Last night I threw the ball really well, but I couldn't score to save my life for 2 solid games. The pair we bowled on is notoriously horrible, it's on Laneshield, and from 18-36 at 10 feet on the right lane there's a tear in the Laneshield that they patched by laying a rectangular piece of Laneshield OVER and using packaging tape to secure, so you CAN'T hit it, or the ball will either instantly move 3 or 4 boards or never hook at all. Naturally everyone plays straight down and in, and this Laneshield has been in place for 10 years, so it's completely burnt up, so they flood the shot, and it STILL burns up in a game and a half. It's a 43 ft pattern with pretty sharp backends. Well, not wanting to burn the shot up, (because there's literally nowhere to move on the right lane because of the patch), I started out with my yellow Misfit. Had a little over under, but it was either ring 10s or 4 pins. Had a split in each of the first two games letting me know the burn had started to set in. So I'm sitting at 368 after 2 on an average of 229. Here's the biggest thing I never understood when I was younger. Just because a night has gone badly doesn't mean it has to end badly. Just because you shoot a pair of 180s to open the night doesn't mean the last game is going to be 180 too. Last game went front 7 and ended with a 266. So I didn't hit my average, big deal, but I sure as hell didn't drop it as far as I could have, PLUS we won the last game by 12 pins to sweep the other team.
I don't know how many times 6 or 7 years ago I'd start out slow and get all mad because I "wasn't carrying" or wasn't going to shoot 700 and just "take my inevitable 550" and go home. Then I figured out how people carry the bigger averages. It's not just shooting big sets, it's being patient on the rough nights and keeping the damage to a minimum. The big sets have been there for several years, but now I can count the number of sets under 600 for the year on one hand . .
