If you bowled leagues with urethane knowing you would set a lower average to gain a advantage at tournament time then it is bagging.

Especially if you were spending all your true "practice" time and all your tournament games with your higher scoring equipment keeping your skills sharp with them.

Charlest, me saying "Honest way of sandbagging" is my way of hypothetically discribing what the person using urethane equipment instead of using whats best (reactive) for the shot is thinking. He's not dumping the ball in the gutter or occastionally missing easy spares, so he thinks whats he's doing is alright. I personally think that its sandbagging.

This ball choice can play both ways.  A bowler can chose to throw too much ball, and score poorly, and no one will know the difference.  Only because bowler A throws urethane which is noticeable to the eye, does it call attention.

However, bowler B who throws, for example, a Nano all year on a dry shot will not score as high as possible when he has better choices in his arsenal (maybe) and then goes to tournaments and throws everything but the nano there because he knows the nano is too strong.

That's how easy it is to "sandbag" without drawing attention to yourself.

Also, I'd like to address the poster who said that if a bowler wants to throw a different ball, they should practice.  Most of the bowlers I know, which are the 200-225 variety, use league as practice for tournaments.  They go drill up something new and try it in league.  The alter a drill pattern on a ball and try it in league.  Only the serious regional/pba guys practice.  Most centers these days charge $3-$5 a game.  A 10 game practice session will run you upwards of $50.  I don't know too many guys who want to pay $50 to practice on what is normally fried conditions or cosmic bowling conditions on the weekends.  Most people have 9 to 5s during the day.

I hate sandbaggers but hate houses with blocked shots and bloated averages worse. 

That's absolutely correct, only a bowler knows what his intentions really are.  All the rest is just speculation, excuse making, and bitching by the bowling police.  Plain and simple.


 

Those that state its sandbagging, well go ahead tell that story to a tournament director. "I know the guy can average more than 205, because he is throws a urethane ball back home".  So what do you think his tournament average should be? 210, 215, 220, 230?

Only the bowler knows of their true intentions. In this case with average over 200 I think this is not a problem. If the average was 170 or 180 and they guy is throw 220 and 230 games. I think you can cry foul, but its definitely more a realistic view that a 205 average can throw big games.

Sandbagging -- according to the USBC rule book -- is defined as "maintaining an average below ability to gain an unfair advantage in handicap or classified competition" ... and that's as good a definition as any.

Sandbagging: (v), a word that inconsistent league bowlers use as an excuse for throwing bad games when the lanes transition.

A standard pattern is a good concept that cannot be applied or enforced.  Every house is different.  Some houses have wood so old that any standard pattern will be tough no matter what.  Some houses have the flat gutters set at the highest limit which equals more carry and higher scores, others have lower settings which equal lower carry.  Some houses have owners who have opinions such as "Lefties will not score here" and could put out one shot when they know the lanes will be checked and then put out another shot that expresses their true thoughts.

I know that in some houses, what pair you are on makes all the difference in the world.

Even at the stadium in Reno, there are people who will tell you the high end or low end is better/worse.

You can try to standardize bowling all you want, but not every house has Kegel machines.  I still know of a house that uses a Century 100.  I believe that is from the 80s.  It doesn't know how to do red, white and blue patterns.

I doubt USBC is going to force all owners to spend 20 grand on new lane machines to use their patterns. 

Bowling for money is a competition.  And whenever their is a competition for money, some people will look for ways to cheat.  It happens in every sport and business.  You cannot stop it.  Vegas will tell you that they only catch probably 60% of the cheaters at gambling there.  Some athletes take steroids to perform better and get more money.  Baseball players have corked bats and scuffed baseballs with bits of sandpaper to get more money.  Medical labs charged medicare for labs tests that were not medically necessary to get more money. 

It's all cheating.  There is money involved.  It's going to happen.

If you can come up with a way to stop it, you will be rich because a lot of companies will pay you for that solution.