I'm posing this question after getting off the phone with a friend of mine when I was discussing the current dilemma I face in my home house. I'll try to explain the situation as best as possible.

For the first two months of the league, the owner of the house was putting out the same shot as the previous owner (who didn't care what went into the oil machine, the cleaning of the buffer/shims, and so forth). The shot was oiled to 17 feet and then buffed to 32 feet. Whatever was out there wasn't much, because people were hooking plastic equipment gutter to gutter. We asked the owner to put more oil down on both sides- and he has.

The problem is- it's still drier inside of 3rd arrow on both sides, but flooded on the first 5 on both sides. Essentially he set up a reverse block without even knowing what he was doing.

I'm the only lefty in the league. What can I do during 5 minutes of warm ups on my pair so that I can hopefully create a little more area by the time games 2 and 3 roll around? I see righties that struggle for the first game but then shoot bigger numbers game 2, only to not make the right transitions in game 3 (when carrydown takes place) and watch their scores decrease. Typically on this shot my scores have gotten better throughout each game, but it's been lately between 170-190's as if I miss left, I wash out, and if I miss right, I cross over.

The lanes are wood as well if that helps any. My bowling profile lists the equipment I have. My friend told me to line up for my strike line once on each line- then do a 2 board move to the right with my feet and drift the ball out 2 boards as well left and try to hit the 2 pin, getting that oil further left to carry down to hopefully open up the shot more. I know that the pros do something similar to this when they are bowling.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Matt

Edited on 2/16/2004 1:03 PM

BJP, while that is something used in regional and national events, it tends not to work well in leagues.  The reason it is not suited for leagues is the short period of time for practice prior to the league session beginning.  In Tour events, the practice prior to the block is usually 20-30 minutes with only 3-4 people to the pair...most of whom are all playing the same line or area.  

In that environment, a few people can play create-a-shot in a short period of time...unfortunately, in league, there are not enough people that are ever going to be willing to throw their first two shots in practice on both lanes using plastic.

Hey Matt,

Are you going to the Nationals this year or any year for that matter?  This is exactly what they have out there.  That's why you'll hear horror stories coming back or what I enjoy, how many so-called 220's shoot under 500.  This isn't an easy shot, not by any means.  To try and open it up doesn't really apply either, only thing I could recommend is that you're still describing an O/U condition, just this time, it's reversed.  Well, one of my suggestions for an O/U shot is to have some thing that rolls a little early but a very, very, mellow or controlled backend reaction.  This way, when you miss left, the ball picks up and comes back sooner hopefully not reaching the OB and if you tug it, it'll only hook a minimal amount because it has very little backend to it.  I've found success with this type of ball on all reverses because it has the most control I can get.  The give and take here is that when you hit the hole, you tend to leave corners but at least that means spares vs splits.  Hopefully you can put a couple together and spare.  A pretty good game on these conditions I'd say is about 220.  Hope this helps...
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Rick Leong
Ten Pins Pro Shop
Track Pro Shop Staff
Vise Grip Staff

The difference from the Pros warming up with plastic and us is this.  They are by themselves normally and usually get ample time to accomplish the carry down/hold result.  We maybe get 2-4 balls at most because some clown is always taking forever like he is on 35 in a row hoping for 900 with this last practice shot.  I wish there were no pins and all just threw one shot and got lose.  

Nod