BallReviews
General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: shakezilla9 on May 04, 2018, 06:33:39 PM
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Starting Monday I will be starting my first Sport Shot League after over a decade away from the game. My previous league average was 200, and I've been averaging about 205 the past two months in Open Play.
My goal is to finish the season with a +180 average, and I have no idea what the patterns will be. I'm just looking for general tips you may have picked up in your experiences.
I already throw pretty straight up second or first arrow so I'm hoping I wont have the trouble the higher rev players experience. I know a lot of guys on tour use a lot of surface on flatter patterns, and was just wondering if that would be something to explore.
Current Arsenal (all OOB finish) -
Black Widow Dark Legend / pin up
Smokin' Inferno / pin up
Heat / pin down
Spare Ball
Any surface recommendations would be appreciated, as well as ball recommendations. I bowl with medium-low speed, 250-300 revs, low-medium tilt.
Thanks for any advice.
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Most important thing to know about any pattern you encounter is the length of the buff. Look to find something out around 5 board on the shorter patterns. Since you already play fairly straight, you should have less trouble adjusting. The biggest thing you will notice is that you won't find the hold area that tends to be available on house shots for straighter players. Try to stay squared up but don't pull the ball trying to fit it.
Wish I could give you more help, but there is a lot if trial and error involved. Also spares can be tricky on flat patterns. I use my spare ball on pretty much everything except double wood spares
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Maybe this is sort of obvious, but if someone is totally new to sport shot, then take your house shot adjustments and forget them.
If you're ball is going high, do not move deeper inside for more oil (because there is no additional oil there). Instead make a parallel move outside.
Likewise if you're coming in light, move inside. The outside isn't super dry like on houseshot.
The rule of taking length of pattern and minus 31 to know you're breakpoint is a good way to have idea where to play. So for 40 foot pattern, you want a break point about 9. 36 foot patter, about 5th board. And so forth. This isn't a perfect rule, but will tell you about where you need to be.
Spares are harder b/c people really use house shot to get huge margin of error for 10 pins. Unless you through it dead straight plastic helps a lot.
Houseshots really train people to make backwards adjustment. And I've seen in my sport shot league sometimes new people join and no matter how much things don't work, they keep on trying house shot strategy.
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If you're ball is going high, do not move deeper inside for more oil (because there is no additional oil there). Instead make a parallel move outside.
Likewise if you're coming in light, move inside. The outside isn't super dry like on houseshot.
You hit the basic stuff. I don't agree with these statements as they are not absolute.
The other thing I'll add is play the lanes front to back, not side to side
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Most sport patterns are low ratio so it will be more about front to back motion than left to right. Test out different areas of the lane because topography will be an even bigger variable than normal. Rule of -31 to the length of the pattern is a good starting point but not definite.
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Just don't be that guy that kills transition by carving a hole in the middle of the pattern when it makes sense to break it down right to left.
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Just don't be that guy that kills transition by carving a hole in the middle of the pattern when it makes sense to break it down right to left.
The OP said that he is a “straight up 2nd or 1st arrow guyâ€...he’s not gonna be the guy that carves a hole in the middle of the pattern.
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Just don't be that guy that kills transition by carving a hole in the middle of the pattern when it makes sense to break it down right to left.
The OP said that he is a “straight up 2nd or 1st arrow guyâ€...he’s not gonna be the guy that carves a hole in the middle of the pattern.
When we lose our look on the lanes, sometimes we resort to crazy tactics in desperation, trying to reinforce this no no haha.
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I basically agree with rebel on the adjustments. One other point I don't think gets discussed enough is transitions. To me the hardest part of playing any flatter pattern is dealing with transitions. I don't know how many times over the years that I had free hook anywhere in practice, but as soon as the carry down started to set up I got lost. For straighter players moving right can work up to a point. Move left too far and you get inside the carrydown, making it playblike a reverse block.
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Transition on these flatter patterns can be a challenge for me as well. A slight miss right and often, the ball skates past the breakpoint. Move left and the ball wants to jerk left. I am a straight player. Once the transition starts, it is often the players with some "hand" who can miss a little right and still get recovery. I also agree that adjustments are very often the opposite of what you utilize on house patterns. I tend to do better on longer patterns, where I can stay inside my comfort zone and use the longer buff as a kind of shim. However once it breaks down, then the "fun" often begins.
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Straight at spares and don't be afraid to surface prep your equipment to be a little duller than you may typically use on a house pattern.
Watch the players who are scoring around you and see what you can do to emulate their ball reaction
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Very good advise jkirkerx. Way to explain it to him where he can comprehend the process of playing tougher patterns. Being humble is the best part of playing these patterns and requires 100% SHOTMAKING to be sucessful.
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Wanted to say thanks to everyone. I will keep in mind the lateral movements rather than angular adjustments. I struggle with throwing at an angle anyways and prefer to lay the ball down as straight as possible no matter what I'm facing.
I got two of my pieces sanded down yesterday, so I'm hoping to have a little more forgiveness with a lot of soft pocket hits and a lot of 9 spares.
Now my main concerns is left sided spares. I ALWAYS hook at anything left of the 6/9 pins. I slow my speed way down and put a more sideways roll on the ball, which usually gives me 95% accuracy on a house shot (as long as it's not a bucket). Hopefully I can find enough controllable backend to get me through.
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I think focusing on left side spares is important. Generally slow hooking the lane at 4 and 7 pins is a recipe for disaster. Cant count how many times a tem mate has thrown at a 4 pin early in team at nationals and had the ball hook in the gutter. 8 frames later they skid by the same spare on the right. Such is thr nature of carrydown on flat patterns. I dont subscribe to the pro theory of airmailing it down the lane at 25 mph, but I believe trying to throw as straight as possible and using a plastic or urethane ball is the best way to attack most spares.
Said it before, but worth repeating. Its not the pattern that kills you, but the transitions on flat patterns.
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I think focusing on left side spares is important. Generally slow hooking the lane at 4 and 7 pins is a recipe for disaster. Cant count how many times a tem mate has thrown at a 4 pin early in team at nationals and had the ball hook in the gutter. 8 frames later they skid by the same spare on the right. Such is thr nature of carrydown on flat patterns. I dont subscribe to the pro theory of airmailing it down the lane at 25 mph, but I believe trying to throw as straight as possible and using a plastic or urethane ball is the best way to attack most spares
I agree, spares are too important in tournament situations so just take the guess work out and make the spare. I also throw plastic at the half bucket (2-4-5) and 3-6-9-10 now unless there's hook off the gutter.
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I maintain to this day, my plastic spare ball is the most important ball in my bag.
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I maintain to this day, my plastic spare ball is the most important ball in my bag.
I agree with that, although my shoes are probably more important. :)
On a sport shot, using plastic for spares is a good tip. Even for leagues, I see too many miss easy spares because their strike ball hooked by the pin they were trying to cover or it stopped hooking and skidded past.
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The thing about using plastic for spares is that it is the one thing you can do on a house shot that prepares you for shooting spares on a flat pattern, and it probably even helps you on the house shots once you get comfortable using it on most spares.
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Another thing I would suggest to anyone starting to use a plastic or urethane spare ball is to develop an attack plan for common spare combinations. There are good ways and bad ways to approach each spare and many people don't understand or know the better ways.
For instance, the below are commonly left spare combinations on sport shots (for a righty):
* Don't hook the ball into the 3-6-10; instead ensure your ball is going left to right (or straight) when it gets to the 3-6.
* For washouts, approach them from the left side of the lane and throw to the Brooklyn side of the headpin.
* Attack the bucket by going straight down the lane and not at an angle.
There are other combinations many bowlers do not approach correctly, but as long as you have a plan of attack for each combination you will increase your chances of making the spare.
Know what board you stand on and what board you hit. Write it down and work on it and take the paper with you to refer to when bowling.
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Attack the bucket by going straight down the lane and not at an angle.
This one depends on each bowler. The full bucket 2-4-5-8 I play the same as double wood. Half bucket without the 8 I use plastic and just make a small adjustment off my normal 4 pin spare
I tried going straight at the bucket for a little bit but was never as comfortable with it and even missed a couple.
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Attack the bucket by going straight down the lane and not at an angle.
This one depends on each bowler. The full bucket 2-4-5-8 I play the same as double wood. Half bucket without the 8 I use plastic and just make a small adjustment off my normal 4 pin spare
I tried going straight at the bucket for a little bit but was never as comfortable with it and even missed a couple.
I should have prefaced a bucket without the sleeper. I understand how one can visually see the spare better from an angle or it can be more comfortable. However, you introduce the chance of chopping the spare when you add angle. I do agree though that if after practice you can spare it with a higher percentage with angle instead of straight, then do so. But I feel bowlers should practice the method that provides the most room for error first.
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On the bucket it is less about which way gives the most margin of error, than what matches up to your eye and feel. On some lengths I would hook the ball at the bucket, other times I would go realy straight and get the 2 pin high with plastic. Longer patterns the former.