“This is where experience and good lane-reading skills counts for far more than mathematical rules…”

This video continues the three part series from a reasonable 600 series (3 games) in the Monday trios league.

We start well into game one, with four strikes in a row, followed by a spare. (For those of you unfamiliar with league or competition play, note how we swap lanes with each frame.)

I pulled the first one a bit, and got lucky with a Brooky strike, but the next three were nice flush pocket balls.

At this point, I was still having a little trouble with the hop. (You can hear my team mate Dave – filming with my phone – talking about it.) Note how apparent the hop is in the second strike. But in the third strike, I’m much more stable at the foul line. As mentioned in this previous video, this is because I stayed behind the ball more in the follow through. Look how much more length I get on the ball down the lane as a result. I think you’ll agree that the third strike was a far better shot than the first two.

In the next frame, a good pocket ball gets an unlucky result, leaving the 7-pin… easily spared. I tend to stick with my reactive ball for the cross lane spares on the left, unless the middle of the lane is significantly wetter than the outside, in which case I might choose to use the plastic ball. When the middle is much wetter, it can be difficult to predict how much the reactive ball will turn. This is where experience and good lane-reading skills counts for far more than mathematical rules like the 3-6-9 rule or the 2-4-6 rule. If you get an extreme block’ condition, the ball might turn extremely aggressively on the dry boards outside of 2nd arrow, but might go dead straight through the middle!

The video then continues with the start of game 2. In the first frame, I pulled it again, going high on the nose and leaving an easy (3-6) spare. If you are going to use a reactive ball to take spares on the right like this, you really need to trust the ball! Dont be afraid to throw it out to the edge. But remember, the extreme angle means you’re more likely to chop out a pin, so you might want to use the spare ball instead.

The next frame sees a lucky Brooklyn strike on the left. In the next, I go across the headpin again, and leave the 6-pin. This time, I opt to use the plastic spare ball. Let’s be honest… there’s no way the reactive is going to stay that far over to the right!

We join game 2 later to see a nice flush pocket ball, which leaves the dreaded 10-pin standing. Nice and easy.

I finish off game two with a solid turkey in the 10th frame. Note that I switched to a different ball for the second strike of the frame. Although the first ball was a good strike, the increasing number of high/Brooklyn hits is a strong indicator that the lane is just getting too dry for this ball.

While you might compensate by just throwing the ball faster, I prefer to switch to a ball with a less-reactive coverstock and drilled to go longer.

The video doesn’t really do justice to the difference down the lane. It does break a lot later, honestly!

Duration : 0:2:32

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