Pinbuster's got it. Watch a league. Bowler 1 bowls. Walks back to table on the concourse. Bowler 2 gets up to go bowl. Walks back to table. Bowler 3 gets up and so on. Nobody ever greets the bowler ahead of them as they are coming off the approach anymore. When you had to keep score everyone hung in the bowlers area. Now they arrive 4 hours early for league to get a table. This pace has just carried over to nationals.
Agreed. I find it quite an annoying trend...
Ugh.. very annoying indeed.
This is exactly what I'm seeing as well. I didn't bowl when manual scoring was required, but I do notice that most bowlers don't even start to head to the ball return until the previous bowler has left the approach entirely.
again, ugh.. Regardless of environment (read: league, tournament, Nats, etc.), for the most when I'm bowling, I'm standing. Doesn't matter if I'm in the settee area, back on the concourse, or otherwise, I'm always standing and ready for my turn; not because I want to keep the scoring pace up, but just that sitting throws me off my normal routine over the course of the night. If I'm having a really off night, I may sit and think about what I'm struggling with (going back to internal head games/overanalyzing everything), but other than that, I'm standing because I don't want to get stiff. My muscles are already loose, and sitting may cause me to cramp..
anyway, back on point.
I'm in the same boat. If I shoot something in the 600 range, it will be a good set. But regardless of my score, I can do it with one lane courtesy, and our teams will certainly spend time discussing the pattern and our ball reactions while waiting for our turn. We did get put on the clock, either last year or 2 years ago, and it made me nuts.
Understandable, on both sides.
We like to compete. We work at it. In years past we have invested considerable time and resources to bowl on patterns similar to the open patterns. I bowl league with 1 lane courtesy. Also just got done with a scratch tournament that made no announcement about it, so courtesy was a jumbled up mess of mostly 2 lane courtesy, with some 1 lane mixed in. In the past, 1 have also bowled PBA regionals and a couple USBC Masters with the "PBA pairs", and I liked it. I prefer it. But I totally get it that I don't get to have that option. To keep myself in check, I sometimes go down to practice on weekends when there are lots of kids b-day parties, and I practice next to one of them. Intentionally. I have learned to not get distracted or upset by lane play courtesy any more. But slow play....... AAARGGGHHHH!
This may do all of us a world of good, because (and I'll throw my hand up here as well), we may have become too complacent in our ways in league and carrying that over into tournaments. I know for sure that after coming out of collegiates so many years ago and going into adult leagues, courtesy went from 1 lane to 2 lane. So as I adjusted, I got into the habit of not being able to adjust back to one lane courtesy, and end up seeing someone 2 lanes over with peripheral vision, and throwing me off (albeit slightly).
I'll preface that by defining "2-lane courtesy" as being on the approach and lining up while someone else is on the approach 2 lanes over (left or right). I'm not defining 2-lane courtesy as
waiting off the approach until someone has started ball delivery. That would be unacceptable.
Regardless, I need to get back into the hang of 1-lane courtesy and tune out that peripheral vision, and doing what you're doing may be the key, if not for all of us.
pete weber?
That popped into my head as well..
BL.
