Teammates are great but I'm letting them down

[boatman37]

Tough night for the team. Lost all 3. 4 of the 5 struggled and the other team was hitting good. As a team I'd bet we only had 40-50 strikes total. I had 9. Just no carry all night for us. The other team had no trouble. We were all moving and adjusting all night but no carry anywhere. I had 1 strike in game 1 even though I hit the pocket probably 75% of the time. I tried everything from the 1st arrow to the 3rd arrow and both balls. The last game I finally moved back to about where I started and finished the night with 4 in a row.

Our team:
194 average (had a 629)
200 average (had a 574)
196 average (had a 518)
197 average (had a 523)
175 average (had a 503)

I was decent with my spares tonight and was pretty much on as far as hitting my marks. Probably one of my better nights as far as hitting my marks just couldn't get carries.

[boatman37]

Rough night for me but we bowled the 1st place team (we were in 2nd 2 games back). We won 2/3 (5 of 7 points) so we are now in 1st by ourselves. I was a little inconsistent with my mark tonight. Missed high quite a few times and got too far outside a few times too. Then early in game 3 was hitting slightly light but so close I didn't realize it until I started the game with corner pins the first 3 frames then after leaving a 9 realized I must have been too light. Moved 1/2 board left and was better but started missing to the outside. Switched to the BWG and got dialed in the last few frames until I blew the 10th. 3/4 on 7 pins tonight so an improvement there and the last 3 weeks I'm 8/11 (72.7%) on 7 pins so getting much better there.

I realized tonight my biggest issue is consistency. I hit my mark 2 or 3 frames in a row then miss high a couple then light a couple. I also still catch myself tugging the ball on spares alot, especially anything on the right side (6 and 10 pin). Been missing the 6 and 10 way too much.

[boatman37]

Much better night. Had a little trouble finding the pocket but figured it out early in game 2. Spare shooting was pretty good all night too. We won all 3 games tonight against the highest average team in the league. My teammate rolled his first ever 300 in the 2nd game. I ended with a 170, 200, and 200 again. I am getting more comfortable and more confident in my spare shots and it shows. My struggle tonight was game 1 with only 2 strikes and a few easy spares I missed.

[boatman37]

Talk about a change! When I quit bowling 16 years ago I had a 193 average and was about 7th highest in our league (quite a bit smaller than the league I'm in now though). I just looked and only counting bowlers with more than 21 games (the minimum required to hold a current average) and I am 63rd out of 89. I have a long way to go...lol. But I looked at my stats and I have been around 175 since my return last January and the last 4 weeks I'm averaging 185 and feel like I'm starting to get back on track.

[boatman37]

Well wasn't supposed to bowl tonight but our sub couldn't make it. It was the position round and we were 6 points up on the 2nd place team so only needed to win 1 game tonight. Lost game 1 but won game 2 so we sort of used game 3 as practice and were horrible. Lost that one by over 200....lol. was pretty consistent (184, 177, 172). I hit the pocket the first 9 frames of game 1 but only got 4 strikes. Played the 1st arrow and had no revs on the ball with it being that dry. The ball was just rolling into the pocket. Had better luck with the Black Widow Gold (started with the Kingpin). Tried moving into the 2nd arrow to get some oil but struggled to hit my mark.
I need to get better working the inside in the oil. My biggest issue is not getting the carries and not stringing strikes together. oh, and missing easy spares

[J Anderson]

Well wasn't supposed to bowl tonight but our sub couldn't make it. It was the position round and we were 6 points up on the 2nd place team so only needed to win 1 game tonight. Lost game 1 but won game 2 so we sort of used game 3 as practice and were horrible. Lost that one by over 200....lol. was pretty consistent (184, 177, 172). I hit the pocket the first 9 frames of game 1 but only got 4 strikes. Played the 1st arrow and had no revs on the ball with it being that dry. The ball was just rolling into the pocket. Had better luck with the Black Widow Gold (started with the Kingpin). Tried moving into the 2nd arrow to get some oil but struggled to hit my mark.
I need to get better working the inside in the oil. My biggest issue is not getting the carries and not stringing strikes together. oh, and missing easy spares

Did you jump from 1st arrow to second arrow, or did you just move toward it?

There’s no law (except maybe the law of poor eyesight) that says you have to use an arrow or a dot as a target.

[boatman37]

Did you jump from 1st arrow to second arrow, or did you just move toward it?

There’s no law (except maybe the law of poor eyesight) that says you have to use an arrow or a dot as a target.

I jumped straight to it. Just trying to get some oil and trying different things that I am normally afraid to try during games that count. We only needed to win 1 game last night to lock up 1st place in the first half. I had been hitting the 5-7 board the first game (trying for the 5 board) so had an idea what the 7 board would do already. I wanted to try the 3rd board too but couldn't get my speed down enough to get any bite. I'm a pretty low rev bowler with a pretty high speed so inside is usually pretty much a straight ball. Last night I wasn't getting any skid out on the 5 board so it was just rolling into the pocket. Figured finding some oil might help that. I need to polish my BWG. I hit it with 3000 CTD pad but no polish. It ended up working better but I think if it had been polished the 5 board might have worked better. Need to get a ball spinner...lol

[boatman37]

Sat out tonight to let our sub get some games in so practiced a few games. Wasn't concerned with scores but had a 175ish, 125ish, and a 197. Tried slowing down and according to the sensors I was at about 16.2 average MPH through the 3 games where I am normally about 17.7ish. I also tried different lines more inside. Still not much reaction. I'm a pretty low revver. Tried standing on about 30 and throwing across the middle arrow but the ball just slid right into the ditch. Tried it again with a little less speed and took out the 4-7. Come to the conclusion that just won't work for me...lol. Even tried tucking the pinky and tried not using the ring finger. Got more revs that way but not enough.

What seemed to help most was turning my hand slightly to the outside on release. My normal release I am almost directly behind the ball. Tried turning my hand a little, maybe halfway between straight behind the ball and all the way beside it. I did get more revs this way. I had tried this before but struggled with accuracy. Was a little better with it tonight.This was my 3rd game when I did this.

Tried something different for my target. I had always watched and targeted the arrows. A few times I tried targeting a mark about 3/4 of the way down. Seemed to help my accuracy.