i bought a freeze solid for these conditions . works great and is cheap

Zanatos1914 —

larry mc's post makes great sense —  use another, more appropriate ball for practice. He's suggesting a ball that works for him. For me, that ball might be too much. Find a ball that will work for you. If you can, buy a used one in good condition; alter its shell if you need to.

SrKegler's post is also excellent advice — practice hitting your mark, your arm swing, timing, hand positions, etc/etc, and ignore the score.

For me, practice time is also an opportunity to experiment, and sometimes the results are very surprising.

Focus on consistency. Allow yourself some pause-time to feel differences, something that's initially difficult to do when competing. Train yourself to watch the ball's motion as it rolls towards the pins. And, as author/coach Susie Minshew says, it's very important to note where the ball exits the pins, which will tell you about its entry angle.

One thing not to do is expect perfectly consistent lane and oil conditions — they don't exist. But your point that very different lane conditions are difficult to deal with, especially when trying to develop new skills, is a valid one.

The name of the game is LEARN TO ADAPT  LEARN TO ADAPT  LEARN TO ADAPT .

New columbia eruption pro coming out that will be perfect for the conditions you describe.
Should hear info this week about it

can you throw straight at all single pin spares. If not, that is a very important part of the game to work on.

you may have to pay a little bit extra to get fresh lanes, but get a few people together for the practice session, and maybe split the cost of having the house re-oil a pair for you during practice.  if that house won't, if it's an option, go somewhere that will. also, use those session that you can't get good oil, to pull the spare ball out an throw a few games at just the 7's and 10's

Why should a bowler who only bowls in leagues (currently) practice on a shot he/she will never see? 

I have somewhat defended the AMF/Bowlmor situation and am hoping things work out with them.  But early indications are they will only oil before a league and will only oil the lanes used by the league.  (may not be true at all locations)  So in theory, some lanes could possibly never see oil, or at least not everyday.  And if a center doesn't have weekend leagues, then the center doesn't see oil between Thursday night leagues and Monday night leagues since they eliminated Friday night leagues. 

So a bowler goes to practice on a Sunday morning.  The lanes haven't been oiled since Thursday perhaps.  A majority of balls thrown have been plastic house balls up the middle of the lane.  And this bowler is suppose to use this as "experience"?

Zanatos, do not put up with this situation.  It is one thing to practice on difficult shots if you think you will actually see those conditions.  It is another thing to try and justify bowling on crap for practice in the name of experience.  The only thing I can think that would be worthy of my time on that type of condition is spare shooting and only if I throw a plastic ball straight at all of my spares.

spmcgivern's Reply #9 has merit. The limitation with my above comments is that they were based upon my local perspectives, and here all the centers keep their lanes oiled to one degree or another — which is to say I've never experienced a truly dry lane.

My apologies to Zanatos1914 for ignoring / failing to confirm the actual differences between your league and practice conditions.

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Why a House would not keep their lanes at least somewhat oiled is beyond me, because doing so accelerates wear and tear — which creates high future costs in lieu of saving a few pennies in present operating costs. In short, the math doesn't work. If that's the case, the owner is either in financial trouble or just appearing to be in the bowling business while hoping for appreciated land values and zoning changes.

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I have no comments on AMF/Bowlmor, for nothing here has changed — except heightened speculations. Here, they always put down a fresh shot for the evening leagues. My favorite House is an independent. They strip-'n-oil for every AM/PM league. Mid-day leagues are relatively small and play on 2nd shift conditions, as do all late-night bowlers. 2nd shift conditions are what I practice on. My big disappointment is with the B-Zones, which apply fresh oil every morning then overlays from then on — sometimes multiple overlays. This means their evening league lanes are highly irregular, depending upon the day's activities/usage. One lane may have way too much oil and the next not enough, so you're constantly shifting between balls — which is not what I prefer to do as I will only tote 3 for a common league. For this reason, I refuse to bowl any more leagues there, although they're good for morning practice.

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Jesse James post brings up another whole issue: that of "real" bowlers  vs. a regular house bowler vs. a league bowler vs. a sport league bowler. I've been supposing that Zanatos1914 is wanting to be a really good league bowler, and there's not a darn thing wrong with that — not second or third class one bit.