In his post, Luksa made the point that you don't have to have perfect Execution to bowl well and I confess that there was some strange happenings going on with some of the bowler's approaches and releases. There were two-handed bowlers, bowlers with backswings that extended staight up to the 12 o'clock position, you name it, but the one thing that I consistently noticed was that, no matter what style of Execution was used, the Execution was repetitive and consistent.

I followed Walter Ray for the most part while I was there and his Execution looked like one of those video clips set on continous loop. I couldn't tell any deviation in his approach, swing or release, even his line. I'm sure that he may have made minor changes of hand, speed and target area, but it was hard to see with the naked eye. Every match I saw, he rolled over the 5 board, give or take a board whether he was bowling on the short (34ft.) or the long (43ft.) pattern. I think that the most important thing that I learned from watching Walter Ray, other than his Execution, was that his equipment matched the lanes and his style of bowling. He didn't try to make major adjustments with equipment that didn't fit the conditions. Walter Ray had some difficulty at the beginning of the tournament. He and Chris Barnes didn't bowl very well during the doubles competition and the first day of triples, but over the course of the tournament, Walter was able to figure out the patterns and by the latter half of the tournament, singles and masters competition, he was all set. During the masters competition, they alternated bowling games on the short and long patterns. From what I could see, and I was standing right behind him, he pretty much through the same line, but alternated between balls. He basically either rolled the MoRich NSane LVG/RG and I believe it was the Solid LVG/RG. I watched Walter bowled this way during the first match of the masters tournament against Rhino Page. Walter just plugged along using the outside line, switching balls every other game, basically just keeping it simple. On the other hand, Rhino would bowl the outside line on one lane then switch balls and roll inside out on the other, I think, adding a level of difficulty to the equation.

In addition to the above, I took from this event a little better understanding of lane patterns, I studied closely the different release styles, and matching your equipment to the conditions and be prepared to change quickly if your initial plan is not working. Even though Walter Ray continued to use the outside line, I noticed that during the practice session prior to each match, he would pull out additional balls and roll different lines to see the reaction of the balls.

Pattayadavid