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Author Topic: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...  (Read 1438 times)

JessN16

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Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« on: January 20, 2009, 03:39:20 PM »
...what do you do?

This came up tonight in my league. I was on 21 and 22, my favorite pair in our house, and one that I have never once shot below average on. For about the first 3-4 frames tonight, things were going fine (I'd actually gone 9/, X, X, X) and then we started to have a problem.

Lane 22 broke down consistently and normally. Lane 21, however, suddenly seemed to develop a hang spot right at the breakpoint.

This was an excellent night for me to read this issue, as for once, just about everyone on the pair was playing the lanes the same way. I'm typically the most experienced player on my pair in terms of equipment/lane play, but tonight, there were 2-3 others better than me -- and I liked that. I wanted to see how they'd work this problem.

Well, none of us really did. The characteristics were that, if you threw it to the usual breakpoint in this house, it would hang (hello, 2-8-10). If you went inside even a board or two, it was 4-pin, 3-6-10 or worse. If you tried to go around it, the ball wasn't going to make it back. Lots of 2-10s and even a couple of 8-10s tonight.

I usually have at least one particle pearl ball with me but not tonight, since I'd never needed one on this pair before. I just had reactive and plastic, and there was too much volume to use the plastic.

I ended up missing my three-game average by 2 pins. Still pretty good considering the circumstances (only one of the other guys beat his average and he did it by less than 20 pins), but I felt like I could have done better.

By the end of the game, I was throwing a Storm Paradigm on Lane 22, standing very left and sending it out to the gutter, barely revving the ball at all and finishing with an open hand a la Pete Weber.

But on 21, I was throwing an old Ebonite Matrix Conquest straight up 5 (with a 5.5-by drill pattern and drill-deactivated MB position) and letting it hook early, before the breakpoint, and then run straight to the pocket. I strung four in a row using this strategy but that was the best I could do.

How would you have attacked this?

Jess
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six pack

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #1 on: January 20, 2009, 11:57:30 PM »
first I would make sure the ball wasn't burning up by trying a high polished piece if it was a hang area by the pins then I would play it like a fill shot with an up the back release and pointing it with the strongest ball I could get down the lane and have some speed and pop on it and make my spares.
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Locke

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2009, 12:12:32 AM »
I was running into this same thing a little bit at a tournament on Sunday. I went at it by dropping my speed about 1.5 mph and playing the same mark. The extra time gave the ball a chance to make the move back to the pocket after the oil. It worked fairly well. Ended with me finishing 6th so I feel alright about how I did.
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dizzyfugu

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2009, 01:21:04 AM »
When I am sure it is actually an oil puddle or carrydown, I try to play around it, on a line closer to the gutter, if possible. Sometimes changing the hand position (more forward roll) an/or reducing speed also does the trick, esp. when I can use stronger equipment.

Stronger equipment as an alternative rarely works for me, unless the lane is fresh and the heads have enough oil left.

We had this several times in my club house, where the laneman had purposely (and without notice...) applied a 3' long oil strip in the breakpoint area on 8th board for training. It was quite funny - half of the players cursed, some even quit because they were not able to play their standard game anymore, the other half fought the invisible enemy with various means. Was great training. Rare high scores, but you learn a lot about your equipment and what you can do if you have to play or avoid certain areas.
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NJStroker

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2009, 03:13:49 PM »
jess, i probably would've tried to move right a bit and have my break point outside of it, and use that hang area as actually a miss room left.
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JessN16

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2009, 03:42:28 PM »
quote:
When I am sure it is actually an oil puddle or carrydown, I try to play around it, on a line closer to the gutter, if possible. Sometimes changing the hand position (more forward roll) an/or reducing speed also does the trick, esp. when I can use stronger equipment.

Stronger equipment as an alternative rarely works for me, unless the lane is fresh and the heads have enough oil left.

We had this several times in my club house, where the laneman had purposely (and without notice...) applied a 3' long oil strip in the breakpoint area on 8th board for training. It was quite funny - half of the players cursed, some even quit because they were not able to play their standard game anymore, the other half fought the invisible enemy with various means. Was great training. Rare high scores, but you learn a lot about your equipment and what you can do if you have to play or avoid certain areas.
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This is my problem as well (strong equipment), because the overall oil volume at this house is so low that there typically isn't enough oil in the heads to get away with it.

Jess
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Sean John 369

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2009, 03:47:53 PM »
Sounds like there could possibly be a little carry down.  Move right with your eyes and your feet and see if that helps.
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JessN16

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2009, 03:52:46 PM »
quote:
jess, i probably would've tried to move right a bit and have my break point outside of it, and use that hang area as actually a miss room left.
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Im so glad people are brainwashed to think that TRACK sucks. And its even funnier when im carrying with my TRACK ball and they're going flat ten with their OTHER BRANDS ball.


This is sort of what I was able to do for a shot or two with my Conquest but it was hitting a little flat. That's when I decided to move the breakpoint closer to me and let it hook/set from an outside line, which worked better. But anytime I deliberately work for a hook/set reaction, I worry about leaving corners.

Jess
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JessN16

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2009, 03:55:04 PM »
quote:
Sounds like there could possibly be a little carry down.  Move right with your eyes and your feet and see if that helps.
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I agree, but I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Both lanes were dressed just prior to league, and no one on the pair was using plastic -- plus, this showed up very early, like the 4th or 5th frame of the game, typically too early for carrydown to show up. Also, since the problem seemed confined to just one of the two lanes, it made things even more curious.

Whereas the pattern on 22 was oil-dry-pindeck, like a normal lane, the pattern on 21 seemed to be oil-dry-little patch of oil between boards 5-12-pindeck. Weird.

Jess
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lenstanles703

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2009, 07:09:18 AM »
When the lanes where I bowl get like this I move to the 5 with an old weak ball. My choice is a navy blue hammer reactive. But you can leave a lot of corners.
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lenstanles703

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2009, 07:10:18 AM »
When the lanes where I bowl get like this I move to the 5 with an old weak ball. My choice is a navy blue hammer reactive. But you can leave a lot of corners.
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Mike Austin

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2009, 11:05:33 PM »
You said there was hook to the left of the hang.  So, for me I would jump left, feet and eyes.  The fronts would still be pretty good.  I would try to move left of the hang area, like it's a reverse block and never go that far right.  Usually when I miss, I miss left.

If it was carry down, push, you could move everything right and play closer to the gutter, but if you miss left from there, could be big trouble.  If you can use the hang spot for hold, many straighter players can do this, that might be a good solution.

I would move left, hope the other guys on the lane don't and dry out the hang area and/or open up a hook spot left of the hang area.  "I" would try to stay left of everybody, specially if there is hook down the lane left of the hang.

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JessN16

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Re: Advanced laneplay question: When confronted with a "puddle" at the breakpoint...
« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2009, 02:42:42 AM »
quote:
You said there was hook to the left of the hang.  So, for me I would jump left, feet and eyes.  The fronts would still be pretty good.  I would try to move left of the hang area, like it's a reverse block and never go that far right.  Usually when I miss, I miss left.

If it was carry down, push, you could move everything right and play closer to the gutter, but if you miss left from there, could be big trouble.  If you can use the hang spot for hold, many straighter players can do this, that might be a good solution.

I would move left, hope the other guys on the lane don't and dry out the hang area and/or open up a hook spot left of the hang area.  "I" would try to stay left of everybody, specially if there is hook down the lane left of the hang.

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This is the strategy one of the guys on the pair used, and he shot a big number in his second game (256), but then threw two washouts and a couple of splits in the third game and dropped into the 170s.

The other big-rev guy decided to go behind the ball, change to a ball with surface, turn up the speed and play "stuff the pocket" from a straighter line, actually going through the hang area. He also had one big score and one bad game (148...ouch).

I ended up having the most consistent night, even though I switched balls between the two lanes all night long. My problem was that I stayed right around my average (meaning, no big scores), so when one of their guys really punched in a big number, I never caught them. We lost three out of four points, all three losses by small margins.

The rest of the folks were low-rev and/or straighter players, and true to what you'd expect, there weren't a lot of doubles thrown on this pair at any point.

My problem with moving left as you suggest is that I tend to really pitch one out every now and then. I should practice that shot more because I don't trust myself with it now.

Jess
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