Today's PWBA show illustrated some of the carry problems I've been having.  Some of them got poor carry on some of their best shots.  The pattern I bowl on isn't near as hard, of course, but the backends look about the same as far as strength.  Comments on how to overcome this?  I've decided not to play as deep, but I just don't have a ball that gets down the lane well.  If anything, we don't have the dry through the middle to get the ball revving before the backends.  It's skid/snap to the extreme, it slides down there and then hooks hard.
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I know Kung Fu!

I am the one, the one that will bring balance.  All the pins shall be destroyed!

I agree da Shiv.....Tiffany could have folded up after the back to back open frames earlier in the title match, but she gathered it back up and came on strong on the back half of the game.  It takes real tenacity to make a strong comeback like that, especially after the disappointment of consecutive opens in a title match.

Speaking of Tiffany, I've watched her bowl quite a bit over the past 6 years or so, and I've never seen her playing the line that she was playing today.  Where normally she likes to move into the lane and crank the heck out of the ball, she held her composure and moved left, playing more of a down and in line from out around the first arrow.  She almost reminded me of Parker Bohn III bowling, as she was using the outside boards, plus she was intentionally keeping the speed down several notches.  If she hadn't kept her speed down, the ball wouldn't have rolled up on the backends.  On a couple of shots early in the title match, she did overpower the shot, and she paid a price for it.  Once she dropped the speed back down and let the ball roll, she started striking again.  I guess that I was surprised to see her playing that part of the lane, since I'd never seen her play there in the past.

Between Tiffany and Lisa Bishop, they led the entire tournament.  Lisa led the first and second rounds of qualifying play, then Tiffany walked away with the next 3 rounds of match play.  As far as match play was concerned, Marianne DiRupo had one of the best match play performances (picking up 30 bonus pins per match win), but Tiffany just walked away from the field.  The #6 seed, Cara Honeychurch, missed the show by some 12 pins, and Tish Johnson missed the show by 22 pins.  Once you dropped below #7, then there was a 100 pin difference to the #8 spot.  However, to the credit of all of the competitors in match play, 23 out of the 24 players finished in the blue (200 average or better), and the #24 player just barely missed par by about 20 pins in the red.

When Marianne DiRupo left that solid pocket 7-10 split, I thought that I was looking at something that I'd thrown.  I see a lot of solid pocket 7-10 splits myself, averaging 1 every 3 game league set for the entire season last year.  I didn't see any problem with the ball that Marianne threw, but the dreaded 7-10 sure stood up .

Yep da Shiv, I almost thought that I was watching PBIII bowling this afternoon.  It really blew my mind to see her playing the stroker line with the speed down, because that just normally isn't her style of game to play.  However, you have to admit that it worked out for her!

TV Pair was 19/20, which was the pair we started qualifying on Thursday AM.  Kendra, Marianne and myself all had what we thought were good looks at the pocket during the practice.  Scorers come on and Marianne's first shot was greek church...so much for thinking we had things sorted out.  Carry was a fickle thing across the house, and it seemed not to matter whether you tried playing in or out...you just kept hoping that it would improve when you moved to the next pair.  

If I remember the past few years correctly, TH has historically been a lower scoring pace than some other stops.  There comes a point on some lanes where you have to deal with the fact that spares with a double thrown in the game may be good enough to at least get you to match play or get you the points in league on a given night.  Too many people get hung up on numbers (average), when in fact you only have to knock down enough pins to beat your opponent in a match play environment.  The same thing holds true in a league setting...put the egos in check and just make sure that you keep the ball in play.  

For HR, the situation you describe is where you might want to look at weaker drills on the equipment or go with a weak release on something that will read the mids but not over-react in the back.

I have another question also, why do the women seem to bowl every single week on wood surfaces?  I hardly ever see them bowl on synthetics.  Personally, I'd rather bowl on new wood.
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I know Kung Fu!

I am the one, the one that will bring balance.  All the pins shall be destroyed!

Thanks, michelle.  Like I said, I'd rather bowl on wood.  It's just more readable for me.  Cleaner reaction.  Although they seem to carry down quicker, I still like 'em.  I just watched the tape of the show, and I hadn't seen the first game yet, but man Dede had it rough!  It was kind of reassuring to see a pro make the same decisions I do when faced with poor carry.  Da shiv's analysis was the best, I think.
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I know Kung Fu!

I am the one, the one that will bring balance.  All the pins shall be destroyed!