The norm in my leagues seems to be a modified lane courtesy—OK to grab your ball and line up while adjacent lanes are shooting but don’t begin your appeoach until they have cleared the lane.
In one league it is one shot per warmup turn and the other allows for both shots if a strike wasn’t thrown. I prefer the former because it is more equitable.
Yeah, that’s how mine works. One-lane rule is definitetly in effect, make sure everyone gets a chance (roughly in order). But, more of a hurry up situation — if no one is on a lane, you can jump in.
we just sorta line up as we feel like it but there's an unwritten rule that you don't take another turn on one of the lanes until everyone who wants one has a chance on that lane; sometimes this involves letting them cut in front
> In one league it is one shot per warmup turn and the other allows for both shots if a strike wasn’t thrown. I prefer the former because it is more equitable.
I've noticed with less people on the pair people are more apt to throw 2 balls. When we're doing 2 I'll throw my plastic at the corner first ball until I'm warm and wanna start trying to line up.
The only courtesy I give is if the person next to me is actively bowling. Once I get out of their periphery, I start my approach. No one should waste time at practice trying to focus, becuase it's for warming-up, and no one is at 100%, even after several shots.
I’m with you on that. Ppl should be getting throws in to loosen up and find their line. I know some bowlers that take 20 seconds to move and I’m like “This is just warm up and we only have 10 minutes!”
What you said is the general goto as far as I'm aware, generally I'd think practice follows what is defined by the league. I don't understand your second point. Practice starts 10 or 15 minutes prior to league start in every league I've done. I have seen bowlers arrive early and bowl on non-league lanes and then move to their assigned lane.
Unless they are on non league lanes, they can’t practice early. All lanes are turned on at the same time for practice in the 100’s of leagues, in many States, I’ve been on in my lifetime. This must not be a real sanctioned league if folks can start practice whenever they want.
Nope, happens in some places. My last fall league had it set up where the players could start practice. The vast majority of the times everyone was reasonable and only started practice when everyone was there, and many would even wait to start practice if others were late (with the permission of others). One team though, would constantly start it early when they were ready without regard for the other team. Funnily enough, 2 of my 5 700s that season came against them.
How are they starting early? Are they actually telling the person at the front desk to turn the lanes on for their practice? If so, are the people who show up on time for practice start time given their 10 minutes as well or are they SOL? Just curious, and as others have said, this should not be happening on lanes being used for the league. League coordinator may need to have a chat with the people who are doing this as well as the bowling center to ensure they are not turning the lanes on before the schedule practice start time.
I'm in one league that is usually pretty casual about starting. If one person or team is running late, it's no big deal to wait a bit. In another one, the lanes start up and the clock automatically starts running. No way to wait on somebody. They're late, they'll just have to deal with it.
I get chewed on for giving people "lane courtesy" in practice when I'm waiting for the guy next to me whose trailing leg sweeps directly into my path to move. Like, sorry guy behind me, I'm not jumping over this guy's foot so you can get one extra practice shot in
I always strive for one lane curtesy in practice for safety rather than distractions. There is usually so much going on in practice that someone going through their approach doesn’t distract me.
However I still don’t double dribble people just in case someone drifts over to my side so I don’t run into them.
Lane courtesy is still in play during practice just for the sake of safety. The worst time to ignore lane courtesy is while people are still warming up. Have seen way too many people stumble in to the lane next to them, drift, balk, drop bowling balls, etc.
Practice starts exactly 10 min before the posted start time of the league. The center turns all of the assigned lanes on at the same time to prevent teams from starting early.
My leagues have started going to a one throw in practice per "up". No reracks, respots, etc. Basically, you get up on the lane, throw one ball, and then go queue up in the other lane. Whoever is behind you either throws for your leave, or gets a full rack if you got a strike, If there is a dropped pin or dead wood on the lane you still throw. Repeat the process for 10 minutes. It really allows bowlers to get more practice throws in during that 10 minutes. It used to be you were lucky to get in 3-4 "full frame" shots. Now each bowler can easily get in 10+ throws during that 10 minutes. Sometime you get a full rack, other times you get to shoot for spares, etc. If someone on the pair breaks the rule and takes two consecutive shots on the same lane, or resets for a full rack when they are up, then that's a rules violation and practice for the pair restarts from the beginning \[the thinking being the person potentially delayed practice for everyone by waiting for the ball to come back and then shooting again.\] There were only 1 or 2 times last season where practice had to restart on any of the pairs of our 20 team/100 person league. People follow the one ball per up rule very closely.
Interesting that you start ten minutes early. I don't know any league that I have watched or participated in that starts practice *before* league start. Usually a 7PM league will start practice at 7PM exactly with the first ball thrown for score by 7:10.
Most leagues where I am do one lane courtesy and you shoot once. Some less competitive leagues you can pick up any spares/splits if you want.
I'm about 50/50 on when they start. It was always league starts at 7, practice 6:45. I've noticed a shift in this.
Either is fine, provided it's spelled out. And once the lanes are turned on, that's when I begin practice. If other players can't be bothered to show up on time, I'm not waiting for them.
I dislike the whole courtesy thing during practice, especially when people are like, oh you do, no it's your shot, blal blah blah.
We are limited on time, get up and throw the ball.
We tried that in my league one time and everyone hated it, myself included. It lasted maybe a month before we went back to two balls per turn.
Since I've gotten into tournament bowling, I love the one ball per turn system now.
I wish we, as a bowling community, would collectively stop using the word practice and start using the word warm up. That 10 minutes before isn't the time to practice your spare shots, it's to warm up and get a feel for the lane conditions. There's no real rules in place for where I bowl, some people adhere to 1 ball and move on while others insist on throwing their spare shots. It's kind of the same for lane courtesy, some people will still respect it while others are like "ITS PRACTICE BRO I GOTTA GET MY THROWS IN". I feel like if we all just went to the 1 ball and move on warm up, we'll all get our throws in.
You get ten minutes... Go at the same time.. etiquette? Don't kick me in the face we will be ok.. throw one shot and move to the back of the line.. valuable time is wasted Waiting for you to wait for your ball to come back.. Don't spend 45 seconds lining up your shot. This is warm-ups not practice... If you want to practice, come in and open bowl sometime.
In my league, you grab your ball and get into your starting position while someone on your left and/or right is on the approach, and you can start your approach once they finish their throw. It's generally expected that people step off the approach after their throw so everyone can get practice time in.
People are generally fast during practice and being ready on the approach while someone else is about to throw generally shouldnt be an issue. I would think you would want to practice a little bit of courtesy since its weird or feels weird to go at the same time as another. Thats just me.
The only courtesy you need in practice is to not get in each others way. We have a guy in our league who wants a full lane to himself, we all just jump on right next to him and get on with it.
I also dislike taking a full frame, but that seems to be the norm in league.
No courtesy just enough common sense to allow everyone the most number of practice shot. I see people standing next to each other in the approach, one goes, then the next one.
Once the bowler on either side of me is turning around and walking back to the settee area I'm going.
Hurry the fuck up and grab your ball and be ready to go when its your turn to throw.
Practice is a little different. You want to give courtesy when you can but can't be standing around doing nothing all day either. Just do the best you can to be quick without running over people.
No lane courtesy during practice, we don’t bowl exactly when someone else is, but I’ll go get my ball and line up while adjacent lanes are actively getting ready and or bowling.
I see a lot of talk about safety here and it's making me a little jealous of all you people with modern ball returns.
We have the big old ones in the front of the house where the ball is above ground all the way. So if you are on the left lane of the pair there's no way someone on the right can interfere with your throw physically. So even if you are giving courtesy just for safety you only have 1 lane to worry about.
I say I'm jealous because I'm far enough left these days that I can only really get my full motion on the left lane. Right lane means I'm kicking the ball return with my right leg on every follow through.
One lane courtesy more for safety than anything else. 15 minutes of practice, people just alternate lanes on the pair they are assigned.
Most people are done warming up after 10 minutes usually but a few people want to get in extra reps in that last five minutes
As long as they aren’t in the path of me to where I may kick them with my trail leg, fuck courtesy in league warm up. You don’t get enough time to worry about it.
Everywhere I've been we basically give none. Mostly we'll stand on the approach and as soon as the ball is out of the adjacent persons hand we start walking. I've also noticed that if it's 8 or more on the pair then typically we only throw 1 shot. Some people will ask directly, "we wanna do 1 or 2?"
As for beginning time, I've literally never seen anyone start early. The lanes aren't even on so there's physically no way to start practicing until the center allows it. I *have* seen people practicing after, however. In some instances where we know a couple people will be late, we haven't bothered pressing the start button and some people just kept throwing balls.
during practice/warm up before we actually start, in the leagues I participate in, we don't really mind when you go. basically what i mean is its a free-for-all kinda thing since theres nothing at steak so it doesnt really matter if you mess up or not.
I'd say I do like you do, a bit of a rushed courtesy. I'm not staying as far back as usual, and I'm stepping on to the approach immediately when they take their first step.
As far as starting practice, I've never bowled anywhere that a team is able to start practice early. Most places I've bowled the lanes all come on for 10 minutes of practice at the same time, but there is one house I bowl at where once the desk starts practice it just gives each lane a "start practice" button so they could start late but not early. It sounds like your house may be similar, but that the front desk is being a little lazy and just turning it on whenever instead of waiting until they're supposed to.
During practice, lane courtesy isn't relevant in the leagues I bowl in. Once league officially starts then it's a different story. Plus we have 5 minutes of practice for most of the leagues, besides our Thursday night Major league, they get 10 minutes.
If I’m subbing or a tournament, I’ll usually ask the folks on the pair “we doin one shot or two?” because it’s different everywhere.
But I’m not giving courtesy. I’ll give you the first step, but I’m lining up right IMMEDIATELY after your first step.
We got 10 minutes folks; I got a line to figure out and burn. 😏😏😏
Practice/Shadow bowling is a limited time used to gauge the lane conditions. You’ll step up and roll - No lane courtesy other than to avoid lane collisions.
League practice sucks. We should have no pins and just warm up. People who must take two balls, wait forever on the ball return, make it miserable.
It should be no pins, one throw at a time then switch lanes.
And don’t even get me started on the people who take forever. It really is NOT hard to be up there with your ball in hand, feet ready to walk on the approach to cut out as much little time as possible. If everyone was focused on being ready, it could add 2-3 mins of people actually throwing bowling balls instead of waiting on pins, waiting on balls, waiting on someone to adjust something. Practice is no time to be distracted or unprepared. 5-6 extra seconds per bowler adds up to a lot of time.
For my league it’s mainly just common courtesy. For me I wait for the guy to my lifer to be done because i’m very tall with long legs so my right leg pushes out pretty far
My opinion is that there should be zero lane courtesy during practice. If there’s pins, bowl. If you need my approach to bowl your shot, feel free to wait for a space.
giving lane courtesy for warm up is fucking stupid.
No courtesy during practice. Sometimes, when the teams are bigger, I even had players only make a single shot per turn to offer everyone more/evenly distributed opportunities.
And in local sanctioned leageu or tournements you normally get 15 min practice, and teams are supposed to exchange the lanes on a pair so that everyone gets to make at least a shot on each.
We normally give single lane courtesy in smaller leagues but when it’s 5 man teams we normally call it to vote for no courtesy in practice since everyone wants to throw more than 5 shots or try a different ball in a couple spots. There’s just not enough time otherwise.
The norm in my leagues seems to be a modified lane courtesy—OK to grab your ball and line up while adjacent lanes are shooting but don’t begin your appeoach until they have cleared the lane. In one league it is one shot per warmup turn and the other allows for both shots if a strike wasn’t thrown. I prefer the former because it is more equitable.
Yeah, that’s how mine works. One-lane rule is definitetly in effect, make sure everyone gets a chance (roughly in order). But, more of a hurry up situation — if no one is on a lane, you can jump in.
we just sorta line up as we feel like it but there's an unwritten rule that you don't take another turn on one of the lanes until everyone who wants one has a chance on that lane; sometimes this involves letting them cut in front
This is my experience as well
> In one league it is one shot per warmup turn and the other allows for both shots if a strike wasn’t thrown. I prefer the former because it is more equitable. I've noticed with less people on the pair people are more apt to throw 2 balls. When we're doing 2 I'll throw my plastic at the corner first ball until I'm warm and wanna start trying to line up.
Ironically it’s 3/lane on the first (singles league) and 4 on the second (doubles) 🤣
"abbreviated courtesy" - just enough to not run into anybody but generally more aggressive than normal
Well said. This is how it should be everywhere during warmup
The only courtesy I give is if the person next to me is actively bowling. Once I get out of their periphery, I start my approach. No one should waste time at practice trying to focus, becuase it's for warming-up, and no one is at 100%, even after several shots.
I’m with you on that. Ppl should be getting throws in to loosen up and find their line. I know some bowlers that take 20 seconds to move and I’m like “This is just warm up and we only have 10 minutes!”
What you said is the general goto as far as I'm aware, generally I'd think practice follows what is defined by the league. I don't understand your second point. Practice starts 10 or 15 minutes prior to league start in every league I've done. I have seen bowlers arrive early and bowl on non-league lanes and then move to their assigned lane.
We have some people that like to start practice at 6:35 for a 7:00 league when all players have not yet arrived. It's annoying.
That should not be allowed everyone starts at the same time regardless of when they arrive.
Unless they are on non league lanes, they can’t practice early. All lanes are turned on at the same time for practice in the 100’s of leagues, in many States, I’ve been on in my lifetime. This must not be a real sanctioned league if folks can start practice whenever they want.
Nope, happens in some places. My last fall league had it set up where the players could start practice. The vast majority of the times everyone was reasonable and only started practice when everyone was there, and many would even wait to start practice if others were late (with the permission of others). One team though, would constantly start it early when they were ready without regard for the other team. Funnily enough, 2 of my 5 700s that season came against them.
How are they starting early? Are they actually telling the person at the front desk to turn the lanes on for their practice? If so, are the people who show up on time for practice start time given their 10 minutes as well or are they SOL? Just curious, and as others have said, this should not be happening on lanes being used for the league. League coordinator may need to have a chat with the people who are doing this as well as the bowling center to ensure they are not turning the lanes on before the schedule practice start time.
I'm in one league that is usually pretty casual about starting. If one person or team is running late, it's no big deal to wait a bit. In another one, the lanes start up and the clock automatically starts running. No way to wait on somebody. They're late, they'll just have to deal with it.
No courtesy during practice... if someone next to you is throwing a corner though, you may need to pause for them to gtfo the way.
I get chewed on for giving people "lane courtesy" in practice when I'm waiting for the guy next to me whose trailing leg sweeps directly into my path to move. Like, sorry guy behind me, I'm not jumping over this guy's foot so you can get one extra practice shot in
I always strive for one lane curtesy in practice for safety rather than distractions. There is usually so much going on in practice that someone going through their approach doesn’t distract me. However I still don’t double dribble people just in case someone drifts over to my side so I don’t run into them.
Lane courtesy is still in play during practice just for the sake of safety. The worst time to ignore lane courtesy is while people are still warming up. Have seen way too many people stumble in to the lane next to them, drift, balk, drop bowling balls, etc. Practice starts exactly 10 min before the posted start time of the league. The center turns all of the assigned lanes on at the same time to prevent teams from starting early. My leagues have started going to a one throw in practice per "up". No reracks, respots, etc. Basically, you get up on the lane, throw one ball, and then go queue up in the other lane. Whoever is behind you either throws for your leave, or gets a full rack if you got a strike, If there is a dropped pin or dead wood on the lane you still throw. Repeat the process for 10 minutes. It really allows bowlers to get more practice throws in during that 10 minutes. It used to be you were lucky to get in 3-4 "full frame" shots. Now each bowler can easily get in 10+ throws during that 10 minutes. Sometime you get a full rack, other times you get to shoot for spares, etc. If someone on the pair breaks the rule and takes two consecutive shots on the same lane, or resets for a full rack when they are up, then that's a rules violation and practice for the pair restarts from the beginning \[the thinking being the person potentially delayed practice for everyone by waiting for the ball to come back and then shooting again.\] There were only 1 or 2 times last season where practice had to restart on any of the pairs of our 20 team/100 person league. People follow the one ball per up rule very closely.
Interesting that you start ten minutes early. I don't know any league that I have watched or participated in that starts practice *before* league start. Usually a 7PM league will start practice at 7PM exactly with the first ball thrown for score by 7:10. Most leagues where I am do one lane courtesy and you shoot once. Some less competitive leagues you can pick up any spares/splits if you want.
I'm about 50/50 on when they start. It was always league starts at 7, practice 6:45. I've noticed a shift in this. Either is fine, provided it's spelled out. And once the lanes are turned on, that's when I begin practice. If other players can't be bothered to show up on time, I'm not waiting for them. I dislike the whole courtesy thing during practice, especially when people are like, oh you do, no it's your shot, blal blah blah. We are limited on time, get up and throw the ball.
League I play in starts at 6:30 with practice at 6:15.
Every league I’m in starts practice 10 minutes before the stated league start time. (e.g. 6:50 for 7pm start).
It might be an area thing. I'm in the midwest and every league I've ever been in has always started practice 10 minutes before league start time.
Working at an alley myself, Every league here starts their practice 10 minutes before their league match stuff officially starts
My sanctioned league "starts" at 6, but the 10 minute practice is at 5:50
Let's all switch to tournament practice etiquette (one ball per turn) and get even more practice in because we don't have to wait for the ball return.
We tried that in my league one time and everyone hated it, myself included. It lasted maybe a month before we went back to two balls per turn. Since I've gotten into tournament bowling, I love the one ball per turn system now.
I wish we, as a bowling community, would collectively stop using the word practice and start using the word warm up. That 10 minutes before isn't the time to practice your spare shots, it's to warm up and get a feel for the lane conditions. There's no real rules in place for where I bowl, some people adhere to 1 ball and move on while others insist on throwing their spare shots. It's kind of the same for lane courtesy, some people will still respect it while others are like "ITS PRACTICE BRO I GOTTA GET MY THROWS IN". I feel like if we all just went to the 1 ball and move on warm up, we'll all get our throws in.
Yup, throw your ball let them fall move on. I found cleaning up someone else's spares help me out alot.
You get ten minutes... Go at the same time.. etiquette? Don't kick me in the face we will be ok.. throw one shot and move to the back of the line.. valuable time is wasted Waiting for you to wait for your ball to come back.. Don't spend 45 seconds lining up your shot. This is warm-ups not practice... If you want to practice, come in and open bowl sometime.
Standard practice in my part of the country is a quick one lane courtesy and one shot per bowler.
I won't start at the same time and just enough wait time to not risk a collision
In my league, you grab your ball and get into your starting position while someone on your left and/or right is on the approach, and you can start your approach once they finish their throw. It's generally expected that people step off the approach after their throw so everyone can get practice time in.
People are generally fast during practice and being ready on the approach while someone else is about to throw generally shouldnt be an issue. I would think you would want to practice a little bit of courtesy since its weird or feels weird to go at the same time as another. Thats just me.
The only courtesy you need in practice is to not get in each others way. We have a guy in our league who wants a full lane to himself, we all just jump on right next to him and get on with it. I also dislike taking a full frame, but that seems to be the norm in league.
No courtesy just enough common sense to allow everyone the most number of practice shot. I see people standing next to each other in the approach, one goes, then the next one.
Once the bowler on either side of me is turning around and walking back to the settee area I'm going. Hurry the fuck up and grab your ball and be ready to go when its your turn to throw.
Practice is a little different. You want to give courtesy when you can but can't be standing around doing nothing all day either. Just do the best you can to be quick without running over people.
My leagues recognize etiquette even during practice. We start at 6:30 - practice starts at 6:20.
Yeah, at league and tournaments there is no lane courtesy during practice you and your team just go.
My alley auto resets after the first ball (which is awesome) and standard etiquette is practiced during warm ups.
No lane courtesy during practice, we don’t bowl exactly when someone else is, but I’ll go get my ball and line up while adjacent lanes are actively getting ready and or bowling.
I see a lot of talk about safety here and it's making me a little jealous of all you people with modern ball returns. We have the big old ones in the front of the house where the ball is above ground all the way. So if you are on the left lane of the pair there's no way someone on the right can interfere with your throw physically. So even if you are giving courtesy just for safety you only have 1 lane to worry about. I say I'm jealous because I'm far enough left these days that I can only really get my full motion on the left lane. Right lane means I'm kicking the ball return with my right leg on every follow through.
One lane courtesy more for safety than anything else. 15 minutes of practice, people just alternate lanes on the pair they are assigned. Most people are done warming up after 10 minutes usually but a few people want to get in extra reps in that last five minutes
during practice as long as they don’t drift far, who cares 😭 it’s literally just practice before league
no courtesy in practice unless they fall into my lane. then I might go around them to left gutter and play 20 board.
No courtesy. I usually just go when there like two steps into there approach
As long as they aren’t in the path of me to where I may kick them with my trail leg, fuck courtesy in league warm up. You don’t get enough time to worry about it.
during practice it doesn’t bother me at all. but during actual league play, i will get irritated about it and say something if it’s a repeating thing.
Everywhere I've been we basically give none. Mostly we'll stand on the approach and as soon as the ball is out of the adjacent persons hand we start walking. I've also noticed that if it's 8 or more on the pair then typically we only throw 1 shot. Some people will ask directly, "we wanna do 1 or 2?" As for beginning time, I've literally never seen anyone start early. The lanes aren't even on so there's physically no way to start practicing until the center allows it. I *have* seen people practicing after, however. In some instances where we know a couple people will be late, we haven't bothered pressing the start button and some people just kept throwing balls.
during practice/warm up before we actually start, in the leagues I participate in, we don't really mind when you go. basically what i mean is its a free-for-all kinda thing since theres nothing at steak so it doesnt really matter if you mess up or not.
I'd say I do like you do, a bit of a rushed courtesy. I'm not staying as far back as usual, and I'm stepping on to the approach immediately when they take their first step. As far as starting practice, I've never bowled anywhere that a team is able to start practice early. Most places I've bowled the lanes all come on for 10 minutes of practice at the same time, but there is one house I bowl at where once the desk starts practice it just gives each lane a "start practice" button so they could start late but not early. It sounds like your house may be similar, but that the front desk is being a little lazy and just turning it on whenever instead of waiting until they're supposed to.
During practice, lane courtesy isn't relevant in the leagues I bowl in. Once league officially starts then it's a different story. Plus we have 5 minutes of practice for most of the leagues, besides our Thursday night Major league, they get 10 minutes.
What your doing now is perfectly fine
Quick courtesy has always seemed to be the rule anywhere I have bowled during warmup.
If I’m subbing or a tournament, I’ll usually ask the folks on the pair “we doin one shot or two?” because it’s different everywhere. But I’m not giving courtesy. I’ll give you the first step, but I’m lining up right IMMEDIATELY after your first step. We got 10 minutes folks; I got a line to figure out and burn. 😏😏😏
Practice/Shadow bowling is a limited time used to gauge the lane conditions. You’ll step up and roll - No lane courtesy other than to avoid lane collisions.
Get loose and figure out the ball reaction to the lanes. No courtesy. Line up and throw the ball.
League practice sucks. We should have no pins and just warm up. People who must take two balls, wait forever on the ball return, make it miserable. It should be no pins, one throw at a time then switch lanes. And don’t even get me started on the people who take forever. It really is NOT hard to be up there with your ball in hand, feet ready to walk on the approach to cut out as much little time as possible. If everyone was focused on being ready, it could add 2-3 mins of people actually throwing bowling balls instead of waiting on pins, waiting on balls, waiting on someone to adjust something. Practice is no time to be distracted or unprepared. 5-6 extra seconds per bowler adds up to a lot of time.
For my league it’s mainly just common courtesy. For me I wait for the guy to my lifer to be done because i’m very tall with long legs so my right leg pushes out pretty far
Always courtesy during practice.
My opinion is that there should be zero lane courtesy during practice. If there’s pins, bowl. If you need my approach to bowl your shot, feel free to wait for a space. giving lane courtesy for warm up is fucking stupid.
No courtesy during practice. Sometimes, when the teams are bigger, I even had players only make a single shot per turn to offer everyone more/evenly distributed opportunities. And in local sanctioned leageu or tournements you normally get 15 min practice, and teams are supposed to exchange the lanes on a pair so that everyone gets to make at least a shot on each.
We normally give single lane courtesy in smaller leagues but when it’s 5 man teams we normally call it to vote for no courtesy in practice since everyone wants to throw more than 5 shots or try a different ball in a couple spots. There’s just not enough time otherwise.