I had a tournament last weekend and it was just ridiculous.  I left the 2,4,10 about five times that day.  I kept coming up just short of the pocket but when I tried to adjust and get it there my ball would just take off and take out the 4,7,8 or something like that.  I haven't had an experience like this before.  What should I have been doing to compensate?  Also things to note are I'm bowling in the youth leagues and it was all little kids on my pair so they were just throwing straight and basically all had plastic balls or the Tropical Storms and  I only have a TNV, Copperhead, and my spare ball.
What should I have been doing?

it almost sounds like a reverse block.

Which ball left those wide splits? The TNV? IMHO, it rather sounds as if you had too much ball at hand, creating a lot of back end angle, paired with burnout.

On true carrydown you should see the ball struggling to break. But if you had a good hook and teh ball just rolling through the deck with poor pin mix, it sounds like another problem - and my guess is burnout.

Recognizing this is hard - many players (including myself, but I learned my lesson on this topic ) get deluded by the non-hooking ball and think that there HAS to be lots of oil or carrydown out there - but the contrary is the case, so that you get into ever deeper trouble with stronger balls.
--------------------
DizzyFugu - Reporting from Germany

Confused by bowling?
Check out BR.com's vault of wisdom: the unofficial FAQ section