Well this past Monday saw me put things together finally and I ended up doing pretty well. I had been religiously practicing my hook release and I was finally starting to see dividends. For those that did not see I finally learned to throw a hook about a month ago with some coaching through the league I am doing now and it's been an uphill battle, but one I can finally see progress in.

We were in first place heading into the night, up 3 points in both the win and loss columns. We ended up splitting the points with a team who pre-bowled because of work obligations 2 and 2. We won 2 out of 3 games but lost out on total pins which was a bit disappointing. As for my own scores I bowled a 130, 142 and 158 and really for once started to feel comfortable with my hook. One thing I must say I got a very rude introduction to is reacting to lane conditions. I realize that this will come along as I get more comfortable with the new shot, but I was really struggling with it the first game as I had to rally to even salvage a 130.

I'm pleased with the progress I am making and I hope next week I can really turn the corner. We are still in 1st place and are bowling the now 2nd place team next week so we've got challenges ahead of us still. A good night and we can take a really solid hold on 1st for the rest of the season, and I hope to contribute to that.

Good work BSchaff. When I first started to bowl fingertip and get a hook going it was definitely a struggle to get any scores going but once I started to get used to it, the scores improved dramatically and my 140 average bowling a straight ball quickly headed into the 170s with a number of 200+ games. It was a very exciting time. The lanes were usually very consistent throughout the matches but then something changed and we found conditions changed markedly from week to week so figuring out how to deal with them became a priority and a big challenge. We also started to experience transitioning. That meant more learning but, eventually, we learnt how to adjust. These forums have been great for advice and information on how to make the changes and what to look for to try to pre-empt the transitions and keep a game together. Every week I continue to learn. The constant challenge is what keeps me going back, no matter how bad my form is or how horrible the lane conditions are. It looks like you are on the right Track and I look forward to following your progress.
Good luck and good bowling,
Allan

Well, this week we pre-bowled again. Happened to pick a night they had a packed house so we ended up bowling on the back-8, the oldest lanes in the house and notorious for their low scoring conditions. I felt pretty good about my game though, got a 158, 202, and a 165.. which is right around my average. The lanes were tough as usual and I was making adjustments until the 3rd game. I think my 3rd game got worse because I quit making adjustments, hoping to make my line work.

So.. anyways, I'm off to vacation all next week so won't be bowling. It'll be rough going almost 2 weeks without bowling. I'll be ready to go when I get back!

Well done and happy holiday! See you when you get back.
Allan

This week we took 5 out of 7 points, so we fell behind to the 2nd place again. This coming week is our last week and we have a position week, so we're going against the same team we played against the week before. Hopefully we can take 7 again and win the league.

5 out of 7 ain't bad all the same. Good luck for your next outing... go for it!

I'm back and decided to make a drastic change to my game. I'm no longer bowling with a wrist support (the one I used was a big support that covers the entire hand and nearly all the way to the elbow). I'll probably start or join another topic elsewhere about that, but anyways suffice it to say I feel like I'm learning a lot of things all over again.

My first league series since the change was last Saturday and I ended up bowling in the 150's, 160's and then last game just over 200 (202 I think). So at least my scores aren't going down drastically as I expected. We played the vacant spot and took all 4. With 5 weeks left in summer league we should be in position to play for one of the top spots (still lots of teams bunched together). I play in 2 winter leagues, one of which is starting in a week and a half, the other starts in a month. Can't wait to get back to bowling regular 2 nights a week with good bowlers. Enough of these non-competitive summer leagues.

Welcome back Tyveil. Not a lot has happened since you went on holiday but I guess we are all still bowling! My league experiences haven't been particularly noteworthy, still bowling under my average but at least I am getting closer! Only 4 pins down last week... about as good as it has been for many a week LOL. I have really been concentrating on getting some form back to go with a completely re-built game. In practice I have managed a few 200+ games which is quite encouraging.. I just need to put those together on league nite (tomorrow), so I'll let you know how it goes.
Cheers to all
Allan

Gah! Another league night when I should have stayed home! Didn't even make 400 for the series. Lanes were very tough again and quite different from last week and Sunday when I last practiced. To make matters worse, there was a wide "out of bounds" on the RHS of the lane which prevented me from getting a decent line. Basically, anything outside 10 went straight down the lane, board 10 was usable but only as a down and in shot and it was very speed sensitive. Inside of 10 was difficult as we actually had a little back-end reaction tonight. I got a lot of splits trying to find somewhere to go.. never did, so I tried to stay on 10 as best I could. Stayed after league for some practice with my son (also team member) and we both struggled for anything decent. He got a 201 and I managed a 170 before the lanes turned to mush.. after that, we both sat at around 140 for a couple of games before we gave up and went home. I guess my average will have lost another pin but it is so long since I was able to get near my average that I have stopped worrying about it. I consider a 150 game to be my equivalent of a 200 game right now. Only 20 weeks left and if my bowling (and the lanes) continue to be an issue, the end cannot come too soon. This year, bowling has not been fun at all.
I hope the rest of you are doing a lot better. Let us know.
Cheers,
Allan

Sorry to hear about your bad games Allan, at least you have plenty of time to come back (20 weeks is alot!)

I've been going through struggles myself. Last week I had a season low 119 game and barely broke 400 series. I know I'm going to have some troubles though with how much I've changed so I'm just going to try and stay positive and stick with it to give myself a chance to develop new (good) habits both muscle memory and mentally.

Our competitive Monday night league starts next week and I'm really excited about it. This year we have a reliable team of 5 bowlers and a sub where last year we went through 9 or so unreliable bowlers. I guess if I'm going to have bad nights the start of a new season is the time to do it.