The Jersey Strike – I imagine most people don’t think much of a Jersey strike. All the pins went down and a ten gets marked on the board. Next frame, right? Not exactly. There is a reason why you have to have a sheepish reaction if you throw a Jersey strike and it’s because you threw a bad ball and the result was good. The detailed reason of why this is the case is because a Jersey is actually a REALLY bad ball. The goal of bowling is to hit the pocket with every throw. You may miss the pocket but when you start elevating to higher levels, it shouldn’t be by much. Minor misses of the pocket right result in weak pin action and misses left result in splits. But Jersey shots are so far left that they move past the split results and into the strike result. This is why next time you throw a Jersey strike, count your blessing that they all went down but don’t be surprised when the other players shake their head.
Watch Pete Weber get pissed off at Belmonte’s Jersey strike
Pre-Bowling – I feel strongly against pre-bowling because it’s not the same bowling as in a league and shouldn’t be counted as such. It’s not the same atmosphere. Not the same oil conditions. No pressure. PLUS you can cheat if you want to by simply not reporting it. If you can’t play, and you can’t find a sub, you should lose 10% of your score. Simple as that. I could technically go to the lanes for 6 days in a row and give them my best score. It’s flat out wrong.
A few snippets from Archives:
I really hate unopposed bowling. To me the main point of league bowling is to have some friendly competition. To have one team bowl either before or after the regular league time and not face their opponent robs the game of much of its appeal.
My main problem is that pre-bowling can very easily turn into a lottery ticket of what condition the pre-bowling team gets to bowl on. If the center does not regulate the pre-bowl you can get a multitude of conditions to bowl on. In my limited pre-bowling experience I have seen both sides of this; I have had a session that I got stuck with heavy carrydown and the entire mess that follows a group of people all using house balls (a shot that ended up being much more difficult than a typical house shot) and shot terrible, but on the other end I have also seen a shot that I felt I had the most obscene wall to bump my shot off of (and pretty much knew we were sweeping that week).
Not Next, but 2 Next – Everyone who has bowled before knows you don’t bowl when someone is bowling next to you. This is common courtesy. What I’ve found though is that I don’t like going when someone is 2 down from me as well. I can see them out of the corner of my eye and start thinking about them and it messes up my whole release. Plus I’ve had people dart into my vision because my approach is a little slower. It’s not an aspect that is difficult to control either, it only requires a little patience.
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