What can you say about Nationals other then its an experience.

I've bowled it now a few times and its always a struggle. This year was especially difficult. I'm not sure what they did to the shot, but it was not like it had been in previous years. Of course there's never a set rule that the shot is going to be the shot year after year. But for the last few years I've shot an unforgiving inside shot with lots of backends. I have been always proud that I could eek out enough $$s for dinner, but not much more. :-)

This year was different. The shot was different, for me at least, and much more demanding then it has been (even though that was plenty hard). Scores were down by all of whom I was familiar with. In the past I didn't really have a hard time getting to the pocket, this year I did. You know its going to be a sensitive shot, but I just wasn't finding much out there. Especially the first day. They were not oiling between squads (didn't they used to do that?) and we bowled at 2:30pm. The condition was very flat and long, hardly any backends until you crossed over the 20 board (right handers). Getting up to the pocket was difficult and creating enough angle to not leave those pocket splits was even more difficult. As we finished, a doubles/singles squad came on and I know they didn't get fresh oil either.

Then this morning we bowled doubles/singles at 7am, which means that we were there at 6am. Now just to let you know, its still dark at 6am!!! Normally I'm still well tucked into bed, not even thinking of getting up at that hour. This was an espcially difficult time for me to get up enough energy to move much less bowl. Add to that the fact that its difficult to find any food at that hour (before 6am) so that you can make it through the next hour before squad time and the 6 games. We had gone with a group, so I was not privy to the time set ups. Only hope was that with fresh oil there'd be a little bit better shot....WRONG! Plus they changed the practise rule from two balls on each lane per bowler to one ball on each lane per bowler. Nor did they oil when the next squad came down directly on our heels. All I can say is that the shot was very difficult on fresh oil and even more so afterwards.

So it was a struggle, more then it has been in the past. No money coming my way at all this year. But I did meet a fellow board member; Mike. We chatted briefly during team when he put 2 and 2 together looking at the names on the score boards....I know it couldn't have been any scoring that tipped him off. LOL

For those still going I leave you with a couple tips. Bring something sanded and early rolling. There is no skid/snap unless you have tons of hand and "turtle" speed for ball speed. If you have one of those really early times, store up some rolls or something to eat the night before. Its mandatory to have your team photo taken so do that as soon as your team is together to beat the rush. Your balls will be weighed out for legal specs, so don't be surprised if they need to punch a hole in your favorite ball to make it legal.

Take it easy and good bowling everyone.

Erin

Ouch, sounds like brutal lane conditions this year. Sorry you didn't cash, but thanks for sharing the experience and letting everyone know what to expect if they are bowling Nationals this year.

Erin, you say what??
"Bring something sanded and early rolling."

And, I just bought a new ball, Storm Shift, to bring with. I guess, I also bring my TS&A.

Thanks for the info. I'll be there the last weekend in April. When is anyone else going?

I will be there May 17 to 22.

I get there early to bowl the Bowlers Journal and Bowling This Month tournaments. Erin, did you bowl in either of these, if so what was the shot like this year.

From reading the oil pattern from the website, the shot is about 3 feet longer and the oil went from 50 units to 70 units, so about 40% more oil than last year at the Nats.

As of now I will be bringing my:
Total Shock and Awe sanded to 600 for heavy oil hard arc fresh oil doesn't over/under much.

Big One Medium heavy oil snappy back end for when I need more recovery from the ball (carry down)

Epic Battle heavy oil tame arcy back end for lanes with snapping backends

Solid Cobalt Bomb medium heavy oil hard arc back end Good benchmark ball I can go more hook or less hook from this one and it reads the lanes well.

Total NV long and strong, cuts through oil and pins great for opening up a shot to the outside (will probably ship this one and not use it, but if the shot is there I will be glad I have it).

Cobalt bomb medium oil, long and arcy for when the lanes go through a rough transition, this ball always seems to find the pocket.

Spare ball, don't leave home without it.

My wife will be bowling June 22-24 and then we'll be heading to the Bowl Expo in Las Vegas soon after that. Any of you guys who'll be out there for either or both, let me know. I'm not bowling, of course, so I can afford to "chit-chat" and observe.

This explains the difference. Thanks Jim.

I didn't bowl in any other tournaments. I'm expecting to bowl in the SP tournament in May. But as for recent ones, no, didn't bowl.

I understand that Harrahs and Peppermill might have better rates if you have their discount cards. We stayed at the Silver Legacy for $49/night. This year, the stadium was charging for parking. $8/day. Plus I did not notice the flood of service vans from various hotels in the area like I have in the past. So you might want to look into that aspect of your trip.

Erin

The lane condition on bowl.com looks harder this year. The main reason I bought my Special Agent was for Reno. Now I know that I will need it. The not oiling stinks. They have been getting trying to get people to get done quicker so I can see eliminating 1 ball but it doesn't do much with the time.

Even though the specs say they oiled at certain times, like before team event, we had people waiting for us to march down the middle of the house and they say there was no oiling. Now if they had hours (1+) before our squad then maybe. But since in both our team and doubles/singles they had the next squad literally breathing down our necks to get off the lanes, its hard to believe.

What I can say is that if we got used oil during Team, it didn't matter. Because when we bowled at 7am the next day for doubles/singles, it was still very tough and not all that much different. I bowled better in doubles/singles, but I think that was more in account that I'd put the 3 games of team under my belt. Same goes for the 1 vs 2 balls practise. It don't matter. And it won't matter.

What I did notice is that it was harder to get to the pocket. And I left more multi pin spares which were harder to pick up. That lead to a lack of spares on my part which of course brought down my scores. In addition I had a lot more splits. So when you do miss inside you will leave a split, unless you miss so much that you go totally Brooklyn then you can count yourself lucky. But if you have too shallow a pocket entry you will leave the pocket splits like the 5,7, the 4, 5, and I left the 9, 10. Add those to the ones where you slightly tugged the ball and I had a lot more splits this year then in years past.

Of course the left side had more backends. Once the ball hit the 20 ball it was off and running. Though it was not as dramatic as in years past. Still I have to say that again at the stadium, the lefties have a distinct advantage.

They were pushing for everyone to get done faster. In doubles/singles we had two people per lane. And they expected us off the lanes in 2.5 hours for 6 games. That's fast. Its so fast, in fact, that one of our senior bowlers could not finish and left the stadium with chest pains and lack of breath. He is in good health, so ongoing issues. I'm fairly young and that pace was pushing me. My breath was fine but my legs were feeling it. And the next squad was moving their equipment onto our lanes before we were finished. And the rest of the house was practicing as the lane became available. I don't really understand all the rush. I paid $150 (plus travel) to bowl, knowing that at 210 I had next to no chance to get in the money. I was not the only one. If you are 190 - 220, in the upper division and not able to get into the senior brackets you are pretty much Screwed. You're only chance is to get into the senior brackets. And there were a lot of us there, paying our money. Its not right to be pushed so much off the lanes.

Erin

Exactly the reason why I choose not to bowl. I don't like being rushed. I'd like to believe that I maintain a reasonable pace. I'm not going to waste $150 for someone to tell me to hurry. It's not worth it.

Reminds me of.....

This is the first year that I noticed being pushed so much. I don't remember doing doubles/singles with only two per lane before. I could be wrong though, most of the time I try to push that experience from my mind.

Erin

A guy from my town lead the 1st place team with a 700. His nickname is "Deep" so I guess that explains why he found a way to score on this. But even then, the first place score is 3,218. It's got to be pretty tough if that's all a team has been able to put up.

It sounds like it's one of those conditions where either you're on, or you focus on enjoying the rest of your trip.

Here's the point though. 5 man team you cannot go below 900. So the closer your team is to 900 the less chance they have to score. Scratch tournamant and very difficult conditions.

There's a big difference between a team like ours (209, 205, 205, 206, 189) at 1014 then a team that comes in at 1100+. And there are teams that come in at much higher then that. Now you can all say that you need to get higher average bowlers on your team. But, we already have 4 out of 5 that are over 200. Granted not much so, but we are over the cap to get into the lower division. In order for those that are averaging 210 to 190 to compete they'd have to be put with teams where the other bowlers are far exceeding 220. We know we are low to the cut off, but its really hard to put together a team that has 5 220+ bowlers. But for those that do, we are cannon fodder. Yet we entered as an Association team.

My point is that for the 190 to 215 bowler, there are little to no touranment events where you have much of a chance. Not in a handicap and not in a scratch event. Especially when you are given pro conditions, because we all know we are NOT pros.

Make sure when you enter a tournament that if there is a cap on averages, that your team is at the top of the cap but NEVER at the bottom of the cap.

Erin

If you shot over t2700, d1100, s560 and ae1700 you will probably cash. Most go to the Nats for the fun and experience more than to win.

Just because you average 220+ doesn't mean you will bowl well at the Nationals, I watched a guy with a 236 average toss three 120 games.

The low guy on my team averages 185 to 195 in league, and he shot 750 in singles two years ago and after bowling at the Nats for almost 30 years he has a 190+ average there, so averages don'e mean much on sport conditions.

I go to Nationals as a weekend away with my friends and to bowl a few games. I normally do okay. I get a couple bucks back per year. Not enough to cover what I pay out but I still have a blast.

The reason I think that they are going to rush people more this year is because of Vegas in 2009. They want to see if they can get one more squad cause they are going to get TONS of entries for Vegas. At least, that is what I think is the reason.

As for scoring and cashing. If you have 5 200 bowlers, I am guessing that all of them have had times when they can average 225+ on a given night. Conversly, if you have a team of 225 bowlers, there are nights when they average 175. It is just how hot you are when you get there. Tough conditions are part of tourny play. Last year, I was low man on my team with a 206 average. We shot 2815 last year. For a team that averaged over 1080, that stinks. But, what can you do. Go, bowl your games, have fun. That is the reason I bowl the Petersen. The lane conditions are really not conditions. It is just where the mop hits. But, I bowl with a bunch of my friends and make a day of it. It is good to get humbled every once in a while.

All of this is of course true. But I think at the level I'm at and the age I'm at, its not going to get much better. And I don't expect to win, but I would like to win maybe $20 or so. The numbers you suggest for a low to cash, we were not even close. And the worse part is that thinking back on the conditions, there is nothing I could have done to do better. You know how on some nights you look back and think that you should have tried this, or that or used that ball. Well there's nothing I could have, would have done differently. And we didn't do that poorly within our group either.

I guess the cost of the trip, even though I was local, outweighed the "experience". Which is why I only can participate when its within driving distance. Because we had a 7am squad time, the night before we were in bed by 8-9pm. We had bowled at 2:30 that day, basically finished bowling, got dinner then went to bed. Then got up at 4:45. After the morning squad we went directly home. We both have to work this morning. And we could not afford the hotel rooms in Reno during the weekend. Had we been in a non local town, I know we'd have not had much energy after bowling doubles/singles that early to do much of anything the rest of the day.

Oh well, its another year come and gone.

Erin

The tough condition comments are very true. Last year, I bowled between two bowlers. One shot 130. The other shot 280. And, they were both 220 averages. It's a matter of which bowler can adapt to the conditions given. The one who fights it, loses.

The team event is tough because all 5 have to click at the same time. Last year, my partner and I left with 1152, 7th at the time. And cashed in 75th place at the end. Singles was better for each of us but not in top 100. AE, we didn't come close.

Just goes to show that not all 220 average bowlers are created equal .

The conditions are tough to be sure. But I also noticed that they were more score condusive if you had slower ball speed i.e. rev dominant player.

Erin

Lefty,
Didn't want to build your ego, but the 130 was right handed. The 280 obviously had an easier shot being left handed.

My ego is well in check. I'd probably be more likely to shoot the 130 than the 280 anyway

The one thing that I learned after going a couple of times was to not go in expecting to average 240. If you do that, you are going to be disappointed.

I am having a terrible time booking a flight home from Reno to Chicago. Because of our squad time, I can only take late afternoon flights on Sunday, and most are coupled with an over-night stay for a connection the next morning. The problem is my wife has to be at work Monday am. I guess she will leave early Sunday, while I stay to Monday to come home.

Headed there 2 weeks from today.

Not expecting much since I haven't been bowling well lately and my average has dropped a few pins steadily this season.

But I'm looking forward to some time away and to travelling, I have pretty much never been out West.

Sounds like fun the nationals. I will have to try to bowl one -- one of these years. Though since my first season back from bowling not at that level as of yet.

I know it is like a cattle car, but check southwest. They were the cheapest by far for me and they worked with my schedule. Since you are north, it may be a bit far to get to Midway. Just a thought.......

... and I love Southwest because I live so close to Midway that I could walk if I had to. No complaints about Southwest. The attendants are always friendly, and most seem to honestly be having a good time. I like the kind of atmosphere they create, and the price sure is right.

Well I love Reno. It is the Biggest Little Town in the World. But I even like the surrounding towns like Sparks. Most of the major hotels will have views of the surrounding sierras. If you have a car you can visit Lake Tahoe or Carson City. There's endless variations for dinner and in the casinos all at a very good price. If you go during the week, the table minimums are low.

Erin

I have been to Reno twice (both for bowling) and to Vegas twice. I am not that big of a gambler but I enjoy sitting down and playing some blackjack. There are tons of things to do in Reno. If you have an AAA membership, you can get a guidebook to the area. Or, since this is the computer age, get online and take a look at all of things to do. Like Erin said, if you have a car, it greatly increases the things that you can do. I normally travel to Nationals with 4 teams except for Reno. 2 of the teams like going in March so they can go to Tahoe to ski. My wife gives me a hard time every year that I go to Nationals because I never bowl all that well. But, it is my weekend away with my friends where I can act like an idiot and have a blast. Last year in Corups Christi, we went to a dog Track for a day. I had never been before and I really enjoyed myself.