Confused by Cheetah

[Mike]

With week two of my sport league over I'm still confused on how to play the Cheetah pattern. Everything I have read says to play as far outside as you can. I ended up playing almost strait at the pocket from about the 3 board, it seemed that any shot with any left to right movement never made it back. (On a THS I'll play about 10 at the arrows out to about 5 using my Fringe) It looked like everyone was having the same issue, even the two two handed bowlers. Why on such a short pattern, with so much dry lane, would it be so hard to get the ball to hook. I would think a polished ball would work well (go long with a strong backend) but apparently not. Am I backwards in my thinking?

[striker12]

well one thing is you could be useing to much of a aggressive ball for the cheetah even the frantic is aggressive because you have to think its a short oil pattern and you have to play out side and i remember from awhile ago cant remember who it was but bill oneil told someone to use a urathane ball and when the bowler used the urathane ball he ended up beating out bill oneil on the last day in the PBA.

so just got to remember it depends on how much oil is in the area you want to play because think the more oil there is and longer the stronger of a ball you can throw, the short and less oil on the lane means you have to go with a weaker ball because the stronger ball will loss energy going down the lane.

[Greenday]

It's tough because yes, it's a sports pattern, but it's so short that your ball can burn up early and lose its energy before it hits the pocket. I've never played this one, but from what I can gather and guess at, playing the outside is correct and you should probably use something with a more controllable hook because skid/snap reactions on such a short pattern may be a little too unpredictable.

[I suck at bowling]

The Cheetah is such a pain, lol. And you should always use a ball with surface on the Cheetah because it will help control the back end reaction more. No snappy balls on the cheetah, I learned that the hard way.

It gets easier when it breaks down, but I'm assuming that your league only plays 3 games, so the lanes won't be opened up as much as if it was a tournament.

Now this is only from my experience, I've only bowled on it once. This is how it went for me.

I used urethane my first game, 139. I wasn't getting enough reaction. Then I moved to a reactive ball, 127. It was way too snappy, and I left 4-5 splits. Then I moved back to my urethane, 219, 199, 209. Once the lanes opened up a little I had a great reaction with my Natural Pearl, and even when I did miss a little, makable spares were left standing.

I averaged about 174 for the whole tournament.

[billf]

I played Cheetah about a month ago. I tried outside (up 6) with urethane and that worked fine. Outisde with anything else sucked. I ended up going real deep and used the Terror and Reckless but if I missed my mark by a board it was horrific.

[Greenday]

Bowling on this pattern tonight for a King of the Hill tournament. I was going to bring my Sync, Invasion, IQ Tour Pearl, and Frantic, but now I'm debating leaving either the Sync or Invasion home and bringing my Tropical Breeze.

[UBowling]

You want your breakpoint to be around the 5 board. On shorter patterns I like to use a solid coverstock that evens out the hook. There will be an out of bounds still, it is a sport shot and you need to be precise, not much room for error.

[Greenday]

My IQ Pearl reacted great to it. Just not the best shooting on it. I haven't played the outside in ages.

It broke down into what felt like a basic house shot though. By my third game, I was able to play my THS line at that house (10 at arrows, bounce out to 5 for breakpoint).

[panbanger]

Depending on how many people are bowling on it, I agree by the third game it is sorta like a THS. A THS on the tougher end of the spectrum though :-)

[Greenday]

Depending on how many people are bowling on it, I agree by the third game it is sorta like a THS. A THS on the tougher end of the spectrum though :-)

It was five people per pair. Only one lefty of the ten bowlers to my right. So by the time I got to the last pair, 10 games had been played on each pair.