The pattern changed in my Sport League.  Monday was week 2 on the modified Cheetah pattern, similar to the one used for Junior Gold.  It is 35 feet of oil which is the same length as the last pattern we had for the winter.  I averaged 10 - 12 pins lower than on any of the other 3 patterns.  I wasn't thrilled when I heard, until I realized it would give me a chance to practice projecting the ball left and trusting it to come back.

Week 1, I died.  A couple of reasons for it. One is we had our prewinter meeting and it caused the league to start late which meant finishing late.  That and the fact projecting the ball is a definite weakness for me.  On a positive, I did not let it get to me.  Instead I kept a positive attitude and worked on executint good shots.  Unfortunately, I just did not match up 127-159-147-118=551.  It was 10:30 by the time we got to game 4 and that is when we are usually finishing.  I suddenly felt exhausted.

Week 2 on the pattern was better.  I stared off projecting the ball from 12 out to 9 and it was coming back.  The problem is my lack of confidence in the shot and it cost me to be inconsistent.  I did shoot a 151.

I made a comment about not being able to play a more down and in shot.  One of the guys on the pair next to us said you could.  I asked how, explaining I tried in practice and everything hooked too much.  He said to keep it out by the gutter.

I decided to give it a try and found it worked.  I had to modify my wrist position and keep the ball speed up, but when it didn't strike it generally left makable spares.  I shot 166 game 2. 

We moved to our next pair and I was still able to use 3-5 board.  I did need to slow the ball down slightly or it over hooked.  I finishd the night 187 - 155 and a 659.  I feel confident I will do much better on this pattern than I did on the similar one this past winter.