With all the new lane conditioners, lane surfaces, oil patterns and machines to do the dirty work in todays game. What are some good starting points on how to attack a flat even oil pattern? Obviously every house is different, but what are some good pointers in general to attack these patterns?

I'll play the devils advocate.

While playing straighter is smart in theory, lane topography can blow up that plan in a hurry. I've hit multiple flat patterns that had some built in miss room if you swung it to the track.

The only plan that never fails: go in without any preconceived strategy, figure out the lane as much as you can in practice, and watch where the people whacking em are playing.

Agree with a caveat.  The OP was wanting a starting point, not a philosophy for the whole block.  I do agree with trying one shot (if you have the opportunity) playing in the assumed track area. 

Quote from: spmcgivern on September 18, 2017, 11:05:59 AM

Quote from: HankScorpio on September 18, 2017, 10:51:56 AM

I'll play the devils advocate.

While playing straighter is smart in theory, lane topography can blow up that plan in a hurry. I've hit multiple flat patterns that had some built in miss room if you swung it to the track.

The only plan that never fails: go in without any preconceived strategy, figure out the lane as much as you can in practice, and watch where the people whacking em are playing.

Agree with a caveat.  The OP was wanting a starting point, not a philosophy for the whole block.  I do agree with trying one shot (if you have the opportunity) playing in the assumed track area. 

Yep, I get that. But IMO, even going in with the mindset of "I should play straight if I can" can lead to cognitive bias of what you're seeing on the lane.

How many times have you tried to move left, immediately thrown a split, and thought "and  that's why I try to play straight on sport shots", only to leave a bunch of splits trying to force a straight shot? Or go through 8 balls trying to get a gutter shot to work on a short pattern just because the pattern is short? Etc. I know I'm guilty of it.

Having a practice shot system regardless of pattern (such as, but not limited to, Susie Minshews system) to try multiple areas of the lane leads to better results over time, IMO, than throwing a bunch of balls where you're "supposed" to and maybe 1 in a different spot if you have time. A shot system should be the starting point, not the lane graph.

Simple question, when you throw your first shot on sport, where do you throw?  Do you test length and the such ala Suzie's method?  Or do you do something different, especially if you know the shot length or what it is suppose to be?

I agree one shouldn't use the graph to dictate where they play.  But for the vast majority of bowlers, playing straighter will provide better results "at first" than trying to play some level of swing like on a THS.

I try to keep the ball in the track because that's going to have the most friction, and move from there. So 7 or 8 at the arrows and keeping it pretty straight.

Quote from: HankScorpio on September 18, 2017, 12:44:07 PM

Quote from: spmcgivern on September 18, 2017, 11:05:59 AM

Quote from: HankScorpio on September 18, 2017, 10:51:56 AM

I'll play the devils advocate.

While playing straighter is smart in theory, lane topography can blow up that plan in a hurry. I've hit multiple flat patterns that had some built in miss room if you swung it to the track.

The only plan that never fails: go in without any preconceived strategy, figure out the lane as much as you can in practice, and watch where the people whacking em are playing.

Agree with a caveat.  The OP was wanting a starting point, not a philosophy for the whole block.  I do agree with trying one shot (if you have the opportunity) playing in the assumed track area. 

Yep, I get that. But IMO, even going in with the mindset of "I should play straight if I can" can lead to cognitive bias of what you're seeing on the lane.

How many times have you tried to move left, immediately thrown a split, and thought "and  that's why I try to play straight on sport shots", only to leave a bunch of splits trying to force a straight shot? Or go through 8 balls trying to get a gutter shot to work on a short pattern just because the pattern is short? Etc. I know I'm guilty of it.

Having a practice shot system regardless of pattern (such as, but not limited to, Susie Minshews system) to try multiple areas of the lane leads to better results over time, IMO, than throwing a bunch of balls where you're "supposed" to and maybe 1 in a different spot if you have time. A shot system should be the starting point, not the lane graph.

Simple question, when you throw your first shot on sport, where do you throw?  Do you test length and the such ala Suzie's method?  Or do you do something different, especially if you know the shot length or what it is suppose to be?

I agree one shouldn't use the graph to dictate where they play.  But for the vast majority of bowlers, playing straighter will provide better results "at first" than trying to play some level of swing like on a THS.

My first shot is always standing 20 throwing to 10 with my benchmark ball, regardless of the pattern.

Again, my point is that figuring out the pattern in the moment is better than trying to decide before you go in that you'd prefer to play straight if possible. Bias leads to bad decisions.

So with that said, in the scenario that the shot plays better swinging it to the track, why are the vast majority better off playing straight? If swinging it to the track provides a little miss room on a flat pattern and playing straight does not, i find it hard to believe the vast majority of bowlers would score better straight.

The lanes may not play that way for OP, straight up the boards could work perfectly fine. Or it could not. Without knowing the topography of the lanes (or even what he's comfortable doing), saying "try to play straight" is nothing more than a 50/50 guess.