Best day today on senior league today...

[Hammer]

With no approach because of bad knees I bowled a 162, 168 and a 180 for a 510 scratch series. For three games I had 13 strikes 9 opens and the rest were spares. It has been a while since I hit a series over 500. I started with my urethane Blue Hammer and that gave me 5 open frames. Luckily I changed to my plastic ball and ended with spares and a couple strikes for a 162.The second game I had three opens which were 9 counts but I had spares and strikes for the 168. The last game I went upwards again and shot the 180. This was a great day for me because when we bowled last Monday I couldn't do anything. I couldn't pick up spares, I couldn't get strikes it was a nightmare. My scratch series for three games was 301. That was my all time low. It takes time to bowl decent with no approach.

My teammates couldn't believe how good I was shooting because they remembered what I bowled last Monday. Somewhere I saw a video where the person was talking about the release. He said not to be gentle with the swing and release. He said to be aggressive with the release but not to the point where you grab the ball from the top of the back swing or at the release where you hit the ball with your hand that you fall off balance. I wait until the ball drops with gravity from the top of the back swing and then I give the ball an extra push through the release. Oh yeah, he said when you get to the release to not swing your arm out to the pins but swing it up to your head. So I did all of that for the entire game and it was a great feeling. Because I bowled good today we took all three games and series. I felt much better helping my teammates win today instead of doing not much to help them last Monday with my 301 series. Yikes!

[RobLV1]

I'm going to have nightmares about people making videos telling others not to swing out toward the pins, but up towards your head. That was really good advice in 1975 when you had to "hit up" on the ball, but today it's about the dumbest thing I can imagine some well-meaning person saying. When you have a one step approach, you biggest challenge is to get the ball down the lane and you cannot do that when your armswing to going toward the ceiling!

Last week the humidity was so high in Vegas that sliding was not an option. I had to bowl using a one-step approach. I was able to shoot 200-190 for the first two games, despite using one step. I would suggest looking at your arsenal. Urethane is a really bad choice for slow-speed bowlers. The Raw Anger, if I remember correctly, is a fairly low rg ball. My arsenal right now consists of (from most to least aggressive): Columbia Messenger, Brumswick Twist, Brunswick BTU, and Brunswick T-Zone plastic. These balls give me a good range of motion with my 10-11 mph ball speed. Three weeks ago I shot 300 while practicing with friends, using the T-Zone plastic ball. You can knock down more pins with a "weak" ball than with a "strong" ball when you are speed challenged.

[Hammer]

I'm going to have nightmares about people making videos telling others not to swing out toward the pins, but up towards your head. That was really good advice in 1975 when you had to "hit up" on the ball, but today it's about the dumbest thing I can imagine some well-meaning person saying. When you have a one step approach, you biggest challenge is to get the ball down the lane and you cannot do that when your armswing to going toward the ceiling!

Last week the humidity was so high in Vegas that sliding was not an option. I had to bowl using a one-step approach. I was able to shoot 200-190 for the first two games, despite using one step. I would suggest looking at your arsenal. Urethane is a really bad choice for slow-speed bowlers. The Raw Anger, if I remember correctly, is a fairly low rg ball. My arsenal right now consists of (from most to least aggressive): Columbia Messenger, Brumswick Twist, Brunswick BTU, and Brunswick T-Zone plastic. These balls give me a good range of motion with my 10-11 mph ball speed. Three weeks ago I shot 300 while practicing with friends, using the T-Zone plastic ball. You can knock down more pins with a "weak" ball than with a "strong" ball when you are speed challenged.

I said that wrong about not letting your hand go out towards the pins. I was talking about bowlers that have the ball starting to go up and hit it with their fingers before they let go. The only time you let it go up before you let it go is if you are lofting the ball to delay the reaction before it gets to the pins depending on the oil pattern that is out there.