1st game) and I was able to still get an angle to the pocket because of my slower ball speed and different tilt (affectively going "around" the oil).
This is an example that lanes can be affected in just one game and even at times in 10 minutes of practice, if there is a specific goal in mind.
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Jon Brandon
2003 PBA West Region Rookie of the Year
"You don't score, until you score......"
Edited on 6/11/2007 9:54 PM
Edited on 6/11/2007 9:56 PM