Not comfortable all in the sudden

[Phonetek]

Last night was the goofery league at work. Half the teams didn't show up which wasn't a big shock. We ended up bowling against nobody. I did fine but not great, more normal than Monday anyway. All 3 games were 200+, average 206. Certainly no wow factor and I consider it luck. Even at work I've noticed that suddenly I have lost confidence in my throw. I keep "Playing it safe" using a less angular more straight down and in line. I can't tell if I'm throwing it too hard or what I'm doing. When I miss to the right it just seems to twirl down the lane and doesn't snap back like it normally does and keeps going. Then sometimes if I miss right it snaps back far too much goes Brooklin and zooms right past the headpin. If I miss left then forget it, it's long gone. I'll looking at a 5 count unless I get lucky and mix up a mess to leave a lucky 9 count ending up having the headpin as a spare shot. It's not at all consistent. I don't know what is going on but I don't like it.

A month ago I was killing it every time I hit the lanes and brimming with confidence. Now I can't repeat a throw, I can't string strikes. It's just a mess. What happened to me?

[mc_runner]

Try to post your shot - hold your finishing postion - while the ball travels down the lane. If you can focus on doing this and wont' fall off balance, typically it will "fix" whatever else is going on with your approach.

Being able to post your shot and get the timing back in play will hopefully get you that confidence back - that way, you'll know you're making good throws without forcing anything - and get ahead of the laneplay

[Phonetek]

Try to post your shot - hold your finishing postion - while the ball travels down the lane. If you can focus on doing this and wont' fall off balance, typically it will "fix" whatever else is going on with your approach.

Being able to post your shot and get the timing back in play will hopefully get you that confidence back - that way, you'll know you're making good throws without forcing anything - and get ahead of the laneplay

I'm holding my finish position and posting just fine. I'm just flat out missing a lot. I don't seem to know what to expect shot to shot

[RobLV1]

I have a hunch that you are coming over the top of the ball in an effort to "make" it hook. This causes the ball to spin, rather than roll, which causes it to react inconsistently to the lane. Just roll the ball rather than try to throw it. The strings of strikes will come back if you let them, rather than trying to make them.

[JasonNJ]

How long have you had your bowling ball now? Have you de-oiled or resurfaced them since you got them? That happened to me when I got into bowling 5 years ago, I had an Ebonite Pursuit-S which I loved then after about 90 games, I just couldn't carry and the ball reaction was terrible. At first I thought it was me and struggled for about 6 weeks, finally decided to de-oil the ball and bam my ball reaction was back.

[Phonetek]

It's a Hammer Rip'd and it's got around 25 games on it now. I never EVER use it at work on the THS because that's not what I bought it for, Sport is. I wipe it after every shot and clean it after I'm done and again before I start just to be anal. Put it in a ball oven for 20 mins, cleaned it and had surface refreshed to 1000 grit before last Monday. I appreciate the suggestion but I think the others are right, it was all me. I can't blame the ball this time. Monday is soon to come again I get another shot at it, all I can do is try my best however it turns out.

[JerseyJim]

We all go through stretches like this. Last season, I had a stretch where I had 5 straight series of 600+. I kept the ball in play, didn't string a lot of strikes, but I made most of my spares. After that I just went into a spiral. I was missing spares by a whisker, and I had stretches where I couldn't find the pocket. Usually I fight my way through it by just keeping it simple.

[boatman37]

Well I had a night like that last night. Hurt my knee in warmups and after that I was out to lunch. Knee quit hurting after a few frames but I lost confidence and missed everything I threw at. Had a 136, 169, 156/461. Went into the night with a 189 average and missed more spares than I made.