My last game was what really killed me tonight, as I couldn’t really find anything I liked, but a couple of simple spare misses hurt, too. First game was a 190, but could’ve easily been clean except for a couple more spare misses. Here’s hoping I can regroup next week.
Result: 190-156-144=490
Average (18 games): 178 Last 9 games average: 172
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 546
USA Today notes that there was a bowling tournament connected with the recent MS Day at Comerica Park in Detroit. Detroit Tigers pitcher Mike Maroth, whose father has multiple sclerosis, hosted MS Day, which raised a total of $50K between the two events.
This New York business site notes that Olympic hero Michael Phelps hosted yesterday’s 70th anniversary party for New York City’s Bowlmor Lanes. Once a mainstay for league bowlers in the city, Bowlmor has recently reworked itself to attract a younger, edgier crowd.
The New York Daily News noted that New Jersey Nets star Vince Carter organized a bowling outing for his team after a recent practice prior to the team leaving for a European exhibition trip.
I spent most of practice today working on my release, focusing on swinging through the ball rather than turning it, and it largely worked, as I felt I flushed a few, especially later in the practice. I missed a couple of spares using the spare ball, but I’m slowly getting used to it, and I had two split pickups in the practice, both on the “baby split” (3-10), using the spare ball. I was told after practice that the Coke shot (Monday night shot) was down on the lane today, so having a game in the 180s and a game in the 190s on the shot was something of a bonus, making it maybe the best practice I’ve had recently.
Correction to demo day note: The Hammer and Columbia 300 demo day this month at Westgate Lanes is actually going to be run on two days, Oct. 18 and 19, with Hammer products being demo’ed on that Saturday, and Columbia 300 going on that Sunday.
Doing my research on drilling angles and what they mean for ball reaction, I learned that a 10° drilling will roll the soonest of the effective drilling angles, and a 90° drilling the latest, so my 50° drilling rolls up at a mid-point, late if anything. Also, for asymmetrical balls, the CG is replaced by the PSA (Preferred Spin Axis) point.
Note: I highly recommend reading this page on the MoRich site if you want to learn what all of the numbers in a dual-angle noted drilling mean. 
This is the promised later post. 
A PAP measurement is described as a distance right or left of the center of the grip (depending on the hand bowled with) and a distance up or down from that line (resulting in the Vertical Axis Line, or VAL). As Jon determined from looking at the flare lines and measuring the ball, my PAP is 3 3/8″ right (since I’m right-handed), 1/2″ up. There is also a 2 11/16″ leverage point. I’m told this gives me a spinner type of track similar to that of PBA professional Ryan Shafer.
Drillings nowadays are often described using dual-angle notation, which is given as the angle of the intersection of the pin-to-CG (Center of Gravity) line and the pin-to-PAP line, by the pin-to-PAP line distance, by the pin-to-PAP/VAL angle. On my ball, it’s a 50° x 2 1/2″ x 23° drilling. What do the numbers mean as far as ball reaction goes? The 50° drilling is often given to those whose PAP is not known. The 2 1/2″ pin-to-PAP means I get a good amount of track flare (the width of the consecutive oil bands on the ball…a wider track flare means more fresh ball surface makes contact with the lane with each revolution), and the 23° means a snappy back-end reaction.
Now that my PAP is known, it means future balls can be drilled to have a different reaction, as the driller can lay out the ball keeping the information on the ball’s drill sheet and my PAP in mind.
Before bowling tonight, I took time with Jon in the pro shop to have my PAP (Positive Axis Point, which is the point of the axis of the first revolution after the ball hits the lane) measured, which required throwing my resurfaced High-Voltage in the middle oil for a couple of frames without wiping the ball. I jotted down what Jon put down for the PAP, then had the drilling measured. I’ll make a separate post when I know what all of the numbers mean better, but the a traditional way of noting a drilling is distance from the pin (the white dot on the ball) to the PAP by distance from the center of gravity (found by a small etched logo in the ball) to the PAP. This, for me, is a drilling of 2 1/2″ x 3 1/4″, and the pin is to the right of my ring finger hole, which I’m told makes the drilling strong for just about anyone, and is usually given to those whose PAP is not known.
As I note in the series, the third game had a rushed feeling to it, because we were informed by Shaun that they may have had to close the place due to a water main problem in the mall area which resulted in shutting off the water in the area, forcing the closing of the mall. However, the water was back on by the end of the night. Team took first two games plus total for 3 points out of 4 tonight, and it was a rare time that we were giving pins to our opponents.
Result: 189-170-166=525
Average (15 games): 181 Last 9 games average: 175
Next week’s AVG+1 score: 553
Note: I usually get the AVG+1 from BowlingTracker.com, but that site was having database problems tonight, so I did a quick calculation in my spreadsheet log for next week’s score.
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