New high series tonight!!! (my new thread to highlight the 'new' me....lol)

[boatman37]

657!!! A little more oil out there tonight. 3 600's in a row after only have 3 in the first 48 weeks since I came back. This year after 9 weeks I have 3 600's. My secret? Getting a little more consistent on my release after tweaking it a little and making better adjustments. Spare shooting has been better too.
So in the last 5 weeks my average is 198.26 and the last 3 weeks it is 207.66. Had a rough week in there (508).

So my progression lately has been start with the Squatch out around 7-8 board with pinky tight to ring finger. Towards the end of game 1 it starts coming in a little light so I tuck the pinky to get a little more rotation. That usually works until near end of game 2. At that point I either move in to the oil or change to my Black Widow Gold. Tonight I used the Squatch all night and stayed around the 7-8 board all night. Only adjustments was tucking the pinky and a little more speed in the 3rd game. Probably should have moved in in game 3 but I had been doing so good out there that I was reluctant to make that big of a move.

Tonight we bowled the 1st place team. Their averages are 213, 198, 218, 212, and 174. Ours were 177, 196, 181, 183, and 183. I had 2nd high series tonight with a 657. The guy on the other team with a 218 average had a 687. He was the only one that beat me tonight on our pair. I still missed too many spares tonight that I shouldn't have. Misses 2 of 3 7 pins, missed an 8 pin and missed a 4-7. Should have made every one of those. That would have been an extra 40-45 pins to my series.

Next week we bowl the PSO's team (owner of the center is on that team too and they are in 2nd place with a team average of 205).

So after 3 good weeks in a row (and 4 of 5) hoping I finally got this figured out. My average with the Squatch is at 198.26. The ball helped but the changes I made are the biggest reason. I am now consistent with my spares meaning I stand in the same place and target the same spot every time now. Until a few weeks ago for the 7 pin I pretty much picked a a spot each time I went up. Now I have more of a system. I have a spot for the 7 and anything on the left side I work from that spot. Right side I work from my strike ball spot.

[p0ppyman]

Congratulations!

[bowl1820]

Good shooting Boatman!

[bubba809]

Great bowling Boatman!

[Mikeab07]

Congrats, great shooting!

[vdubtx]

Congrats!

[boatman37]

Thanks guys. Learned alot of what I did from everyone here too. Back in my previous bowling life you bought whatever ball you thought looked best and used it for 10 years. And you only had to bring that 1 ball with you every week....lol

[RobLV1]

At the risk of being accused of throwing cold water on the situation, if you hadn't missed four easy, makable spares, you would've shot 702! Strikes come and go from week to week, and from pair to pair. Spares save the bacon each and every time!

[boatman37]

At the risk of being accused of throwing cold water on the situation, if you hadn't missed four easy, makable spares, you would've shot 702! Strikes come and go from week to week, and from pair to pair. Spares save the bacon each and every time!

Yep. Frustrated about that. Last week my spare shooting was excellent. Last night I missed the 8 pin inside. I moved over 2.5 boards right but missed my mark inside. Missed the pin by about 1 inch. The 2 7's I missed I just barely missed inside. One had to have brushed it it was that close. The other was about 2 inches away. The 4-7 was just a bad shot. It went into the gutter about 10' before the pins. Just another bad shot. Last week I was 7/7 on 7 pins. I used my Squatch for the 8 pin but my Rhino for the others. I think it was more mental errors than anything. And believe me, I figured it out last night that I would have had at least a 690 if I had picked those up. But gotta say my spare shooting is much better than it was 2 months ago but still have some work to do.

On another note, scores were down last night. PSO shot a high series at 759, next was 687, 683, then a few others. I had 7th highest series of about 80 bowlers. We normally have about 5 700's each week. I did have high handicap series by 9 pins over the PSO...lol.

Talked to the PSO about teammates ball and struggles before we started and he said with everyone using sanded balls with high revs you need to move into the oil and if you aren't willing to do that then you will struggle. One of the top bowlers said last night that the heads are holding up okay but the mids are shot after the 1st game.

[boatman37]

Well spare shooting was tough tonight but luckily my strike ball was working well enough again. Missed easy spares. 3 7 pins, a 5 pin, and an 8 pin. Hard to believe. But was 7/7 on multi pin spares. Makes no sense. Definitely mental if I can make multi pin spares and miss the easy single pin spares.
So went up against the owner and PSO's team. The PSO rolled a 300/823 and 2 of their other guys rolled a 769 and 705. I was high series on our team again. 11 of my last 13 games are over 200 and my last 8 are over 200. 4 600's in a row so definitely improving. Average the last 4 weeks is 206.75. Average is up to 188.90.

Lanes were a little more oily tonight than lately, which was good as they have been dry. Used the Squatch pearl all night until 9th frame of game 3. Should have switched earlier but was stubborn about it. Used the Black Widow Gold the last 4 balls (9th and 10th). Threw 4 pocket strikes with it. I started game 3 with 2 pocket 7's so moved in a little to try to find oil. First ball I tugged and went across the head pin. Tried adjusting playing more inside but struggled to hit the pocket so went back outside and tried a little more speed. Couldn't get any consistency so 9th frame grabbed the BWG out of the bag. It goes a little more downlane than the Squatch so thought it might be a better choice for those conditions. 4 balls and 4 pocket strikes to finish with a 200. Rolled a 612. If I had covered those easy spares (at least 4 of the 5) I would have been over 650 again.

Oh, and threw a gutter in game 2 but it was after an open and I converted it for the spare so minimized the damage there. Just got a little too far outside and it didn't come back.

Last 4 weeks:
10/29 - 211, 201, 200 - 612
10/22 - 221, 236, 200 - 657
10/15 - 177, 200, 225 - 602
10/8 - 204, 213, 193 - 610