To each his own.

Two handed understands.   You go out there to bowl your best and bowl your own game within the team concept.  The team concept shouldn't be using your bowling ball to manipulate the lanes for desired ball reactions.  This whole tournament has become complete nonsense since the USBC has been designing and promoting oil pattern carving.

It's gotten to the point where everybody thinks you can't bowl well or win if you don't manipulate the lane.  I guess when the USBC promotes doing that you buy into it. 

This cracks me up,  everybody pisses and moans about where people play and how they either take away the shim or blow up the lane in the wrong spots.  When it's suggested that we dial back technology a bit and no longer allow the bowling ball to wreck the pattern so much the bowlers piss and moan that you can't take away their super duper bowling bomb balls.

You can't have it both ways.   You want a more stable and logical game where the lanes don't get wrecked by players than you must change the playing environment. Dumping more and more oil on the lane in cute little designs does nothing but make the players use more surface and stronger balls thus wrecking the lanes and the "shims" on the lanes.   

You want less shim wrecking and logical bowling application than you gotta go to lighter oil patterns and weaker/lower flaring bowling balls.   This will allow many more styles of play to stay in the same general area without the bowling ball morphing the oil pattern.

Until then, piss and moan about the players that don't want to be forced into an area of the lane they don't want to play. 

Two handed understands.   You go out there to bowl your best and bowl your own game within the team concept.  The team concept shouldn't be using your bowling ball to manipulate the lanes for desired ball reactions.  This whole tournament has become complete nonsense since the USBC has been designing and promoting oil pattern carving.

It's gotten to the point where everybody thinks you can't bowl well or win if you don't manipulate the lane.  I guess when the USBC promotes doing that you buy into it. 

This cracks me up,  everybody pisses and moans about where people play and how they either take away the shim or blow up the lane in the wrong spots.  When it's suggested that we dial back technology a bit and no longer allow the bowling ball to wreck the pattern so much the bowlers piss and moan that you can't take away their super duper bowling bomb balls.

You can't have it both ways.   You want a more stable and logical game where the lanes don't get wrecked by players than you must change the playing environment. Dumping more and more oil on the lane in cute little designs does nothing but make the players use more surface and stronger balls thus wrecking the lanes and the "shims" on the lanes.   

You want less shim wrecking and logical bowling application than you gotta go to lighter oil patterns and weaker/lower flaring bowling balls.   This will allow many more styles of play to stay in the same general area without the bowling ball morphing the oil pattern.

Until then, piss and moan about the players that don't want to be forced into an area of the lane they don't want to play. 

+1

Its really going to suck this year when I check the mailbox and see no check at all. 

Welcome to my world!  Vacationing in Reno isn't nearly as fun as say....The Bahamas!

I have to agree that Nationals has become somewhat suspect in the fact that it's all about carving or manipulating the lane to win. Since when did you need another team to come along to help your team win? That sounds ridiculous. So the other team gives up their shot at an eagle so they can share in your team's winnings? That doesn't sound like competition, that sound just plain stupid. There's so much blowhard pissing and moaning on this site about THS scores but manipulating the lanes to make them easier to score at Nationals is ok. That's a head scratcher! I'm with TWOHAND834 and Bowling 300 900 on this one.

+1

Unless a good majority of your 10 bowlers can repeat shots, i.e. average 200+ on a sport shot, you're probably fooling yourself into thinking you're breaking down the lanes in a good way.  You would also have to have a majority of the guys be good at throwing the ball pretty straight to start things off, whether it's through equipment, speed, or release.  In my opinion, unless you have a group of guys who have a legitimate chance at the top 100, you're better off having everyone play in their comfort zone.  Do you (not necessarily you Jorge) only bowl your weekly leagues with guys who break down the shot "correctly"?  It might not help a THS with a huge mound of oil in the middle, but even they can get ugly with today's super covers and mega rev rates.  However, for nationals I would try not to have a 500 rpm spray & pray guy who needs 500 grit to compensate for his 19 mph ball speed on my team....

This will be my last personal post about this topic. I like the discussion we are having here because there are lots of different valid points. I would like to share what we brought to the table, and you can decide for yourself what you'd like to think or learn about our experience.

The team came to Reno with philosophy of a "TEAM" from beginning to end - in all events. A team can be defined by a group of individuals that will act toward reaching a common goal. Each individual has characteristics, both positive and negative, that can affect how the team will reach their goal. Also, each individual will have their own preferences.

After the team was established communication and examination of preferences and style were made. In any group, individuals must put aside personal bias (make sacrifices) for the best interest of the team. We felt that coming into Reno, the team had made it clear (we set a goal/a game plan) on what we thought could lead us to what we would define a successful team outing. We stated our preferences and characteristics and AGREED to a game plan coming into the event.

I will not get into details on who did not follow the plan, where, or when, but at the end of the day, an individual on our team did not trust the plan, and bailed out on us. Basically what we had hoped to NOT happen, had happened, because of we felt we were in control of not wrecking the shim.

More than anything, whether you believe in "Shimwrecking" or playing an individual game, the most important lesson learned on my end is that in any group or team I are a part of, we need to stick to the game plan and commit to it.

If the outcome wasn't favorable as we had thought, AND we executed our plan as precisely as possible, then it is back to the drawing board. I can live with that. Basically it means we made a poor choice and we need to make better ones next time.

The primary source of frustration is we, as a collective team, did not commit and/or precisely execute our game plan.

Moving forward, however, means that each individual of our group will need to improve on the little things - timing, release, and speed control, so we can execute even better next year. Also, it is clear that there are individuals that did not believe in the game plan, and individuals may need to be removed and added to the group to simply move forward. Tough decisions and hurt feelings will are ahead.

Personally, this has been a great learning experience about groups and teams, and I am actually looking forward to developing my own game, and being part of a group that would like to move forward, improve, and "make a number."

I bid all of the best of luck in Reno.

Nails, I understand the companion team has to be good also to incorporate the plan, but you never see stories how they were the ones who scored higher. They are just there to help the others, which sound ridiculous and does not seem to fit the idea of competing in the event to win it.

I also find it a little hard to believe one guy unless throwing a ball that was so sanded it looked fuzzy white could wreck the lanes for the other bowlers. Sounds like a little whining taking place over someone else wanting to actually compete instead of just being "a little helper".