Another week of Drug Trade wrapped up. Thats the name of the Monday mens' league I've been bowling in.

The first game was almost a clean 173. I fouled in the second frame that was a strike. I think I got up on the toe of my slide foot, lost my balance, which I can normally stay up but toppled over on to the lane. I was on a spare and only got 8 on the second shot. I was tentative on that lane for the next few shots thinking something might be on the approach. That same lane also started to hook more. I would mark from then on, just never doubling and several times getting a 7 or 8 count.

The second game was a 201 with two opens, a two pin the first frame and I clipped the 7 on the 4-7. I figured out the left lane with a little hand adjustment and tied some strikes together, of course the 4-7 and a spare broke them up. Those two shots just didn't come of my hand cleanly causing the ball to slightly miss left and hit high on the head pin.

The last game started out as a disaster, having one mark in the first 5 frames. I more than doubled my opens at that point. They included leaving the 1 out of the 1-2-10 washout, getting the 9 only from the 6-9, missing a 2 I believe and leaving the 5 from the 2-4-5. The backside of my hand was really hurting. It hurt to hold the towel to wipe my ball off much less put my hand in the ball and try to release it. I had a lot of weak hits from bailing out on the release. When I did get a more normal release the ball would run high. I did mark out from the sixth frame on to the tune of a 150 something while getting a few strikes, but never put any together. If I punched out in the tenth it would have been a 175 but I left a 4, picked it up then left it again on a different line. I think I might have finished in the 530s for the night but it might have been high 520s. If it wasn't for the pain at the beginning of the last game things could have been better.

Cal, just a thought. You have mentioned quite a few problems through the year, and they seem to have a recurring theme.
1. You have fouled, falling forward
2. You are missing spares to the left
3. You are not hitting your target
4. Ball not coming off cleanly

If I visualize these things, it seems you are leaning too far forward from the waist at the release. Could this be possible. Think on it.

At times the falling forward is me bending too far forward, other times its sticking or the rubber toe of my slide shoe catching. Most of the fouls weren't from falling but from sliding a bit too much, sometimes from having the wrong sole/heel combo. Sometimes the missing spares to the left is me actually pulling the ball down. The missing the target sometimes is due to the ball not coming of cleanly which is due to bad fitting balls. When I do get a proper slide things go better unless I completely screw up the swing.

Now on to my league night for tonight. Lets just say it wasn't good. My hand was still hurting, and my knee, Achilles tendon area and heel were sore on my slide foot. Then I had to hear on of my teammates complain about the center and then his little argument with his girlfriend who works at there and worked tonight. It was annoying me and I was having a hard enough time with repeating shots as it was. My scores ranged from a 150 something to a 170 something. We lost all 7 points, and was bowling against the highest average team in the league. When I executed the way I know I can, I was in the pocket and carrying, sometimes I didn't carry but would make the spare.

Hooray!! After what seems to be an eternity, we are finally in the upper half of the league. We hovered around 16-17 out of 20 for most of the year. But, for the last 2 months, we have not lost more than 1 game a night.
Tonight, we were up to 10, and bowled 9. Beat them all 7 points. In fact, we leapfrogged to 8th. If we only had 10 more weeks, we could have won this thing.
But, next week is the final position round.

As for me, I started Ok with a 221, followed with a 214 and a ball change to a less aggressive ball. Then all went haywire, and I couldn't carry anything. Finished with a 178 for a 613. I lost 2 games to my opponent, winning only the first game.

Boy, I thought it was going to be a bigger night than it ended up to be.

Finished up the fall league w/a bang.

We were on the last pair. Position round, needed to win 2 games and series to pull out of the basement. 16 always hooks a *ton*, and 15 is usually hooking more than normal. Last night was no exception. I started out on 29 aiming at 13 on the left lane with my Big One, and 34 over 14 on the right lane with my VP2. First game had a 228, the only open was a washout where the headpin went up and around the 10 on my spare attempt. Other than that, had a weak 10 from a pulled shot, a Randy-Pederson-8, and a bucket+7 on the fill. Game 2 I was in 2 and 1 from where I had started, got this one clean. 2-8 in the first, 10 pin in the 3rd, 3-6-9-10 in the 8th, and a 4 in the 9th for a 222. If that doesn't add up, I might not have struck out in the 10th. I was pretty sauced, so my record keeping wasn't the best. I ran into the ball return in the 10th on the right lane. Time to experiment. Started with my left leg on the return, taking a step left once I got to the end. It ended up working out of - I got within a board of my mark on every shot. Made a 4 and 2 adjustment on the left lane midgame - 4 pin in the 6th, something in the 7th that I didn't seem to write down. Standing up for the 10th, I drunkenly noticed that with 450 for the first 2, and sitting on a double with 177 in the 7th frame, I needed the first 2 to have my first sanctioned 700 (turns out I actually just needed the first one). Great shot, right over my mark, fists ready to pump, and... Ringing 10. 246 last game, 696 total.

Oh, and we got our 5 points. We may not have been the best, but we were not the worst!

Nice shooting. Don't worry, your 700 will come. There is no doubt.

Wow I cannot believe there is only 2 weeks left plus sweeps. Then 2 weeks off before the Summer League starts. I had a nice week last week so hope to build on that. I think we can still make the Top 10 out of 23 teams so that would be great.

Were in first two weeks agao but we droped 14 pts in two week. Look at the standing today we are in second and behind first place by 1 pts with 4 weeks we gotta start winning or we gonna drop fast 1st to 8th place is only seprated by 5 pts.

That's a lot of pressure Brandon. Good Luck and hopefully your team can come roaring back. It is fun when teams are close like that. It does make for a lot of pressure though.

Last week we swept the first place team who starting the night was 9 games in front of the 2nd place team is gave them a chance to have a shot at 1st place. You could tell they were feeling the pressure because all but the last game was close at the end but they came up with some ugly splits and missed some easy spares on the 10th frames. Our 3rd bowler has really been coming up big lately at the end of games. He used to get nervous in tight matches but at least 4 times in the past several weeks he has won games for us by getting some big doubles or spares in the 10th. I have joked that he is taking away all my fun.

Just stay loose and have a good time and hopefully you can bring home the trophy!!!

Scott this winter season much more closer than last season. Last season first place ran away with it and no one could catch them. If it gets any closer sweepers we might have to roll offs to find who takes the first through 8th.