If you lived in a area that only had 1 bowling alley and the next closest bowling alley was 30miles away, and the house you bowl in put out a tougher shot?  either by flattening out the House shot, or by putting out one of the Kegel Challenge shots??  

I ask this because yesterday while practicing I got to talking to the GM of bowling alley i goto about possibly putting out a tougher shot to practice on...

And I brought up something about why they dont "toughen" up the shot a bit?  He reply'd that he did toughen up the shot a bit lol..  which kinda made me laugh cuz I'm averaging higher than i did last yr...    But I asked why "they" or as in the house doesnt use something like a Kegel Challenge pattern, which is what is used for our State tournament...  
   
His response was, most bowlers would quit...  And I said something towards the fact of, no other bowling alley being within 30miles of here...   And they could basically put out w/e pattern they want, and bowlers would just have to deal with it...

His response was, "they would quit, they would quit bowling...and just do something else."  

He also brought up, how one friday nite this season he accidently put out the Highway to hell challenge pattern..  and out of the 18- 5 man teams, there was 1 or 2 600's a couple 500's and the rest was in the 400's...  He said he never seen so many 100 to 130 games by so called "good" bowlers...  

But anyways,,,,  would you just quit if your house made the shot a bit tougher???


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" Lift Your Skirt Grab Your Balls and Learn How to Bowl "   http://coolluvr4u1976.bowlspace.com/

For my vids on youtube - search coolluvr4u1976

No I would not quit. Like Lord Walrus said, I too like a challenge and I also know how good/bad I am regardless of what the scoring pace/conditions may be. Recently my "Local" house (Takes me two hours each way to get there on public transport) starting putting down a v.easy pattern and despite not bowling for more than 6 months I rolled a 300 within 5 games of coming back and a number of 750 plus sets.

Its just a case of stand left throw right and as long as you release the ball half decently and don't tug the ball, its making its way back to the pocket. I rolled a few practice games and despite bowling like an idiot (partially due to some medical problems) I still averaged around 220 and when a friend asked me how I bowled he was shocked when I said that I had bowled badly and I was not happy with the conditions.

It seemed as though he thought I was trying to act like I was some kind of "Star" bowler, but it was not what I was trying to say. I was just trying to point out that even though the scores may have said that I was bowling ok, I knew in my own mind that I was NOT bowling well and that I prefer conditions that tell me exactly how I am bowling.

Big scores are nice but the enjoyment wears off very quickly if they come frequently regardless of how you are bowling but are solely dependent on what pattern has been put down.

Unfortunately most bowlers don't care about improving, just rolling big numbers regardless of whether they were "deserved" or not.
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I would have got away with it if it was not for those pesky kids (Behind my lane) and those blasted 10 pins.

The answer to your question the way I see it is for myself as well as most of us who post on here is no we would not quit just because of the tougher shot.  The real problem lies with the fact that we are the minority of league bowlers.  The proprietors have a real dilemma because the minority is asking for a tougher pattern while the majority will scream if they toughen the pattern up.

There is no easy answer for a center because no matter what you do you run the risk of pissing off bowlers and losing business.  We are looking at moving to another center next year with our team, not because of the pattern but rather the poorer service and treatment of league bowlers in comparison to the other centers in the area.  

Sorry this was off the was a little off subject.  I think centers will have several challenges in the future in order to survive.


Mark

Well i am pleasantly surprised by many of the responses...

Now i should of defined what i ment by a tougher oil pattern..

I'm not talking laying out the Earl Anthony pattern  lol.  But something like the Kegel Challenge patterns..  Which are tough, yet very play-able... you cant just toss the ball blindly and expect to score, you need to be consistent..   Also the lane conditions need to be consistent too.. having it oily one week and dry the next, while its challenging is more of a headache than a challenge.  

And yea I wouldnt want do be extreme to one degree or another being just a flat 40/50ft heavy oil pattern or a 30ft short oil pattern...  

Sir-bowls-alot :   yea I'd be a bit frustrated if i did a PBAX league and every other lane was completely different...  That was probably a terrible experience, and was probably due more to the person setting up the pattern or the oiling machine just not working right.  


Fabes:  Yes, its funny how guys react when they encounter a tougher condition and get the "ego" check.  A year ago during Xmas, I was down in holland bowling with my brother and ran into Kevin Pardue, and we got to talking about "tougher" conditions, and he mention'd someone that bowls at Northland lanes and was averaging around 220.  Said guy went to States and couldnt figure out why he struggled to shoot 170's..    

And Yes, shooting 600 usta be consider'd good...  I can still remember when "century lanes" was a tougher house to bowl in, and if you averaged around 200.  You were consider'd to be pretty good.  




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" Lift Your Skirt Grab Your Balls and Learn How to Bowl "   http://coolluvr4u1976.bowlspace.com/

For my vids on youtube - search coolluvr4u1976

I would not quit, I would love every minute of it in fact.

What you could do is tell them that it is just a league shot but put down a Kegel pattern. eventually they would figure it out and scores would go back up.
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