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Our competitive match point trios league is trying to attract more bowlers. Up for vote this month is the Peterson Point System (PPS). The PPS is different because there are no match points to be won and the points you and your team earn carry over every week. This system works really well because every single pin counts during the season and virtually eliminates sandbagging.

When you bowl in a PPS, you bowl againist the whole league, not just one team every week. For every 50 pins ...

Tonight the house put out the new house shot for next season to fee how it rolled so they can tweak it to get ready for leagues starting in 2 weeks.. Ill say i LOVE this new shot!!!! The games are below..

218
246
269
173
226

After the 1st three games I was in 1st by 90 pins. With the cut being just the top 2 I wanted to try some different balls and different lines in the 4th game. I ended up just going with my line i have thrown all night ...

This has been a topic I have wanted to blog about for some time now, but needed info from my fellow bowlers to help make a few valid points. The standard length league season goes from 33 to 35 weeks in length. Typically the season fires up around Labor Day, and ends sometime near the end of April or beginning to middle of May. Every year around February or March I hear the typical groans from my fellow bowlers about the long “grind” of the season, and how they can’t wait for summer to get here, ...

Most anyone who knows me knows I throw Legends/Lanemasters exclusively, well, since I got serious about bowling. I'm one of those people who does research and checks out reviews, compares and contrasts, and expects things to last. Which is a serious consideration given the fact that I'm hurling a 15 pound object at 17 miles an hour towards 30+ pounds of wood between 36 and120 times a day. I'd taken bowling in college and still had my old 13# Ebonite Gyro drilled conventional, but when I was asked ...

I should state up front that the only time you should hook it at any spare, is if you have a pretty good idea where the oil line and/or breakpoint is. If you are unsure for any reason, then it is better in the long run to use the straight shot, even on clusters with sleepers. For example, you are moving several pairs after each game in a tournament and after a move you leave a 2-5-8 in the first frame. You pulled your first shot and it skidded all the way and barely hit the headpin. Sound familiar? ...

Just How Hard Is It? by Jim King

All of this talk about the Great Bowlers of Today (GBOTS) and those of yesterday might sound a little intimidating to a bowler who is serious about their game and thinking of making a switch to throwing it straight. I have heard people exclaim that it is just too hard to be that accurate. Or, they just don?t have time to practice enough to become that precise.

I understand your present dilemma, if you have one. Hooking the ball at ...

Now we are ready to start using targets for individual spares. I have a different methodology than many instructors. Most will teach you to use the same target and move your feet to adjust from say, a 6 pin and a 10 pin. I think this is fine on the left side spares for righthanders (though for a different reason) but for right side spares, I move my target and use the same starting point. I think other systems work pretty well, but let me explain my reasoning for having a different system for spares ...

How to throw it straight. by Jim King

Okay. You have decided that you want to be a GBOT (Great Bowler Of Today). You have made the commitment to learn a release that will make the ball go straight on any condition. You go to the lanes to practice and your "kill shot" still hooks. What happened? Why won't it go straight? You ask ?What can I do to kill it more?? Lets back up and analyze the entire situation.
Of course, the easiest way to learn how to throw it straight ...

by Jim King

When I started bowling as a youngster, my father and any other coaches I had preached that the major difference between a good local bowler and the "Great Bowlers Of Yesterday" was that the great ones hardly ever missed any spares. I think that, to a large extent, it is still a true statement. I believe that most of the "Great Bowlers Of Today" are excellent spare shooters and over the next few issues, I will attempt to show you how you can improve ...

This is it the last week of the league and I go into it in 2nd place 2 points behind but with a much greater pin tally.

Practice goes well with a run of 5 strikes and picking up all my spares in fact practice is so good that I feel this could be my night.

Now we start and it is a fair start picking up a couple of spares but then it is down hill, I miss a 9 pin, then I have a couple of splits and I struggle to get a 133 and no surprises I lost.

On to ...

Entering average- 201

Game 1- 199

This game started great! 1st 3 frames were strikes, then i lost it. Just out of nowhere that line went away. I didnt throw another strike until the 9th frame. I was throwing my virtual gravity like usual since its a heavier shot.

Game 2- 178

This game i played around with my virtual energy and my polished attitude shift. The VE was a little too much ball for the line I was trying to play..The attitude ...

So my league ended tonight. This was the first league I had been in since I was in my freshman year of High School (01). I managed to step up my bowling from an out-of-league average of a 160 to a solid 180. My high game went from 221 to a 268 and I got a new ball. The next league starts in a few weeks and I fully intend on bowling more as time goes on. I would like to see my average up around 200-205 and I honestly feel like I am able to bowl that well.

This is Nickcuban, ...

As we approach a brand new fall league season in another month or so, I find it appropriate to discuss inventorying what is in your bowling bag, to help make sure you’re not stuck missing something at the wrong time when league comes. I will break this down into three categories: bowling balls, shoes, and accessories.

BOWLING BALLS

I can get very technical about layouts, weights, etc., but I will keep the discussion as lamen as possible as it pertains to bowling balls ...

Last wednesday night leauge is a singles leage, it has been going for 13 weeks with two to go and it is tight at the top. Going into tonight game I am lying 4th 6 points behind the lead and with a 10 point cussion behind me for 5th place.

This week I am having to play against a bye, which means I have to be within 10 pins of my average everygame and the series and I did it. My singles average is only 158 but it is going up week by week

Well game one and I am leaving ...

I just got my new ball drilled on Saturday. I was looking for something that I could through the heads and down the lane. I found it! I no longer have to use my spare ball on dry lane conditions due to my Rev Rate. I just got my Roto-Grip Mars drilled 2.25" above my fingers. and man, it got down the lane and still had plenty of comeback to the pocket. I Love Roto-Grip. I can't wait for this next fall league to start up so I can see exactly what it can do from week to week.

Pattern: Viper
Entering Average- 181

Game 1- 212

I started the 1st game of the night throwing my Storm Furious. I was laying the ball down around 20 and playin around 10 or just outside. This line worked very well for the 1st game. I had a couple stupid opens here and there but still managed a good game of 212. Won 2/4 points

Game 2- 191

Oh wow, this game was UGLY!!!! I had 3/4 opens in to start the game and really didnt get much ...

I've seen many posts about how to build a bowling ball rack, and there are some decent plans out there. Some quick and dirty (like my first one), and some more elegant (like the one I'm planning when I get money and time together). In the interim, I built my current one over the span of 5 weeks, buying parts $40 at a time. Why so expensive you ask? It's made out of 1" pvc pipe, and is modular, so I can expand as I need to. The 10' spans of pipe were only $3 apiece, but it was the connectors ...

Just thought I would pass this on. I asked Roto-Grip whether they recommended Abralon over Scotch-brite and this is the answer I got:
They work, but not as effectively as abralon. For our official stance on surface alterations I will include a short essay I’ve written on the subject…
Thank you for contacting us with your concern. As far as ball reaction is concerned, we have several recommendations to maintain ball performance and life, but the primary area of concern is with the ...

BRITEN YOUR BALL

You have seen Scotch-Brite pads in a variety of places: in the supermarket "cleaning" aisle, at the auto parts store, in the Wal-Mart paint section, and other locations. Their universal use is to scratch an object's surface to prepare it for a job.

This is also their purpose on a bowling ball or shoe. Generally there are different coarseness ratings as denoted by color ("Scotch-Brite" is a trade name ... you may find the pads with ...

EVER WONDER WHAT PEOPLE carry in their bowling bags aside from a ball, a pair of shoes, and a bowling glove? I have compiled a list of items you may or may not have heard of, and the reasons for carrying them with you when you bowl. (I have just about every item on this list in my own accessory container.) Let's start with the item you should use to hold all your other bowling tools:

YOUR BOWLING "BAG"

There are the three preliminary rules of selecting an ...

Sometimes your timing and swing are in good shape and you just need to put some effort into working on great feel at release. Feel is the same as your other bowling skills--it takes practice to develop the same feel at release over and over again. This is where practice is so critical. Spend time in your practice sessions developing great feel at release. You may even want to work on more than one release. It is especially helpful for most people to develop a minimum, medium, and maximum release. ...

PROBLEM NO. 4 INCONSISTENCY TO THE TARGET

Once again, this problem is mostly a physical issue with different causes. But the most common is a change in your timing.

Alterations in your timing--even slight ones--can cause your direction to the target to change dramatically. If your timing is a little late, you're likely to throw the ball farther right because your shoulders haven't squared to the target when your body has reached the finish. If your timing is a little ...

Some problems are common to many bowlers, and although there can be multiple solutions, the best one isn't necessarily the most obvious

WHEN ANY BOWLER OBSERVES A problem in his or her game, the natural urge is to fix it. However, finding the correct cure is sometimes the greatest challenge, because the correct answer may not be the most obvious one. As with most things, there is usually more than one answer for the same question, and the trick is to find the correct answer for your ...

When you begin to set some goals for yourself, you may want to remember the acronym "S.M.A.R.T.," which summarizes helpful cues in developing your goals.

* "S" stands for specific. Is your goal specific enough? If it's not specific enough, restate it. A goal that states "I want to be the best bowler in my league" may be specific, but there are many steps that would lead to that end result, so break it down into smaller steps. For instance, your spare ...

Just as you work on physical techniques like your steps and your delivery, you also need to work on mental skills that will strengthen your game

YOGI BERRA ONCE SAID OF BASEBALL that "90% of this game is half mental." While the math is questionable, the importance of the mental game is not. And bowling certainly mirrors this philosophy.

Developing and strengthening your mental approach to bowling will help you attain greater success in scoring and in enjoyment ...