Last Monday I bowled a 199, 142 and a 192. Yeah, I know, what happened the second game. Well the left lane was working okay for me for the most part. The right lane turned on me the second game. I didn't make a big enough adjustment to hit the pocket to get good frames of spares or strikes. I was making just one board adjustments which was no good and the lane let me know it with splits I couldn't pick up. The left lane let me get spares and the right lane let me get opens. I decided to make a one board left adjustment on the left lane which was a mistake. I got an open for it. Finally in the 9th frame I made a spare on the left and I made a 2 board adjustment left on the right lane and got a spare and then a 9 pin count on my last ball in the tenth to scratch out a 142. The difference in both lanes was 5 boards. The left I had the arch of my slide foot on board 25 and the right I was on board 19 and 20. After finally figuring things out for both lanes in the second game I bowled a 192 in my last game. What makes things more interesting for me is that the balls I use are a polyester and a urethane. If you have been bowling long enough then you know what these two balls do to the oil on the lanes. I am sure you know about oil push down then. As you get further and further into your three game set you have to be aware on how the balls are hitting the pocket because things will change on the lanes the longer you get into your three game set.

I used to just make adjustments going left or right on the approach to hit the pocket. Now I started going forward or back for adjustments after I go further into the three game set. I find that kind of adjustment works good for me also. The polyester ball and the urethane ball I use both get hit with a 400 grit surface. Both balls have some age on them but they still work for me. The polyester ball is a Columbia yellow dot that I bought in 1978. I think they called it a soft plastic ball back then. Hey, it still works for me so I can't complain. Depending what the lanes are giving me sometimes I use my Columbia ball as my first ball and sometimes my urethane Blue Hammer as my first ball. Sometimes that will change during my three games set. It is all about what the lanes are going to give you.