Comment by noduerme | Hacker News Reader

Comment by noduerme | Hacker News Reader

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>> Bowlers equate how good a place is with how good they bowl! They get angry and superstitious about everything.

Fuck man. This like, lifts the veil from my eyes. It almost ruins my life a little.

I was never a good bowler. But there was this one day. See, I had been driving through Mobile, AL, a year earlier, and started talking to the girl at the front desk of the hotel. We were both kids, I was 19, and she was reading Emerson, and we ended up spending the whole night in the park talking about poetry. A year later I flew there and met her again. And I was just absolutely enamored and so in love with her. That first day she picked me up at the airport, we just were so crazy to see each other. The next day we didn't know what the hell to do so we went and had Waffle House for breakfast and passed by the bowling alley, so we went bowling.

It was the only time in my life I ever threw over 200. I think I got close to 250. We only hung out there for that one game, but something went click in my head.

Something went click that, any time since that morning that I've ever needed to just believe in something, or fix something, or make something work, or sink a pool shot, I just close my eyes and think of that feeling I had with her when every ball I threw was a strike and she kept cheering. It surprised me that something so good was even in my own body.

I think that bowling moment became to me the closest to what other people get when they say they feel something when they pray.

And now you're saying it was probably fake... just laid down on the wax. That's fucked up, man. That was like, a peak experience.

I think I need to do some molly.

You are thinking the oil has more of an effect than it actually does.

Even on an easy house shot you're not automatically have a 200 average. You still need to have a good spare game. I guarantee throwing that one 250 game was more luck than it was the oil pattern especially if you were using a house ball. Going from an easy house shot to a pro sport shot is usually a 20 pin drop on your average if you don't know how to bowl the sport pattern which is only about 1 or 2 extra open frames in a game than normal.

I get that feeling that everything is going right and I can't miss strikes the odd time too but it's always because I'm better focused and not missing my spot. Bowling is more dependent on repetitions and throwing the ball the same way every time before you can even think about averaging 200+.

> Bowlers equate how good a place is with how good they bowl! They get angry and superstitious about everything.

This isn't true and it's not always superstition. Some houses score higher and that's true, but there's factors that go into that like the pins, how well they ricochet, the oil pattern, how well the pattern sticks, etc. there's a million reasons a shot plays different. Even humidity and ambient temperature affects the oil and you have to bowl different in the summer vs winter!

Casual bowlers will 100% rather bowl at a place with a higher score, but sometimes a house is just way too hard. It's frustrating as a bowler if you have a 195 average and another house you can barely carry 180 because it has a harder pattern. It's even more frustrating when they have a harder pattern and don't tell anyone. The pros usually know what pattern they're bowling on and can analyze it beforehand. I quit bowling at a house because my average was consistently 15 pins lower, and I needed a separate set of balls to bowl there to have any chance because they put too flat of a pattern on. It's not fun or helpful to bowl on conditions you won't encounter anywhere else because there's no room to improve. It's like learning custom made in-house programming languages and tools that don't exist outside of your company.

Well, thanks for the insights...

>> I guarantee throwing that one 250 game was more luck than it was the oil pattern especially if you were using a house ball.

I'm not sure it was luck. I'm a much better pool shooter, so I can tie the feeling to that. Sometimes you get a feeling in your bones that you can't miss, and it comes on, and they could blindfold you. And as soon as it comes it goes. It's something in yourself when you take in the whole topography of the thing, see all the shots ahead of you, and you feel like you can't miss. One, two, three, four. Like if you sat there and thought it out, you'd just screw it up. When you're doing something just right, you know you're going to make it, you don't even have to watch after you let go. That's the feeling, and I don't think it's luck. But it does need a pretty girl watching.

I get that feeling too. It comes and goes when it wants and I can't force it to happen or channel it into anything useful. On days I bowl when it happens I consider myself lucky.

If I could control it I'd be a pro bowler.

I've never been to Mobile, but I don't see why an alley there should have been more forgiving than the national average. And you still had to roll the ball.

I ran a couple of decent times at the Philadelphia Marathon in the 1980s. I believe that there was a slight net loss in elevation, for it started in Upper Dublin township then and finished downtown. Have I ever felt bad about claiming an OK time on a slightly downhill course? No.

If you are bowling with a house bowling ball, and not hooking it extensively you would have done just as well on any lane. The lane did not do it for you. The balls used by league bowlers are highly reactive and they generate spin in the oil. Once they hit that dry part on the outside they fly into the pocket for strikes.

If you came off the street, picked up a ball of the rack, and bowled a great game it was all you.

I had a freak >200 game once when I will usually be happy with like 120. All at the same place so I doubt they changed their maintenance routines just that one.

I imagine the oil/wax makes more of a difference if you’re an amateur who can get close to 300 already.

The lanes don't play the game for you. You played well to the conditions of the day. You can be happy in that.

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