The league season is winding down and will be completely over within the next five to six weeks or so. If you are an avid bowler you may join one or two (or more) summer leagues because of your love for the sport. I suggest that you consider joining a "Sport Shot" league because it can only serve to improve your skills. (There are also "PBA Experience" leagues that you can check out.)

In comparison to the typical oiling patterns that are put down, the sport shot will place a lot of emphasis on consistency and accuracy.

Have you heard of the term, "area?" Well, in a typical house shot, there can be up to a 10 board "miss" area from your target where the ball can still recover and get to the strike pocket. This can be either left or right!

In most Sport Shot leagues, the oil length is varied every so many weeks. For example, in a 12-week league, the first four weeks has 39 feet of oil, the second four weeks has 41 feet of oil, and the last three weeks has 44 feet of oil. But, here is the tricky part - the ratio of oil across the lane (depending on the lane surfaces) is 2-to-1, 2.5-to-1, or 3-to-1 as compared to the 30-to-1 ratio in a typical bowling center.

In a typical house shot, the center will use 24 to 27 units of oil on a lane in the 30-to-1 ratio. Placed in perspective, there is virtually no oil from the gutter to the 3-board. If you "dump" a ball outside your mark, it can still hook back to the headpin. "Dump" the ball inside and it hits the higher volume of oil and seems to back-up or hold the line straight into the pocket.

In the sport shot league, there will generally be 90 units of oil across the middle parts of the lane and 45 units from the gutter to the 10-board area. In a sport shot league, if you miss to the right, your ball does not come back to the pocket; and, if you miss to the left, the ball will continue hooking so the ball won't "back-up" into the pocket.

Think about this: if a bowler only bowls in sport shot leagues and wants to enter into a regular tournament or league, there is an adjustment/average compensation chart that adds 15 pins to their sport shot average.

A Hui Hou! (See You Again!)