Author Topic: My recent tournament trend... (Read 2713 times)

JessN16 · « **on:** February 21, 2010, 10:39:17 AM »

This is starting to bug me. If you lined up the scores from the last four tournaments I've bowled in, this is what you get for the average of the first three games (approximate numbers used):

Game 1: 160
Game 2: 190
Game 3: 240

Problem here is, the format is three games qualifying, then cut to cashers' round, then stepladder. Getting better as I go along is nice, but those first two games (particularly the first) is burying me before I get started.

The format is one game, then switch pairs, shoot the next game, switch pairs again, etc. Oil pattern is typically different for each tournament, as they're held in different houses.

Obviously the problem is that I am not reading/recognizing the pattern early enough and making adjustments accordingly. I have read Wes Mallott's advice on using 7 or 8 balls to determine pattern length, shape, etc., but there are two problems there: One, it takes about 3-4 balls to warm up to where I can throw actual shots, and two, we don't have enough practice time allotted (and no practice once we switch pairs). Advice?

Jess

GuessWho · « **Reply #1 on:** February 22, 2010, 11:57:21 AM »

Seems like the first game there might be more oil then games 2 and 3

snowspike1 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 22, 2010, 03:01:41 PM »

might try getting to house earlier and hope for some open bowling. Might be that you are not close to warmed up or that your throwing too hard and need to be worn out a little. As far as shadow balls yes a pro prob can get away with trying that many balls but for the rest of us were lucky to get 2 mabe 3 shots on each lane.

From the info that came with my spinner know your arsenal. take and shoot them on the oil patterns you see/or available (ths,viper,burnt ths,ect) and take notes oil ball stand at X throw X (maybe bp even) for a strike. then goto the next ball and throw/move feet/target till you get the "good pocket strike" write that down. do that for every ball. This "should" help in speeding up you choice of what to throw and when...

i to have the same prob from time to time, (last tournament i was in went 169,209,269) so much for the brackets.

quote:
.donate it to the "Jeff Carter will be jobless next year" fund.

Now Thats Funny

JessN16 · « **Reply #3 on:** February 22, 2010, 09:53:46 PM »

quote:
Seems like the first game there might be more oil then games 2 and 3

Yes, but it's not universal. One of those sets was second shift with no re-oil. If anything, the lanes should have been perfect at the start and gotten worse as they broke further down, but the worse the conditions got that day, the better I got.

Last time I did well from the outset was The Gathering two years ago, which is done on three sport shots. My first game was good, the second was my best and the third was the problem spot. But since then everything has settled into a bad-average-good pattern.

Jess

JessN16 · « **Reply #4 on:** February 22, 2010, 10:00:03 PM »

quote:
might try getting to house earlier and hope for some open bowling. Might be that you are not close to warmed up or that your throwing too hard and need to be worn out a little. As far as shadow balls yes a pro prob can get away with trying that many balls but for the rest of us were lucky to get 2 mabe 3 shots on each lane.

From the info that came with my spinner know your arsenal. take and shoot them on the oil patterns you see/or available (ths,viper,burnt ths,ect) and take notes oil ball stand at X throw X (maybe bp even) for a strike. then goto the next ball and throw/move feet/target till you get the "good pocket strike" write that down. do that for every ball. This "should" help in speeding up you choice of what to throw and when...

i to have the same prob from time to time, (last tournament i was in went 169,209,269) so much for the brackets.

I actually did that this time (bowling on the shot prior). The house allegedly laid the shot down last weekend and it was dry, even too dry. Lot of friction in the middle and it felt short, maybe 37-38 feet. We show up for the actual tournament, though, and the volume was higher and the pattern longer.

We were divided by divisions this time and I was in the middle division, as my average hasn't been updated and we weren't bound by the 10-pin rule. For the most part, the middle division beat the top division scratch. Bowlers a lot better than me were struggling but they figured it out more quickly and I didn't.

Jess

AngloBowler · « **Reply #5 on:** February 23, 2010, 04:31:23 AM »

It sounds like you're good at adjusting to changes (regardless of the initial quality of the lanes, but struggle to find the right place to start.

Have you tried watching the other bowlers on your pair? If you watch where they're throwing the ball in practice, it might give you a hint about where you might want to play (and with what ball/surface).

If you get Bowling this Month Susie Minshew wrote an article within the last 3 months talking about this very kind of thing.
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Reporting from England

SrKegler · « **Reply #6 on:** February 23, 2010, 06:29:05 AM »

I question that 160 avg for the first game. Is that from splits or missed spares. Are you leaving a bunch of multipin spares. 2-4-5, washouts, etc. With your scores improving the longer you bowl I question if you are using an aggressive enough ball for the first couple of games.

Either your ball is matching up better in the later games or your are relaxing and throwing it better after you've shot your self in the foot the first couple of games.
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Have Balls - Will Travel

RIP Thongprincess, that [deleted] lefty

stopncrank · « **Reply #7 on:** February 23, 2010, 06:54:21 AM »

This is just a stab in the dark, but it sounds like you might not have enough surface on your equipment for the first two games. If the tournament uses a tournament pattern instead of a regular house shot, they are probably running a heavier volume of oil and you ball isnt gripping the lane like it should.

Do you have a ball that has no polish on it? Have you used it in this tournament? I know on fresh tournament patterns, balls i have set up for league generally dont match up well because i have polish on alot of my league stuff. Generally, ill use more surface, say 2000 abralon with no polish for the first game of so till the pattern opens up. Alot of it depends on what kind of look the pattern is giving me, too.
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Taking your lunch money, one strike at a time....

ralphiejantz · « **Reply #8 on:** February 23, 2010, 10:04:06 AM »

Jess
sounds like you just need to maybe make a better adjustment the first 2 games
I had this problem when I got back into bowling tournaments also

I would do bad the first game and then the last 2 games I would barely make the cut or miss it by less than 10 pins

If I could not find a line during practice what worked for me, was watching where some of the other bowlers were throwing that first game,

or start by making big adjustments,
after every shot that missed the pocket I would ask myself
Did I hit my target ?
Did I release the ball right ?
Was my speed where it should be ?
if the answer is yes to those three I would start with a drastic adjustment if Im way off of the pocket or possibly even a ball change

I think the key to scoring well in the first game if you are lost out there is to make a bold adjustment get your self close and adjust from there

Motogp69 · « **Reply #9 on:** February 23, 2010, 11:10:47 AM »

Okay, first off you are wasting your first 4 warm up balls. Mallott's system would work if you had the amount of practice time going into a tournament as PBA player, but typically these local tournaments only a lot 10 minutes of practice with 4 or more bowlers per pair. Trying to map out the pattern with a system that time consuming is just sabotaging your game from the very beginning.

The first balls you use just to limber up should be thrown with your benchmark ball and should be used to map out the pattern. The first ball should be thrown straight up the first arrow, and watch for when the ball reads. Then repeat this process through the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th arrow so you have a mental image of what you are bowling on. Then depending on the length of the pattern and the surface you are bowling on you should make your best guess on ball choice or adjust the surface of your benchmark ball with abralon as needed.

Obviously, a big concern is your spare shooting. You could leave a lot of splits to get to 160, but I'm willing to bet that for even a ton of splits you might leave they get you frustated and you probably throw away at least one ball in one of these games that should of been an easy conversion.

You seem to already be doing the most important thing which is to scout the lanes out ahead of time. I mainly do this just to get an idea of the friction available down past the pattern since on a tough shot that's typically where you play the pattern anyway. Also, it helps me get my correct sole combination so I can throw each ball with confidence.

When you are bowling you need to keep a detailed eye on where the people you are bowling with are playing, and the people on the lane you will be jumping to. Most people just go through the motions anyways so you should always let someone else be the fool and throw the first ball and attempt to make your adjustments off of them. By using all the information you've collected you should be able to pick up a few pins and get closer and closer to making the cut line.
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stopncrank · « **Reply #10 on:** February 23, 2010, 12:01:24 PM »

+1 Moto. To add to what Moto posted, since you are warming up, your speed will probably be slower, so pay attention to how your ball reacts during these warm up shots. Like Moto said, start at 1st arrow and throw a shot. Since you are warming up your ball speed will naturally be slower and thats ok, just pay attention to what the ball does. If it slides and never hooks up at that slower speed, more than likely you'll have to move inside of that area and play tight.

If it hooks from there at that speed, chances are you can move in and throw it to that spot. Do this at the 2nd and 3rd arrow as well. Since your speed will be lower while your warming up, it allows your ball to read the pattern a litte sooner, at that speed if the ball slides chances are thats out of bounds.
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Taking your lunch money, one strike at a time....

JessN16 · « **Reply #11 on:** February 24, 2010, 01:00:24 AM »

quote:
It sounds like you're good at adjusting to changes (regardless of the initial quality of the lanes, but struggle to find the right place to start.

Have you tried watching the other bowlers on your pair? If you watch where they're throwing the ball in practice, it might give you a hint about where you might want to play (and with what ball/surface).

If you get Bowling this Month Susie Minshew wrote an article within the last 3 months talking about this very kind of thing.
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Reporting from England

I do get BTM but I haven't had the chance to read all of the last couple months' issues. I do watch where others were playing but we didn't have anyone on the pair that was really figuring things out all that well. The one exception was a guy who plays a completely different game than I can play (he has a lot more revs, and throws with a lot more tilt). He actually led our division, but I would have had to have done something much different than he was doing.

Jess

JessN16 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 24, 2010, 01:04:57 AM »

quote:
I question that 160 avg for the first game. Is that from splits or missed spares. Are you leaving a bunch of multipin spares. 2-4-5, washouts, etc. With your scores improving the longer you bowl I question if you are using an aggressive enough ball for the first couple of games.

Either your ball is matching up better in the later games or your are relaxing and throwing it better after you've shot your self in the foot the first couple of games.
--------------------
Have Balls - Will Travel

RIP Thongprincess, that [deleted] lefty

This particular game -- 4 out of 5 strikes on the left lane, no strikes on the right. A missed 10-pin, couple of spares, couple of splits. After we switched pairs, pretty much the same thing -- got one lane figured out, the other one bit me.

I'm sure you're right about the lack of an aggressive enough ball. I based my equipment selection on what we saw on the practice shot the weekend before -- I wasn't alone, a lot of people did that. Then when the tournament came, we got baited and switched a little. I won't make that mistake again.

Jess

JessN16 · « **Reply #13 on:** February 24, 2010, 01:06:47 AM »

Also, thanks to everyone for great suggestions. Very helpful stuff in this thread.

Jess

AngloBowler · « **Reply #14 on:** February 24, 2010, 02:14:37 AM »

I'd just say that in order to learn from the others on your lane, it isn't necessary that they be bowling well. If they're all struggling, then you can learn to not do what they're doing if you see where I'm coming from.

If you can see someone bowling well, you can always try to borrow his breakpoint... Doesn't matter how you get the ball there, as long as you do you should be able to duplicate the shot, from the backend onwards, at least.

Also, if the leaves you've mentioned on the lane you weren't lined up on were sequential, it might have been a case of trying to force a shot. Next time you may be better served by staying where you are (if you're in the pocket) and let the carry come to you. It sounds like you made an adjustment that was too big and it bit you with a couple of splits. In that scenario, you're probably better off staying with it rather than changing...
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Reporting from England

Author Topic: My recent tournament trend... (Read 2713 times)

JessN16

My recent tournament trend...

GuessWho

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snowspike1

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JessN16

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JessN16

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AngloBowler

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SrKegler

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stopncrank

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ralphiejantz

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Motogp69

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stopncrank

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JessN16

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JessN16

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JessN16

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