I was practicing tonight just to get the armswing lose for a tournament this weekend.  Another bowler joined me and we were just throwing ball after ball, not keeping score.  

This is my home house where I average around 220 with is within a pin or two of the top in the house.  Everyone has called this a lefty house for years even though it scores really good on the right side.  8 300's shot this year, non by a lefty.  4 800's shot, non by a lefty.  But everyone still cries when a lefty shoots a good set.

This guy is about a 210 average bowler in that house and was striking up a storm, whereas I was struggling to put more then two strike together.  I had no backend all and was leaving all kind of weak stuff.  I even used a Vicious Particle and the ball would start to hook up and fade when it got six feet from the pins.

I made some comment about not having anything at all and that he had some room to play with.  He mouthed off and said that he hadn't missed his mark and that he was just more accurate than I was.  I didn't know if it was true or not but I figured that we could find out.  I got two sheets of paper and taped them down at about the forty foot mark.  Me being a lefty and him a righty.  We only threw strike balls so we could see how accurate we were.  After about 8 shots, he had 7 strikes and one 10 pin.  I had 4 strikes, a six, two flat 10's and bucket.  After picking up the paper, he couldn't believe it.  He spread was about 6 inches with one a couple of inches outside of the others (could have been the 10 pin shot).  Mine was within a two inch area.  If I missed three boards, I would have been through the nose or a washout.

The test was who was the most accurate, not who threw the most strikes.  I know that there are times when I feel I can spray the ball as bad as him and still hit the pocket but it wasn't that way tonight.  

After seeing the evidence, he was shocked that he wasn't as accurate as he thought.

Keep in mind, when we did this, I used a Stinger LF that doesn't hook a lot and he was using a deuce.

It showed me that accuracy doesn't count on a house shot.  Rev it up, pick out an area and let it fly is the way to score.

What do you think?

Quit picking on the righties.  He doesn't need to know where his ball is at 40 feet, only that he strikes and can pick up chicks.  Was he taking away some of your trailer trash women?

Lol, LeftyCrank, I must have hit the same stage, now it seems like all I can leave are 10's and 4's.  As far as marks, the 10 board is colored near the breakpoint (as with most normal synthetic lanes), so I mainly go off of it.  I see what board the ball crosses, and the 10 board helps me find exactly what board it is quicker.  And how does the paper work?  I'd think the ball would just rip it right up.
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I know Kung Fu!

I am the one, the one that will bring balance.  All the pins shall be destroyed!

Bones, good food for thought. Although with the post it notes, it's more of a drill to put your ball down consistantly over a particular mark, rather than trying to hit an area. Call it an accuracy drill, if you will. I know that sometimes I have a tendency to try to "push" the ball at the bottom of my swing rather than just let my arm swing through the delivery. Every time I do, I tend to push the ball to the inside. This makes me concentrate on a nice relaxed arm swing and getting the ball out to my target.
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Back strong like Bull - Brain smart like Chicken

Hose - I'll vouch for your house shot. Tommy has no clue how to properly strip lanes when they run the machine. Too little stripper. That's why your house carries so badly.
The back ends are too tight and you lose what back end there is too fast.

A typical house shot is easier no doubt but as Sawbones so eloquently stated there are other variables.
You can have 10 boards of area on a house shot if you are throwing the ball consistently the same speed, revs, axis tilt etc.
If you are spraying one or more of these variables around you can quickly chop your area down a suprising amount.

Who out there has not had nights when it seemed you had the world for area and then at the same house another week you can't do anything ? Sometimes its operator error that you do not realize is operator error.
Easy area helps but you can still screw that up with bad or off technique.

LeftyCrank - I hear what you are saying but, a good bowler bowls well on any shot or should. The example I'll use are two touring pros that aren't stars but cash pretty regularly on national Tour that subbed one noight oin a league of ours.
They both shot over 725 and both average over 230 at home on house shots.

It just makes no sense to me that you do so well on a tougher shot and struggle on a soft shot.
There has to be more to it than can't score on a wall like the shot hooks way too much and you have to play so deep you create over/under even though it's a wall.
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Zman
You haven't seen real LOFT until you've seen me bowl