Good day everyone. Just looking for some advice on how to tackle game 1 on a house shot.

I've been keeping detailed records of my scores lately and doing some statistical analysis on them. I've found that my average game 1 score is around 170, average game 2 score is around 220, and average game 3 score is around 225.

We all know that house shots tend to get easier as they break down if you have the hand to open up your angles, but my game 1 scores tend to kill my team's chances of winning the first game and the series and I want to change that. I could easily get the average up to 180 with better spare shooting, but I tend to have trouble even leaving more makeable spares. I usually go 6 frames of splits, washouts, and combination spares before striking out to salvage a respectable score.

My ball reaction goes like this - misses out do not recover, misses in strike, and pure shots are just an over under mess. I can't line up straight enough because of my high rev rate and medium-low speed. And I also do not want to bring my target in because I want to maintain my hold for an easy game 2 and 3.

I've been using my Black widow Dark Legend (2000) for games 1 and 2, and my Scandal Pearl (3000) for game 3. Games 2, and especially 3, feel like I'm bowling on easy mode, but man, game 1 is always a mess.

I have almost the complete opposite problem on sport shots, where game 1 is usually my high, because I throw urethane straight up the outside, but I worry that will make a house shot more difficult as it breaks down.

I'm thinking about trying a dull ball straight up second arrow during warmups and switching to my Widow just as the game begins, but is there a better strategy? And no, I do not have teammates that can help me break down a line (they are all over the place).

If your misses in strike, why not just move your eyes left?

I'm concerned about taking away my hold for games 2 and 3. So I just try to destroy everything outside 10, allowing for like 4 boards of miss room either way as the pattern breaks down.

My recommendation is a medium cover medium core with the pin around 5.5 from your axis and about a 4 inch pin buffer. I utilize this combo on the Torrent and it allows me to close my angles down more on a house shot and play the wall. I have some bump if I miss out and hold if I miss in. Also gives me somewhere to go assuming I'm not bowling a team that goes left fast.

Thanks guys. I will try just moving my breakpoint in. Carry is good from what I've seen.

I just hope my look doesn't change too much later on in game 3.

Maybe it’s not the ball or trouble with the fresh but you’re not fully warmed up from practice....  i has some of these same issues but it Was mostly due to me using my line from practice but being looser and just starting to hit normal speed so I wasn’t getting the reaction I was seeing in practice.