PBA Experience Gives New Challenge

I am not the best bowler in the world. I average between 210 and 220 on regular league lane conditions. I decided this summer to join a "PBA Experience" league and bowl on lane conditions that the professionals bowl on during their tour season. Having bowled collegiately at Lindenwood University for four years, I assumed I would have a leg up on most bowlers on the league since I would be accustomed to tougher lane conditions than normal league. For those who do not have any idea what I am talking about...a lane condition is the pattern the oil is placed on the lane to determine where a bowler's breakpoint is (if he or she rolls a ball with a hook or curve). The PBA Tour uses five different lane patterns during their regular season events (there are also four "major" championships which use even more difficult patterns). These patterns are named after different animals.

The "Shark" pattern is a pattern where the oil is placed all the way to 44 feet down the lane from the foul line. This is the longest and in my personal opinion the toughest of the five by far. Typically, what bowlers tend to do is roll their balls closer to the middle of the lane ("playing deep" in bowling lingo). The PBA description of this pattern says "Players tend to play deep on the lane, just like the sharks that patrol the ocean's depths." I have bowled twice on this pattern now and am averaging around 167 for the six games. I find this pattern difficult because of the length mainly. I tend to like to roll my ball with more ball speed and this causes my ball to not have time to hook as much as someone with slower speed. I decided to try a different area of the lane to bowl. I tried to roll the ball straight up the lane around the first arrow and keep my ball speed as slow as I could comfortably. That does not work as I found. I tried to move deeper on the lane and still struggled. Once again, I feel this is attributed to the length of the oil and also to the fact I do not have any ball drilled for long patterns.

The "Scorpion" pattern is a little easier for me but not much as this pattern is more accepting for higher speed players. I missed a week on this pattern and averaged in the high 160s the other week. That was my first week bowling in almost a month, so I was not anywhere near the top of my game. I was inaccurate with where I rolled my ball (and accuracy is a major key in bowling on any pattern, but especially tougher ones).

In my opinion the "Viper" pattern is very similar to the "Scorpion". I did not notice any difference whatsoever between the two. This is more than likely the fact that the center I bowl in does not have the proper lane conditioning machine to properly set the patterns out. On this pattern, I averaged in the upper 170s. One this and the Scorpion I was rolling my ball around second arrow straight up the boards.

The "Chameleon" pattern is one that is completely different depending on where you are bowling. In some places, you need to play the middle of the lane and in some...the outside of the lane. I was able to play more towards the middle and averaged in the 180s.

The "Cheetah" pattern is the shortest and considered the easiest of the five. Typically, bowlers tend to roll their ball around the first arrow or even further towards the gutter. I bowled one week on this pattern and averaged over 220. I was rolling my ball over the first arrow and letting it drift to about the 3rd board from the gutter and watching the ball drift back to the pocket all night. Bowling collegiately helped me immensely on this pattern as during team practices and try-outs we would bowl on this pattern. I have decided that if I bowl any professional tournaments, I am making my "debut" on the "cheetah" pattern. I find playing near the gutter improves my accuracy and I have also discovered it is much more enjoyable because so many are leery of doing so.

So far, the PBA Experience league has been a definite challenge and makes regular league play seem boring. My advice would be...if you are a league bowler who is looking for a challenge and something that will make you think...join a PBA Experience league as soon as possible. Don't get discouraged because you aren't scoring high, use it as a learning experience. In the end, I know I am hoping that it will help me over the long run with my accuracy and thus, improve my regular league scores as well. The PBA Experience is the best idea that the USBC and PBA have partnered to come up with and I am very thankful that they did so.