I recently got back into bowling after a 8 year hiatus and have been averaging around 220-230 in various houses on their THS. As a pompous, ego-inflated tournament novice, I thought I would excel in a local tournament.

Absolutely wrong. Averaged only 167 on the tournament conditions. (The house used a 2009 USBC Junior Gold pattern...my first time bowling on a sport shot.) I had a harsh reality check that the THS has masked so much of my flaws. After the tournament was over, I practiced 5 games of open bowling on the tournament lanes and still could not even break 190.

I have heard time and time again how the conditions that the pros play on are much tougher conditions, and the myth of "I average xxx at a local league, better than what the pros shoot on tv; therefore, I must be good enough to be pro", but I didn't know it was going to be this tough. Extremely humbling, to say the least. I have that much more respect for PBA pros, amateurs, and the youth USBC tournaments now.

My question is, given that PBA experience/sport shot leagues aren't so accessible to me for the next couple years or so (due to geography/time), are there some practice tips using a THS for the time being? Can certain parts of the lane with THS be more challenging and can perhaps mimic a sport shot condition? (e.g. maybe the extreme outside near the gutter or the extreme inside and stay in the oil). How do competitive tournament bowlers and the pros practice on THS?

...

A few things I learned:

1. I can't trust the scoreboard on THS anymore. The THS masks so many flaws I have in my shotmaking. I'll actually stop looking at the scores and focus more on shotmaking.
2. Might look into investing in a spare ball. Spareshooting is so key when it's hard to just even hit the pocket. Even 10 pins and 7 pins were extremely challenging because I got so used to my ball hooking at the last few feet of the lane to avoid the gutter. I will try relearning how to make spares again using a plastic ball.
3. Will start videotaping and reexamine my fundamentals.
4. Will avoid shooting around the 2nd arrow for my strike ball on THS...that track area is so money. Will start to get comfortable in other areas of the lane.

Any suggestions to add to this 'to-do list' for practicing for the next tournament? Any advice/discussion is welcome...thanks for all the great posts in the forum. I have learned so much here at the forums.

It seems like you have a good general idea. The best way to get used to it is bowling on tougher conditions. Try and find out if the center nearest you puts out a sport shot 1 or 2 days a week for a little while.
For me, my current center puts out a sport shot on 2 pairs Sunday and Monday mornings til the lanes are oiled again at night for leagues

Like stated above..  Get a spare ball, and more importantly, learn to throw hard and straight at spares.  Another thing you can do on a house shot is take your weakest ball and move really deep inside to say 4th arrow or (wherever gives you the least amount of miss room). If your reaction is weak enough it will exaggerate your misses and you will be forced to make better shots. Don't pay too much attention to weak hits, just work on repeating and hitting your target.

Pay your dues.  That's how you get better.  All the practice in the world won't matter unless you get out and do it.

 

I have been fortunate or unlucky depending on how you look at it!

On medium and very long sport shots I have often outscored my league averages.  Sometimes by a considerable amount.

I have taken 3 steps plus 1 to be able to do this(I claim no ability at Cheetah).
1.  Spare ball and lots of what I call sweet sixteen practice back and forth across the face of the pins.
2.finding balls that are too weak to carry in league for most of the medium length shots.
3.  For very long oil shots I find balls I can slow down, rev up, point with and match backend to the available backend.

Fortunately for me though I never did practice on a sports shot before I shot my first high 6 on the first one I saw, I heard them describe the jump off the back.  Took a weak ball that was essentially too dead for league.  Moved deep inside during the warm up(near the 4th arrow for a lefty).  Made sure my arm never swung out into the out of bounds.

Fortunately my local bowling tournaments decided after some lucky lefty won some local tournaments handicap tournaments to flood every tournament shot that I played on, I learned how to point on various lines in the 5 to 9, 4 to 8, 5 to 10 area week after week and found the balls that worked best on this.  High rgs with some good diff and various surfaces!  Some of the tournament organizers said the shots were up to 50 feet.  Balls that were used for these FTL long flat oil shots were Track Spell, Brunswick Demolition Zone, and a Brunswick Battle Zone.  The last one often shocked people!

Note the longer patterns were not Shark which I perceive as needing to be played inside with a pretty strong move at the back.

REgards,

Luckylefty
PS many consider me back in those times to be rev heavy and slow.  Now I am getting  faster and my league average is steadily rising on a high friction shot.

Like stated above..  Get a spare ball, and more importantly, learn to throw hard and straight at spares.  Another thing you can do on a house shot is take your weakest ball and move really deep inside to say 4th arrow or (wherever gives you the least amount of miss room). If your reaction is weak enough it will exaggerate your misses and you will be forced to make better shots. Don't pay too much attention to weak hits, just work on repeating and hitting your target.

No need to throw hard,  just straight. Guys get all out of whack trying to throw missiles at single pins.

Thanks everyone for all the great advice! Definitely much appreciated and I have been training hard by bowling with my videocamera, shooting 2-3 games per practice session shooting only at the 7 or 10 pin, and practicing on areas of the lanes that I am not comfortable with (deep inside, extreme outside) to become a general better bowler.

JustRico - You're right, I'm starting to discern what a good shot vs. bad shot is now. After every shot, I ask myself "did I hit my mark/arrow + or - 1 board?" and "did it feel consistent in terms of speed/revs as my last shot?" and don't pay attention to the pindeck or scoreboard at all now.

9orbetter - I like your practice idea...and that's what I've started doing now on THS.

northface28 - I agree...when I'm angry at the 10 pin and try to take it down with the fastest shot I can shoot (almost like I'm at some carnival and trying set a record), I always miss it and adds insult to injury haha. I was pretty shocked to find that I have been releasing my ball at a 10 o'clock position (I'm a righty) instead of a 1 or 2 o'clock position (almost like a lefty's hook ball) after reviewing my video for 10 pin spares...no wonder why it hooks at the end! Video reveals so much and gives a reality check.

Thanks again everyone