I did something in my 3rd game last night that I can't remember ever doing, at least not since jr leagues over 20 yrs ago. Up to this pt, I had one open all night - a washout in the 1st game and started the 3rd game with 10-pin-spare, turkey, 4 pin spare. 6th frame leave yet another 10-pin and flag it badly in the gutter - only the 2nd one I've missed so far this yr. Next frame - high flush leave 4-7 and and pick off only the 7-pin on spare shot. 8th frame - strike, ok punch out salvage the game. Nope, next frame leave 4-pin, over compensate for missing 4-7 and miss the 4 badly to the right. 10th frame leave another 4-pin and this time miss barely to the left. WTF! 4 easy spares in the last 5 frames.  Now I don't know if it was because the rest of my team bowled so poorly all night - we got crushed for all 8 pts, or if the Sammies had an effect, or maybe it was a combo. Normally I'm a pretty decent spare shooter and if I miss more than 1 spare a night I'm pretty p*d. Good thing it was the 3rd game.....

Anyone else relate to that?



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Freedom is not free.

I did something similar on Thursday.  I went game one clean, 235.  Game 2 left a 4-6 in the second, five bagger, spares off the sheet for 222.  Third game, my brain goes out to lunch and I leave a variety of washouts and splits for a 183.  I'm looking at my hand thinking, what did I do??

I suppose it just happens from time to time.
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Nut

If you wonder if you're good enough, then you're not good enough.

Been there - done that. I bowled a tournament last year where during the 10 game qualifying round I missed 12 easy spares. A few combinations, but mostly wiffs. I was working on throwing straight at spares (something new for me), and refused to give it up. After the first couple of misses I was actually feeling fear at the line when staring at a spare, and I think that contributed to the remainder. What hurt the most was even with that, I barely missed the cut and ended up alternate. Now THAT HURTS! Happy ending? Someone dropped out during the second game of match play due to injury, I bowled great the next 14, and pulled 'us' from 16th up to 8th at the end of match play. I missed only ONE makeable spare during match play. Needless to say, I went back to my old way and gave up the straight stuff, and haven't attempted it again. Sometimes you miss a couple and things can spiral out of control. So much of this sport is mental. Once you reach a certain level, it's 80% mental.