The lane conditions broke down to the point a pearl would come in handy depending on the line and the amount of revs you have. The original cell will get the most use followed by the cell pearl depending on if it has too much back end, then the paradigm will probably fit the bill and good idea for the spare ball. Good Luck Mike let us know how you do.

Gotta agree with Jim. The lane conditions were really weak, especially for Doubles and Singles, where they do not oil between the earlier Team squad and yours. The back ends, I found, were really wicked, and snapped. I spent the whole time fighting to keep off the head. 15 splits tells my story.

But, enjoy your time.

BTW, Blackjack was beri, beri gut to me.

Thanks for the info and suggestions! I have one more day or work to get through then early to bed as the flight leaves at 730am. I just want to make a decent showing. Try to stay away from splits and missed 10 pins, cover easy spares and do the simple things to earn decent scores. I'm not a fan of traveling but this time I'm definitely excited to be a part of it. I wont be bringing my laptop but expect pics and a full report on how good.....or bad I did lol

This is why you have to learn to be nice to the ball, and let it just roll off your hand, any kind of "Grip it and Rip it" will make the ball over react and be near uncontrollable.

The heads during D/S started to get really fried. Something drilled pin up, pearl, and polished should work well.

Unless you get saddled with the very first squad of the day, or nobody bowled team the squad before your D/S squad. That makes things a little more interesting, or so I've heard. One of these years I might actually get to bowl the Nationals.

My team gets saddled with the 7am sunday morning squad every year, and it's fresh oil, but they never seem to have as much as they do for team, this year was no exception and the heads were drying out by the third game of doubles.

A pin up pearl and some side rotation, without grabbing it of course, would open the shot up. Increasing the speed also worked, but required an aggressive ball to keep it from snapping too hard on the back. Staying with a ball like the cell and just increasing the ball speed by holding the ball higher and letting the ball drop into the swing instead of throwing the ball harder (hooks too early), should work if you are comfortable playing straight.

http://www.bowl.com/articleView.aspx?i=15732&f=1

Greg Bollinger of Plainville, IL and P.J. Massey of St. Joseph, MO had known each other for years, but Massey had no idea Bollinger was bowling in his team squad until Bollinger completed his team event with a 300 game. By fate, Massey would finish his own 300 two minutes later.

http://www.bowl.com/articleView.aspx?i=15745&f=1

Frankie Colon of San Juan, PR, a member of Puerto Rico's national team, recorded the 33rd 300 game of the tournament in his second game of singles yesterday. His doubles partner happened to be Kim Terrell-Kearney, last year's US Women's Open champion and a member of the Team USA squad for the World Women's Championships at the Cashman Center later this month.

I'm back and it was an experience. They set up the Cashman Center very nice and had some good deals on equipment if you wanted to drag it back home. I went with my Cell, Cell Pearl and XXXL. In practice the guy in front of me left nothing but splits to shoot at so I didnt have much to go on except it was no house shot. I promptly started with a split but then settled down. Half way through I was clean and left a solid 10 pin and wiffed by a hair and then tugged a little left for a game ending split. I rolled 179-236-232=647. The last 2 games were completely clean. I played a deeper line with the Cell. It was more aggressive than I wanted but the Cell Pearl gave me a severe over/under reaction if you missed by a board or two. This was on fresh oil as was doubles and singles.

The next day wasn't as good. What worked the day before did not work at all this day. If you played left the ball would snap away from Brooklyn if you were a hair slow. If you were fast it would push right through the out of bounds and leave ugly wash outs and I had a pair of gutters on the day. The first game was MISERABLE, split city. I rolled 137-235-168 for a 540 series. Game 2 was clean and I had a 5 bagger in there. Game 3 I couldnt carry a double to save my life.

Singles wasn't great but wasn't bad. We moved to the lanes where the other people from my bowling alley were playing and we got what they broke in. Again it seemed like a severe under over reaction no matter what ball I rolled. What margin of error you have in league it's a lot less on these conditions. I rolled 164-190-217 playing up against the ball return. Game 2 was clean minus a gutter ball on a spare and a split in the 10th. Game 3 was clean.

All In all the 137 game was unacceptable. The 164-168-179 were so-so and the rest I was happy with. I ended up with 1758 all events which is 195 average I believe. For my first time at Nationals I think it was an OK outing with a large room for improvement. I got a ton of pictures and we got the team video which is so-so quality. It was definitely a great trip, the Bellagio was top notch as was the food they served in the buffet. The heat was more than I liked as were the relentess guys handing out "cards" (some women too). Over all it was a great experience. The next 2 years Nationals is in Reno, I dont think I'll be there for it but when it returns to Vegas chances are I'll be there to improve upon this outing or try my best.