October 22, 2013

Another Paternity Leave Pre-Bowl

It is sort of difficult expecting a baby in the middle of league season. Our first was born in June and my wife actually bowled an entire season while pregnant. Our second is due on December 22nd, but you never really know when the baby might get sick of her current abode and decide its time to venture out to see the world. To be a good father and husband I am planning to take at least a month off from my regularly scheduled league nights to help out with the baby and our 2 year old. As a result, I need to roll off for at least four weeks of bowling so I don't leave my team high and dry and also to get in a good number of games to make this year's average comparable to last year's. I need to get these pre-bowls in now in case the baby decides to come early. Since I don't know the exact week the scores will be used it makes the recap format a bit more challenging, but I'll give it a whirl.

On Sunday I threw my second week of paternity pre-bowls. I wanted to shake off the collapse of Monday's performance and so I really focused on finishing balanced at the foul line and following through over my target. The result was a 224, 212 and a 213. I haven't thrown many average 600s this season, everything has been well over average or well under, and so this was a pretty good outing.

The lanes were a bit dry, but were manageable and even a bit forgiving when using the Python. The only problem I have discovered with that ball is the fit of the thumb hole. When I play three games with it I get a pretty bad rub on the outside of my thumb just below the knuckle. I lose a layer of skin, it gets red and irritated, but always heals up enough so that I can throw a layer of New Skin over it before the start of league next week. It typically only happens when I need to use some tape, but its not an issue of the ball being too tight. Its very odd and the only solution may be to just have the thumb redrilled, but since the ball was already resurfaced due to the machine damage from last season is it really worth it or should I just buy a replacement. So many decisions.

My biggest concern during the outing was spare shooting . . . again. I missed a 10-pin in the tenth frame of the first game and the first frame of the second game. I also miscalculated on an adjustment to pickup the 1-2 in the tenth frame of the third game. It has been both poor decision making and poor execution all happening at the most inopportune moments. If I'm going to continue my success on the lanes and maybe even get better I will need to improve my spare shooting and become more consistent in my overall play.

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