Tonight was the first night on the new pattern.  We played on a modified TOC pattern.  It is 50 feet and, according to what I was told, about 1/2 the volume of oil of the actual TOC pattern.  I thought I had a couple possibilities in warm-ups.  One was the Whirl Wind inside at about 11 standing 18.  The other was the Gamebreaker more outside around 4/5 standing 12.  I decided to start with the Gamebreaker.

Within about 3 frames I couldn't get the ball to the headpin from outside or inside.  The only way to hit the headpin with the Gamebreaker was to go in to about 15/16 standing 23.  The problem was that resulted in 1 strike and several multipin spares to shoot at.  My spare shooting was horrible.  In the 7th frame I went to the Whirl Wind standing 20 targeting 10.  I finished with 3 marks and a 129.

Game 2 I continued with the Whirl Wind standing 20 targeting about 10.  I had much better results.  As the game progresses I got more comfortable and found I was rolling the ball much better.  I was more confident and my spare shooting improved.  I also recalled a conversation a month or so ago with a friend in the league.  The line I had been playing that day was not getting the ball to the pocket.  He told me to flatten the wrist and bring the thumb up a bit to get better forward roll and allow the ball to better read the lane.  It paid off.  I had 2 opens and a 176 game.

We moved a pair to the left and had to wait about 20 minutes for the opposition to finish their first 2 games.  I decided to play the same line I had for game 2.  I was successful, though I did have to make a few minor adjustments.  I had 2 opens in game 3 for a 179 and 2 opens in game 4 for a 172.

Despite being told this would be a tougher pattern, I shot my best set of the summer and improved my average 3 more pins to a 150.  What I did notice is not only did I roll the ball much better, but my ball speed was also higher.  Prior to this past winter my ball speed had always been in the 15 - 16.5 mph range.  Until tonight I was more in the 13.5 - 14.5 mph range.  I wasn't really paying attention, but I happened to look up sometime in game 3 and saw the first ball was recorded at 16.02.  I rolled for the spare and the speed was 16.32.  After that I checked every so often and the lowest was 15.05 and highest was 16.7. (The center has Quibica scoring units). 

I talked to my coach briefly after league and told him about the ball speed, he said that was good and off the hand it was probably around 17mph.  He also commented that the shots he saw looked really good.  That also felt good since I haven't received any feedback from him in quite some time.  I am feeling good about this pattern and look forward to next week.

Last night was our last Scorpion session and I can't say I am sad.  I never did get it figured out, but then neither did a lot of the league.  Scores were like roller coaster rides for many of us.  The highs and lows in no particular order.

I did learn to make some better adjustments and mae some equipment modifications that helped.  The cool thing is I came up with the ideas on changes and then confirmed them with my trusted friends.  I am starting to trust the knowledge I have aquired through my coach and coaching training classes.

I had reinforced last night the need to keep a proper perspective and positive attitude.  I started with 127.  I was not happy, but was not upset.  I told my teammate that it looked like a night to struggle to a 500 for 4.  He said I was on pace to break 500, I laughed and said barely.  He then said he was sure it would get better and I said I hoped so.  I just felt lost but was going to keep plugging away.  I also told him I was glad he was carrying the team - he shot 245 and we won the point.

After a ball change and line change I shot 178.  Now the conversation was about breaking 600.  He shot 240 and again we won the point.  We moved lanes and I shot 165 - 141.  He struggled on the new pair, but we did take the 3 points.  I shot 611, kept a good attitude, and the team won all 6 points for the night.  Overall a good night.

Over the 4 weeks I did make improvements and played the pattern a little better.  Week 1 I averaged 137 for the 4, I finished at 147 so a 10 pin improvement was good.  The frustrating part is this is the poorest start I've had in this league.  Next week we are playing on the TOC pattern slightly modified. 

The only not so bright spot of the summer is my sport league.  I love my team, 2 really great bowlers and a lot of fun to bowl with.  It is the pattern that is frustrating.  I am still not matching up consistently on the Scorpion.

The first week I tried playing inside, but was not scoring well at all.  I averaged something like 137 for the 4 games.  After league I tried a few different lines and found the best to be around 2 board with the Black Widdow at 2000.

Week 2 I played the 2 board and was more successful than week 1.  I was still inconsistent with the release and adjusting.  Again I practiced after league.  I was still convinced outside was the line.  I brought my average up to a 147.

Week 3 was a replay of week 1, sort of.  The outside line was not there and it took me too long to move far enough inside.  I did improve slightly each game with the last being my best for the night.  I only dropped 2 pins off the average.

I talked with one of my teammates after league while practicing and decided to try something next week.  After seeing the Black Widow not coming up, he suggested leaving it at 2000, but taking all polish off.  I also had the Whirl Wind cleaned.  I had removed all polish and took it to 1000 when we were playing on Viper in the winter.  I left it that way.

I look forward to league night.  It will be nice arriving well rested and refreshed after not having to wake up to an alarm.  I am also anxious to see how the Black Widow and Whirl Wind react on the pattern.  I will also be more willing to move into around 13 if needed and not waiting until game 4.

About three weeks ago we started our fourth round which also means a new pattern.  We went to the Viper.  It had been a rough day at work and then we find the team we are scheduled to bowl has 2 subs.  Both are higher ability than the original bowlers, which annoys me since we are the dead last place team.

I start the night bowling horribly, 124 game 1.  I remembered a coach once told me if lost and there is another lefty on the pair doing better, move to their line.  He said this because two things could happen, I might just find something that will work and if not using the same line might slow down the opponent.  The lefty on the other team outbowled me shooting out around 5, so I moved out there also.  It worked, I shot 171 to his 127.

After moving lanes for our next opponent, I stayed out at around 5 and shot 230 - 204.  I emailed my coach to let him know.  He congratulated me and shared he noticed a change.  He said he saw it at Harley's Camarrilo when I came back for the 2nd block and shot the 970.  He said that this set confirmed the change, as he said "In the not so long ago that 124 would have defined the night and you would have been 'done'."  He was right, once I acknowledged the fighter within, I have been able to handle the low games much better.

Just over a week ago I headed to Albuquerque to bowl Nationals.  This was the true test of the change.  My goal was to keep a good attitude no matter the scores.  I was successful, even bowling the 11:30PM squad.  The greatest challenge was keeping awake.  I shot a 221-127-145 in team, 194 - 157 - 167 Doubles, and 140 - 164 - 171.  I also bowled the BTM twice.  The first time, bowled the afternoon before D/S 145 - 156 - 153 - 177.  The 2nd time was the morning after D/S 145 - 145 - 145 - 151.  I had to laugh after the 3rd 145 and joked I was going for the quadruplicate.  I got a strike in the 10th and blew the chance of the 145 unless I got a total of 3 pins on two balls.  Anyhow, despite the scores, I kept trying and never gave up.  I have to say I was surprised to have shot my 3rd highest score at around 1:30 - 2 AM.

Tonight was the last night on the modified USBC Open shot.  The USBC Open Pattern had to be slightly modified to meet Sport Compliant regulations.  After tonights scores I finish this pattern with a 168 average, up 8 pins from book. 

I had a lesson with Juan this afternoon and it was a good one, more about that in my next blog.  We started off on lanes 13 -14.  I was clean for the first game.  Not a lot of strikes, but converted every spare.  The armswing was inline and the first step was moving the ball with the step.  All was good.  I was high for the pair with a 211.

Game 2 was not bad, but as with last week, the transition got me.  I still need to work on adjustments during transition.  I did manage to get over average witha 169.  A couple splits cost me precious pinfall.  But I'll settle for a 190 average for the first 2.

Our next two were on 17 - 18.  A totally different experience.  My Black Widow was showing an over/under reaction.  I tried different parts of the lane, but couldn't get a good read so in the bag went the Black Widow. 

I pulled out the Total NV.  It had a strong back end reaction.  Unfortuantely, it wasn't expected and resulted in 2 BIG splits, a 3-6-7-9 and a 6-7-8-10.  I came close to converting the 3-6-7-9, the 3 went just in front of the 7 and the 9 just behind it.  I drew the attention of bowlers on the lanes to either side of us.  I did convert the 1-3-6-7-10 washout, sending the 1 straight into the 7.  This was my low game of the night 158.

Game 4 was a little better.  I went to standing 21 targeting 10 out to abut 7/8 and letting the ball come back to the pocket.  It didn't last long, but got me a better start.  There was one other lefty on the pair who was trying all over the lane.  I don't think it helped me at all.  I was disappointed in the 10th frame.  1st ball was not bad, but left a 7.  No problem, I hadn't missed a lft side spare all night.  Too bad something went wrong.  I hit target, but the ball came up short.  So rather than a 170 something, I finished with a 161 and a 699 4 game series.

Next thing to work with Juan on is adjustments.