Week 29 Recap

Game 1: 257
Game 2: 193
Game 3: 163
Series: 613
Week Avg: 204
Season Avg: 200

On Saturday my dad and I went out for some practice and to retrieve my damaged ball. The manager said he was about 80% happy with the result of the total resurfacing and I could immediately feel some small bumps on the surface. I threw a game with the ball and it performed well. None of the bumps were in the track and for the most part all of the surface scratches that had built up over the last two years were gone. Overall I am happy with how the ball turned out, but I still feel that there was a lack of communication and slow response from the bowling center.  As for practice, it was a lot of me trying to help my dad identify some problems and less about me focusing on any one thing. I threw a pretty uneventful 600 series with my only concern being that I missed two 10-pins.

On Monday during practice I could tell I was going to be in for a rough night. The lanes were a bit drier than usual and so I played more of an arching line into the pocket rather than my usual down and in. The approach was also a little tacky at the foul line so I was a bit concerned about falling on my knee.

The first game started with a strike, a 7-pin spare and a split. I was hitting high so I moved up a half step and struck the next eight in a row. I left the 4-pin on my last ball for a 257.  That was the last bit of fun I had that night.

The next two games saw my line begin to break down and I began to consistently run high. I considered a ball change, but would then throw a strike or convince myself that I was doing something wrong and leave the Python back in the bag. Both light and high pocket hits were leaving splits and to make matters worse I missed two 4-pins and a 10-pin. We pretty much had to keep score manually the last game because the lanes were not scoring multi-pin leaves correctly. I was playing with ball speed which resulted in my timing being off and missing my mark. It was sloppy and I made poor decisions. I barely eked out a 600 and, thanks to my first game, was able to stay above average on the night.

When I'm bowling well I am doing enough things right that one mistake usually doesn't completely ruin the shot. This week there were a lot of mistakes and a lot of shots were not salvageable.  I was confident that I knew when to change balls, but I think that is one area that I will definitely need to work on over the summer. Another is effectively slowing my ball speed without compromising my timing and picking up my ball speed without blowing through the rack and leaving corners.

This Saturday I will be participating in the Andrew Carnegie Athletic Association bowling tournament.  Last year I shot a 639 and had the second highest handicap series, earning $20. I also averaged about ten pins less than this year. I'm looking forward to the competition and the challenge of changing lanes for each game, I just hope I can shake off this week's league scores and post some big games.