Author: Rich

I started "The Tenth Board" to chronicle my experiences during the road back to league bowling after my heel fractures in 1999 (it took me 7 years before I started thinking seriously about it). I now use the blog as a combination of a personal bowling journal and a news site mostly about Westgate Lanes (Brockton, MA) and its bowlers.

Cross-training #34

This Bainbridge, GA-based newspaper bowling column notes that James Butler will be running a celebrity bowling tournament in that area next weekend. A quick Google search identifies Butler as a safety for the world champion New York Giants. The article said that several NFL players would be participating, but it did not say if these would be Butler’s Giants teammates or other NFL players making their offseason homes in the area.

Standings update for June 20, 2008

According to the updated standings, my team fell out of first place, as expected, but we didn’t fall far, as we’re only 4 points out of first place (now held by “Shihoots” with 24 points), sitting in third place by virtue of having the best handicap pinfall among the teams with 20 points. There has been a consolidation of two teams with less than 3 actual bowlers, so there are now two vacant teams, which will be deleted with next week’s standings. Looking ahead, my team faces my cousins’ team, the “Lounge Lizards,” next week, making it another night for me to look forward to.

A mixed bag

I had been feeling a twinge of pain in my right ankle for the last day or so, so I wasn’t sure I would aggravate it bowling. With this in mind, I went to the lanes at my usual time, but then told Brian and Ralph when they came in that I wanted to warm up with them to test the ankle out. When I found out that the ankle would not bother me while bowling, I pronounced myself ready to go and finished up the warm-up game.

As I’ve mentioned previously, we faced the league champions from last year, the team paced by Bob Hamilton and Sean Richard. The pair we were on wasn’t hooking as much as the previous weeks’ pairs, but it was only a board difference in my stance, so I felt good about my chances of doing well. Joy once again pre-bowled (this league only allows two pre-bowls per bowler), and when I saw her scores, I knew the three of us would have to do well in the first two games, because only her third game was over her average.

As this was the first time Sean Richard had seen me bowl, I made a point of flashing a wink at him after I had my first strike, which came in the 2nd frame of the first game, a 201 that was marred by a washout (the 1-2-10 leave), which I missed, and a sleeper 2-8 where, again, I only managed to pick up the front pin. I missed a few easy spares in the second game, including a single 7 pin, but because I had started off with a double and had a strike in the “foundation” 9th frame, I had a chance to save average, and nearly did with two strikes and an 8 fill in the 12th for a 184. I started the last game with a hambone, and was nearly clean, but I missed the single 10 pin in the 8th frame and left the 2-10 split in the tenth, picking up only the 2 pin, for another 201. Brian, as he would later tell me in his car taking me home, felt out of sync all night and wasn’t up to par, and also told me then that he felt bad about having a bad night, as he really wanted to bowl with me last night knowing the hot streak I’ve been on. Bob and Sean had their usual good nights, and their female teammates did enough to have their team take 6 of the 8 points.

Bob and Sean both complimented me on my night when it was all over. Also, I had met some of my teammates’ family, Brian’s and Ralph’s wives and Ralph’s son, and I was generally praised by them, as well as by another bowler in the league whom I didn’t really know. So, I guess I’ll call it a good night, even though my team didn’t do well. Bob and Sean are both good men, however, so I didn’t mind losing to friends.

Result: 201-184-201=586
Average (12 games): 188 Last 9 average: 199

As an aside, I also learned that the pub at Westgate Lanes is running a karaoke contest on Wednesday nights now, so, one of these nights, I’ll have to bring the cab fare to get home with me rather than getting a ride home one of these nights so I can enter the karaoke contest. If there’s a finals type competition after a few weeks, it might offer the opportunity to win some of my winter league money.

Bowling Scorekeeper added to sidebar

CMG, one of my forum and chat buddies (and he of one of the bowling blogs in my blogroll), has recently launched a very comprehensive bowling score tracker application at bowlsk.com. He put it together out of frustration at the lack of features found on most bowling score tracker sites. What he has come up with is outstanding; not only will it show a line score for every game of a set, but it will also show your leaves (with pins still standing after spare attempts shown in red), and also has space for notes on stance (as a board number), target, and the board you actually hit, and even what ball you used for your attempt at a strike in the frame. You can take a look at the bowlers already registered on the site to see what I mean.

I do plan on using the site myself down the line, but I don’t feel I need the detail bowlsk.com offers at this point. However, I do feel the site deserves a link in the sidebar and I have added it. Last note: if you use the site, please consider donating; as the site grows in number of users, the site’s bandwidth needs will become greater, so donations will help pay for that.

Another good practice

Today’s practice session was nothing like last week’s, but I was still around 600 on the day, w/ a couple of games in the 210s and a 178 low. I worked mostly on trying to keep my elbow close to my body in my swing, and while I didn’t always succeed, I did it enough to have a powerful strike ball when I had good shots. I had a split which marred each game, had a 10 pin miss early in the third game, and only picked up 2 of the 2-4-5-8 bucket to end that game. Mostly, I’m feeling now that I can shoot 200+ on a fairly consistent basis, which should stand me well through the summer league season.

First place!

The standings sheet after this week has been posted on LeagueSecretary.com (see sidebar link under “Author’s links”), and it shows that my team is currently in first place. 😀 It’s still early, however, so it’s not time for us to relax just yet. Judging from this week, it looks like you can expect the standings to be updated on the site by Friday, so Friday will probably be the best day to check the standings.

New sidebar category and links

I’ve been waiting since before the start of my Wednesday Summer Mixed league for this…

I have added a new category, called “Author’s links”, to the sidebar. This category will be for links to my personal bowling stuff that is online. Eventually, this category will include such stuff as my USBC membership information, but there are two links to start off this category.

The first one, which is why I’ve been holding off on creating the category, is the link to my current league standings on LeagueSecretary.com. The current standings sheet shows the standings after last week (the bowling on June 4), but I believe it is in the process of being updated. Check here to track my team as we go through the season (paid members of LeagueSecretary.com can access previous weeks’ standings).

The second one will track how well I do from week to week in the league at a glance. It is a stat sheet on a site called BowlingTracker.com, and will even give such stats as averages on each lane pair. The larger site has also been added as a regular bowling site link in the “Bowling Sites” category. Thank you to Brandon from the BowlingCommunity.com forums and the associated IRC channel for pointing me to this site.

It’s official!

As per plan, I went to the lanes early yesterday because I was scheduled to have another lesson with Ray. It had turned out that Ray was running a half-hour late, so I didn’t start warming up for my lesson until about 4:30. After a while, Ray got his camcorder out and started to film a “before” session.

The “before” showed that my timing was still good, and that my release and follow-through were getting better. I was still having trouble staying under the ball, however. The “before” this time included a series to show axis tilt and revolutions. For good pin action, a bowling ball must have at least 12 revolutions before hitting the pins, but I was only getting 9 or 10 revolutions by that time. The problem staying under the ball and not getting revolutions are related, because, as Ray showed me, my elbow was going away from my body. Another problem related to leverage was that I was not bending my left knee enough in my downswing, so in my drill work during the session, the elbow and the knee were the two points of emphasis. When we filmed the “after”, Ray said I had 8 good shots in a row, and my revolutions picked up to the point where I was getting 11 of them on the ball. Ray said I would get that last revolution with practice. Foreshadowing the league night I would have later, he said he had a feeling I would bowl well.

I was prepared to have to hang around after the lesson, so I had all of my medication with me, including my cholesterol medication, which, on Wednesdays since starting the league, I would take before eating at home prior to leaving for the lanes, and I took the cholesterol pill shortly after my lesson. I later ordered a cheeseburger and a Sprite from the snack bar, and I had dinner while watching Ralph warm up. Ralph said that Brian had pre-bowled because of a school awards function that his daughter was involved in. Joy was also back after missing the regular league session last week.

My work in my lesson carried over to my league bowling immediately; I started the first game with a turkey, picked up a single 2 pin, then had a double, and the only open frame I would have that game was in the 9th frame, in which I only picked up the front pin of the sleeper 2-8. I ended the game with a spare and 8-fill for a 214. My second game was not quite as good, but I sandwiched a lone open frame, throwing an attempt at the single 10 pin in the ditch, between a couple of doubles. I made all of my other spares during the game, and I ended up with a 201. I was worried about running out of gas during the night, but my last game would turn out to be my best of the night…a clean 227 in which I tossed a hambone starting in the 6th frame. The resulting 642 series was my best ever in actual competition. Brian’s pre-bowl scores were around his average for the most part, but he did have a 235 in the first game. Except for the second game, Joy and Ralph were also around their norm, and we ended up taking 6 of the 8 points from our opponents, the team known as “G Force.”

Result: 214-201-227=642
Average (9 games): 186 Last 9 average: 186

My team faces last year’s league champions next week, so I’m really looking forward to that. If we have a good night against them, I feel that it would be a statement of sorts.

The administravia of this post is the fact that I have edited the “About” page of this blog, linked in the sidebar, to reflect last night’s accomplishment. Here’s hoping I make more edits like that in the future. 😀

BEST…THREE…EVAR!!!

After the first game of my practice today, I was going to title this post “Mr. Clean” in honor of having my first clean game since my return to bowling. I started with a double, sandwiched another strike between a couple of single-pin spares, then finished with the last seven in a row for a 259, my second best game ever in any setting. Little did I know I would follow it up with my third best game ever, a 247. I had a chance for my first (albeit unofficial) 700 series, but left a couple of splits and missed a single pin in the 9th frame for a 183, giving me a 689 series…my best ever! 😀

And I wasn’t even worried about score…all I wanted was to get my ball over the foul line and have clean releases. I was playing the “wall” (the line between the oil and the dry, which is a characteristic of many house shots), and had good angle to the pocket most of the day. I was largely building on my league performance of last week, so having a good series like this, even in practice, has to give me a ton of confidence. I see Ray for coaching on Wednesday afternoon, so I’ll be sure to tell him about this practice.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the 689 series is better than any series I’ve had on two good feet, so this is indeed special. 😀

League update: My team is in fourth place in the league after last week. A separate post may be coming if I can find the league on bowl.com (I was going to wait for LeagueSecretary.com to have the league standings posted for something special, but if the USBC site has them, I may be able to do it soon.).

Job application update

Just an update on the application process for the job at the snack bar…I talked to Arsenio, the head cook, and he told me he’d have to see what the shifts look like, but he may be able to fill them with part-time help. He was generally looking for people who would be available nights until 11 PM, and I told him that I could possibly work until that time on most nights. He then handed me an application, which I will fill out this weekend and drop it off at the snack bar when I come in for practice on Monday.

My bowling cousins were doing open bowling while I was there, joined by the cousins up from Texas, along with my uncle, and my aunt was watching until she had to leave. While I was there, I chatted a bit of bowling with David while he was sitting, including telling him about the pitch change I recently made, noting that I thought that helped me get the 564 set the other night.

Making progress

The first thing about last night that I learned when arriving at the lanes was that Joy wouldn’t be bowling, but that she did pre-bowl. This was told to me by Jon when I stopped into the pro shop. I had also left the towel I wipe my ball with on the ball return last week, so I had to purchase a new one. Ralph and Brian arrived between 6:15 PM and 6:30 PM, with Ralph practicing with Tony Attardo when Brian arrived, and Brian joining Tony for one game after Ralph finished his.

The league standings from last week were posted after Brian and Ralph finished warming up, and we learned that we had split the points (4 and 4) with our opponents and were sitting in 10th place. I took my warmups when the lanes were turned on for league, but after Brian threw his first shot in actual bowling, we had to wait for Donna, the league secretary, to give us Joy’s pre-bowl scores: first two games in the 150s and a 199 in the third game. The first game, a 155, was then entered for Joy as an absentee score, and each game’s scores for Joy would be entered in the same fashion at the start of that game.

To sum up my first game, I was very close to having a clean game, with a double in the 4th and 5th frames, until I chopped the 6 off of the 3-6 in the 10th, ending with a 192. The second game was looking very good, as well, with a turkey in the 3rd through 5th frames, until I left the 6-7-10 split in the 7th and the 4-7-10 split in the 10th, holding my score down to a 179. I thought the last game would start off the way the last game did last week, with my spare game deserting me, as I missed a couple of makable spares, including throwing it in the ditch on an attempt at the single 10 pin. Unlike last week, however, I recovered my game quicker, and threw my best shots of the night in collecting a hambone in the 5th through 8th frames, missing a five-bagger by stoning the 7 pin in the 9th. I left the 6-7-10 again in the 10th, but came close to converting it, ending with a 193. Brian and Ralph also both had good nights, and we ended up taking all 8 points from our opponents.

All-in-all, I was very happy with my performance. As Joy’s first two games were quite a bit under her first night average, my team sort of needed me to step up, and that I thought I did. The 564 set was better than anything I had in my winter practices (my best previous was the 554 set on Dec. 10), and, except for going “Brooklyn” on one of my strikes in the second game, all of my strikes were on good quality shots. I was playing an outside line again, and I seemed to be making all of the right adjustments. Brian, taking me home afterwards, said he really liked me on that line, and thinks I will be more consistent on it with time. Donna, who was bowling on the adjacent pair, also complimented me during the night…she asked me if this was my first league or just my first league in years, and dished out the compliment after I replied with the latter.

Result: 192-179-193=564 Average (6 games): 172

As a final aside, a couple of my other cousins, related to my bowling cousins through a sibling relationship, were up from Texas and were watching the bowling cousins during the night. I stopped to say a quick hello to them before I left for the night.

A second homecoming…

This homecoming was not for me, however. Bev, the control desk lady, returned to work today after having had surgery to remove a brain tumor. I gave, with her permission, a gentle “welcome back” hug when I came into the lanes and she thanked me for the card I sent her.

More towel drills today, but I combined it with learning to play an outside line. I estimate I got about 3/4 of my shots over the towel, but I’m still not happy with my release, as I can feel my hand coming on top of the ball near the bottom of the downswing at times still. It may take another session with Ray to know for sure if this is what’s happening. I still had a few quality shots, though, so maybe my improvement will come slowly rather than quickly.

I was told by Junior that Arsenio, the head cook at the snack bar, will be returning to work on Thursday, so I will stop in then to ask Arsenio about the openings. Please pray that I get one of the jobs…my bowling this winter season may depend on it.

Coming home

Last night was the night I’ve been waiting for since I decided to take bowling up seriously again: my first league night. There had been a development on the visit I wrote about in the “11th hour” post that I forgot to mention…that the snack bar is looking for help, and I wanted to catch Junior to ask him about what hours they were looking for (I’m hoping I can fill in part-time). However, that plan was scotched when I found out that they locked the gate I usually go out of when I catch the bus to the lanes. I had wanted to take the route that got me to the lanes earlier, but was delayed when I had to go out of the other gate, so I was pretty much forced to wait for the bus on the other route to the Westgate Mall, meaning I got to the lanes just after Junior left for the day.

Stopping in the pro shop, I finally met the first of my teammates, Ralph Marple. I learned that he had bowled on tour in his youth (he appeared well past 60 in age), but, like me, hadn’t bowled in years until he joined the Wednesday night Westgate Mixed League toward the end of the winter season. I brought up my background with him chatting in the shop, and also discussed possible lineup strategy (I’ll give the lineup we arrived at later in this post).

Brian Shea was the next teammate I was introduced to. He appeared to be in his 40s, but older than me, and we hashed through the lineup strategy we were discussing. Brian wanted to warm up, so I let him begin soon after his lane was turned on. Once he found a line, he was getting a number of strikes, so Ralph and I were kind of joshing him about it, with me saying not to leave those on the practice lane.

Ray introduced the three of us to our female teammate, Joy Falese, shortly before the league meeting was due to begin. With Joy mentioning that she had bowled second in her unsanctioned winter league in Florida, that solidified our initial lineup: Brian would lead off, Joy second, I would follow Joy, and Ralph would be our anchor bowler.

The league meeting was pretty standard. The league would last 13 weeks, with pay-out night being the 14th week, and we had 22 teams, meaning nobody would see every team during the league’s run. The format was different than what I had been hoping for…the league would play strictly for team points (meaning no individual match points), with 2 points being awarded to the winner of each game, with an additional 2 points going to the team with the better total each night. Handicap was also team-based, being 90% of 800 (for those non-bowlers reading this, that means each game’s handicap would be 90% of the difference between the team average and an 800 scratch score). One thing that was different than last season, apparently, was that pre-bowls would now be allowed for those who would not be able to bowl on any given week (because of travel plans and such).

After the meeting, we had to wait awhile for the lanes to be turned on, so I used the opportunity to take my medication early and call my sister on my cellphone to check in (I actually got her husband on the phone and reminded him I was starting league bowling that night). When I returned from that, we had a quick election of Ralph as our team’s captain, and, based on my suggestion, named the team the “Mad Bloggers,” a play on “Mad Bombers” based on the fact that I was on the team. When the scoring screens were turned on (a touch-screen system), I entered our agreed-upon lineup, as I was the only one with any extended experience using them. It took awhile, though, because I kept missing the “Next” button and returning it to “ready to score” status, so I kept having to go back and add (though I finally found the “Next” button before entering Ralph’s name).

When the lanes were finally turned on for practice, there was a problem: the lane we would start on didn’t turn on, and we had to wait several minutes for the problem to be fixed. As a result, both of the teams on that pair only got one practice frame on each lane before they blanked the scoring screen for the start of actual bowling, at which point I went over to my cousins’ pair to wish them luck for the summer.

I had the first mark of the summer for our team after a couple of open frames by Brian and Joy; I left the 5-9 after going “Brooklyn” and made the spare fairly easily. I’m not sure if it was the second or third frame, but Brian had the first strike for us. To sum up my own performance in my first league game in 15 years, I was only “treading water”, missing a couple of spares in the middle of the game, followed by a 4-6 split and a washout, before getting my first strike of the night in the ninth frame, which I followed up with another strike, filled with a single 9 pin which I made pretty easily for a 148. My teammates had decent games, so we were off to a good start.

I was clean through 4 frames in the middle game before missing the 2-4. I pulled my next shot severely, however, leaving an unusual 1-2-3-6-8-10, which I almost made by going “Brooklyn” on it, narrowly leaving the 10 on the deck. That was followed by the 2-4-10 split, which I completely missed after not getting the ball to hook enough. I was playing my practice line up until that point, but wasn’t really happy with the kind of shots I was getting, so I made a change to playing an outside line. I left the 6-10 in the 8th frame (which I made) playing the new line, and that was followed by a turkey with an 8 fill in the 12th frame to end with a 179, so I was hopeful that I could follow well on the heels of that. As for my teammates, Brian had a bad game (for him, but still in the 150s), but Joy had a game in the 180s and Ralph had the high game for us on the night, a 225.

My spare game really deserted me in the last game, however, missing 4 very makable spares early, including a single 7 pin in the 6th frame. I salvaged a 143 by being clean late, but the fair game horse had left the barn by then. If I remember correctly, Brian and Ralph both shot in the 200s, and Joy had another good game for her, so we were expecting to have won this game, as well as take total.

Even though I didn’t do as well as I would have liked to, it did feel good to be back, and, with good teammates around me, I’m hoping that we do well this summer. Before bowling started, I asked Donna Bickel, the league secretary, if the standings would be posted online on LeagueSecretary.com again, and she indicated that they would be. I’m planning something for when the first week’s standings get posted there, so keep looking here during the next week. As I had been doing with practice, I’ll recap my night’s scores at the end of the post (or the portion of the post about the night), and also give my average after that night.

Result: 148-179-143=470 Average (3 games): 156

11th hour stuff

I wanted a fresh ball for the start of league tomorrow night, so I paid the pro shop a visit to put my ball into the “Rejuvenator.” Stayed at the lanes longer than I planned, however, as a rain shower had to pass through the area, and I didn’t want to be out on my bike in the wet. It seems I run into the same friend every time I have a “Rejuvenator” run, so I chatted with him a bit. I also stayed long enough to catch the His & Hers summer league bowlers come in, and I chatted up my old league secretary friend, Dave Townson, a bit. He actually thought I was there to fill a team, as they started last week, but, sadly, I had to tell him I was bowling Wednesday Summer Mixed with my cousins.

Mike Rose, Jr. follow-up

As a follow-up to the Mike Rose, Jr. story, the USBC reported that Bryan Young of Everett, WA posted a 2165 score in the Regular All-Events at the USBC Open, dethroning Rose, who had been in position to become the first bowler to win back-to-back All-Events titles. Young’s effort was keyed by an 832 score in singles, which also puts him in the Regular Singles lead at press time.

Making an adjustment

Chatting online with “CoachJim” this morning, I noted to him that I had been inconsistent in towel drills after doing them three times. As he later told me you get benefit from doing towel drills almost immediately, we began to suspect something more was behind me dropping the ball, and the coach suggested maybe making an adjustment to my ball. I did feel like my thumb was coming out a bit too early, so the suggestion was made to take some reverse pitch out of the thumb (pitches refer to the angles at which holes are drilled into balls), which would help the thumb stay in the ball a bit longer. As I didn’t know my ball’s drilling pattern offhand, I had to obtain it from the pro shop later. I’ll post the “before” pattern here:

Span: 4 7/16″ X 4 1/2″*
Thumb: 29/32″ hole, 1/8″ reverse pitch, 1/4″ left pitch
Middle finger: 23/32″ grip, 1/8″ forward pitch
Ring finger: 21/32″ grip, 3/16″ forward pitch

I went to the lanes later in the afternoon to have the ball worked on. I was hoping Ray would be on duty, but instead got another employee, Jon Corda. After talking with him, we decided to go with changing the pitch in the thumb to 0″ forward/reverse. As I noted to him that I had discomfort in part of my thumb, we also went with reducing the left pitch to 1/8″. The change would be made by inserting a slug in the thumb hole and redrilling and sanding. The procedure took about 15 minutes, and by the time we were done, I noticed that the thumb came out of the ball well when relaxed.

The true test, of course, would be bowling a game after making the adjustment, so I had Tim Major turn on a lane and paid for a game (and found out that I now qualified for the $1/game league bowler discount). The ball definitely felt better coming off my hand during the game, and I was able to have the thumb come out a bit later. The upshot was that I had a 201 in my trial game, with the only blemish being missing the 1-2-4 in the 7th frame, which I made up for by striking out in the 10th frame (I had a double in the 2nd and 3rd frames, which would’ve almost guaranteed a 200 game if I stayed clean.). I am happy with my grip now, and will have a plastic spare ball drilled the same way next week.

It is now one week until my return to competitive bowling! 😀

*Span is the measurement of the distances between the thumb and finger holes and is usually given as thumb-to-middle-finger by thumb-to-ring-finger.