PBA qualifying squads

[Pinbuster]

I have noticed the discrepancy between the number of bowlers getting out of the qualifying squads on the PBA tour.

Liquid Tension mentioned it in his post about the tournament that one squad is consistently getting more bowlers into the top 64 than the other. This week 42 made it from the one squad and 22 from the other.

Bowlers are assigned to a group that pretty much bowls together each week. One week the they are the first squad (A squad) and the next week they bowl second (B squad) .

In fact Chris Barnes moved from the lower scoring squad at last week tournament to the higher placing squad last week and has finished high in qualifying last week and this week.

What I have heard from a couple of the guys on tour is that the higher scoring squad has a higher percentage of veteran bowlers than the other. These bowlers all work together and play the lanes similarly. They start further right and open the lanes up and then move in as the squad progresses.

The other squad has a group that start playing the lanes all over. Many of the bowlers in this squad start too deep and are crossing over the others lines. The lanes end up butchered up and so dry the right handed bowlers have no where to move into during the later games. You often see the few survivors of this squad move up considerably during the next qualifying block and make match play as the top 64 tend to play the lanes correctly.

[srlunatic]

Liquid Tension,

Seems to me that even after the condition goes away because of the balls as you claim.....the game is still as you posted....

The game should be about executing shots and not just if you can match up correctly

You first have to MATCH UP.....and then EXECUTE........just have to match up to the different conditions.....plain and simple....
whether it is hand position, ball, surface, position on lane, speed, increasing loft or whatever, and then you STILL HAVE TO EXECUTE THE MATCHED UP SHOT...If anything, what you are arguing is that because the shot breaks down so badly...that the people who can only Match Up...and not execute are the ones who wouldn't be able to score???....seems to  me this is exactly the condition that good bowlers would want....a condtion that takes the players who can't execute out of the equation??? (and their high tech equipment??)..

or am I misreading??


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My personal savior is common sense.
How can being so RIGHT be so very WRONG?

[Platinum Bowler]

I am sorry, but if you really look into this game, there are always going to be things that are unfair. There is no way to stop this, this game is full of a lot of luck. From carrying to who you get to bowl with, to what squad you get placed in. All these things will effect the outcome of a tournament. There is no way around it. I finally realized all this, and quit all my complaining about "this is unfair", "this isnt right", and finally excepted what comes to me, comes to me, there is nothing I can do about it, and to just go out and give it my all. I am just tired of hearing all the complaints about this sport being unfair, you got to accept whats given to you. Liquid Tension, great bowling out there, good luck in your next tournament.
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Representing the 909 (in July of '04, it will be the 951. How gay!), this was B-Car.

[Pinbuster]

Liquid Tension - While I agree that it should be about execution and not who you follow or bowl with, that is the state the game is at right now.

Unless the one PBA squad learns to work together in their lane play it will be a long season for many of them. I believe this has been a large part of Walter Ray’s problems this year. When he has been able to get into the top 64 he has been able to make a run and get into the match play portion of the tournament.

The ABC national tournament has long had this problem. A lot of the ability to score is based on how the squad in front of you played the lanes and if they happened to open them up for your squad. Last year when they went to fresh oil for both team squads the team scores dropped significantly. Before the majority of the high team scores came out of the late team squad not from the early one played on fresh oil.

[Pinbuster]

Sawbones - I don’t know if I can really answer your question. I know that guys who travel (room) together can request that they are kept on the same squad and the PBA will accommodate them on that.

I think at the first of the year they are assigned a group (squad) to bowl with where they try to balance the experience and talent out between the squads so that all the stars are not on one squad. Once you are assigned a squad you are pretty much stuck with that group. I’m sure part time players are shuffled back and forth as need to fill out a squad depending on field size and who is there.

The group that is the A squad this week  will be the B squad the next week so that one group doesn’t always get the early or late squad.

[charlest]

quote:What I have heard from a couple of the guys on tour is that the higher scoring squad has a higher percentage of veteran bowlers than the other. These bowlers all work together and play the lanes similarly. They start further right and open the lanes up and then move in as the squad progresses.

The other squad has a group that start playing the lanes all over. Many of the bowlers in this squad start too deep and are crossing over the others lines. The lanes end up butchered up and so dry the right handed bowlers have no where to move into during the later games. You often see the few survivors of this squad move up considerably during the next qualifying block and make match play as the top 64 tend to play the lanes correctly.

EVen with what pinbuster has described as the flow of bowling and the way Liquid Tension has described from being there, I think the average scratch bowler of even a 220 average and much experience will have a hard time understanding the degree to which the oil pattern, the shot and the techniques and balls needed to score well.

If one think of the grief we go through on a 2nd shift scratch league, when the oil machine had some problem AND there was a previous league of 5 member teams all throwing plastic ball down the middle. Then quadruple the problems and add the fact that your livelihood and your family's well-being may depend on how well you bowl, then you begin to get the idea.

I can hardly imagine what lanes might be like after 8 or more games with bowlers of 300-500 rpms rev rates, using particle balls all over the lane. I can't believe how frustrating that might be, especially when you're executing well.
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"Just because you can do something does not mean you should do it."