A phenomenon I've observed lately is the tougher the shot I'm bowling on, the better I bowl when I use older equipment.

Our scratch league has moved to the USBC White and Blue patterns. I personally have found White to be tougher than Blue. White offers good recovery, but no hold. Blue is the opposite. My game is better when I have free hold rather than free recovery.

I started bowling better by moving to older stuff. On White, I began starting the night with a Tsunami H20 and then switching to a Uranium HRG later in the block. On Blue, I start with a Gold Nugget, then switch to the HRG. The one exception was when White got really fried out, and that's when I would switch to a 900 Global Link drilled weak (barely more aggressive than plastic).

I got a late start on this idea with the White pattern, too late to really bring my average back up, but now we've moved completely to Blue. I'm averaging about the same on Blue as I do a standard house shot. First game last night, I had the front eight with the Nugget before leaving a 10-pin in the ninth on what was probably my best shot of the sequence.

I've also noticed that the ones struggling the most around me are the ones trying to solve the riddle by using the newest and most aggressive stuff. Both my Tsunami H20 and Nugget are pretty much label drills, and are very smooth and rolly. The HRG is a little more exotic drill (5 x 3.5, but the pin is high above the ring and only about 2 inches off the VAL) but its lopey nature in the front part of the lane makes it worth my while to deal with the backend flip.

Next time you're struggling on tougher shots, pull something older and smoother, and go more direct. It might work.

Jess