Teammates are great but I'm letting them down

[boatman37]

Well did a little better but think I might have hit on something at the end of the night. When I bowled before I threw at the first arrow 99% of the time. When I came back in January I tried that and kept pulling my shots. I found that if I moved in to the 2nd arrow I was less likely to pull my shots. I think I was sub-consciously pulling my shots because of how close I was to the gutter and a lack of confidence. I noticed in the fall league my ball wouldn't show a drop of oil but in this summer league I have a noticeable oil streak. If I hit the pocket I would be lucky to get a strike. Seemed like the only time I could get a strike was brooklyn. I tried moving in to the 3rd arrow and occasionally that would help but tried it tonight and couldn't hit my mark. In the 4th game tonight 5th frame I tried the first arrow again to try to get away from the oil and threw 4 pocket strikes in a row. The 9th frame was a pocket hit but left the 7-10....ugh. Got the 10 and it actually bounced out of the pit and back on the lane and rolled around the middle but didn't hit the 7. The 10th frame I yanked the shot and got the 6, 9, and 10 then left the 7 on the next ball.
So seems like I need to start trying that 1st arrow again. I was averaging in the 190's with that line 15 years ago. Funny thing is when I made that move tonight my speed slowed a little and it wasn't as hard on my knee.

So finished the fall league with a 173 but only averaging 154 in this summer league. Tonight my average was 176. My high game in this league was only 180.

Game 1: 161
Game 2: 180
Game 3: 173 (3 splits but covered the 2-7 twice)
Game 4: 190 (opened in the 9th and 10th (7-10 in the 9th))

And we won all 4 games! Hopefully I can get some consistency back and start throwing more strikes. We will see how next week goes.

[vdubtx]

I know the feeling you have boatman. I started a sport shot league this week and I absolutely sucked. Making wrong ball changes and adjustments the whole night. The league is a draft league, so going into it, you have no idea who you will bowl with. Needless to say I absolutely embarrassed myself and was the proverbial "boat anchor" for our team on the first week.

[Florida Bowler]

Glad to see the improvement. Keep at it and you'll be back to your 190s in no time.

[boatman37]

Just checked the results. I am now 4th from the bottom average wise so moved ahead of one other person...lol. I went from 154 to 160 after last night. Our team went from 24th to 14th in the standings (out of 40).

[Albundy]

I've seen leagues like this. Don't get it. I'd rather stay home if I don't get to bowl

[boatman37]

Much better night. Went back to my 'normal' line at the first arrow at the end of last week. My high game in this league was 180 until game 4 last week when I had a 190. Tonight had a 189, 177, 213, and 205. My first ball average had been around 8.5. Tonight it was 9.23. Strikes were 25/44 (56%). I had only been throwing about 13 or so strikes a night in this league. Definite improvement and feel much more comfortable. If I would have picked up those few easy spares I missed it would have been much better.

Really weird thing happened. Threw a ball and left the 6 and 8 but another pin bounced and landed on its head the flipped and stood upright right beside the 6 (where the 10 was but almost touching the 6). Not sure which pin it was. I couldn't believe it and turned around and one of the guys on the other team saw it too. He said he had never saw it before either.

[boatman37]

Struggled tonight but still beat my average. Rolled 185, 161, 189, and 148. Struggled with spares but was 3/3 on my 7 pins. We won all 4 games so thats what matters. My average coming in was 167. Averaged 170 tonight. We were in 15th (40 teams) before tonight and got all 10 points so should move up at least a few spots. Tonight was position round for the first 1/2.

EDIT: Looks like they updated the sheet already. We moved from 15th to 7th after tonight. We are only 3 games out of first. We are 49-31 and first place is 52-28. Can't help but think how bad those first few weeks were when my average was 173 and I was bowling 150's before our averages reset. We went 2-8 each of those first 2 weeks. If I would have just bowled my average we would probably be in first right now. Oh well. Still time and we aren't far back.

[mc_runner]

If you had bowled your average the first 3 weeks, you may not have won all 10 points last night, because you'd have been under average It's probably going to be working out in your benefit for the rest of the season... keep getting those points!

[boatman37]

If you had bowled your average the first 3 weeks, you may not have won all 10 points last night, because you'd have been under average It's probably going to be working out in your benefit for the rest of the season... keep getting those points!

True...lol. About 3 weeks ago we were in about 35th out of 40 so we have come a long way. Our last 4 weeks were 10-0, 10-0, 5-5, and 10-0. We have a real good chance at winning it all but I need to work on my spares. Before I left 15 years ago I rarely missed spares. My teammates won this league 2 years ago with a different 3rd member. My teammate last night rolled 214, 244, 171 and 238. For some reason his 3rd game is always his worst. His average is 210. Luckily I had my high game in game 3 but in all games our opponents struggled. We won game 1 by 77, game 2 by 20, game 3 by 64, and game 4 by 51. The other teammate is averaging 198. Next week I am sitting out so it's on them...lol. Pretty impressive with such a strong league. 55 out of 110 are averaging over 200 so that's 1/2 the league. And with 80% handicap that makes it even harder. We take both teams averages then 80% of the difference. Our winter league is 90% based off 230. With my average we are one of the lower average teams in the league so we are usually getting pins. There are only 5 others lower than me...lol.

[taxexpert2]

You are right that using the old average probably hurt - if it is a handicapped league. Hard to say how many ppl thing the higher the average the better it is for the team but sometimes someone with a bit of a handicap is not a handicap to the team. Keep trying and it will come back to you. Of course equipment has changed a lot in 15 years too so that might be playing a bit of a part in recapturing the "old" magic.