does anyone else find themselves, more often than not,using multiple balls on the same pair. Spare ball.and a ball for each lane. I see good bowlers using their strike ball for all their spares,bowl a whole set and never switch balls. I am finding myself having to find 2 balls to fit one pair. It always seems to me that one lane is tighter than the other and i cant just change my shot I have to use to different balls.
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my style, the art of bowling without bowling

So far, I had only one or two times the impression that a pair of lanes (with the same pattern) would play THAT different that each lane would call for a separate ball. I would probably not do, it though, and try to make adjustments. Most of the times, differences are small enough to be compensated by release changes/differences or different lines, and in my case the pair of lanes would only be played in league for one game, so there is hardly time for ball experiments. Keeping things simple and making quick educated guesses about how to play are the bigger challenge. Using two balls would IMHO only make sense when the lanes are really oiled in a different way, AND if you play a pair for a longer period.
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DizzyFugu - Reporting from Germany

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it depends
it is rare that on a league pattern the lanes will differ that much, but whether its a mental thing or the lanes are actually that different. I can go both ways. Most times I just use the same ball for both lanes, and adjust my line or release. Now as we get later in the set, and the lanes get fried I change equipment to suit the lanes. But I have also used 2 different strike balls on the same pair. One of the advantages of having the same equipment and getting to know it's true charasticts is knowing what it can and can not do.
Most times though I just adjust myself to the lanes versus adjusting equipment.


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X

We have one pair at our lanes that play like that.  Lanes 1-2.  Lane 1 will hook about 3-5 boards more than the rest of the house (after all the lanes are oiled) while Lane 2 will play about 2-3 boards tighter than the rest of the house, so you either need to play the lanes with much different adjustments or with much different balls.  Always need to keep that in mind in leagues where we switch pairs.


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I actually like those rare nights when the left lane and right lane are night-and-day different. It's fun to constantly have to adjust and stay mentally focused. It reminds me of bowling on a sport pattern. However, it doesn't happen very often.  I had probably 6 or 8 nights in league where I had to do this.  Most of the time it was because the oil machine malfunctioned for a couple weeks.  I also had a few times where they didn't fully strip and reoil after open play, so one lane had a ton of carrydown from people throwing house balls all over the place, and the other lane had fresh, crisp backends. (That was my favorite -- going directly up the 5 board with soft speed with my Cell on the left lane, getting the ball to hook/set at about 30 feet, and swinging 18 to 5 with a lot of speed on the right lane with my Reign)

I have sometimes just because I couldn't get that one lane figured out and by using something different it felt better mentally. I usually only have to do that a few times in a season. Similiar to Dan B's reason.

Now my big problem is when I do that and forget which ball is for which lane. OOPS!
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