Bowling in a competitive league for 4 years. This year they changed the pattern without consulting the league members. Shot was setup by a bowler on the league in conjunction with the house. Now almost everyone is averaging 5 to 20 pins less than last year. Your pro bowlers and lower average (straight ball) bowlers have almost no change in average. Only your average to slightly above average bowlers are struggling. My question is should the league have voted on a pattern change? If a change was needed should we have not been given a choice in patterns to vote on? Example. Red, White or Blue patterns. Should a bowler bowling in the league set the pattern up? To me this is more like bowling on a sport pattern than a modified house shot! The averages reflect that. 177 this league 193 all other leagues. Just doing a little venting.

You would be what we call a house bowler!!! A killer in leagues as long as you play on the shot that you've grown accustomed to but as soon as they change the shot..........whaaaaaaa!!!! This is the reason why averages are sky rocketing in typical house shots. Whiney league bowlers with all this great equipment love the shot the can just bang the outside all day and get great carry even on bad shots. Throw a little oil at them and the skill level goes out the window. Bowling is about being versatile not getting that shot that you like. If you really want to improve your skill then take this opportunity to elevate your game.

We use to call them one house wonders 40 years ago.  The only difference today is that with mostly synthetic lanes, sophisticated lane machines, and a lot more knowledge about lane conditioning ( not from local lane men, but from Kegel ) a very one dimensional bowler can usually take his game to almost any house that puts out the standard 10 to 10 or 8 to 8 wall. 

By the way, I have said this many times, but what makes a house shot so easy is that the pattern pretty much takes the length of the oil out of play since there is so little oil outside of the wall on any part of the lane.  It is changes in the length of the oil on flatter patterns that impacts bowlers more than any other variable.  I have seen house bowlers totally whack a sport pattern at one buff length, only to look like a total hack on a similar pattern 3 feet longer or shorter.

One of the local houses I bowl in months ago had received a new oil machine, also during that time USBC came in to certify the lanes and found that even though they were putting down the proper shot they were not putting enough volume of oil down. I guess many centers do this sometimes to save money and to bump scores. Man!!! you should have heard all the whining about the shot from the leagues so called "elite" bowlers for the next couple of weeks. I actually liked it with more oil it allows me to let the ball work and not have to muscle the ball so much so I get better carry instead of blowing the rack. Anyhow it wasn't long before they tweaked the shot back to how the whiners liked it. You see, bowling center like to make money and in order to make money they need to inflate scores and ego's. Why does the center have any obligation to get any input from the bowlers as to what kind of shot they like? A shot that's good for you may not be good for someone else.

I bowled in a 6 game marathon with a long and a short sport pattern and you should have seen these guys that average 220 only bowl 130's and 150's. Couldn't make it to the pocket to save their lives and damn sure couldn't make a spare. I on the other hand average right at 196-200 at least averaged 175's - 180's over 6 games. So whenever they walk around puffing their chest out I tell them to lay down a long pattern and put your money up.