Shadow/Instructomat Use?

[streamlane]

Hello all! This is my first post.

First comes the question - how many people still use shadow (instructomat) for league practice?

The last I saw it in use was at the Reno Hilton in 1995. Two centers I worked at in Tallahassee FL (Capitol and Seminole) stopped using it in 1992 - imagine the carnage... sweeps being slammed left and right for the first few weeks of "practice WITH pins".

My first memories of being in a bowling alley are from the mid 70s at Bird Bowl in Miami FL (60 30's in a row with MOD IV front, at the time). My favorite part of the evening was when all the pinspotters were switched off for announcements after shadow, then switched back on (and cycled) in order from 1 to 60. That was very neat to a little kid.

More about me...
I'm 30, and grew up in Miami. I've worked at centers in Miami, Vincennes Indiana, and Tallahassee, ranging from 10 lanes at Ft Sackville Bowl to 72 at Don Carters Kendall. I've held positions at the desk, in the league office, and as a pinchaser (A2, 82/70, 82/30). I've done a bit of everything. I also bowled in leagues from age 5 till 24. Currently, I live in Indianapolis, only bowl occasionally with my kids, and work outside of the industry.

I've enjoyed reading the posts on bowl-tech for about a year. My interest has been sparked lately because of the threads on masking units/vintage equipment.

Regards,
Clay

[Mark Anderson]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

I hope I'm reading this correctly :-

League Practice without Machine resetting pins ?

We still do run in "InstructoMat" style , Full Rack at start of Practice & no machine cycling during practice .

As far as I know ALL our centres here in Victoria run in the same way .

Problem with "Instructomat" mode is damage to Cushion Tail Plank & Weldment from balls slamming into an empty pit .

But the Bowlers seem to prefer it this way & since they pay the bills they get "Instructomat"

[Rep]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

Same here, no pins in practice aside from 1 league which insists on it (scratch men's league) and also for tournaments we usually give them pins. But other than that instrctomat always [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img]

[DetroitSignal]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

Originally posted by Mark Anderson:
[QB]
Problem with "Instructomat" mode is damage to Cushion Tail Plank & Weldment from balls slamming into an empty pit .

QB]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I will agree with Mark. We do not use instructomat purely due to cracking weldments from bowlers throwing at no pins.

[cobow]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

no instructomat here for the last 18 months- and no cracked weldments hmmmmm. also less damage to pins hit whilst fallen i recon.

cobow [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif[/img]

[felix]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

Shadow Ball,Practice Ball,&amp;/or Intstuctomat are all energy &amp; time saving...provided you've done your homework &amp; FIXED THE ORIGINAL PROBLEM! Beef up the weldments with an extra 1/4 steel welded to the ears. The same goes with the ball door///when they break,weld on new nut's &amp; weld extra at the weak points and you'll have the latest &amp; Greatest.. [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img] [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img]

[Mark Anderson]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

Felix ,
All good idea's there [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif[/img]

Still leaves us with the problem of the Tail Plank splitting .

A better quality Buna Rubber may help a little , but Still a weak link in the chain ?

Any Ideas ??

[Coors]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

most leagues feel they're privileged to practice with pins. and those that come from brunswick houses always hold the line up an hour waitng for the machine to cycle.

i like shadow myself, simply, you get more practice, in our scratch league it use to be once you threw your ball at the foul line, better start walkin toward the common area, cuz the next bowler is comin right behind ya.

however, bruns, and Q scorers dont know what shadow is, so i havent seen shadow practice in like 2 years. but i must say, it was always pretty watchin all 40 lanes cycle after practice with accuscore/magicscore.

and my first ABC National was an AMF year, and when the head dude said "AMF may we have the pins please" and ALL 40 lanes cycles simultaneously, OMG!!! good thing i wore dark pants [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img]

[Coors]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

also with shadow practice, as a mechanic, there's a pretty good chance there wont be any pin jams or out of ranges, so you can come out of the cave and socialize/nature calls/fill the be...i mean coke mug abit before/between shifts.

[Mark Anderson]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

Originally posted by Coors:
Fill the be...I mean coke mug a bit before / between shifts.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">From now on Shadow / IntructoMat / Practice shall be called :-
Miller Time ! [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img]

[TheGMan143]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

We use instructomat for practice as well... I keep hearing about broken weldments and brackets... I just don't see it. Other centers in our area practice with pins (an oddity in itself around the area)... the only difference in broken part frequency that I see is that the houses that use machine cycle for practice have a lot of busted sweeps. The parts usage in the pit is about the same.

Most people around our area prefer shadow... they get more of a chance to toss the ball before league play starts than if the machines were cycling. Many of them complain about practice with pins... fine with me... saves a lot of sweep damage.

[streamlane]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

In Miami at least, houses moved away from shadow as new brunswick places were built in the late 70s and league bowlers who bowled at multiple centers started expecting pins during practice.

In Tallahassee, league practice was only 5 minutes with shadow, and was bumped up to 10 when they started using pins.

-Clay

[Androooo]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

Down here we get 15 mins instructomat...

2 hours away at the place with A2's, they get 5 min with pins... Gotta love those people who count frames

[Rep]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

We dont have problems with the tube weldments here. No more than usual anyway, eventually they're gonna go, but I can't even remember the last time I pulled a cushion due to a broken tube weldment. 6 months ago maybe? I myself would take instructomat any day, all I wanna do during practice is loosen up and get an idea of the shot. I bowled in a 4 man scratch league that got pins, I got 3 maybe 4 balls tops. Didn't loosen me up too well. To each his own but give me my instructomat, and yes it is cool to see them all cycle at once coming out of it [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img]

[russb]

Re: Shadow/Instructomat Use?

In the center I just left in North Carolina they practice 5 minutes without pins. The center I just started working at in Port Saint Lucie, FL practices 10 minutes with pins. It took a little getting used to, but I like the idea... it gives you a chance to catch those little machine issues that creep up on you sometimes so you can get them fixed before the league actually starts bowling. The first time I ever saw practice with pins was at the Reno Hilton in December of 2001 when I was there interviewing for a mechanic's position.