This post is not about my actual league bowling, even though it has to do with my league performance, so I decided to categorize this as “General” rather than “League”.
I said I’d analyze my league performance more fully, and I’m using this post to do it. Thanks to BowlSK, I can get all sorts of stats, so I can make some comparisons on stuff between this year and last. First, some first-ball numbers (first set of numbers before the pipe | character will be last year’s, after the pipe this year’s):
Strike percentage: 42.4% | 44.8%
Pocket shots: 63.4% | 73.1%
Carry percentage: 64.8% (443/684) | 58.8% (475/808)
Double rate: 45.7% (205/449) | 43.3% (208/480)
Average first-ball count: 8.8 | 8.9
Average first-ball non-strike count: 7.9 | 8.0
Clearly, I was finding the pocket more often this year, and, while I didn’t carry at the same rate as last year and didn’t string them as well (as reflected by the double rate), my counts were higher (as reflected by the last two sets of numbers), meaning not only that I filled frames with more pins, but my leaves were more manageable in general, as well.
On to the second-ball numbers:
Overall spare percentage: 55.1% (323/586) | 57.1% (332/581)
Single-pin spare percentage: 69.2% (164/237) | 73.5% (200/272)
Multi-pin spare percentage: 58.3% (151/259) | 56.3% (120/213)
Makeable (non-split) percentage: 63.5% (315/496) | 66.0% (320/485)
Split conversion percentage: 8.9% (8/90) | 12.5% (12/96)
Washout conversion percentage: 24.1% (7/29) | 6.5% (2/31)
Percentage on single 10 pin: 64.6% (51/79) | 68.6% (70/102)
Percentage on single 7 pin: 50.0% (19/38) | 56.4% (22/39)
One of the best ways for a novice to intermediate bowler (I consider myself to be on the high side of the intermediate level) to improve his average is to become a better spare shooter, and I improved a bit this year, with most of the improvement coming on single pins, where I not only made more, but had more opportunities. My percentages on multi-pin spares were down, but I also left fewer of them. The ultimate test of a spare shooter is if you can make the makeable ones more often than not, and I made more of my makeable spare opportunites this year. I was also a bit better on splits, but suffered when I left a washout-type leave, as I made them less often in more opportunities than last year. The last thing to note are the last two sets of numbers, which reflect my single corner pins. I had thought the 7 pin was my nemesis all year, but I actually made it more often in about the same number of opportunities. I improved noticeably on my single 10 pin as well, something I take some pride in working on.
I hope to continue this track of improvement next year, but I hope this doesn’t become “paralysis by analysis.” 😆
The Tenth Board 