I find most of my issues this year have been with trying to improve and rarely lane conditions. This time last year I was lighting the lanes up rarely dropping below 640 much less 600, hitting 700 once and flirting with it numerous other times. My armswing was nowhere near textbook. It was completely muscled, my elbow was normally bent close to 90 degrees...you get the point. Over the last summer after I realized some of this I worked to fix it straightening the arm and making it a lot freer and now with a few other improvements I need to do as well as refine the previous stuff my scores have suffered a bit. Hopefully this time next season, or all of next season my reports will be better and I'll be bowling good enough to enter some brackets and make a little money.

That seems like a lot of work, Cal. Congrats for sticking with it for an entire season.

Thanks, its still a work in progress and hopefully when I get my equipment re-drilled to a slightly shorter span and a more forward pitch on the thumb the swing will be a lot freer.

Cal,
Yeah i think when you learn something new than you were doing before you bound to fault in the beginning and then gradually improve. So you probally be back in the 600+ brackets soon. Just keep plugging away.

This time last year i was struggling it was my first season in league since i was a junior and left the game for 10 years. I had many things i needed to improve on and used the summer and part of first part of this season to work on it. Last month it been comming together more than ever.

Dennis I fall into the same trap. When the lanes break down I dont always change balls to compensate. I'll fight it and I get what I deserve. Same goes for playing a shot on oil I like but isn't there. When you force it instead of playing what's given you'll see all kinds of crooked numbers.

Mike, we had oil tonight, and everything was better. But first, I have to say.....

CUBS WIN!! CUBS WIN!! Their 10,000th victory over their history. Back to Bowling.

Tonight, I started with 237, but lost to me man who had a 276. Our team lost too.

Followed that with a 214. Beat my man, and we won that game.

Ended with 191. Missed a 6 pin for my first open frame in the 5th, and followed with a pocket 7-10. Really disturbing. Lost to my man but we won that game too.
We don't bowl head to head in this league, but since I do it in the other league, I have enjoyed the added pressure. So, I just pick the top bowler on the opponent, and bowl against his score.

We finished in third place overall, 3 points out of first. 642 series in the final night, but I still finished 12 pins under last year's high average. The bad start to the season really killed me. but, I finished strong, and I will pace myself over the Summer to start fresh in the Fall. Sweepers next week.

Well, I got to bowl last night. It was the last night of league and my team needed a sub. I just had 4 of my balls redrilled. My span was 3/8" too short. Now I am 4 13/16" by 5". My finger pitches are 0. My thumb is 3/8" reverse up from 5/8" reverse. I also got rid of the finger grips. Now, my fingers are right on the ball. Let me tell you, I had had grips for almost 20 years. There is a HUGE difference. I knew that I used to hit up on the ball. I never knew how much until last night.

First game, I shot 203 clean. I was having a hard time getting a consistent release. I was still digging my fingers in the same way I did when I had the grips. In the second game, I shot 220 with 2 opens. I left a 3-6-7-10 split when I switched balls and then I missed a 6 pin because of poor footwork. By the third game, I was getting my release right and was able to throw the ball a little more consistently. I shot 188 clean. My 2 lowest games were clean and my highest I had 2 opens. Oh well.

I think that in the short term, going to no grips in going to lower my average some. I don't have the miss area that I used to because I can't get the revs on the ball without hitting up on the ball (when I do that, I hurt my fingers). But, I found that without hitting up on the ball, I am much more accurate. I just need to develop confidence in my new release and then work on getting revs back the right way.

Going to no grips is just the first part of my overall plan. Over the next year or so, I think that I am going to go down to 15 pounds. I have had a shoulder problem since I was in HS and they won't do surgery on it. Going down a little in weight I think will help some of the soreness I get after bowling a lot of games. If I went straight to 15 now, I would really hit up on it. Now that I can't, I can develop revs the right way with 16 pound equipment and then move down to 15 to gain back some that I lost when I was using the grips.

Solid night tonight.

Shot 231-183-195 for a 609 series.

First game was clean, 3rd game was clean. Only one open frame, went wide in game 2, left the 4-5-8 and chopped out the 4-5

100% on 10-pins, which is big for me, and overall really solid on spares.

We managed to sweep all 9 points, which is big since next week is the final week of the season.

Not very good night. I just had too many opens to recover from and just didnt perform.

Game 1 - I had absolute no carry. Tried adjusting move left light moved right ringing 10 pin. Argh Ended up with a 166. 7 Spares 1 Strike 2 opens.

Game 2 - Much better moved my target a couple board to left much better carry but again those opens killed me tonight. 6 Strikes 1 Spare 3 Opens for 176.

Game 3 - Much better only 1 open. 5 Strikes, 5 Spares, and 1 open for 193.

So 166-176-193 = 535 Not very good night. Could of been better i need to work on those spares get more consistent with it there killing me. Im average 2 opens per game if i could reduce that i might be averaging in the 190's.

Team wise oh my last two weeks we lost a total of 14 pts. Were holding 1 st by 4 points. This not the time for us to faulter the last couple of weeks. Next week need to try to win at least a game or two.

I had my best series in 6 months. We were bowling the top team and took all 4 to boot. Too late to win but still 2 weeks to try to get more above .500 and maybe in the Top 10.

I shot 167, 189, 192 for a 548. Not really spectacular but way better than I have been. I was really rolling and following through and manage to move when my shot broke down which was good. 5 splits and a handful of easy spare misses set me back a bit but a very steady night 20 pins above my average so I am very happy with that.