Aslan's Scores (of the non-lady kind)

[Mike White]

Tuesday League Night: medium oil synthetics

461 Series: 121-166-174

Sandbagger

[Aslan]

Sandbagger

I used to think that would be a viable strategy...to have a horrible average on Tuesday to cancel out the high average on Wednesday. But since the USBC doesn't use composites for the Open...I guess it doesn't matter. It might help for amateur tournaments...but even the BVL...I'm now going to easily be Class A so trying to "squeak" into Class B isn't going to happen.

And my poor bowling ball bag isn't going to survive many more 121 games. I nearly broke it after that game slamming my ball into it in frustration.

The good news is the team took 3 out of 4 thanks to strong performances by the rest of the team...but that just means we're no longer in the running for last place...and I was kinda looking forward to winning that towel. : (

[bubba809]

Just out of curiosity, how much longer do you have to keep the Lion avatar? I know it was given by Iceman for a year.

[Aslan]

Just out of curiosity, how much longer do you have to keep the Lion avatar? I know it was given by Iceman for a year.

The obligation is expired. But last time I tried to change it, the site wasn't letting me. I let Bowl1820 know and he said there might be problems with it. I haven't tried again since.

I would have been more motivated had Iceman been more like me...and chosen an avatar that was super insulting or embarrassing. For Iceman, I was going to choose something like a picture of the Iranian Ayatolla....or like Al Sharpton. I wouldn't bee mean enough to choose the ISIS flag or Bin Laden....but I would have picked something he'd have hated for 6 months. But a Lion's head? I might have picked that for myself had I not had a really cool big lebowski pic to use.

[Aslan]

Wednesday League Night: medium oil synthetics

526 Series: 153-183-190

Game 1 I struggled like hell getting the ball back into the pocket. When I didn't miss right, it was because I pulled it and missed left. Only 2 non-split opens and one was a washout. But still…I'm getting sick of chopping (and leaving to begin with) the 2-5.

Game 2 I only opened in the 2nd frame on a 2-4-10 split. But I was having the same struggles as game 1; just made it back to the pocket a little more and made more spares.

Game 3 I AGAIN opened in the 2nd…but this time on a friggin 3-6-10. And the only difference between games 2 and 3 was I strung a few of the strikes together in Game 3. I thought I found the solution midway through…seemed like it was a timing issue…but by the 8th frame I was back to sucking.

PinPal Stats:
First Ball Average: 8.27 pins
Strikes: 33% (1 turkey, 2 doubles, and 4 singles)
Spares: 66% picked up

Single Pin spares: 100% (4/4)
Most common single-pin leave: n/a.
Only left the 2-pin, 5-pin, 7-pin, and 10-pin (1x each).

Multiple Pin spares: 58% (10/17)

Splits: 0% (0/3)

Average over 3 games: 175.33.
Average had I picked up 100% of single pin spare leaves: n/a.

Another disappointing night. I made the mistake of trying to fiddle with the surfaces on 3 of the bowling balls pre-game. I thought maybe I was having trouble striking, especially in the Tuesday league, because the highly surfaced balls were burning up and hitting light. Recently I've had some success with the more polished balls and started to buy into the "stored energy" theories. Well, apparently you need some semblance of axis rotation to take advantage of that wonderful technology…so that experiment failed. Before the Pro-Am Friday…those balls are all getting sanded back down.

I also think the center screwed something up. The patterns for everyone tonight seemed longer. A much higher average bowler than I am, was bowling on the pair next to me and he was saying the same thing…that his ball seemed to be skidding past the breakpoint…as if the pattern was longer tonight. Our thumbless bowler struggled as well as it seemed like his ball skidded a little too far before "grabbing".

Well, my days as a 190+ bowler have ended after two weeks. I'm probably still one of the top 20 (out of about 90) bowlers in the league…but it's not a "league of champions" by any means. A lot of older players, big fat guys throwing thumbless, and beginner gals averaging in the 90-110 range.

And I may start lofting it more again. The reasoning (besides sucking at bowling the "right" way) is….IF the balls having too much surface weren't striking because they were burning up and hitting weak…then reducing the loft actually hurt me. The balls can't "burn up" in the air. I believe Mika lofts because he was used to burnt up heads. What would burnt up heads do? Cause the ball to lose a lot of energy as it traveled over them, right? So lofting would delay the "burning up"?

I don't know. When I have my next practice session I'm also gonna take the wrist brace off and see if I can develop a "poor man's Mike Fagan" release. But I can't do that with the wrist brace on because it won't let me bend my wrist back. I need the wrist bent back during the swing so I can "snap" it at the end…and generate some real revs…and the RIGHT revs. And also I need to try and play the inside of the ball. I can't swing through the ball if I don't start inside…or I get very little revs. And I don't want to generate revs by coming up the side of the ball. So I need to start inside….I just never had much luck with that. And at my next lesson I gotta figure out this timing thing. I used to say to myself "push, back, back and, swing…" and that helped me stay close to in time. I went away with that as I've tried to think about other improvements during the approach…but nothing is making me better when the timing off. I miss the pocket way, way, way too often for it to be anything but timing. I've tried SO MANY different strategies to fix the timing….moving closer, shorter steps, almost no first step, pushing the ball out with the first step, pushing the ball out after the first step, relaxing the swing, making the approach fluid vs choppy….this could go on and on. Nothing is FIXING it.

Well…a day off and then the first of 2 Pro-Ams. I was really looking forward to them…now I'm kinda nervous and anxious….because there's just so much wrong with my game that it adds an embarassment factor to the already nervousness factor.

[vdubtx]

Keep at it Aslan. Your game is gonna have a big breakthru any time now. Just you watch. 190's are on the horizon with 200 very close in the distance.

[Aslan]

Keep at it Aslan. Your game is gonna have a big breakthru any time now. Just you watch. 190's are on the horizon with 200 very close in the distance.

Thanks for the kind remarks...but after a lesson, a 461 series, and a 526 series...my confidence is not in an ideal place.

I just need to survive the two upcoming pro-ams and try to get something out of the clinic I'm going to next week. Did I mention that? I will be in a clinic with none other than Missy Parkin (one of my favorites) and Sean Rash (not so much...but a Brunswick guy so I'll give him that). After that...I'm gonna take a mini 3-day vacation...then come back and start to focus on really getting my release better. I can't get to the next level if I have to sand my bowling balls down to 500-1000 abralon just to get them to move...and when they do they die out before hitting the pins and my strike rate suffers. 20 years ago...yeah...you could play that outside/in big arc and if you made your spares...good accuracy...you could be something. But now...if you're not rolling a 680+ series every night on a THS...you're just a glorified novice with a ball that smells like a mix of blackberries and sweaty socks.

[Aslan]

Wednesday League Night: medium oil synthetics

499 Series: 168-155-176

Game 1 I couldn't figure things out until the 8th frame. Game 2 was a couple bad shots, a couple splits…just couldn't string the strikes together. Game 3 was okay…but a washout in the 5th and a split in the 10th…pretty much ruined any chance of rolling at least one game at or above my average. : (

PinPal Stats:
First Ball Average: 8.44 pins
Strikes: 43% (1 5-bagger, 3 doubles, and 3 singles)
Spares: 38% picked up

Single Pin spares: 83% (5/6)
Most common single-pin leave: 6-pin and 10-pin (2x each)
Only left corner pins.

Multiple Pin spares: 16% (2/12)

Splits: 0% (0/4)

Average over 3 games: 166.33.
Average had I picked up 100% of single pin spare leaves: 168.67.

After 9 days off from bowling, I was excited to get back into it…but man was I rusty. And it didn't help that before Game 1, I realized my wrist brace was broken so I spent the night alternating between the Wristmaster II and nothing.

Lesson tomorrow. Who knows if things will improve or not. The stats are certainily negative tonight…but to be honest….the strike rate was high and only 4 of the 11 missed spares were truly "make-able"…4 splits and 3 washouts.

[HowDoIHookAgain]

Ouch. Hope things start to turn around for you soon.

[Amyers]

Sometimes it just doesn't seem to matter what you do. It's just off.