I dropped out of 2 bowling leagues already.  The reason:  No oil laid down.  Last month I spent good money on new bowling balls.  Anxious to use them I joined 3 bowling leagues.  To my disappointment I couldn’t use any of these new balls due to the house not putting any oil down or a very light coat of oil.  I was forced to use my plastic ball just to have a chance to get my ball to the one three pocket last night.  

I have yet to hit my average in overall series.  The mixed league is the only league so far with some oil down.  Still, I couldn’t believe the lack of oil in that league despite seeing the machine laying it down just before the league.

Is this a common trend in your area where centers are putting either no oil or little down?  If so, then I won’t be bowling too much longer.  I will just do open bowling from time to time for the fun of it.  I refuse to pay $17/week for bone dry or even moderate dry conditions.  This will kill the sport if this continues.  Not everybody throws the ball 20 mph!!

To sum things up.  

People are complaining as the high series so far is only a 605.  So I don’t sit alone on this.  I don’t think a lack of competence is the issue as there are others with 200+ averages.  Why are we all down in average?  That’s so easy to say, lack of competence and just adjust when you’re not witnessing what I’m witnessing.  I’m not talking just dry, I mean bone dry.  

I have bowled on a sport shot and I expect the scores to be down in comparison to everybody else.  However, when I join a league I feel the house has a responsibility to lay some oil down when you’re paying $17.00/night.  

For dry lanes:  I have bowled on them long enough to know what I need to do to bowl well on them.  Typically, I bowl well on dry lanes when I can take my plastic ball, with more speed than usual and play up the boards (whatever line that may be).  I’ve learned this the hard way time and time again over the years.  So, when my ball is still hooking like mad up the boards (with a full roller type release) with my plastic ball, I know I may as well go home.  That’s just something I know about my game when I bowl on dry lanes. If it is that dry, nothing will usually work for me and I accept that at face value.  I had dry lanes this summer in practice.  I tried swinging it inside with a variety of balls and all I got was an over/under situation.  I pulled out my plastic ball and played up the boards and suddenly I was shooting 200 games one after another.  So, I do know how to bowl on dry, but I’ve done it so often over the years that I know if I can’t play up the boards on a bone dry condition with my plastic ball, then chances are good there won’t be a shot out there for me.  I can search all I want, but this is what I’ve found out over the years.  What works for some of you (e.g. you can swing it on dry) won’t work for me.  How many more times do I need to try it?  I know my game better than that.  

I don’t know much about this pchee character, but having an upper body strength doesn’t mean that I can’t throw harder, I just don’t due to my style that I employed 30 years ago when the game was a finesse type of game.  Sure I could ram it down there 20+mph, but then I would probably average a buck 62.  If upper body strength played a factor, then all of your bodybuilders could throw a baseball 120 mph.  Pretty stupid thinking to me if you ask.  Look how small Pete Weber is.  In is time, he threw one of the meanest cranker balls, yet he weighs only 140 lbs.  I doubt if he can bench press 350.  It proves nothing.  


Edited on 9/23/2003 10:40 AM