One of my catch phrases is "As soon as the lanes break down, so do I"...and that was no more evident than my first week of league tonight.  Typically I will attempt to play around the 8 - 10 board(I'm a lefty) and then as the lanes break down I will usually ball down and keep my same line or I will ball down and move my feet and target outside around the 1st arrow or just outside of it.  Tonight at the start of practice I was using my Gladiator solid and knew that it would be just a bit too much ball for what was out there.  Near the end of practice , I balled down to my Blue Gryphon and soon realized I would need to move outside from the get go. Was playing straight up the 5 board and was totally locked in, and had a nice 246 the 1st game.... started the 2nd game with a triple but midway through the 2nd game I totally lost my carry.  It wasn't the same pin each time--that I  can adjust my approach for--I was still  consistently in the pocket but wasn't carrying.   Usually I would ball down at that point, but I felt my Gladiator LE would not be enough, so end of 2nd game I decide to ball up to my Glad solid and cut of my side rotation a bit...was still getting to the pocket but wasn't carrying still.  I missed 2 7 pins that game and ended up with a 204.  Final game I stuck with the glad solid, cutting off the side rotation a bit, but never got locked back in again missed a couple of spares for a 172 for a 622 series.

After the set I was thinking that I should have moved back inside to the 8 - 10 board and maybe balled down to my Gladiator LE to catch oil there that hadn't been taken away yet by me and I  might have had more success.  Overpowering the lane is not an option, and moving way inside and chucking it outside is just not me. Would moving more inside and balling down have been a better way to handle the transition and my loss of carry?

Any insights would be appreciated.

Brad

If I had kept my normal full side rotation I would not have been able to use the glad solid, I had to cut off the side rotation in that instance to keep it the pocket--I would have gone high with that ball without cutting the side rotation.  I switched to it to try and find carry again, and I didn't.

Brad

i am kinda curious about this myself. i am a righty but i have a lefty on my team and know exactly what you all are talking about it seems to me that with the righty players our side goes into transition and then dries out and we move left however our transition doesnt last very long on most conditions but with the lefties where there isnt as many people on that side you deal with the transition much longer from my point of view so the struggle continues to be much longer from watching the lefty on my team he tries to get the ball to fwd roll more and get the ball to belly  up to the pocket .his carry % is down but he seems to do well with that when the lanes start to change.

It's counter intuitive but an alternative that I have been using is moving in and balling UP.

In most centers, there is very little underlying friction on the lanes for lefties to take advantage of.  The area we hit is much smaller than righties and usually closer to the gutter).  Once we move inside, we're dead (unless we're Ryan Ciminelli and can overpower the lane).

Using a stronger ball from the inside will give you the power to get the ball to dig in, in an area of the lane that we're not usually in and will be strong enough to get recovery and to stay away from flat 7's.

What you are talking about is not at all unique to the left side.  Your problem is one of being a lower rev player on a typical house shot that transitions.  As a right hander it can happen quicker to me and I can take advantage of the wear area inside to move toward 15 board but carry can still be an issue.  One thing I will say is that I always ball up when I move in.

If you cant find friction to the left you arent on the kind of house shot we see.  Last year every lefty in our league was over 225 and they never had to get right of 10 board. 

The fact that you are hitting the pocket, but not carrying is telling you that you have the wrong angle...due to a combination of the specific ball and part of the lane you are playing.  The trick is to find the friction (outside of 10?, Outside of 5?, Etc.), Then adjust your angle getting to the friction...generally moving inside finds more head oil, thus saving energy for the backend.  Matching this with the right coverstocks (strong pearls or hybridscome to mind), and you should be able to get back into the groove.

You always give good advice spmc.  Just to expand on going more direct like you would on sport patterns,  I think the biggest mistake lower rev players make is playing too much out angle on house shots.  I  call it out hooking your rev rate and it is the surest way I know to have chronic carry problems.  Most people think more hook means more carry and there is typically plenty of free hook on house shots, even for us low rev guys.  The truth is that maintaining axis rotation will maximize carry.  Unfortunately, knowing this and being able play more direct can be difficult, especially when factoring in speed limitations many of us face.