One of those nights.

[coachkapps]

It was one of those nights I guess. We entered the position round in 1st by 4 points. We've lead the league for 3 weeks. Tonight was not our night. Tonight was THEIR night. Every tap and tripped pin went their way. Seriously. We left spare after spare and didn't carry well. They rolled well. And when they didn't, they still got the pins to drop. Their guys went 700, 680, 680, 630, and xxx. And only one guy was a high roller.

We took only 4 points and probably moved to 3rd-5th place.

[e-tank]

Tough break man. I guess you just cant really help things like that.

[coachkapps]

The worst part is it snowballs. U start feeling like u can't win. Gets u out of ur positive mental state. Gotta learn from last night for sure.

[75lockwood]

I think someone needs to go back to the FAQ Mental game section ;)

all you can do is make your spares, don't get all upset because your struggling with the lane conditions and the other team isn't, your there to have fun, win or lose :)

[coachkapps]

I hear ya 75LW. I actually bowled a few pins over average. Other guys struggled while other team stayed loose. It is definitely going into the experience file in my brain for later. We let the pressure get to us as a team.

[billf]

We were in first for quite awhile but didn't know it. As soon as we found out we had a losing record the next four weeks going into position round. We bowled our way to a first half win kicking the snot out of the two teams we went against.
How? When we walked in Derrick took all the standing sheets off the table and threw them out. No more looking at points, pins or scores. Just bowl. One quality shot at a time. Now knowing the worse we can do is a bowl off at season's end is making the second half difficult to keep the team with that killer instinct.

[JaMau24]

One of those nights for us as well. I haven't shot under 600 since Nov. 1st when the lanes were kinda jacked up during position round. Well, wouldn't you know it, it was position round again and we played the same team, and the lanes were kinda jacked up again, yet I somehow avoided going under 600 again. Shot 167, 198, 246 (611). We lost the first game by 6 pins and the last game by 6 pins (won the 2nd and total). I take the blame for the first game, being that I'm averaging 225 and only shot 167 and we lose by 6. Still though, it sucks to say we lost 2 games by a COMBINED 12 pins. That being said, we've led the whole season in this league, and are absolutely dominating it with no one posing a real threat to challenge us.

That's the worst I've bowled in a while.

On to the topic about the lanes being jacked up, I'm not a person that ever blames the lanes when I do poorly. I feel like there is always a line to played somewhere. That being said, the oil machine at this bowling alley is so pathetic and the corporate office will not give them an upgrade, like a nice kegel machine. I know they are expensive, but I know for a fact that they have lost 60%-80% of the bowlers they once had to a different bowling alley because of the nice kegel machine they have there. This place used to be filled up EVERY night for EVERY league 5 years ago, now they struggle to get 12 teams. This oil machine lays down a different and inconsistent shot every week. A house shot should be virtually the same every week, it's not here. It changes so much and so often from week to week (if not day to day). I feel bad for the alley too, because it is out of their control. Great staff, great food, great environment, yet just can't fill place up anymore because of the machine. Maybe one day they'll give them a new machine.

[J Anderson]

On to the topic about the lanes being jacked up, I'm not a person that ever blames the lanes when I do poorly. I feel like there is always a line to played somewhere. That being said, the oil machine at this bowling alley is so pathetic and the corporate office will not give them an upgrade, like a nice kegel machine. I know they are expensive, but I know for a fact that they have lost 60%-80% of the bowlers they once had to a different bowling alley because of the nice kegel machine they have there. This place used to be filled up EVERY night for EVERY league 5 years ago, now they struggle to get 12 teams. This oil machine lays down a different and inconsistent shot every week. A house shot should be virtually the same every week, it's not here. It changes so much and so often from week to week (if not day to day). I feel bad for the alley too, because it is out of their control. Great staff, great food, great environment, yet just can't fill place up anymore because of the machine. Maybe one day they'll give them a new machine.

My prediction is that the corporate office will look at the down turn in the numbers and do one of two things. They will say, "oh the numbers are down, increase the marketing budget for that center." Or they will say, "That center's numbers are down, cut back on their operating budget to preserve the profit margin." The first though well intentioned doesn't fix the problem. The second puts the center into a death spiral.

[Hammer]

Unfortunately I know only too well about having a bad night or string of them. On a bad night it seems no matter what you do you can't bowl right. You throw what you think looks like a good shot and you get a 7-10 split or any kind of split for that matter. Or you leave a single pin spare and you miss it by a 1/16th of an inch. You move around your target to find the strike zone and you just can't locate it no matter what you do. It seems to you after a while that the other team is just destined to win that night. You see them all of a sudden getting strikes no matter how their ball hits the pins and you can't get a strike even if you used a shotgun. Sometimes the cards are not in your favor. That's the way life is sometimes and you just have to say to yourself Oh well. Then one day comes a night where you feel like you can throw the ball blindfolded and get a strike. And it seems like you can pick up your spares with ease. Life is a seesaw ride. Sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down.