What makes a bowling alley(house) / pattern / etc difficult

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krava
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What makes a bowling alley(house) / pattern / etc difficult

Post by krava »

Maybe a better question is How hard of a house shot should a normal bowling alley have standard.

Here is a question people can respond to. There is a lot of talk about making patterns harder etc. What makes a "house" hard? Is it the amount of 300's / 800s bowled? Is it high averages? What should the highest average be or a average of the top 5 averages in the house? I hear a lot of talk about people are tired of how easy it is. For instance my bowling alley is Holiday Lanes (bossier city), the highest score shot this year was 815 (only 1 800 shot). There are now only 2 300 games shot this year since leagues started in the Fall. (1 isn't showing since I shot it Wednesday). The highest average in the place is 222. I remember back in 1990 the highest average I saw was around 205.

I believe that is a good representation of where houses should be.

Should it be set an average say 220 for the top bowler in the house. Make a pattern up and fix it so that in an average of 10 games he will shoot 220. Then test it on someone else. They did that thing to us for a few weeks before they settled in on the current pattern or current patterns (there has to be 2 different ones because Wed and Thurs are completely different).
LookingForALeftyWall
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Re: What makes a bowling alley(house) / pattern / etc diffic

Post by LookingForALeftyWall »

Things that can make a house play hard or easy (in no particular order and not at all all-inclusive):

Lane bed topography
Gutter height
Bounciness of side boards
Pins (weight and age)
Consistency of slide on the approaches
Consistency of application of oil
Pattern
Lighting/Shadows

There are many variables. You can only control so much with the pattern itself.
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EricHartwell
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Re: What makes a bowling alley(house) / pattern / etc diffic

Post by EricHartwell »

LookingForALeftyWall wrote:Things that can make a house play hard or easy (in no particular order and not at all all-inclusive):

Lane bed topography
Gutter height
Bounciness of side boards
Pins (weight and age)
Consistency of slide on the approaches
Consistency of application of oil
Pattern
Lighting/Shadows

There are many variables. You can only control so much with the pattern itself.
Funny you should mention lighting and shadows. One of the houses I bowl in has a clock hanging above lanes 9-10. The reflection of the clock is right on the arrows. The position of the reflection changes as you move towards the foul line. This makes it Very difficult to focus on an individual board. Quite often I target the numbers on the clocks reflection. 7:05 seems to be my favorite line on lane 9. My balls trajectory travels over the 7 through the 1 on the reflection.
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Re: What makes a bowling alley(house) / pattern / etc diffic

Post by SomyP »

Whether can have a big factor has well and how long the oil has been sitting for too. Also who's on your pair and what equipment they are using. If you got a pair with 10 high rev guys using dull equipment, unless you have speed and rev rate yourself look to playing urethane up the boards, or moving in very quick.

And to Eric it is weird that the clock can affect your targeting system or your individual board you are trying to target, but it seems like you make it work. Want to know what's weirder? My targeting system. I don't look at a board or arrow. What my targeting system is and it works for me, is that I look at an area I'm shooting for and I look down at the foul line. Say I'm wanting to go up 2nd arrow. So I'll look at anywhere from 7-12. If I can hit around there I know at best I'll strike, and at worst I'll leave a 10 pin. People are baffled at how decent my accuracy is when they find out my targeting system is the biggest feel player type system there is.
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