For me what did the trick was the approach I took every night, paying extra attention, and knowing how the lanes act that you're bowling on. Some of it is just flat out gaining experience, but there's all kinds of little things you can use to your advantage.
1. Lane breakdown. How quickly does your shot break down? What kind of equipment do you start out with? Who do you bowl with and who are you bowling against? These 3 things will contribute the most to your score at the end of the night. If you start out with aggressive sanded equipment, your shot will disappear faster. However, if you go with something that may not get you a big game out of the gate, but will be fine for games 2 and 3, your set will most likely be bigger. Instead of going 260-200-180, you're more likely to go 230-230-230. If you bowl with people who throw a similar line, your shot will break down quicker, and if the people on the other team are in the same area, you may have to move every couple frames. If I know there's gonna be a lot of traffic on my line, I won't even consider starting there, or I'll completely move off of that line. If everybody is playing 15-5, I'll either use something weak, or move to 20-8. For me it's about ensuring that the moves I'll have to make will be as minimal as possible. Frequent large moves will impact your score significantly. It's not like the PBA where they have to constantly play what gives them the best chance to score NOW and deal with it when they have to move. You'll find out that you'll still have those big games, but your low games will be a lot higher, and that's a pretty common sentiment among higher averages. It's not about how high your high games are, it's about how low your low games are. If you make a comparison, if you take your low game every set and average it for a year, you'll find that your overall average will go up or down based more off your low games than your high games. It's not a science, but there's a much larger correlation.
