Two reasons:

1) We are experimenting with a new oil to us, Prodigy. It’s one the most popular Kegel oils and probably used in half the center in the area. The league bowlers are telling how much slicker the house shot is and we haven’t changed nothing else. This oil really plays long.

2) The new redesigned pattern has a lot more oil. 29 ML. That makes it the second highest volume of oil we well bowl on (the shark has 33 ML).

Other than more oil, the pattern did what it was suppose to do. I thought it was very demanding. I saw a couple of 900s, but many struggled. It will be fun to see what we do the second time around.

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The name says what it’s goal is; a pattern that can be played from multiple angles. The PBA report:

“The 2009-10 Chameleon maintains its tradition of utilizing a “retro” approach to pattern design. Instead of “smoothing out” the oil on the lane, increased volumes are placed in “zones” encouraging players to choose a specific area of the lane to play. This is a multiple-angles pattern allowing the bowler to choose what part of the lane best suites their particular game. The scoring pace remains medium to low as the primary challenge faced by bowlers is the large number of adjustments which are needed to move from “zone to zone”. Large moves, more than five boards at a time, are common to stay out of trouble and to conquer the Chameleon.”

I’m not sure about the “retro” thing, but zones mean that this pattern gives you defined areas to play. Looking at the graph the designed increase in oil are at 5^th board, 10^th board, 15^th board and 18^th board. So, on the fresh in theory you can pick one of those spots and strike away. The reality is bowlers spraying shots and creating wear area that will blend them together; the areas will not be all that defined, and you will have to adjust quickly.

Also, even though this pattern is longer, it only has 19 mil of oil; over 1/3re less of what the viper had. It will seem longer at the beginning, but will start burning up early and keep burning up.

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Also, this pattern is different left to right. The left side has the zones at 3, 8, 13, and 15^th boards. I think this will help the lefties a little, and even before the redesigning by the PBA I thought chameleon was a good pattern for them. Last week, the viper looked very difficult on the left. I always thought the cheetah, chameleon, scorpion were good patterns for lefties while the viper and the shark played tougher. Hopefully, you guys can get a little payback.

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Note extras

Reading lane graphs

I heard some comments the some would see the lane graphs of the conditions, so I printed them off. However, reading graphs is a little like watching someone bowl on video, if you don’t know what to look for you just get confused. Here is what I look for in my opinion of importance.

1) Oil Pattern Distance - most important, tells your break point and what ball you’ll need.

2) Volume Oil Total - how much oil is out there, how the pattern will transition (like what happened on the Viper).

3) The graphs on the right and bottom - I look for the “bump” in the oil pattern, the spot on the lane that has more concentration of oil. The graph on the right show the chameleon has multiple box shape oil lines and the graph shows where it is applied on the lane by distance. The graph on the bottom show how much oil is on each board.

A couple of important readings on these graphs; forward and reverse oil and mils per board.

-The graph on the right tells the amount and where forward and reverse oil is applied. Kegel machines like ours applies oil both going down and coming back on the lane. The difference is the oil applied forward gets buffed all the way to the end of the pattern while the reverse oil is pushed back to the foul line, boosting up the oil in the front part of the lane.

The cheetah is a good example. This pattern has more oil in the reverse pass because they want to reinforce the heads and prevent carry down on a short pattern.

-The bottom graph shows you in tiny numbers on the right how much oil is applied to each board. What I look at is how much oil is on the outside part of the lane. Example, cheetah has on the 3^rd board on the right about 100 mils., the viper has 200 mils. and the shark has 700 mils. This explains why the ball hooked so much more out there on the cheetah, and had better expect the shark not to hook much, if at all, out there.

4) Ratios - This was the first measurement used on how to determine a sports shot back when the program started. However, I think it’s deceiving. I give the shark and viper as an example; the sharks ratio is 1.79 to 1, viper is 2.38 to 1. So that means there is more oil in the middle compared to the outsides on the viper, so it should play easier. However, when look at the graphs you see the viper has a gentle crown start at the gutter and ending around 12 or 13^th board. The shark has a very defined oil line start at 13 and goes almost straight up. The bottom line is the shark usually is a higher scoring pattern, especially when it starts breaking down. Where the oil is applied is more important then the ratio, in my book.

I hope that helps, so next time when see a kegel graph, I hope you now got an idea now of what it‘s saying.

Good luck and go wreck the Geico gecko.

Did you know;

That USBC list only 4 Silver Level Coaches in the state of Missouri, and two bowl in this league; Brian Burkhardt and Randy Davis! If anyone is having some doubts about their game, please think about contacting one of these two and take advantage of their wealth of bowling knowledge.
                                                             
Randy Lightfoot