When your game goes bad do you tend to blame yourself or your equipment(Balls,shoes etc.)?

You left out the lane conditions. There are times when equipment(if I had only brought my shiny ball with me), lanes (the machine brokedown and the lanes weren't stripped in days) and myself (boy am I stupid for not trying the deep inside line) have taken their fare share of the blame for poor scores. So how would you have me vote?

Usually if I struggle, it's because I had a hard time adjusting to the condition. And that is usually dry lanes. I have improved a lot in that area though. The more oil that's on the lanes, the better I bowl. It plays right into my A game: shot making abilty and accuracy. No spray and pray.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">Originally posted by Just call me Al:
You left out the lane conditions. There are times when equipment(if I had only brought my shiny ball with me), lanes (the machine brokedown and the lanes weren't stripped in days) and myself (boy am I stupid for not trying the deep inside line) have taken their fare share of the blame for poor scores. So how would you have me vote? </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">Guess we could classify lanes as equipment for this poll.Guess I try to blame everything but myself even if I know it's me.

It can be both. There are days when you just are not executing well. Then there are days, like Al says, where the conditions are just not condusive to high scores no matter how well you throw the ball. It helps to put those times in perspective. But I've found that for every condition you personally struggle on, its someone else's A game condition. I love dry lanes for example. Lets me move inside where I prefer to play, rather then off the 5 board in the flood I normally see.


Erin

It's always my fault when I bowl bad. I don't recall every blaming the lanes, or my equipment, for my failures. That includes not having the right ball with me for the condition. It's still my fault, not the balls'

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">Originally posted by bimmerman:
It's always my fault when I bowl bad. I don't recall every blaming the lanes, or my equipment, for my failures. That includes not having the right ball with me for the condition. It's still my fault, not the balls' </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">Thats what I do I blame myself for not reacting to the lanes or not adjusting fast enuff. But 1 thing I do is blame the ball alot and I found that if I'm blaming the ball for not gripping or not sliding I eather scuff it or polish it and I'm back on game so sometimes it is the equipment no matter how much you adjust or move your marks. If I have to move my marks or myself around too much then I go to adjusting the balls reaction with eather polish or scuff and get back to throwing my normal ball and it usually works for me.I'm just trying to see who is harder on themselves than the equipment when sometimes it is the equipment.

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">Originally posted by Putz:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">Originally posted by bimmerman:
It's always my fault when I bowl bad. I don't recall every blaming the lanes, or my equipment, for my failures. That includes not having the right ball with me for the condition. It's still my fault, not the balls' </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">But 1 thing I do is blame the ball alot and I found that if I'm blaming the ball for not gripping or not sliding I eather scuff it or polish it and I'm back on game so sometimes it is the equipment no matter how much you adjust or move your marks. If I have to move my marks or myself around too much then I go to adjusting the balls reaction with eather polish or scuff and get back to throwing my normal ball and it usually works for me. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="VERDANA,ARIAL,HELVETICA,TAHOMA">Remember, if you are in a USBC sanctioned competition, you can't change the ball surface by scuffung or sanding.

It's always me, even if conditions change, it's still me, either I make the wrong adjustment, or decide on the wrong equipment for the condition, or I'm just not executing properly, but it will always be me.

I always blame myself. I figure no matter what equipment I'm using, no matter what the lane conditions are, if you're a bowler you should know those two things.

I blame myself to a fault. There are times when I've been neating myself up trying to figure out what I was doing wrong, only to later discover it wasn't me.

Prime example: I redrilled a bunch of equipment with a shorter span and different thumb pitches. After doing this, I can't get the ball to react as well on the back end. I'm certian it's me and I'm not getting out of the ball right.

Later in the night I look at my Track and notice that it's lower (which I didn't even consider before) and I realize that I need to stop fighting the shot and move straighter. I do this and start stringing strikes.

It also turns out that there was something wrong with the oil machine for several weeks and it wasn't stripping properly as well, so both of those things led to me playing about 6 boards straigher than I normally did on that shot.

But I was certian it was me..

It's almost always me making a physical or mental mistake. I don't believe in blaming the lanes or equipment for me bowling bad. I either was making a serious physical mistake the whole evening or made a bad choice on how to play the lanes.

Every time I try to blame the lanes some idiot on my league scores a 700 series!!! The nerve!!!