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Author Topic: New National's Strategy?  (Read 5568 times)

mrwizerd

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New National's Strategy?
« on: April 05, 2023, 10:18:10 AM »
My National's group is not/probably never will be in contention for an eagle.  We bowl to have a good time (and a few laughs) and see what we can do on something other than a house shot.  Most of us are in the Standard and Classified divisions and drop a few bucks into brackets.

Having returned recently from Reno, it got me to thinking about how I might need to change my overall strategy for how I bowl at Nationals.  Out of the last 3 years, for 2 of them, the best look/scores I had was throwing my spare ball up 20-ish board. The ability to throw a ball hard & straight is a strength in my game.  That strategy usually gets me a lot of makeable spares, a few strikes, and the occasional split.  For someone in the Standard division, the results usually fare well in brackets & tournament events.

My issue:

The strategy feels like cheating, since I'm basically cutting out the pattern.  Whenever I start throwing up 20-ish, I'm always waiting for a tournament rep that wants to talk with me about me sandbagging...even though my scores have improved.

The moral/ethical issue:

Do you try and play the oil pattern as it was intended to be played, and shoot lower scores?  Or play to your strengths, shoot better, but not how the pattern was intended to be played?
« Last Edit: April 05, 2023, 12:15:59 PM by mrwizerd »

 

milorafferty

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #1 on: April 05, 2023, 10:23:09 AM »
And your teammates are okay with you piping a plastic or urethane ball straight down the middle of the pattern?
"If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words?"

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DrBob806

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #2 on: April 05, 2023, 11:53:15 AM »





The moral/ethical issue:




Well since our leaders at USBC refuse to tell us what the patterns are, I wouldn't worry about any moral or ethical issues. My opinion is the opinion of many- it's dumb to expect people to spend some decent money to travel there,  and have to guess on equipment choices to bring. They have no ethics, so why worry.

I wouldn't be thrilled if you were my team mate with that strategy but I get it in a strange way. If your group doesn't want to try & "break them down," then it's not an issue at all.
« Last Edit: April 05, 2023, 02:18:37 PM by DrBob806 »

n00dlejester

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #3 on: April 05, 2023, 12:07:50 PM »
My National's group is not/probably never will be in contention for an eagle.  We bowl to have a good time (and a few laughs) and see what we can do on something other than a house shot.  Most of us are in the Standard and Classified divisions and drop a few bucks into brackets.

Having returned recently from Reno, it got me to thinking about how I might need to change my overall strategy for how I bowl at Nationals.  Out of the last 3 years, for 2 of them, the best look/scores I had was throwing my spare ball up 20-ish board. The ability to throw a ball hard & straight is a strength in my game.  That strategy usually gets me a lot of makeable spares, a few strikes, and the occasional split.  For someone in the Standard division, the results usually fare well in brackets & tournament events.

My issue:

The strategy feels like cheating, since I'm basically cutting out the pattern.  Whenever I start throwing up 20-ish, I'm always waiting for a tournament rep that wants to talk with me about me sandbagging.

The moral/ethical issue:

Do you try and play the oil pattern as it was intended to be played, and shoot lower scores?  Or play to your strengths, shoot better, but not how the pattern was intended to be played?


I think Dr. Bob is right here. If you guys don't "break the lanes down", then you do you! There is no wrong way bowl.

And if they released pattern info before-hand, there's no guessing game. But we all go to Nationals blind, so do your best and that's that.
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avabob

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #4 on: April 05, 2023, 12:36:22 PM »
I would have loved a guy or 2 piping plastic down the middle.  A little bit of hold at 15 board  does me more good than guys standing left and throwing right blowing up the heads and leaving washouts and big 4s.  I averaged 202 for 29 Nationals with a few 2000 AEs sprinkled in.  Would have been more but several of those years in the 70s and early 80s were brutal. My best luck was finding a line that worked and following the transitions.   Using a team approach to opening up the pattern is over rated unless your team all has very similar styles

itsallaboutme

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #5 on: April 05, 2023, 02:38:37 PM »
Prolly should spend the next year learning to hit what you are looking at so you can have a better strategy than chucking it down the middle. 

Remmah

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #6 on: April 05, 2023, 03:23:34 PM »
Cool Story Bro you actually sucked a few people into believing it .

mrwizerd

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #7 on: April 05, 2023, 06:42:33 PM »
And your teammates are okay with you piping a plastic or urethane ball straight down the middle of the pattern?

Re-read the first paragraph...and nobody complained, most were surprised that I did it.

Prolly should spend the next year learning to hit what you are looking at so you can have a better strategy than chucking it down the middle. 

My accuracy isn't a problem, but there is more to bowling at Nationals than just hitting a target. Without the right ball/surface prep, you can have pin point accuracy and still not score well.

itsallaboutme

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #8 on: April 05, 2023, 07:05:24 PM »
People aren’t in the standard and classified divisions because of bad ball reaction. Be a little more honest with yourself.

JessN16

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #9 on: April 06, 2023, 01:49:38 AM »
Cool Story Bro you actually sucked a few people into believing it .

Well, I'd believe it, because I did it in Baton Rouge in 2012.

Last game of D&S, I bowled with a Lane #1 XXXL Starburst spare ball, laying it down as straight up 15 as I could get it, and hoping to get it to move just 2-3 boards, and I bowled my second-highest game of the nine.

We were way out of contention for anything at that point and I asked the other guys on my pair (who were all part of our traveling group) if they'd mind, and they were so far out of it they were "nah, do what you want." And I did.


ignitebowling

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #10 on: April 06, 2023, 08:26:32 AM »
You are bowling for score not for opinions. If your best score is throwing it at the head pin do that. Filling frames is the only concern. It may not work as well for a full three or six games but you can try and see
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scotts33

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2023, 04:27:23 PM »
Perfect a UFO Spinner release and have at it.  Lane condition who cares.   ;D

Scott

bradl

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Re: New National's Strategy?
« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2023, 07:07:15 PM »
Perfect a UFO Spinner release and have at it.  Lane condition who cares.   ;D


This. No one said that a strategy for attacking the pattern on the lanes is to take the entire pattern out of play. In fact, that is a strategy in and of itself.

Besides, that same strategy lead to Marshall Kent not winning the QubicaAMF World Cup in Hong Kong about 6-8 years ago. Kent couldn't keep the ball right of 20 no matter how far left he moved, while his opponent through a UFO/helicopter spinner straight down 20 and let ball deflection and pin action strike for him. Everyone in the western world complained because he was throwing a shot they didn't like to see, or called it "not real bowling", when his strategy worked.

No reason it couldn't apply here.

BL.