Pruezy11881 wrote:Just completed the semi finals of the Erie Times News Open. It's our prestigious tournament in the county. We bowl 10 games of qualifying over 2 days at one house, and cut to the top 32. The following weekend is 6 more games at a different house to cut to the top 16. Those who make the finals will bowl 16 match play games over two days and two different houses to determine the champion.
I made the biggest move of the day. Started 27th @ +94 and managed to go open-open for a 177 in game one which dropped me down to 29th. Oil carried down a bit and Axiom Solid wasn't cutting it anymore. Next game, moved a bit right, balled up to the Nova, and really didn't move much the rest of the day. Ended up +121 on the day for 6 games and +215 on the tournament and moved up to 13th to make the finals this weekend.
Pruezy11881 wrote:Just completed the semi finals of the Erie Times News Open. It's our prestigious tournament in the county. We bowl 10 games of qualifying over 2 days at one house, and cut to the top 32. The following weekend is 6 more games at a different house to cut to the top 16. Those who make the finals will bowl 16 match play games over two days and two different houses to determine the champion.
I made the biggest move of the day. Started 27th @ +94 and managed to go open-open for a 177 in game one which dropped me down to 29th. Oil carried down a bit and Axiom Solid wasn't cutting it anymore. Next game, moved a bit right, balled up to the Nova, and really didn't move much the rest of the day. Ended up +121 on the day for 6 games and +215 on the tournament and moved up to 13th to make the finals this weekend.
Pruezy11881 wrote:Just completed the semi finals of the Erie Times News Open. It's our prestigious tournament in the county. We bowl 10 games of qualifying over 2 days at one house, and cut to the top 32. The following weekend is 6 more games at a different house to cut to the top 16. Those who make the finals will bowl 16 match play games over two days and two different houses to determine the champion.
I made the biggest move of the day. Started 27th @ +94 and managed to go open-open for a 177 in game one which dropped me down to 29th. Oil carried down a bit and Axiom Solid wasn't cutting it anymore. Next game, moved a bit right, balled up to the Nova, and really didn't move much the rest of the day. Ended up +121 on the day for 6 games and +215 on the tournament and moved up to 13th to make the finals this weekend.
Congrats and Good luck this weekend!
Awesome job! Good luck this weekend!!
Well...Saturday didn't quite go as planned. I knew that it wasn't going to be a house shot and wasn't supposed to be ****-show hard, but for the first 2-3 games about 80% of the field was throwing high flaring urethane balls (purple Hammer or the UC3). Little did they understand that by game 5 it was going to be so hard to consistently play the shot. When a former touring pro says that they got f*cking hard, he's not wrong. The breakpoints we inconsistent as was general overall ball reaction. If you did get to the pocket the balls weren't driving as hard as the could have to get the corners out regularly. And we were bowling on Twisters so that also brings in a different element for the day. I only had 3 of 8 games of 200 and went 4-4 in match play on the day and sat at 13th after the first day.
Sunday was a different house and different pattern. There was almost no urethanes going down the lane which was nice. What helped me a lot was that there were quite a few guys that don't like to move from their normal comfortable area on the approach and at the arrows. Pattern was telling them to get 2-6 at the breakpoint and start yourself outside 10 at the arrows. Only like 3 or 4 guys did that all day. I didn't have to alter anything from the 2 board area I stood all day. Made a nice run to finish the overall after going 6-2 for Sunday and 10-6 overall to finish in 6th place. You'd think if guys are scoring and moving up the standings that you'd try to emulate what they were doing....oh well. I'll take the increased pay day.
BTW, the Storm Nova is a pretty good piece. Put an actual 3K finish on it and that ball has been money for me in this tournament.
Nice Pruezy and very impressive. I only bowled on non-house oil a couple times and could do basically nothing. I did bowl well over my average again tonight. 179-226-225 Might be because I had my ball baked to get the oil out. They said there was a lot of oil in it.
offsides wrote:Nice Pruezy and very impressive. I only bowled on non-house oil a couple times and could do basically nothing. I did bowl well over my average again tonight. 179-226-225 Might be because I had my ball baked to get the oil out. They said there was a lot of oil in it.
I bowled in a ball league a few years ago that was a sport shot league. A few weeks of a short pattern, a few weeks of a long pattern, and a few weeks of a complex middle pattern. Unfortunately it was right in the middle of my 2 year bowling slump so I did awful. Would love to do something like that again now that I've got my game going back in the right direction.
Pruezy11881 wrote:Just completed the semi finals of the Erie Times News Open. It's our prestigious tournament in the county. We bowl 10 games of qualifying over 2 days at one house, and cut to the top 32. The following weekend is 6 more games at a different house to cut to the top 16. Those who make the finals will bowl 16 match play games over two days and two different houses to determine the champion.
I made the biggest move of the day. Started 27th @ +94 and managed to go open-open for a 177 in game one which dropped me down to 29th. Oil carried down a bit and Axiom Solid wasn't cutting it anymore. Next game, moved a bit right, balled up to the Nova, and really didn't move much the rest of the day. Ended up +121 on the day for 6 games and +215 on the tournament and moved up to 13th to make the finals this weekend.
Congrats and Good luck this weekend!
Awesome job! Good luck this weekend!!
Well...Saturday didn't quite go as planned. I knew that it wasn't going to be a house shot and wasn't supposed to be **** hard, but for the first 2-3 games about 80% of the field was throwing high flaring urethane balls (purple Hammer or the UC3). Little did they understand that by game 5 it was going to be so hard to consistently play the shot. When a former touring pro says that they got f*cking hard, he's not wrong. The breakpoints we inconsistent as was general overall ball reaction. If you did get to the pocket the balls weren't driving as hard as the could have to get the corners out regularly. And we were bowling on Twisters so that also brings in a different element for the day. I only had 3 of 8 games of 200 and went 4-4 in match play on the day and sat at 13th after the first day.
Sunday was a different house and different pattern. There was almost no urethanes going down the lane which was nice. What helped me a lot was that there were quite a few guys that don't like to move from their normal comfortable area on the approach and at the arrows. Pattern was telling them to get 2-6 at the breakpoint and start yourself outside 10 at the arrows. Only like 3 or 4 guys did that all day. I didn't have to alter anything from the 2 board area I stood all day. Made a nice run to finish the overall after going 6-2 for Sunday and 10-6 overall to finish in 6th place. You'd think if guys are scoring and moving up the standings that you'd try to emulate what they were doing....oh well. I'll take the increased pay day.
BTW, the Storm Nova is a pretty good piece. Put an actual 3K finish on it and that ball has been money for me in this tournament.
I've had a few guys in past weeks all throwing urethane and it just kills the shot. I use a Pitch Black as my spare ball for 10 pins and a few others, but very rare that I am using that for anything other than spares. UC3 is becoming popular, and the Hammer Black Widow Hammer urethane comes out at the end of this month, so I expect to see those start flooding the lanes.
I also see a ton of guys in my leagues these days that can bowl great, put up 200s early on...but they are area bowlers and cannot or do not understand adjusting at all. They just crank the bowl at the same spot all night long.
Was overdue for a good night tonight, and although it didn't start off great, still managed to bring my average back up 2 pins to 174 with a 606 series. 164-195-247. First game, a lot of people on our set were struggling with the right lane. Our team as a whole had a horrible first game, 1057 handicap game for a 5 man team. I switched from my Reality to my UC2 for the first half of game 2 and also slowed my speed down a bit, which was better but still not striking with pocket hits. Switched back to the Reality to finish strong in Game 2, and then game 3, opened frame 1 missing my mark on a baby split and leaving both pins, solid 10 pin spare frame 2, 5 bagger, another 10 pin in the 8th, then struck out the 9th and 10th. Definitely shocked to pull a 606 series after that first game start.
Hoping by the end of the year I can get back to 180 average, which is right about where I was before going into this 2 year slump.
Bowled OK last week. 179.33 avg, 5 pins above my current 174 avg. One of those nights where scores should have been better than what I ended up with (or is that every night). 178-197-163. First game, I missed a 10 pin in the 9th, or I would have had another 197 game. Was clean up until that point.
2nd game really no complaints, although I missed another 10 pin and chopped a 2 pin leave, but the turkey to start made up for it.
Last game, I threw 163. Missed my 3rd 10 pin of the night. 3 10 pin leaves, and missed all of them. Not sure why, but I get in ruts where I'm either really on the 10 pin, or horrible. Easy to tell what stage I am at right now. Not a lot of strikes, although at one point I threw what I thought were the 3 best balls of the night off my hand, and none of them struck even though they all nailed the pocket.
Over the last 7 weeks, though, I've only had 2 nights under my average. Over those 7 weeks, moved my average from 168 to 174. I'll be happy if I can finish the season at 178-180, which would put me back where I was 2-3 years ago.
FLPensFan wrote:Bowled OK last week. 179.33 avg, 5 pins above my current 174 avg. One of those nights where scores should have been better than what I ended up with (or is that every night). 178-197-163. First game, I missed a 10 pin in the 9th, or I would have had another 197 game. Was clean up until that point.
2nd game really no complaints, although I missed another 10 pin and chopped a 2 pin leave, but the turkey to start made up for it.
Last game, I threw 163. Missed my 3rd 10 pin of the night. 3 10 pin leaves, and missed all of them. Not sure why, but I get in ruts where I'm either really on the 10 pin, or horrible. Easy to tell what stage I am at right now. Not a lot of strikes, although at one point I threw what I thought were the 3 best balls of the night off my hand, and none of them struck even though they all nailed the pocket.
Over the last 7 weeks, though, I've only had 2 nights under my average. Over those 7 weeks, moved my average from 168 to 174. I'll be happy if I can finish the season at 178-180, which would put me back where I was 2-3 years ago.
How do you attack your 10 pin leaves...regular ball or spare ball? Come up the back of the ball or pull your ring finger out to drop lift out of the ball? What part of the lane do you start?
FLPensFan wrote:Bowled OK last week. 179.33 avg, 5 pins above my current 174 avg. One of those nights where scores should have been better than what I ended up with (or is that every night). 178-197-163. First game, I missed a 10 pin in the 9th, or I would have had another 197 game. Was clean up until that point.
2nd game really no complaints, although I missed another 10 pin and chopped a 2 pin leave, but the turkey to start made up for it.
Last game, I threw 163. Missed my 3rd 10 pin of the night. 3 10 pin leaves, and missed all of them. Not sure why, but I get in ruts where I'm either really on the 10 pin, or horrible. Easy to tell what stage I am at right now. Not a lot of strikes, although at one point I threw what I thought were the 3 best balls of the night off my hand, and none of them struck even though they all nailed the pocket.
Over the last 7 weeks, though, I've only had 2 nights under my average. Over those 7 weeks, moved my average from 168 to 174. I'll be happy if I can finish the season at 178-180, which would put me back where I was 2-3 years ago.
How do you attack your 10 pin leaves...regular ball or spare ball? Come up the back of the ball or pull your ring finger out to drop lift out of the ball? What part of the lane do you start?
I have a Pitch Black that I use as my "spare ball." It is drilled with the pin to be non-aggressive. It will still give some hook, though. Stand all the way to the left on the last dot, aiming for center arrow on the lanes. Probably just need to throw it a little flatter, but as someone that struggles with consistency, always a bit worried to throw flatter and not carry over bad habits to my first ball.
Usually, when I am in a rut like now, it's either just falling off the deck to the right and missing the pin, or it's hooking away and missing the 10 by 1-2 inches at most.
FLPensFan wrote:Bowled OK last week. 179.33 avg, 5 pins above my current 174 avg. One of those nights where scores should have been better than what I ended up with (or is that every night). 178-197-163. First game, I missed a 10 pin in the 9th, or I would have had another 197 game. Was clean up until that point.
2nd game really no complaints, although I missed another 10 pin and chopped a 2 pin leave, but the turkey to start made up for it.
Last game, I threw 163. Missed my 3rd 10 pin of the night. 3 10 pin leaves, and missed all of them. Not sure why, but I get in ruts where I'm either really on the 10 pin, or horrible. Easy to tell what stage I am at right now. Not a lot of strikes, although at one point I threw what I thought were the 3 best balls of the night off my hand, and none of them struck even though they all nailed the pocket.
Over the last 7 weeks, though, I've only had 2 nights under my average. Over those 7 weeks, moved my average from 168 to 174. I'll be happy if I can finish the season at 178-180, which would put me back where I was 2-3 years ago.
How do you attack your 10 pin leaves...regular ball or spare ball? Come up the back of the ball or pull your ring finger out to drop lift out of the ball? What part of the lane do you start?
I have a Pitch Black that I use as my "spare ball." It is drilled with the pin to be non-aggressive. It will still give some hook, though. Stand all the way to the left on the last dot, aiming for center arrow on the lanes. Probably just need to throw it a little flatter, but as someone that struggles with consistency, always a bit worried to throw flatter and not carry over bad habits to my first ball.
Usually, when I am in a rut like now, it's either just falling off the deck to the right and missing the pin, or it's hooking away and missing the 10 by 1-2 inches at most.
Under the assumption you are using grips (Vise, Turbo, etc.), may feel a little weird at first, but you could try to pull your ring finger out of your ball when attemping 10 pins. It eliminates a lot of the lift from the ball and gets it rolling less agressive, staighter. You don't really have to worry about it over-hooking on you. Another thing to try is instead of looking at the arrows, look further down the lane and mentally draw a line to the 10 pin. Without realizing it with your mark being further away, you reach further and throw a little harder also cutting down on the amount of hook the ball will have. Worse case scenario, buy a plastic ball for you spares. You don't have to alter anything between spares and strike balls in terms of release. You go from throwing a ball that has a V8 engine in it to something that has almost no motor in it.
A very odd night at bowling for me, which started before I even got there. Got a flat tire on the way there, while driving on the highway. Luckily, the tire didn't explode and shred, and I was able to limp it a half mile to the next exit, which was where I would usually exit to the bowling alley. Pulled in a small shopping center, and used my insurance app to get roadside assistance. Over the years, I tend to get tons of nails and screws in my tires. I've probably had tires plugged like 20 times in my life. Last February was the first time I ever had an actual completely flat tire while driving, and, almost a year to the day, it happened again. Texted my anchor and told him what happened and that I may not make it tonight.
Roadside was going to take almost 90 minutes to get there. I decided to give a try to changing the tire myself. Initially just went with roadside because, in my experience these days, with the air gun wrenches, the tires are often over tightened and nearly impossible to get off by hand unless you have some leverage (last year, roadside guy carried a 3 foot hardened PVC pipe to slide onto the lug wrench handle). Got lucky and got 3 of 5 loosened pretty easily, 4th one took a few tries, 5th one wouldn't budge. Kept trying it, and finally got loosened after about 4-5 tries and 5-10 minutes. Hurried up and got the car jacked all the way up, put on the donut, and headed to the bowling alley (was about 7 minutes away from the center at this point).
Made it there just in the middle of the 3rd frame, so I could still legally bowl. Quickly threw my shoes on, cleaned my Reality up a bit, and bowled my first 3 frames pretty quickly...spare, strike, spare. The 3rd frame spare was Brooklyn 5-10 leave that I managed to pickup. Took a 5 bagger from the 4th through the 8th, 4 pin spare in the 9th. Ended up with a 239. After that 5 bagger, I started hearing the other team asking themselves if they really should have let me bowl that first game LOL. I think that game was 100% adrenaline rush, no practice. I usually wear a glove with the metal plate wrist support removed, and I didn't wear it at all tonight. My anchor said I probably don't need it (have used it off and on, went back to using it last year to see if it would help pull me out of my slump).
By mid 2nd game, I was on pace for 255 and potentially in line to have my first ever 700. But I opened in the 9th frame with a ball a little too inside that left an odd 5 pins leave. Ended with a 208.
Still had a shot at my first ever 600 with all games over 200, but the adrenaline wore off and so did my line with the Reality. Switched about 3 frames too late to my UC2. Ended up with a 166 3rd game. Still a 613 series, which I'll take any night for me. Next week, just need to bowl a few pins above my average and should be up to a 176 average.
Only left one 10 pin tonight, Pruezy. I tried the no ring finger grip while I was standing there, but felt a little too odd for me and didn't want to try it in the middle of such a good start. Ended up hitting my mark and picking it up, but, next week when I'll actually be on time and get some practice frames in, I'll give that a try.
Had a down week this week, 181-161-161, 503 series. Could not get any strikes strung together, but the large percentage of my spares were all slight misses. Probably left 3-4 4 pins on the night, 2-3 7 pins, and a definite season high 6 10 pins on the night. The good news is, I picked up every single 10 pin and really didn't do anything different...maybe tried to throw more like my strike ball and not harder or flatter or anything else.
Over the last 3 weeks, (3 weeks regular league, 1 night subbing) I am 14-16 on my 10 pins, including a 6 for 6 night (6 10-pins in a night is a season high for me). 87.5% conversion rate, when my current average all year in just my league is just under 60%. Not really doing much different. Just trying to throw the ball similar way as I throw my first ball seemed to have done the trick (typically I would try and throw it harder at the 10 pin.
Of course, in typically inconsistent me fashion, while my 10 pins have been spot on, the last 3 weeks of bowling I have bowled under my average for the night. Avg is about 175 right now, and I had 2 503 series and a 513. The 4 weeks prior, I had a 565, 613, 538, and a 606. That usually how I am...good and consistent for a few weeks in a row, then nothing works well for the next few weeks.
Bowled an adult/youth tournament today with my son, who is a lefty with a 127 average. He bowled a 206, 178, and a 130. First every 200 game. We won our division, which was the lower average of the two divisions...but we were only 1 pin away from the higher division, and we would have come in 2nd place in that division.
Resting for the summer now before league starts up again.
I dropped my average about 8 pins to start, from 175 at end of last year to 167. Brought it back up 171 after last week. Biggest thing I did is, I went back to 14lb balls. Had switched about a year and a half back up to 15lbs, but I'm seeing that it is just not the right weight for me. I tend to have the ball come off my hand a bit too soon with the 15, so I bought another Reality at 14lbs.
My bag right now is Reality, Zen Soul, and either a plastic White Dot or a weakly drilled Pitch Black. Last week was my best week. Started with a 160 in the first game, while still using my 15lb Reality. Pro Shop brought my 14lb Reality, and used it for games 2 and 3, finished with a 187 and a 223. Hoping more of that to come.
I seem to find the weirdest houses to bowl at. Current house is probably where I have bowled the most over the years, but since Bowlero bought them, I see very varied results. My anchor bowls a 190 average with me, but he bowls another league on Tuesdays, and he bowls a 225 average then. Same house. Supposed to be same shot, but it isn't. I sub for his Tuesday night league and haven't done so yet. Want to see if I bowl a lot better on Tuesdays vs Thursdays.
offsides wrote:I'm thinking about buying just what I need, another bowling ball. Any bowler here have any experience or information of the Storm Dark Code ball?
I've been stuck on 900 Global balls over the last year. I really liked the Reality, and decided to get a symmetrical ball this summer and have loved the Zen Soul as my 2nd ball.
I haven't seen much of the Dark Code around my league. I'll keep an eye out and if I see one, see if it is someone that actually knows their stuff.
Congrats and Good luck this weekend!
lol