This past Thursday night was position round for the 2nd quarter of league and I sucked!!  Didn't make average any of the three games.  Only came close in the third.  We did manage to win one game (the first one) but what really sucks is that we only lost each of the other two games by 19 and 39 pins and total by 37 pins!!  And we were bowling probably the best team (by average, not by wins) on the league.  This is the same team that when we bowled them a few weeks ago had three 700 series and two high 600 series!!  They blew us out of the water that night!!  So we were able to keep it close, but the fact that I didn't make average really hurt.  And what PO'd me more than losing was that I was hitting the pocket solid but just wasn't getting the pins to carry.  I left more ten pins and got more splits in those three games than I could count!!  Tried making slight adjustments and even tried a different ball to go more up the middle but nothing worked.  And the more frustrated I got I started missing easy spares!!  Just wasn't my night...       

This happens to everyone at some point.  I remember 1 time last year where I was going against 1 of the best teams in our league and just struggled from the get go.  First game was well below my average (shot 106, was averaging in the 190's at that time).  Playing outside had a lot of wet/dry, inside caused carry to suck, different angles and 2 different balls also gave varied results.  That mental piece of it got to me to where I started missing easy spares.  Plus, having several splits didn't help either.

The following week, I was able to rebound by shooting a high 600 series.

Advice I can give for when this happens is to try and keep the swing loose, take things 1 shot at a time, and keep the game simple.  If you need to leave the seating area to gather yourself, do that also. 

Don't worry about the strikes. Make your spares, throw it good, and the strikes will come if you do not press and you are playing the  lanes correctly. If you get tight and start pressing, either things get really good, or things get really bad and the wheels fall off.

As everyone else is saying, We all have those nights.  And there really is nothing you can do about it.  That is why they call your average and average afterall.  If you could always bowl at or above your average then, your average would just get higher until you couldn't .  It's really what you take from the experience though.  Did you learn anything that night? Did you at least learn what adjustments you shouldn't make on that particular shot?  if that's the case then it was still a productive night for ya