The Tenth Board

After missing Ray two weeks ago because he didn’t put my scheduled lesson on his calendar, I finally saw him today. What we saw in my early shots is my hand turning too early again, even though it’s in perfect position coming back. His idea was to tighten up my line so that I’m not trying to hook it, so he devised a drill that had me throwing to a piece of tape on the lane about 20′ (and later 30′) down the lane. I didn’t have perfect shots trying this, but the thing I noticed later is that if I’m thinking about keeping my forearm as well as my fingers pointing at the target, I throw my shot a bit better, so this is something I’ll be working on.

I spent most of my practice time working on a tip I saw on the forums: Staying under the ball by keeping the weight of the ball on the index finger in my swing. Among the other things I also learned is that my Reign of Fire may be too early-rolling even in fresh oil, as I generally made better shots after switching to my Hy-Road early in the second game after a start in the 130s; I may have use that ball the entire night instead of starting with my strongest ball. Another thing I may have figured out is where to line up for my 7 pin based on going over the middle arrow instead of going over the third arrow, as I only missed one 7 in something like three or four attempts. I ended practice with my best game in months: a 229 in which I had the first six and my only open frame coming after leaving the bucket plus 7 pin.

Needless to say, I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow night.

This past weekend, I received a late Christmas gift to myself in the mail: Norm Duke’s instructional DVD. I sat down to watch it last night after the Celtics game, and decided in my practice today to work on one of the lessons that I thought could help me immediately, the one on swing planes. The general idea of this lesson is that in the horizontal plane (which controls direction), you want to start the ball in the opposite direction to where you want the ball to go. After struggling with my Hy-Road again, I switched to the Reign of Fire and really began to work on it. It seemed to help, with me getting two games over my league average and the third being ruined by a few single pin misses. I did find, though, that that swing plane lesson also helped on spares, and I’ll just chalk the misses to being a bit fatigued from the bowling pace. I’m hopeful this can carry into tomorrow night.

I was actually able to get up to the lanes for practice today, and, while I wasn’t consistent, I did have my moments. After struggling in the first game and early in the second game, I was actually able to put a few decent shots together to get a 202 second game. However, I didn’t start well in the third game and was only able to get to 150 after a 2-and-1 move inside. I also missed a couple of 10s in the first game, but adjusted to give myself more angle and made the rest of them, including going after the 10 on splits involving that pin.

Admittedly, I’d been lax about getting practice time in recently, especially after they stopped the half-price rate during the day on Mondays. I needed to “bite the bullet” more, however, and Tuesdays are usually the time I can come down when they have the house shot out.

Today, the focus was mostly on getting my lift and projection on my shot, and that was, understandably, spotty. Ray was in the building, so I got some bonus time with him, watching me throw a few shots and providing me feedback where he could. There was no focus on score today, as it probably should be. Wanting that tip I got on making the 10 to stay with me, I made the one 10 I threw at, one I left as part of the “Woolworth” split (5-10).

I was looking forward to my first lesson with Ray in over three years, hoping to get a baseline on what I can improve on.

During warm-ups, I noted to Ray about my problems making my single 10, and he gave me a hint I hadn’t thought of: He said that if I draw a line between the third arrow and the reflection of the 10 pin on the lane and throw to that line, I should be more consistent with it. Indeed, I made both 10s that I shot at during the session.

What mattered more was the video analysis of my game, and the first thing Ray noticed that was “off” was my drift of 10 boards to the right in my approach. Part of what we worked on after was walking straight down the approach, fine-tuning my line with how my ball was reacting. As a result, I will now be trying to stand on 30 to start and going over the third arrow.

Another thing we had to work on was a problem that has lingered: It seems I am thinking turn before the ball gets to my feet in my downswing, preventing my fingers from remaining in the 6 o’clock position and causing the all-too-familiar double-dribble. I also needed to try to keep my elbow tucked in, keeping my swing close to my feet at the end. We had more success correcting this latter problem than the former, but we did end with a shot that seemed close to what Ray wanted to see. More work will be required in practice, of course.

I have another lesson scheduled in about 4 weeks.

In dire need of a practice session after over a week of not bowling and not having had an actual practice session in some time, I hit the practice lane today with two things in mind: tightening up my line, as suggested by “CoachJim,” and to work on lining up on my right side spares using a tip I saw from Pete Weber on the summer PBA telecasts over the weekend. As for the latter, I missed a couple of spares on that side early, but made all of them afterward as I got used to trying to point my toes toward the pins (I didn’t realize I often pointed my left foot away from the pins) and walking toward them as I deliver the ball. I also resigned myself to the thought of having to hook at some of my spares in the middle, particularly those involving the 2 pin, and made the two “makeable” leaves I had involving the 2: a double wood and a single 2 later. With the former, I didn’t always execute, but I started the last game with four strikes and found myself having to make spares until the 10th, when a “Big 4″ ruined a clean game; I ended up with a 206.

I was planning it, anyway, but a DSL outage here for most of the day gave me a great excuse to hit the practice lanes. I spent most of my time working on release, and, while some shots weren’t perfect, I was still around my average, with the only easy spare miss being one 10 pin.

I’m saving something related to this for tomorrow…stay tuned!

After not being able to get to the lanes yesterday (I just had too much stuff to do downtown.), I was bound and determined to get practice in today. Eileen was taking a mini-vacation off of work for her birthday (it was today) and had just wrapped up a lesson with Ray, so I said hello to her while she was practicing. She decided to get two more games in, and I got my gear out of my locker and set up near her as she was bowling the first of those.

The main thing I wanted to work on, as I’ve stated in recent posts, was staying behind the ball and getting my wrist positioner setting dialed in so I could do so. It definitely helped: the first game was a clean 245 with five in a row in the middle, after which I pointed the game out to Eileen, saying, “See? It’s a simple game when you’re doing it right.” Eileen wrapped up around the end of my second game, but couldn’t hang around because she had volleyball tonight, so I finished up alone. My easy spare misses involved the 10 pin, but I think I still got around 620 for the set, which is “more like it.”

Today was a different practice from my norm, as all I wanted to do was try out my new Reign of Fire on a tough shot, namely the Coke Classic League pattern and, being that I had 11 free games between the pro shop and referring a new bowler to a league, I only used two of those free games for that purpose to get my free game “stash” to a number divisible by three.

Generally, I liked the look I had on the Coke shot with the ball, standing on 28 and going straight up 10 at the arrows. I felt I could strike more often than I did with my dulled-down Hy-Road on “Dead Man’s Curve” back in the January tournament, and, where the two shots play so similar, I could declare myself “ready” for the tournament if not for the fact that I missed too many spares in my two games. If I have a similar look on the true sport shot Sunday as I did today on the “tough house pattern,” I figure I’ll at least have a chance, however.

I arranged with Rob Dickens to meet for a practice session together today, and I had hoped it would be practice with my new Reign of Fire on the Coke league shot. However, there was miscommunication between Bev, who thought Junior didn’t want the Coke league’s lanes given out until after 5 PM, and Junior, who told me after practice that he didn’t care if anyone got the Coke league lanes before those bowlers came in. As a result, the session was on the THS.

Rob could only stay for two games, so I concentrated on my total game with a quasi-competitive feel to it for those games. I won both games scratch, but it was far from easy in the second game, where I needed just 7 pins on 2 balls in the 10th to tie (I was working on a 9th frame strike), but left the “Big Four” with my first ball, meaning I had to get pins out of it. As I missed a single 4 pin earlier in the game, I used the opportunity to practice the left side and got the two on that side for a two-pin victory.

The third game was spent on my middle oil game, and I’m pleased to report that I made progress, as I threw a one-open 202 on the line I tried with my brother last week. As I feel I’m going to need my middle oil game at some point Wednesday night, this was encouraging.

I chose a Tuesday afternoon to practice this time instead of the usual Monday because of the greater availability of lanes with the house shot (which Rob told me has been modified a little from the “stock” Bourbon Street pattern). I used the greater part of the practice to work on my loft game, as that’s what the lanes seem to require of me right now. I’m not quite “there” yet, but with the last 2 games in the 180s, I think I’m getting better and more consistent at lofting the ball.

I had a bad first game today, in which I didn’t break 130, but, as it turned out, I could chalk that up to feeling out the lane, as my other two games were both over 210, and I had a 231 middle game. My timing continues to feel “right,” and the ball feels great coming off my hand. I’ve seen a need to shore up my spare shooting, and I made the single 10 more than I missed it today (missed it once out of three or four tries), so I could take that out of the practice, as well.

My practice routine has had to change, as bowling on Monday is no longer half-price from opening to 5 PM. It has been replaced with a $2.25/game weekday morning rate (before 1 PM), so, though I’ll continue to bowl on Mondays, it will be in the morning, with me catching the 10 AM bus up.

Tony (Attardo) was finishing up his practice when I started, and he happened to pick up on a timing issue: I was getting the ball into its swing too late, causing me to drop it behind the foul line at release. The rest of the practice concentrated on me starting the ball on my third step. When my timing felt good, I generally had better shots, as it turned out, and I picked up a four-bagger by the end of it. Of course, I hope the session carries over into Wednesday night.

As I seemed to be having trouble handling transition last week in league, today I did a little drill I made up that simulated a whole night. First game, I used my baseline 30/10 shot, 2nd game I moved in to 33 looking around 11 or 12, and the third game was a move in to 36 looking around 13. It actually seemed I got better as I moved in, as I struggled with a 151 first game, but then had a 210 second game and a 220 third game (each of the latter two with only one open frame). I also got my spare game with my repolished spare ball figured out, and that also improved with each game. Now I just hope this carries into Wednesday night.

When I got in the door for practice today, I noticed Rob with the lane machine out, so I figured something was being tested, so I asked, and it was testing of this year’s Coke Classic shot. When I got around to asking about the house shot for the fall, I was notified that one of the new Kegel Navigation patterns, called “Bourbon Street” (click link for pattern chart), which is a 40′ shot w/ about 23.5 mL total oil and a ratio of something less than 8:1, was being tested for use as the “house shot”.

The characteristics of Bourbon Street are that the pattern is drier with a bit more room on the outside, so I was trying some lines in practice, and found, through trial and error, that lining up on 33 looking 10 or 11 at the arrows with my Fast gave me my best chance at the pocket as long as my speed was reasonable and not much axis rotation was used. I struggled for two games, but lined up a turkey in the last game, which was the point where I found my best line. If I can repeat my later shots, I stand a chance of doing well this winter.

Today, I figured out something about the current house shot: that it needed less axis rotation. The ball would hook too much if I threw my normal shot, but the hook would tame if I held the ball more on the fingers closer to the thumb. I had a shot at a 170 triplicate going into the third game, but my scoring fell off from that due to fatigue (I was also bowling fast and didn’t take much time between shots.). I did throw enough strikes to satisfy myself, however.