Should There Be Limit on the Amount of Units Of OIL on the Lane

I don't care how much oil is on the lane as long as you can turn it a little to get a good pin reaction and enough oil to last 10 games , other then that you should adjust your direction, ball speed and ball if you dont you want to start otherwise you get nowhere.

Suggestion;

I bowl with Belmo and he is my par level if I have the chance to bowl in torny with him I watch there hes bowling and what ball hes using and use that info to help me adjust and if I can finish the day 150 pin or less I have done everything correctly, and since I have start doing that my consitancey has increased by 40%

Cheers
 
Guess your right there Craig, talking in units sounds so mid 90's now i think about it, ratio and volume of conditioner seem to be the 'buzzwords' of modern lane conditioning. I do kind of miss the 'chuck and duck' wet dry from then though! Like i said there is an upper limit on what we can use anyway and surely covers and cores can't (legally) get stronger forever either.
 
Just what I like, a thread on lane oiling.

I have always said we have to take the oil OFF the lanes, too much oil only helps Windups with no accuracy. The unfortunate thing these days is that the machines most Centre's are using are creating Great Walls of China following the American trend, as witnessed by those bowlers who have posted here and stated how much oil is on lanes when they bowled over there.

As a couple have posted here, too much oil, just change balls and adjust, thats just great if you have an Arsenal of equipment, but were not all loaded, I myself have only bought 2 balls in the last 10 years and I worked in the Industry for 36 years, and was able to buy at a reduced price. Now consider the Newby with his first ball, a White Dot, 90 units of oil with 10 units on the outside, how in Gods name is he going to HOOK it. As one of the legends of the game once said " teach a person to hook a ball and you have a bowler for life " , maybe this is the reason for the down trend in bowling in this Country and America, too much OIL on the lanes?

So I will give the answer to the problems again, take off the oil, then we will see who can bowl.

willey.
 
i apologise to the centres that have kickers and that is my bad. I have worked with kickers once and how could I have forgotten. Most AMF centre have PBLs and the new GS series M/Cs have ball accellerators. But I still say more oil is better as it is easier to adjust on an oily lane, on a dry lane you can only go so far right as there is a dirty great big ball return in the way. But then again lets put 10ml oil on the lane and we all throw plastics, will that be good for the game I dont think so, but that is my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own.

Matthew Lambrick
 
Willey, white dot bowlers and 3 rev bowlers have NO business shooting huge scores. This game is about technology, unfortunately. You can't fault the people that have gone forward with the game, because they could, while you couldn't/wouldn't. Having a playable condition that suits all players, not just the ones that play with no hand, or the ones that can throw it a million miles an hour is not bowling, it's chucking. Bowling is a sport that anyone can do, but it takes work to do it well. Why in Gods name would we go backwards and back the oil off. I say well done for the Tech that laid the oil down that started this thread. He probably got his bum kicked for doing it, and he should be commended. Change is always going to happen......
 
Here here Rig.....
I couldn't agree with you more...........Willey says that too much oil only helps Windups with no accuracy....hmmmm,and no oil helps 3 rev tweeners....so as you have said Rig,we should lay down conditions that are fair for all styles of bowlers,and there is no reason why a heavy long pattern cannot have good crisp backends allowing a shot for ALL bowlers......

Cheers for now

Paul K.
 
We wouldnt want people to have to work on their releases and deliveries to create a shot now would we? I mean, that might take a degree of skill, a load of practise and a bit of tallent? :rolleyes:

I agree with marshall holmann totally, the conditions shut out the power players, we need something to bring them back into the game. I vote for longer patterns with a greater coverage of oil right across the lane. Im getting sick of centers who dont think there is any point in doing things like double oiling heads and expecting them to last 8 games before a track the size of the grand canyon opens up in the middle of the lanes.

I think i would die if i turned up to league one week and i found something like this, would have to check im still in qld and havent fallen into some dimensional portal and wound up in an alternate reality.

Pattern_16.jpg


Might actually have a week of bowling instead of throwing. My physio would wonder if i had died or something. :D

Edit: i remember bowling at a center not too long ago that had themselves pretty well sorted, oiling to around 36-37 feet, buffed to 42 ft and oiling from about 22ft on the return pass. Backends were squeeky clean which still made for a huge shot for everybody, the added oil just allowed some of the power players to enjoy a shot where they had some oil to play with.

Thats heaven to me, i dont care what the condition is or how hard it is to bowl on, if i could have a night of bowling where i dont need to fight the lanes for ball speed because even joe blogs throwing left handed backup pancakes all night is covering 30 boards and shooting telephone numbers, then im going to enjoy bowling each week.
 
As l said more oil is what l would love to see. But then we need to ensure that we are not creating the great wall of china either as one put it.

Surely more oil can be added, in a way that can remove that great area that the crankers have, and allow the strokers back into the game as well.

This is all about making the game better for all, not just some, and removing the oil is not a good idea, as bowlers will walk away in droves, unless you plan on turning the centre into one of the nightclub bowl style places, who dont know what oil is, but then it is only social players having a few drinks, and after some fun.

We want to bring back the accuracy of the game, and remove the area game. I am not against a small area of 2 to 3 boards, but not the 5 to 8 boards currently available in a numebr of centres and events.

Just my thoughts.
 
well we have oil in Victoria. I know QLD doesnt.

Remember bowling Junior Coke @ Clayfield. 1st ball straight after wash & oil, no track on the ball at all. After 3 or 4 more deliveries, decided that the plastic ball was best.
 
garden city lanes in towomba has oil, caboulture knows how to lay down oil, the new logan hyper bowl has a fair amount of oil and it holds.

and yer im a person who says more oil the better.

luke green
 
Rig, you have missed the point, how are they going to learn the game if all they get is 90 units of oil, as everyone seems to think is appropriate.

Everyone here is not just talking tournaments, thier talking everyday league patterns, so imagine the League of Newby's with thier White Dot's or equivelant trying to hook the ball the same as the bowlers in the 6.30 Scratch League, bowling just before them. Some will make it hook, so maybe this is where the Windup's start from. But unfortunately as I have seen over the years those bowlers able to hook a White Dot in todays patterns end up with severe arm swings which are'nt easily corrected, when they try bowling with a ball, that actually hooks for them, in thier attempt to better thier game.

The thing is all those units of oil is only wasted, as no one actually bowls on that part of the lane anyway, once the ball passes 20 foot down the lane all that oil is only there to help a wayward shot. What will happen if you take off the oil , is you find those windup's can't hit anything and can't finesse the ball and definately can't back-off the ball.

There are some that think that Windup's with thier incredible technique is the pinnacle of the game, unfortunately there are no rules on how to bowl, so if we pander to the Windup's with thier conveluted styles of inaccuracy and keep putting more oil on the lanes than the future will probably create Spinners who will dominate the game for a few years until we wake up to the fact we went too far.

JMHO
willey.
 
Willey the primary purose of oil beeing on the lanes is to protect the lanes not for bowlers. BTW if I am not mistaken White Dots are not designed to hook, if a bowlers wants a ball to hook then go buy a reactive, now that is the reality. I and i don't think many other head techs would back the oil off just to please a few bowlers that are trying to hook a plastic ball when it cost $3000 to replace a lane after all the reactive ball tear them up

Matthew Lambrick
 
Once the ball passes 20ft all the oil is there to just help a wayward shot?

Damn, we better get this 3 lane wide give way rule happening, we are going to need to bowl on the pair next to us over the gutter if we dont need oil past 20 feet :rolleyes:

Nobody bowls on that part of the lane? are you mad? last time i checked a lane included 39 boards, how you can make a statement that nobody uses any other section of the lane is totally beyond me. You will find a lot of bowlers resort to playing tighter inside lines to increase consistancy in an effort to remove over/under reaction you can get from drier outsides. What do you say to them? they must not exist right?

On a flat condition with good coverage including oil on the outside boards, a plastic ball is going to do squat. I think you are talking yourself into a corner willey. You need something dry to bounce a walled shot off, just laying down a flat condition isnt going to do it. Besides, the person bowling with a plastic will have even less a chance of generating any movement once the carrydown appears. Thats going to make it even harder for them to carry which kind of defeats your thinking that oil is simply going to increase margins of error.

Ohh, and i think you will find that the book on just what the correct swing is like was thrown out the window long ago. Most coaches i know of concentrate on correcting any major flaws and try to work with the bowlers natural range of movement and what feels comfortable to them. Im all for power players to come back into the game, they are exciting to watch and have the ability to blow the lanes wide appart. Australia is a very small drop in the ocean of bowling, conditions encountered can be vastly different outside of the country (you think you have seen tough here?). If we want to establish an international presence the industry needs to get with the times and embrace technology because it is here to stay.

Actually, you know what you sound like? a disgruntled middle aged man who suffers from a case of the green eyed monster when looking at some of the shots/games some of our latest junior and youth bowlers are able to deliver. Plenty of power players can play dry conditions, they simply change to equipment or release that results in less friction generated. There is no problem being forced to bowl on a dry condition and having to work hard to make the card (the sadistic ones actually enjoy it ;)), having to throw (not bowl) the ball week in week out because the center you bowl in put down such a half arsed condition is utter rubbish.

If you pay good money each week, and lets for arguments sake say good money is upwards of $26 a league, you deserve to have something fair and consistant. Some of the conditions put out by centers these days are far from that, you only have to look at south qld to see a few prime examples of the above, in these cases it does nothing but drive bowlers away which is something the sport doesnt need.
 
Sameal, if you are going to quote me than please get it right, I did'nt say all the oil past 20 feet is to help a wayward shot, I said " All THAT OIL ( 90 units ) is there to hold a wayward shot".

You are right I am envious of the power generated by a lot of Windup's, but when I see them not hit the same place twice and still Strike than I'm annoyed.

You are wrong about bowlers using all 39 boards, I think you better watch next time you see some bowlers, because if they bowl through 90 units from 20 feet to 40 feet than they have missed ( probably a Windup ).

I am not against power players bowling, but I am against pandering to them with massive amounts of oil as this hurts everyone else, this is like in Golf parlance making all the Holes 600 metre's long, so who's going to win in that situation, only the power hitters.

I am not disgruntled and if I'm middle aged than this is good as I will live to be over 100. I'm actually the same age as Wayne Chester, I even look like Wayne except I use my right hand so I don't have his advantages.

I have bowled in league that has cost over $30 a week, my last league average was 215, so I'm no bunny, but of course, they were the easiest lanes I have bowled on in my life.

Matthew,I can't leave you out of this conversation, Who's Reality, are you speaking of when your talking about the White Dots. Since when did they take the Hook out of the White Dot, Oh Sorry, those Centre's stopping the Whinging bowlers who have more Ball in thier hand than they can handle or those bowlers who have more hand in the ball than they can handle. The White dot in it's day had no rival. Even this year in America an 859//3 series was bowled using a plastic ball, I'm sure he must have generated some hook on it. Also there's no need to teach me about the reasons Oil is aplied to a lane as I have done it for over 36 years.

JMHO willey.
 
Look the plastic ball in this day and age is designed to go straight being a hard case ball and more often then not they are polished. Yes i can sand up a plastic ball to 240 grit and move the ball 20 boards, and yes I do believe that a plastic ball is the safest ball that a bowler can have in their arsenal but with ultra aggressive balls being created more oil will be required to protect the lanes. Or are you one of these bowlers that can't move out of their own centre. I have bowled in every centre in Metro Melbourne and yes the lanes conditions in these centres vary a great deal. As I have said in many of my other posts and in other topics for the game to move forward in this country the governing bodies needs to set down black and white regulations as to what conditions are required to be laid down. I may not have been in the industry for 36 years but logic says the technology of the game will move quicker than lane conditions can keep up or as I said previously in this topic shall we ban all new technology and go back to bowling plastics. I don't care either way but so long as new technology keeps appearing more oil will be reuqired its as simple as that.

Matthew Lambrick
 
I am from south Queensland. I have encountered some of the drier conditions around these parts, and I hope nobody is suggesting that these conditions be made standard. I am of the opinion that oil encourages true bowling when applied to a pattern properly. Sure, you can leave the outside 5 boards bone dry and have a gigantic wall, but you can also enforce accuracy with conditions using greater volumes of oil.

At the QS youth rolloffs, we had short oil 6 games, and long oil 6 games. The short oil was so short that I could not keep the ball in the right hand pocket with a polished V2 Dry unless I hit 1 board or at an absolute stretch, 2 board, shooting across the lane as hard as I could get the ball down the lane. Yes I bowl two handed, yes I throw some revs, but to me that was rediculous. I was flattening my release as much as I could and it was still too strong. I may be a bit of a "power player" but I am not that inaccurate that I can't hit the same couple of boards twice. Shorter and especially drier lane conditions will suit strokers, end of story. A stroker can aim at the pocket on a flooded condition, but a power player can not do this on a dry condition. They are shut out. As it turns out, I didn't make the team, but when the long oil was put out, I didn't bowl the house down, but I beat Ben Coupland for those last 6 games, and he made the team in 2nd place. He's a fantastic bowler, but when you see guys like Michael Zentfeld missing out, you have to start asking questions.

In reference to beginner and lower average bowlers not achieveing any hook with their white dots - I have been up against this arguement before when I was a casual technician at a bowling centre in Brisbane previously. The head tech at this particular AMF centre would not put down a decent volume on the lanes, because if you do, the once-a-week league bowler with a 120-160 average with his white dot will complain that they can't hook their ball like the 200+ bowlers anymore. It's a valid arguement, as high average bowlers are by far in the minority in each centre. However, if the sport is to go forward for Australia on a WORLD STAGE, something has to be done! In my view, there should be two house patterns. Pattern one is for the serious leagues, and this would be advertised. High average bowlers should be bowling on this pattern. Pattern two should be for the other leagues that contain the lower average and beginner bowlers. There should be no honour boards or honour scores for Pattern Two (the drier or walled pattern), and the only honour scores to be counted should come from Pattern One - which should at a bare minimum, satisfy the requirements set out in TBA's lane conditioning policy. Random checks should be done throughout the year across centres, and those centres found to not be complying should be stripped of TBA accreditation.

You can set up lane conditions with decent volumes of oil that will suit both power players and strokers, and make it so both styles have to be accurate to within 1 or 2 boards. This would encourage people to learn how to properly roll the ball and be accurate with speed and direction. Apart from throwing the ball at 35+km/hr I don't see how this fairness can be achieved from dry and/or extremely short conditions.

This is just my opinion.
 
The 9-pin wonderboy said:
The short oil was so short that I could not keep the ball in the right hand pocket with a polished V2 Dry unless I hit 1 board or at an absolute stretch, 2 board, shooting across the lane as hard as I could get the ball down the lane.

I am advocating neither of these arguments, there are pro's and cons of both sides. But if you put your V2 in the bag...pulled out your spare ball, kept your release to only 5% or so variance, and hit a 2 board wide target, it would probably get you into the pocket.

This is the skill that has gone out of todays bowling. Too many people think they have a right to get the ultra aggressive reactive ball and lob into an area on oil and shoot the house down. It doesnt teach anybody anything, its just a no brainer. Bowling, like golf has taken the path of technology like golf has, and although golf keeps some element of skill, the power players keep an advantage. USE a less aggressive ball....do what you have to do, dont expect anything and teach yourself to deal witth any condition presented.

This is going by the wayside and its a pretty sad thing the way I see it.
 
No, I am all for having only 1-2 boards to hit. That is accuracy, and I am all for it.

What I was saying is that on that condition, I had to actually hit THE one board. Not one board or two boards of area. If my ball did not touch the edge of two board/one board on the right gutter - it was going left of pocket. To me that is rediculous. My plastic was still hooking insanely, and I couldn't carry well enough with it to be competitive against some of the others.
 
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