For me, it's always been about staying relaxed. It sounds overly simple, but if my armswing stays loose, I can hit what I'm looking at a lot more. And if I do that, good things happen. I'm not currently bowling on anything tougher than a second shift house shot, so I can't really tell you how well my game translates to a flatter pattern these days. My PBA regional days are behind me, but I might get a wild hair and bowl a senior regional one of these days. If I do, it had better be soon. At 51, I've already missed my first year of eligibility.

^
Good advice, thanks. For me personally my mental game is a work in progress and staying relaxed has been a struggle at times. I definitely get to anxious especially when the scoring pace is high, going into "OMG, I gotta string strikes" mode which usually leads to pulling shots, missing my target, etc. I do believe that bowling over the summer has helped me with this however because there's less pressure and it's more laid back.

Tonight I subbed in a league at a Brunswick Zone where I'll be bowling in the fall. Shot a disappointing 576 a few weeks ago and felt like the lanes were too dry. I hoped to redeem myself tonight and did with 266,215,237 for 718. Still, a bit disappointed because I felt a much higher set was attainable. Game 1 I had the front 7, then just got a little too much of it at the bottom in frame 8 leading to a 4-6 split, then struck out. I was really locked in and felt like that should have been a 300.

Game 2 I have a chance to go off the sheet for 248 and in the 10th I leave a ringing 7 pin. Whiffed it. 3rd game I had one shot that I got a little soft with and left a 6,8 split. Did end up with a six-pack to end it but despite a solid night those 3 frames stick out at me. Replace them all with 9/ and I'm over 750. If they're all strikes that gets me 800. I'm not going to be locked in like this every time so I feel like I didn't take full advantage when the lanes were this good to me.

On the other hand I came back from the disappointing 576 a few weeks back and threw the ball a lot better and felt more comfortable moving into the oil and swinging it out a bit (when I tried this before it resulted in a lot of flat 7s). So have to take the good with the bad and probably can't beat myself up over a few mistakes because I'm not practicing 100 games per week and doing this for a living or trying to turn pro any time soon, so not every shot is going to be perfect. Especially now when I am in the process of altering my game to get a little more rotation.

The staying relaxed part really affects me. As the team anchor, I know when we have already won or have no chance by the time I step up for the 10th. I throw some of my best shots during these times. I wish I could duplicate these carefree shots when things matter.

I'm thinking of making a suggestion to my league when it starts in September that we run a second league / prize fund based on all team total pin fall for the week.

How many times have you lost by a handful of pins and got very few points, my league score per man 1 pt each game, 1 pt overall pin fall, against your opposite number , then 2 pts for the team game and 2 pts for team series. We've had weeks scoring nothing when if we'd played anyone else we'd have had 20 pts . Trios league by the way just in case someone is trying to work it out.

Anyone have a similar set up.

Sorry intended to start a new thread