Melissa, most of us report the good with the bad scores. You are catching some on good days. Right now, I am about 15 pins under where I want to be. Struggling, but improving each week.

Breakout week starts tonight!!! Yeah.

You keep going, girl. Your scores will come. It's fun, isn't it?

I hear ya - I just want everyone to know I think they are doing great. Since I don't know what everyone usually bowls I think the scores I am seeing are wonderful - I also love seeing the improvements from each week based on changes, etc.

It wouldn't be any fun if we didn't have bad scores to report too - wouldn't have anything to talk about or improve upon. Ok, I don't know about it being fun to have bad scores, but I think you know what I am trying to say

Good luck and keep it going - I can't wait to read the improving updates this week. I think its great that what we each of us seem to be struggling with has a solution from someone who has been there, done that.

Fun? Sure is - I am having a blast and am glad I found this board

Hmmm, I have an idea for a new thread

I bowled more like myself on Wed night. I'm pretty happy with the results.

Game 1: 182
Game 2: 171
Game 3: 214
--------------
Series: 567

It's my second highest series of the season so far. Only my second 200 game this year for this league (compared to 8 in my Friday night league). Started with the Inferno again, and changed to the Monster Frenzy in the 2nd frame of the last game. Maybe I should have switched sooner. We won the last game by 99 pins, but we lost the first by 26 and the second by 164. Okay, so I wasn't going to bowl a 335 game, but...

Well, seriously; compared to how I'd been doing for the previous 2 weeks, I'm very happy with those scores. I missed only two spares that I thought I should have had, and I was much better on my left side spares than I had been of late. I feel like I've crawled out of a deep, dark hole.

In trying to solve the conundrum of why I'm 13 pins higher on Friday than Wednesday, I've noticed in going over my blog that it's been pretty hot in the center on Wednesday nights. The temperature is much better on Friday nights. Last night was no exception, and it didn't help that the ceiling fan above our lane wasn't working. At one point, our anchor bent down and put his face in front of the hand blower on the ball return just to cool down a bit.

Highlight of the night for me was striking out in the 10th frame of the last game, though it didn't look like it would happen at first. My first ball looked like it left a pocket 7-10 for a second, until both corner pins fell down together; same direction and at the same time, like an avant garde dance routine. My next 2 shots were a lot cleaner, thankfully.

That puts me back at a 180 average for Wed night. I still have a 193 average for Friday, as I missed last week due to a Halloween party that Christen and I went to. Tomorrow is position night for my Wed night league. Hopefully we can climb out of 4th place.

::Chants to self:: I love bowling, I love bowling, I love bowling. ::Ends chant::

Ok now that I've got the pep talk over, on to reporting on the torture, I mean bowling session. The set of lanes we bowled on were dry, all the others were regularly oiled. The one ball I had with me that could have worked, the Jazz, I was having issues with the grip, mainly the inserts feeling way too big and I just put in smaller inserts last week. The ball I wish I had with me but didn't because I need more inserts that are tighter to put in there is my Groove. I managed to salvage the first game with a turkey in frames 7, 8 and 9 by finding a line with my Absolute Inferno at that time. Straigher with little hand. Trying to throw that way a whole night is a big weak spot in my game. I rolled a 162 that game and thats the highest I was all night. Lost my line, couldn't get anything to work, rolled a 144 the second game. After trying some more stuff and trying to just throw hard and straight, I decided to try a house ball half way through the last game. If I could have found one that fit better I think I might have been able to manage a 160 or better than the measly 121 I bowled for a 427 set, by far my lowest of the new season. Others didn't have much trouble scoring, with one guy shooting a 702 on the other team but the left side is easier I say, lol. The ones that bowled good other than him have less revs when trying than I do when I try to back it down. We took 1 of 7 tonight and my average dropped 5 pins to a 175, what an anchor bowler, holding the team down. Maybe next week we will change the line up, then again with some confidence and atleast a bit of oil on the lane I know I can bowl alot better. Atleast I can count on oil on Saturdays, and then pre-existing carrydown.

Very spotty night for me tonight. I shot 170-135-222 on the PBA Viper pattern again. I honestly felt I threw the ball better the second game than I did the first. I've also been struggling with getting around the ball and I managed to keep that at bay for most of the 3rd game, which is why I scored much better. I've got to develop something that allows me to stay behind the ball and get away from fighting this every week.

Tonight was position rounds. We faced the team we were tied for 1st with. ... Not any more!! My team beat them 3 out of 4 and now we are sole owners of 1st place. Yesssss!

I didn't bowl because I need to give my injured middle finger a chance to heal. I pulled a tendon I think. But I went there to watch, carrying a tall glass of beer instead of a bowling ball.

My middle finger is a lot better than one week ago. I expect to be back in action next Tuesday night.

My Execution felt horrible last night. Ended up with a 510.

I get to a certain point moving inside, then I lose faith that I should be in there... "straighter is greater"... I always end up going back inside by the end and scoring well. Next week, I'm just going to stay inside and hook the whole lane. Need to get out to practice more - I miss my free practice from summer I can always get a deal when I go to that house, but nothing beats $0 per game.

Started with 203. A split and an open included. First ball was doing OK. Pulled both the split and the spare shot. Followed with a 222, again with a split. The ball was starting to be squirmish toward the end, so I decided to change balls. But, things were going OK since the problems I have been experiencing were for the most part gone.

Then It happened. My problems started in the first frame. Why, I don't know? Hand was behind my back, pulled the ball around on the downswing. Where did that come from, and all of a sudden. Split, split, spare, gutterball, as I tried to go inside and radically change my approach. I just sat in the back and went through all the things I did with my Coach, support the hand, straight pushoff, elbow in, straight armswing, concentrate on timing and extended release. Took 3 more frames to somewhat correct, and finally, on the very last ball I rolled a beautiful strike to finish with 129.

My team lost 2 of 3, including my 129 game by less than 10 pins.

Tuesday Night Update:

Well the knee did good til about the 5th frame of the first game...again!! It seems to be getting better as it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as Sunday was. On Vacation this week so I'll just take it REALLY easy the rest of the week.

First game I really like the lanes but I can't keep my shot on my mark and have to shoot ALOT of spares. I finish two pins under my average with a 172 and we LOSE by two. Imagine that!! I wasn't the only one not to get my average and I know it's a team game, plus the other teams captain had to strike out to when so I say GOOD JOB!

Second Game...MORE of the same, a few opens in a row and I finish with a nice 156. The whole team didn't get their average and we lose by about 40. I let the team know we can still come back to split the points on the night, we just have to put up a big number.

Well I finally show up in the last game and keep it in the pocket and I keep a clean game shooting 246. We win the last one by about 150 or so. So we ended up splitting.

Not bad, 574 series, I hit my two goals of 1 200 game and 550 series. I just really wish I would of showed up a little sooner. There is always next week.

Travis

Dennis,
I fully understand your dilemma. Its very frustrating. I followed a nice 240 game, with a 150 game. Everything felt great in the higher game, nice release,good ball reaction..very smooth. Then the next game its like I forgot everything. The following week a 227, followed by a a 133?? How does that happen? I have yet another appt. with my coach this weekend, hopefully we can figure it out. More than likely its something (like a timing issue) that just needs a little tweeking. The hard part is recognizing it during a match and fixing it before too much damage is done.