New best series tonight

[boatman37]

On the spare shooting I agree. Half the battle is figuring out a system that works for you. The other half is practicing enough that it becomes automatic. With some of the kids that I coach it drives me crazy. They will hit 5 or 6 ten pins in a row, dead center, and then completely whiff three or four. Also, with some of us, if we are getting a lot of strikes we start missing easy spares. Other times, like when it feels like you’re shooting your twentieth ten pin of the night and you’re only halfway through the second game you start missing them.

I doubt if you’re playing down to the competition. More likely it’s that the season has ceased being fun.

Sounds like the other team needs a talking to from the league officials. One bowler with 5 balls on the rack? Starting an approach before the other bowler has finished his shot? All five bowlers standing right behind the approach? I hope it’s a case of relative newbies who are more used to open bowling than league bowling. These are all pretty serious violations of lane courtesy. I know that right now both centers and leagues are wary of saying anything that might cause a bowler, or a team to quit, but if these guys act like this every week you’re going to have other teams dropping out because they don’ want to put up with this nonsense.

No these guys have been around for awhile. The 2 main culprits are in their 70's and have been league bowlers for years. But the V.P. is on that team. I get along great with him and most of his team. And for clarification, he didn't have all 5 balls on the upper rack. We have lower racks and he had a few there and then a few in ball cups on the floor behind the return. But after every shot it was like musical balls, shuffling them around and constantly wiping each one.

As far as my spares, I used to be a good spare shooter in my previous bowling life. Not so much strikes though. Now my strikes are much better but spares suffer

[boatman37]

A little better but not great. Bowled a top team (PSO and owner are on this team and like 4 of the top 6 or 7 average guys in the league are on this team). First game their scores were from 279 to 221. Yeah, their low game was 221. PSO shot a 752 and their other guys were 656, 657, 706, and 652...lol. We were getting 201 pins each game and they still crushed us all 3 games. Our series were 458, 310, 661, 586 (me), and 551.

So I wanted to focus on spares tonight and I definitely had my chances there since I didn't strike much...lol. Used the Uppercut the first 2.5 games and had issues with consistency. Moved in to about the 12-13 board and liked that line but I kept missing to the inside and going Brooklyn. 7th frame of game 3 switched to the Igniter and moved out to the 7 board and threw 5 of 6 strikes. Overall I was happy with my spare shooting even though I missed a few easy ones. Those were due to my inconsistency and not because I felt lost. Still not happy with my bowling but tonight was a little step in the right direction. Tournament this Sunday so wish me luck.

Tonight: 180, 192, 214 (586). Running average 190.5

[boatman37]

So tonight was a little better. Had a clean game and almost had 2. Strike ball was good too except the 1st game. That one was a struggle. I started with the Uppercut but couldn't hit my mark consistently. 1st game was a 169. 2nd game switched to the Igniter and moved out to the 7 board and that did the trick. 2nd game was 215 and would have been clean if I hadn't just missed the head pin on a 1-3-6. 3rd game was 237 clean. Even though game 1 was a struggle I'm still happy with the end result. Had a 621 and it was my first 600 since 2/23 (691). I did have a couple of 570's, 580's and 590's in there. We won 2 out of 3 against the 3rd place team too.

I think we only have 2 weeks left and I'm not bowling summer league so hope to make the most of the last 2 weeks

[boatman37]

Another decent night. Struggled a little in game 2. Spare shooting definitely getting better. 2 weeks in a row with a clean game and almost had 2 clean ones tonight.
Started with the Igniter playing up the 7 board. That worked for about 1.5 games but the left lane was much wetter than the right. Left lane was coming in light and right started coming in too high. Moved in to the 10 board and that worked for a few frames but still different reactions on each lane. Tried in at the 15 board but in the right lane the ball was still coming in too hard so midway through game 3 started using the Igniter in the right lane and the Uppercut in the left lane. 10th frame went ahead and used the Igniter in the wetter lane too and just adjusted a board left and got 2 strikes to start the 10th. Scores were 199, 167, 221 (587).

We bowled a decent team tonight and won game 1 by 45 pins but lost game 2 by 18 pins. Game 3 was tight but they pulled away in the 10th and won that one by about 40 so we got 2 of 7 points. Next week is position round and our last week. Not sure what all the other teams did yet but don't think we can get out of last place.

One teammate rolled a 620 (202 average). Another had a 513 (184 average). I was just about right on my average. Oddly I had 17 strikes but I had to work for all of them. Never found a good line with miss room. Got quite a few Brooklyns too but those were my fault. Had to keep my speed up on the right lane cause it was pretty dry.

EDIT: just looked at my stats from last night and I had 6 doubles but no turkeys. That just shows how hard strikes were last night

[boatman37]

Well standings are updated and we are 8 points below the next to last place team and we can only get 7 points a night so we are in last this 3rd also. Same as the last 3rd. I think we finished next to last the 1st 3rd. Oh well. Since we have 11 teams and next week is position round we basically have a bye next week and it doesn't matter how we do. But my plan is to try my best to get as high of a score as I can

[boatman37]

Finished the season last night. Went pretty good overall but missed a few spares that I shouldn't have. Happy with my adjustments though but wish I had figured it out a little sooner. Took me until close to the end of game 1 to figure it out. Couldn't find a good line/ball combo in warmups and went 3/3 on 7 pins in warmups. I never use the Uppercut out around the 7 board cause it is typically too dry there but tried that near the end of game 1 and that was the line. Had some miss room and as long as I kept my speed up it was good. But if I hit the 8 or 9 board it was going Brooklyn so needed to be closer the the 6-7 boards.

203, 214, 233 (650)

Spares missed were a couple of 7 pins that I dropped into the gutter 2 washouts, a 5-10 split, a 4 pin I missed to the inside, a 3-5 chop and a 4-7 that I missed into the gutter again. Should have covered at least 1/2 of those for an extra 30 or so pins.

On the adjustment note I started game 2 with the Igniter but it had very little angle to the pocket and left 3 corner pins in a row so I grabbed the Uppercut, which I knew would have a steeper entry angle and that fixed the corner pin issue.

Threw 21 strikes on the night so that was good and it was my best series since 2/23

[boatman37]

Felt good about my adjustments but missed too many easy spares. Strike ball was on point. More detail in the results thread.

198, 233, 191, 220 (842)

Started game 2 with the front 6 then a pocket 7 (covered) then a pocket 4-6-7-8 then a pocket 7-9. Switched back to the Igniter in 5th frame of game 4 after struggling the first 4 frames then threw 6 in a row after that