We finished up our PBA Experience league on the Scorpion pattern, and I finished on a good note. I could of had back to back 700 series, except that I lost it in the 2nd game. I rolled a 268, 172 and a 221 for a 661 series. (I rolled a 746 the previose week.) In the 2nd game, the outside broke down, and I tried to move in and bounce the ball off of the area that had dried up. I have yet to do that successfully. I ended up just pulling out a much weaker ball, and rolling straight up the 5 board.
I ended up averaging 213 in the first half, and averaged 203 in the second half for an overall average of 208 for the season. Even with the slump in the 2nd half, it is 8 pins higher than the average I finished with last year. Can't wait until the next PBA Exp league starts.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 08:02 PM CST [PBA Exp]
We bowled our second week on the Chameleon pattern, and there was a definite improvement over last week. I started out using a ball with some backend movement. I was rolling over the 3rd arrow going out to about the 5 board. I usually like to go up the boards with weaker equipment, but I had some success with it in practice, and wanted to try it out. After 6 frames I had 3 strikes (one double) a 2-10 split, a 1-2-4-6-10 washout and a single pin spare that I missed. I decided that this wasn't going to work. In the 7th frame, I swithched to a low end ball with a dull surface. I was rolling straight up the 5 board, and started to strike. I ended up rolling a 4 bagger and a 10 pin spare to salvage a 195 game. In the 2nd game, I left the ten pin in the 1st and 9th frames (which I picked up) and the rest of the frames were strikes for a 269 game. The 3rd game, I had a turkey and a double with one split (picked up the rest of my spares) for a 212 game. I ended up bowling a 676 series. We will be on the Cheetah pattern next week.
Thursday, February 12, 2009, 03:28 PM CST [PBA Exp]
Bowled the first week of the Chameleon pattern this week. Didn't do as well as I thought I would, but still bowled decent. I had practiced on the pattern earlier in the week, and did pretty good using a ball with a dull finish. However, when we bowled league, the ball was coming in high, so I switched to a similar ball, but with a pearlized shell. In warm ups I was flush. But when we started bowling for score, I was going through the nose and leaving splits. I opened up with 2 splits, and then bowled a 4 bagger, and ended up bowling a 212 for the first game. I started to lose it after that. It seemed like one lane was starting to break down, and the other was getting more carry down. So I ended up making oppisite adjustments on the lanes. We will see if I can learn from this and improve my scores this coming week. I bowled a 212, 188, and a 172 for a 572 series.
Had my 1st good night of bowling since the new year on the Viper pattern. I was playing around the 2nd arrow, and was playing a pretty tight line (at first). As the night wore on, I had some room to the right (I was bowling just inside the line that the rest of the bowlers were using). I ended up bowling a 234, 192 and a 250 for a 676 series. Addirionaly our lead off bowler had his first 600 series on the PBA Experience league with a 626 series (157, 220, 249).
Wednesday, January 28, 2009, 03:33 PM CST [PBA Exp]
Had a bit of a struggle again this week. In the 3 weeks after the Christmas break, I have averaged 182. (Not a bad average for a PBA Experience league, but 25 pins below what I averaged in the Fall.) My timing is off, and I need to find time to practice more. (I changed jobs early last year, and it is harder to get practice in.) Anyway, I feel like I am rushing my approach, and I am not saying down with my shot through the delivery. We bowled on the Viper this past week, and I started with a good game, and then it dropped off the 2nd and the 3rd game. Through the last 3 weeks, I have averaged 216 for the 1st game, and then 168 and 169 for the 2nd and 3rd game. I bowled a 214, 167 and a 166 for a 547 series. In addition to problems with my approach, it seems like there are more people playing on the outside of the lane (where I usually play). We will be bowling on the Viper pattern again this week, and my plan right now is to roll a deeper line around the 3rd arrow.
