5 More Days!

About a week ago I ended up with tendinitis in my foot and couldn't do anything. Thankfully it got resolved a few days ago so I could get back to practicing. I really didn't feel like I needed to do much, especially since it's proven to be next to impossible to get any kind of pattern put down.

But my friend who bowls at a different house (at West Ed mall), also works there and managed to get at least something else than a house shot put down. It resembled a short pattern (a lot more hook into the pins) so it was a lot more relevant than a house shot or no oil at all.

I found a great line right away, using the 5 board, close to the outside of the lane. I was throwing it great; thumb out first and lots of fingers. I never throw it that way (ie. the "right" way), I've always struggled with it, but from my practice on the dry lanes, this came a bit easier.

The first game was great, but then part way through the second game I think it was, I was starting to lose the fingers and thumb out first release. Because I couldn't throw it consistently (I was also missing my mark every now and then), I couldn't really move to a new spot.

We finally took a break, I think part of the problem was I was getting tired too, and then I decided to try a different line. I moved inside by two boards and moved my feet right two board, straightening out my angle, basically driving the ball right into the pocket. I'm not sure why that worked/why it made sense, but it did and I was back to throwing a great game.

By then I was getting sore so I was close to calling it quits. We decided to do one last one though, two handed. Pretty much just for kicks. After that we were really fooling around, like taking my most reactive ball and lofting it two handed over the gutter into the other lane to try to keep it on the lane. I couldn't get it down far enough to keep it on though, it slid too much to the right and immediately would fall into the gutter. So a bit more of that, and then I was pooped.

So I guess I took away 2 things from that. 1) Play outside for as long as it works. Try what Scott does if it stops giving good results: if there are no strikes for three frames, make a pretty significant move and try something else. 2) On the note of moving, don't be afraid to do it, aka don't wait too long to do it. That's been a big problem in the past in a lot of tournaments. I always think that I can't move because I'm not being consistent so I think if I move I'll finally throw it right but then I'll be in the wrong spot. Which does sometimes end up happening, but maybe the move is good to reset and to start throwing it properly again? I guess at any rate, if you're not throwing a strike where you are originally, it doesn't hurt to move somewhere else at the risk of also not getting a strike. I suppose chances go up that you end up with a split if you're not close enough on the move, but I'd say chances could also go up that the move is a good one, resulting in a strike.

So with 5 days left, I feel fine not practicing until next Thursday when I get there for official practice on the actual patterns. Yesterday was good to just make sure I don't/had not lost the feel. But if I go again, knowing me, I could end up hurting myself some way, so it's probably better to just stay in a plastic bubble until Thursday.. I'm also still really sore so I need to let my body (back) get back to normal.

Last Practice

It was an odd night of practice. I almost didn't want to be there - I didn't have too much fun. And of course I got tired again. Maybe the secret is timmie's. 1/2 coffee, 1/2 hot chocolate. I'm SO bagged. But even through that I was doing alright, but throwing the ball only okay. Maybe 2 really good shots at most. Ted kind of stayed away from us and just let us do our thing - with three days to go I think it's almost more important that we go at it on our own and just get comfortable throwing a bunch of games.

I think I may have averaged 175 over 3, which isn't too bad considering the shot was pretty broken down by then. It just got really frustrating trying to adjust for that, and the two lanes were breaking down differently. I didn't quite have the mental capacities to deal with that tonight.

Then we shot a round of golf (low game). I won again with 61. Everyone else had at least a strike. That's when you know people are tired (yet they stayed and played one more!). So I'm comfortable sparing my 4, 6, 7, &10 pins at least. As long as I can manage to leave single pins if I don't strike I should do pretty well I think. I've figured out my game plan for the long. At the beginning try and ride the rail (1 or 2 board). Then keep moving inside, 8 board (maybe 5) and then 10. We'll see where everyone else is shooting though. If everyone is doing 10, that might not be the best line by the end, but we'll see.

Tonight was really not much of a confidence boost, so I'm glad I had it last Wednesday. I'm not really taking anything from this besides sparing because I was just too tired. A positive though since it's not like I was horrible. I'm much happier being consistent and being okay, than scoring high and then crashing back down.

So now it's a waiting game. No more bowling till we get to Mississauga for official practice on all the shots. We probably won't spend too much time there, maybe a game on each (if that). More so just to get a feel for the approach, pin action and of course the shots.

So next post will be from TO! 3 days! Takeoff at 8am.

Almost There

At today's practice I didn't work too much at using different lines like on Monday. I had enough of that and just wanted to get some confidence going. It definitely worked! I'm still not 100% there for the long shot though; it was supposed to be what it was Monday but it seemed like there was lighter oil or something, it was not as tough as Monday.. or maybe I was used to using the line I was shooting/I was shooting the right line.

Using my vivid, I ended up going down the 5, eye on the dots, just about a foot out on the lane instead of the arrows farther down. For some reason looking closer helps get the ball rolling into the direction of the pocket sooner, which is needed on a long shot.

Once it dried up a bit more I switched to my invasion since it's an older ball it has less energy to it, and changed my line to 10. I made the change instantaneously perfectly, guessing a movement of 6 boards with my feet to the left. Twice now it seems to be if I move 5 with my eyes, a move of 6 with my feet should have me close (if I remember correctly - I really need to start writing things down).

So I have a good feel for the long now, which will be the toughest pattern out there. Ideally I would love to get back on the short and find a good line. I did get some good practice on it, but instead of really trying to find a line, I was trying tough lines to see how they worked and I was working more on my hand placement and release. Unfortunately they're only putting out long from now on. But at least when we get there on Thursday we can practice so I'll spend most of my time on the short and the medium (I haven't had a chance on that one but it'll probably play more like a house shot Im thinking).

Overall I'm feeling a lot more confident now and just want to get there already. I'm going for one more practice Monday and then I'll rest until Thursday.

Side note: I lost ANOTHER thumb slug. I was using my larger one because once again it was really warm in the alley so my thumb was swelling. Dan, the pro shop guy, happened to be watching. I told him and he flipped his shit pretty much. He said here and Calgary are the only places he's heard of that happening so much (I've done it in both..). They couldn't find it so Dan said he'd do another for me. So frustrating. So that was the end of the night since I couldn't use my smaller one. I would have been done anyways, I only had 3 frames left and I was getting really tired. I ended up shooting 212 the first game by the way.

8 days!

Wednesday & other

Last night was another good work, with good work being done on my swing. It was also a bit frustrating though, mostly from getting tired though I think. But I've also had problems really focusing on my mark, hitting it, staying down and getting the proper lift on the ball. I think that a few days before we leave, I'm just going to bowl for fun, not worry about technicalities..

Exciting news (for me) though! I finally got my new ball! It's the Vivid by Storm.

It's drilled specifically to be stronger for me; to get to the pocket with more hook & power. Dan also had me trying out some different surfaces on it (sanding it) to see the different reactions. This is all the purpose for the long oil shot. Long oil means 45ft of oil, so there generally isn't much hook to be had on those types of shots. I unfortunately didn't get to practice with it on long, we were on more of a short shot, so there was a lot more hook than needed. Next Monday we're doing long so maybe I'll get to use the new ball on it (Dan doesn't want me using it too much so it doesn't burn out before the tourney). 

It's kind of crazy that there's only 2 weeks left until we leave! That means 4 more practice sessions, but I'll probably take the last one off, since it'll be Wednesday - we leave Thursday and will be practicing later that day, then bowling 18 games in the following 3 days.. so that's a lot of bowling. 

In the last post I was saying how maybe there would be a plan of attack for CNCs.. well I suppose there was, talking about different surfaces to use on the new ball and such. But we also talked about for next fall. Dan said that when he gets back from doing expos in August that he's going to fit me into a new wrist brace contraption. Sounds like it's going to keep me from being the full roller that I am, which will immensely help my game. He didn't put me into it right away because that's a big step to go to. I guess it basically forces/holds my hand into the proper position. That being said, my stuff will no longer be drilled properly for me so Dan said that if we get to that point he might be able to just give me a ball so that we don't have to plug and re-drill everything. To me it's not the end of the world, but when it comes to tournaments it could probably make a difference, since there's "foreign" substances in the ball now, it would change the overall reaction of the ball a bit I guess. So we'll figure that out when we get there, but it sounds promising for next year.

Oh also, I was comparing last year's average(s) to this year's and I actually didn't fall back to badly. Tournament scores had a significant difference I was -5 from last year, and that was even with averaging 206 in the scholarship tourney... League average was -2 and Monday sparing I went +4 (but I had less games played this year so that doesn't mean a whole bunch). Overall I am -3, averaging 183 throughout the year (even though I haven't factored in CNCs like I did last year, it would probably be about the same). So really, it's not that bad.. it's just disappointing that I didn't improve my average, especially after averaging 190+ during the summer. But that IS a totally different environment so I guess that's not much of an argument... haha, whatever.

Alrighty, 14 days!

Now it's all about preparing for CNCs. Today we asked for a long shot but it was more medium than anything.. I was using my lower end ball and still getting quite some hook on it; not what I'm used to. So the oil was a bit thin I think then, but I'm also throwing it a lot better, getting more lift and rotation on the ball.

All we did was throw games, I ended up shooting 7, trying to work up the endurance to throw 6 in TO. Usually that would be no problem but for some reason I've just been tuckered right out after like 4, so I made myself push through it. I just need to find a way to keep the energy up to keep my ball speed up so that it doesn't have too much time to move on the lane.

It was a frustrating practice though; had to be right on your mark or you'd leave crap. I definitely did not have the energy to focus that hard; I was having enough trouble as it is staying down at the line - which helped tremendously. I realized I had stopped doing it, started again and then was throwing sooo much better! So I definitely need to make a mental note of that.

I'm going out again on Wednesday, there's practice Mondays & Wednesdays 6-8 at Gateway. It's mostly been set up for the CTF provincial team, but it's still good for us to go to. They'll have the CTF long shot put out which won't be what will be at CNCs but it's still better than nothing.