OK so I bowled my first tournament today...it was a complete disaster. Practice went good nice and relaxed, found my line and the ball that worked the best, started bowling and everything went south. Long story short it never came back. I only hit my average 1 out of 3 games. I guess my question is how do you shake off the nerves before a tournament, and how do you mentally come back?

I wouldn't call it a complete disaster. Chalk it up to a learning experience. Hopefully you learned what not to do on that shot and the next time you face it you'll have the knowledge of what doesn't work. Hopefully, as well, you found inklings of what might've worked.

The only way to come back is to just bowl again. Like riding a bike; if you fall, you have to get back on it and keep pedaling until you stay upright. Not everyone goes into a tournament and bowls lights out the first time out, so take solace in that.

Even during your leagues, you don't always bowl well every night, right? And you even know the shot, er, well, at least have an idea of what the shot is and when to move. You probably faced a foreign shot with no idea of its breakdown tendencies or how the oil migrates. This is where learning to read your ball reaction becomes a great asset.

Now, when you bowl in league next time, focus on reading your ball reaction in relation to how you're throwing it. Since you already have an idea what your ball should do, you've already taken out one variable of the equation. Use your leagues for tournament practice.

Experience. Unfortuately they do not bottle it. You have to distill your own and it takes time.

Erin

OK, so its not my first tournament and its not my worst tournament showing, but I've got to share.

City Open, yesterday there was one squad, and we had a team shoot one game (4 man team) 1062. They were all fantastic bowlers, but on their pair 257 was low. So its a house shot. One 300 game (not on the aforementioned pair). We are anticipating high scores for the tournament.

Today they have two squads an 11:00 and 3:00. They re-oil for the second squad but only oil about to the splice beyond the arrows. No stripping. And this action is debated in the tournament committee room. So they oil, but don't strip for the 3:00 squad I'm on. I have never bowled at this house, even though its within out association. Its a good 45 min away from home. So I have no pre conceived notions about it. Our second division team is bowling with a first division team. 4 man they come in at 908. These are good bowlers. The house shot apparently is NOT over 10 board or right of 10 board because that's very oily. All players on our pair experienced the out of bounds and no one shot over 210 that first game. I was in the 150s. Now you have to take into account that the team we were bowling with had all 220+ bowlers and one 240 bowler.

The house shot was not 10 board for this day! So we moved in. And I followed the better bowlers. Like following an 18 wheeler in a snow storm on the highway, I put my ball wherever they put theirs. I just moved my feet accordingly to play where they were. Which put my ball about 14. Mind you the pocket is at 17 or 18 so that's only 3 boards of hook.

Second game I shot 215, which was high on my team. Next game we had some social confrontation, which distracted everyone. And violated USBC rule 17b. I was way inside along with most everyone else on our pair. While the rest of the house didn't seem to be playing this line at all. Even the 908 team wondered why their pair was playing so differently. Though they played it magnificiently. Third game I got bit by the typical splits playing inside gives me. That being the 5,7 (which I picked up), the 8, 10 and the 4, 5. So I had a 193 the third game. This took me way out of the brackets, due to the 150 game. Plus everyone on our pair was out of the competition. None of the bowlers on the 908 team shot their avearge.

This is a house shot! And only one person on our pair shot their average and we had 6 out of 8 players over 200 average. No honor scores today at all, in either squad. It was a house shot. For those that think a house shot is too easy, I'd like to see you cash on this.

OH well, its another day of bowling. We have doubles/singles next weekend at another house. Another day.

Erin

PS Leanne Barrett was using the new Total NV. She shot 783 in team (yesterday), just missing the special Ebonite award for anyone shooting 800 in sanctioned play with the new Total NV. I'm hoping in her doubles/singles house (where she bowls the Steve Cook Classic league) she'll hit 800 and get the award.

Rule 17b is about as vague a rule as I've ever known, Erin. Pardon my nosiness, but what happened?

I liked your "following an 18 wheeler in a snowstorm" analogy. I do that sometimes myself. Start tailgating other bowlers and let them plow you a way on the nasty conditions. This is a good lesson for anyone out there bowling in leagues or tournaments.

Sounds to me like the house you were bowling in wasn't being too fair to everyone. Don't you have the right to appeal the results citing non uniform lane conditions? I can't remember if that was a rule or not.

I really hate when tournaments do stuff like that. If you're going to reoil, strip and oil everything. You can't have different shots for different squads. My bet is that the morning squad had a lot more hook than you did, and I'm betting that the condition that the big game was shot on was more playable than what you bowled on.

Can you imagine the people wanting to increase ball speed on another thread, bowling on your lanes? Speed is not what it's cracked up to be. I think people confuse speed with revs.

Nice bowling, under less than desirable conditions. What ball did you use for the slick conditions?

Sounds like you had an adventure, Erin...but I know you came out of it good. If nothing else, with a little more knowledge and experience.

I'm still in the market for a Paradigm Passion (for heavy oil), for just the sort of shot you talked about. I haven't really faced heavy oil in a long time, but I know when I start going out of state to bowl again I'm going to face those typse of shots.

I don't know what they'll do at Team USA this year, but I've already heard the shot will be challenging. So I gotta be ready for that.

Nah, it was fine. Got to play a different part of the lane anyways.

You know not every lane is going to have the same play/pattern to it anyway. It was just kind of wierd that we watched and worked the one squad yesterday and our squad's pair played totally different then everyone else was playing the entire house yesterday.

Erin