Just got back.  2 teams made up of mostly older bowlers with lower rev rates.  2 were first timers to event.  Took the long drive from Wichita, KS with one of the rookies so we had plenty of time to talk about his experience on the way back. 

Rookie bowled 30 years ago and just got back into game 3 years ago.  I was really excited for him with the new standard division giving him a chance to compete while he was still building his skill set.  He was in awe of the sheer size and presentation of the tournament.  We spent the most of our downtime just watching different squads.  Even got to witness the eagle presentation to last year's singles champion.  He walked with his father, who is former champion himself. 

Even though the bowling was more challenging than our rookie anticipated, he was anxious to try again.  He actually thought the difficult condition was one of the best parts.  He was mainly disappointed in how many opens he had....24 for 9 games.  That gave him motivation to work with his coach to improve this immediately. 

Team:  Felt fairly short with flying backends to start.  I was nervous myself and rolled over a 4-pin spare only to see it take off.  I knew it wasn't good when I let go, but still surprised at how far off it was.  Admittedly, I was beyond pissed at myself, but channeled that into concentration so I wouldn't miss another again.  Our group didn't have enough rev rate or surface or courage to play outside early so the group played around 8-12 at breakpoint.  Pulled shots from there crossed over and sometimes missed headpin to left.  There were only 3 of us that wanted to play out, but we had to abandon that with 7 playing inside of us.  Felt like it made the pattern harder to develop in doing this.  I really didn't see anything good until 3rd game.  1 open each game for whopping 580.  3rd game I hit pocket a lot, but left 7-10, 9, 10 pins to break up any string of strikes.  Never had more than double all day.  Nobody in group did much and spares were very difficult with flying backends and slick outside boards.  6 of our group did team practice in other bowling area (long walk).  This group had 4 of us around 5 board to start.  Felt comfortable at 10 minute mark.  Had 4 of 6 balls that could strike at 30 minute mark.  Felt too easy and made sure to tell rookies with us that tournament wouldn't play this good as we all had great looks at different points in hour.

Minors:  I started going up 7 hitting pocket.  Left 9 pin, so tried to move a little and lost pocket and couldn't find it at all.  Finally noticed rest of group hitting tracer and decided I better join the group.  Only had a few doubles in Doubles for 587.  Nothing opened up and I later wondered if more surface would have helped.  Lanes were much tighter and longer than team.  Backends started strong, then tamed quickly.  I got fooled in practice and would really like to have another shot at this with 1000 grit to break down lanes.  Felt stupid afterwards.  Also having group start just outside tracer could have made lanes even better.  Our other group opened that up on pair beside us.  Finally in first game of Singles, lanes opened up.  Unfortunately, I didn't recognize sudden change and got 3 splits in a row that I didn't convert.  Made proper adjustments and only missed pocket on couple of bad shots after that.  Really would like to have game 1 over as last 2 games were 232 and 244 and they felt like those could have been bigger.  For the first time all day, I could let the ball go with utmost confidence as to what it would do. 

In retrospect, I would have liked our group to have more surface to start that would allow lower rev rates to play around 5-7 in Team and 7-9 in Minors to start.  I think this would have broke lanes down better.  Higher rev rates will be able to get hook without any problem.  I didn't have more than double until 7th game.  Didn't feel like I had much look until 3rd game of Team and end of 7th game of Minors.  Fresh felt HARD!!!  I can see groups working together to make them pretty easy though.

Lugging equipment is major pain due to carpeted floors and sheer distance traveled.  Many of our older group had to stop to rest unless they had big roller bag.  3-ball totes got very heavy.  Stayed at Southpoint and was comfortable and I ate very well at casino.  Ventured to In-and-Out and Tommy's as we had car.  Look for shack on Tommy's sign to get the real deal.  This place was crazy good.  Burgers come with fresh-made chili standard.  Both were short drive away and well worth it. 

The walk to the arena is the worst part about bowling at South Point, they need another entrance that can be used for it.

I like what I've heard about the shot as I feel like I've become so much better playing outside with surface on tougher shots and it seems that might be what's needed.

Was it a long walk from squad room to the lanes or from your room to the squad room?

I always store my equipment in lockers once I get there and that normally eliminates any long walks with it.

The lane play description goes along with pretty much everything I've heard. It seems like if you don't attempt to break down the outside in team, you're screwed because it's tough to really move left and get the ball down the lane from deep; it's seems like the pattern is just too short for that. I think surface 500-1000 up 4-7 is probably the way to go. Once you open it up, you keep balling down so that you never have to make a big jump left.

Thanks for the info! I have a little over a month before my group heads out there to try it for ourselves.

Carrying balls in from front door to BJ is long.  From front door to OC is crazy long.  From hotel room to BJ pretty short.  From hotel room to OC almost manageable.  Lockers are obviously pretty close.  From squad room to lanes is pretty long if you're on low numbered lanes as you walk out on lane 60 down to 31, then across middle seating area to lane 30.  If you're on 1-2, it's a decent hike right before bowling.

Since we drove and had time to talk and we all wanted a do-over.  Team and Minors played more differently than I anticipated.  If I had to do it over again, I'd have medium to weaker balls with surface in Team for control.  Play around 5 board to start and ball down before moving in around middle of game 2.  As short as pattern felt, getting left too quick doesn't seem like you will get to pocket with good entry angle.  Shots cut short in middle early will take off left.  Too steep of a swing angle won't recover either.  Minors I could use stronger equipment with surface around 7 board to start and hope it breaks down fast.  When I could move in with pearl/hybrid with 1000-2000 surface, I finally felt like I had a some room to miss.  Really regret not having enough surface and not moving in quick enough based on rest of group being inside of me at breakpoint.  My fault so obviously want do-over here.