As the PC Bricks aren't fielding a softball team this summer, I'm free to bowl in a summer league this year. The Blockheads chose not to bowl in the Over The Wall summer league so Olivia and I decided to join the Sport Challenge Doubles league on Monday nights. Sharon will sub when one of us can't make it. The Coach may also get a piece of the action when a sub is needed.
What is a sport bowling? A good explanation can found in this article on lane conditions found at bowlingball.com. The condition we bowl on for our regular league is called the house shot or THS for short. It's designed to make it easy for novice and intermediate bowlers to hit the pocket and get high scores.
With THS, the lane has a heavy amount of oil in the center. Moving from the center to the gutters, the amount of oil dispensed on the lane decreases gradually. There is very little oil on the ten boards closest to the gutters. This gives the bowler a substantial margin of error. If your target is the second arrow (10th board), you can often miss by a few boards to the left or right and have your ball still hit the pocket. When you shoot wide to the right, the lack of oil at the outside edge allows your ball to gain traction early and still hook toward the pocket. If you tug your shot to the left of the target, the long, heavy oil in the center of the lane allows your ball to keep skidding instead of hooking. Thus, you might get a Brooklyn strike or at least catch the 2 pin when you might expect the shot to flair out way to the left.
With sport shot, you don’t have conditions that will minimize your errors. The oil is typically heavy all the way across the lane or heavy at the edges and light in the center. If you swing your shot too far to the right, it’s going to meet heavy oil and stay out there. If you tug your shot toward the middle of the lane, it may hook early and sail toward the 7 pin. Unlike THS, sport shot is very unforgiving. It forces you to focus on accuracy because if you miss your target, there’s a good chance you’ll be stuck with a washout or split. It's much harder to strike so it's vitally important that you convert your spares.
For help in understanding the various oil pattern graphs found on the internet, this site may be of some help.
What is a sport bowling? A good explanation can found in this article on lane conditions found at bowlingball.com. The condition we bowl on for our regular league is called the house shot or THS for short. It's designed to make it easy for novice and intermediate bowlers to hit the pocket and get high scores.
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| We're used to bowling on on patterns such as the Block and Christmas Tree which provide a large margin of error. |
With THS, the lane has a heavy amount of oil in the center. Moving from the center to the gutters, the amount of oil dispensed on the lane decreases gradually. There is very little oil on the ten boards closest to the gutters. This gives the bowler a substantial margin of error. If your target is the second arrow (10th board), you can often miss by a few boards to the left or right and have your ball still hit the pocket. When you shoot wide to the right, the lack of oil at the outside edge allows your ball to gain traction early and still hook toward the pocket. If you tug your shot to the left of the target, the long, heavy oil in the center of the lane allows your ball to keep skidding instead of hooking. Thus, you might get a Brooklyn strike or at least catch the 2 pin when you might expect the shot to flair out way to the left.
With sport shot, you don’t have conditions that will minimize your errors. The oil is typically heavy all the way across the lane or heavy at the edges and light in the center. If you swing your shot too far to the right, it’s going to meet heavy oil and stay out there. If you tug your shot toward the middle of the lane, it may hook early and sail toward the 7 pin. Unlike THS, sport shot is very unforgiving. It forces you to focus on accuracy because if you miss your target, there’s a good chance you’ll be stuck with a washout or split. It's much harder to strike so it's vitally important that you convert your spares.
For help in understanding the various oil pattern graphs found on the internet, this site may be of some help.
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