Preparing for the Vegas Veteran's Tournament

[jimlc2001]

In August, I will be competing in the Veteran's 3-day tournament (Team, doubles, singles). What does everyone do the week before for preparation? My plan is bowling 6 games for 4 straight days (Mon-Thurs), focusing on 1 ball for an entire series. I usually bowl 2 leagues a week, plus 10 games on Sunday, so I don't think this will be too strenuous. My 8-ball arsenal is below.

Heavy -- NeXXus, Virtual Gravity, and Ulti-Max Pearl
Med Heavy -- Cell and Cell Pearl
Med -- Versa-Max and Karma Pearl
Light -- Motiv Recon Pearl
Spare -- OTB

[J Anderson]

In August, I will be competing in the Veteran's 3-day tournament (Team, doubles, singles). What does everyone do the week before for preparation? My plan is bowling 6 games for 4 straight days (Mon-Thurs), focusing on 1 ball for an entire series. I usually bowl 2 leagues a week, plus 10 games on Sunday, so I don't think this will be too strenuous. My 8-ball arsenal is below.

Heavy -- NeXXus, Virtual Gravity, and Ulti-Max Pearl
Med Heavy -- Cell and Cell Pearl
Med -- Versa-Max and Karma Pearl
Light -- Motiv Recon Pearl
Spare -- OTB

So the idea is that you will have a good feel for how each ball will react? Do you mean 6 game series or 3 game series?

[jimlc2001]

It's more for my body to bowl 4 days straight. As for the equipment, I know pretty well how each ball reacts, but I would like to practice a different line each game, 3 lines total, in case the line I prefer is not working.

My plan
Monday
Nexxus: Game 1, straight up (Left toe on 20, release 12, hit arrows 10, break 7). Game 2, medium hook (Toe 25, 17, 13, 6). Game 3 deep hook (Toe 30, 22, 15, 5).
Virt Grav: Game 4, straight up. Game 5, medium hook. Game 6 deep hook.

Repeat Tuesday-Thursday with different balls.

The goal will be hitting my marks and controlling speed; not focused on score. I'm betting that Vegas will have a longer shot with more oil than Monterey Lanes, so I really want to practice the straight up shot with my heavy equipment. Also, if anyone knows how Vegas lanes break down, that would be helpful.

[J Anderson]

Sounds like a good plan. Wish I could help with some intel on the lanes, but the closest I've been to Vegas is watching C.S.I.

[jimlc2001]

Thanks John. I've been to Vegas before, for military purposes. This is truly my first major tournament and I just want to have a respectable showing.

[jimlc2001]

Update. I just received my Cell back from the shop with an interchangeable thumb, and I am not thrilled with the feel. The ball was purchased from another bowler with similar span and thumb angle. I think the span was 1/16 longer. Unfortunately the slight differences are noticeable, to the point my friends comment about me releasing too early. It looks like I might have to get a similar style ball to fill the gap between my Virtual Gravity and Versa Max

[martinezsam2495]

Good routine keep it up. Good luck on the tournament, may you bring us back good news!
Cheers! ~Sam

[jimlc2001]

Update on my practices. Yesterday was terrible, way too dry to even try the down and in shot, so I just practiced the big hook and split conversions (out of necessity). For tonight, I asked the manager to lay down the house's winter oil pattern. It is much longer and heavier, but still very playable. I would call it a med-heavy to heavy house shot, 40-41 feet in length. Needless to say tonight's fun league was surprised.

Wow! This pattern works great for my style. I bowled with one of our best house bowlers (240+) and was keeping up with him. I shot the down and in style with every ball in my arsenal. This was mainly to reacquaint myself with bowling near the gutter. Everything from my Nexxus to Motiv Recon was finding the pocket. Naturally, the Nexxus had the biggest hook. Foot 21, release 14-15, arrows 11-13, break, 3-5. The Motiv was really down and in. Foot 17, release 10-11, arrow 7-8, break 4-6.

Towards the end of practice I played a game. Throw one ball for a strike, then pick up a different ball and guess what adjustments were needed to strike with the second ball. I was about 50% correct. The challenge for me was in the execution, especially going from the hook to a down and in shot. I always yanked the first down and in shot. Tomorrow should be another good practice before league night on Thursday.

[J Anderson]

Towards the end of practice I played a game. Throw one ball for a strike, then pick up a different ball and guess what adjustments were needed to strike with the second ball. I was about 50% correct. The challenge for me was in the execution, especially going from the hook to a down and in shot. I always yanked the first down and in shot. Tomorrow should be another good practice before league night on Thursday.

That's sort of what I like to do if I'm getting bored with practice. I will switch balls after every throw, using every ball that I have brought to the lanes. I'm always surprised to get more than a double. Almost as surprising as being able to pick up the 10 with my most aggressive ball.

[jimlc2001]

Made it to Vegas! Scoped the alley and might throw a game tonight. Tomorrow they have 1 hour of free practice for the players. Should be fun.

[billf]

Good luck. During your hour of practice you may want to perform your practice game of using each ball and guess the adjustment.

[jimlc2001]

Back from the tournament. Sam's Town charges $10 per day for internet access, so I went without. Here is the synopsis. Tournament handicap was 90% of 230, my average is 221 so I received 8 pins per game.

1) Holy sticky approach! I don't have much of a slide, but I was afraid people were going to fall on their faces. I might have to upgrade shoes to ones that have interchangeable slide pads.
2) Can't beat the baggers. Shot a few nice games out of the 21 on the week, 266, 264, 259, 255, 253. The only game that cashed for me was the during the sweeper, the 266...274 with handicap. And that was good for the lowest paying high game.
3) The hour of free practice was a cluster; it was better to buy 3 games the morning before for practice.
4) My overall average for the tournament was about 210-215. After seeing the results from the sweeper, I knew I needed to average 240 for the week to cash. I allowed the additional pressure to overwhelm me during the week.
5) One game kills a 3 game series. 186-255-259= 700 scratch, 724 w/handicap was not good enough to cash in the singles competition.
6) First time in a long time that I bowled in a house that allowed smoking. That also was a little annoying dealing with irritated eyes.
7) I was thankful for additional interchangeable thumbs. The additional heat and humidity in Vegas caused my thumb to swell and I needed the larger slug for the first game of each series.
8) They had a nice discount on the Roto Grip Defiant, so I picked one up and had it drilled. Sadly, the house driller screwed up the pitch. So he is fixing it and mailing it to me once it is complete.