Playing the House Shot
So - it's a month into league season and you still haven't figured out exactly why the ball doesn't go where you want it to. Maybe you're not playing the lanes the way "they want you to play them"!
The "typical house shot", or THS, is that pattern of lane oiling that most houses use to direct your ball to the pocket. While each one is different, they fit a general pattern - less oil outside about the second arrow, and increasingly more inside toward the lane center. Oil is applied more heavily in the "heads" (closer to the foul line), and tapers off between 35 & 45 feet down lane, with the "back ends" dry (on a fresh shot).
The idea is that less oil encourages hook (toward the lane edge) and more discourages it (toward the middle). So, if you are playing a line where the amount of oil increases steeply from outside to inside (in this case, around the second arrow - see end view below), a miss outside increases hook back toward the pocket and a miss inside reduces hook to keep the ball from hooking past the pocket - thus more room for error.
Below is a THS. Note that the end of the pattern shown on the overhead and side views is at 41 feet, the last 3 feet of which is tapered, and the dry 19-foot back ends are not shown. Your pro shop may have this information for your house - check with them for a larger version.
Overhead View
End View
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Side View
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Next month, more on playing the angles for best carry, and how release actions and ball motions are affected by target lines.
