Hi all:

 

 I recently returned home from reno (bowled Team on March 9th and Doubles and singles on March 10th)

 

I havent seen any lefty reports from Reno so i figured i would post what I saw first hand.....

 

First off I usually tend to play the lanes alot different than most leftys because of my 450 rev rate... Usually i am 10 or more boards inside of where most leftys play.... 

 

I  Started off in practice for the team event playing 18 with a small hook to 14 with a 4000 abralon sanded Python, I had a pretty good look in practice but i had to be pretty slow and i had absolutely no miss room..  I also played out around 5 with a 1000 abralon sanded Timezone but they were playing a little too tight to my liking to stay out....

 

When the lights came on I decided to stay inside with the Python and hope i could kind of make a goove to the pocket...  I was struggling with speed control and after 8 frames i was on pace for about 140....  I changed to the time zone and went out to 5 and pointed the ball to the pocket to bail for 168....  Even though my reaction was better when i went outside the lanes were playing really tight on the backends compared to previous years..... 

 

On to game two:  I decided the middle was going to be out of play considering what i shot for 8 frames from in there, How ever I didnt have a whole lot of backend from outside either so i moved in to 8 and went straight up8 and the ball faced up into the pocket very nicely.. I could throw it a little harder too compared to being inside or out where i was at 5.....  Regardless of where I was playing I had no miss room outside...  If i was going to miss it was better to miss inside because there was a little bit of hold.. When i say miss room in, I'm saying you could miss about a board inside, if you missed in more than that the ball was going through the nose......   Anyways I played straight up 8 for the rest of team and shot 194 and 211 for 575 Total...  Definately could have been worse... 

 

I was the only lefty within 8 pairs on each side of me so i couldnt tell ya what the other leftys were doing or throwing...  It looked like the right side started to open up a bit after about a game and a half but they were playing it pretty tight as well around the track area...  The rightys that were trying to play outside of 10 were washing out all day untill the 3rd game when it started to dry up.......

 

After Team I decided I needed a stronger ball than what i had if i wanted any chance to improve on my scores...  I ended up drilling a World Beater 45 x 4 1/2 x 45  for doubles and singles......

 

 

For doubles and singles i started Playing where i left off for team  playing Straight up 8 with  my new World Beater...  I had the same look as for team but the ball gave me more recovery on the back ends, something i wish i had for team the day before....  I had to stay firm with the ball too... If i didnt it went high and split...  I had 8 striked and shot 201...  alot better start but could have been a lot better if not for the splits....  2nd game of doubles i got caught in a little bit of transition and had a lot of over under and shot 165..  after about 7 frames i moved in to 10 and played a breakpoint of 5 and i could see a lot more consistancy in the back end reaction...  i got a little firm in the 10th frame and left a 7-9 to shoot 165...   Game three was a big confidence builder for me.. I was still playing 10-5 but i didnt have to fire the ball to keep it on like...  I ended up shooting 246 for a 612  for doubles.. my partner didnt fare so well and we barely broke 1000 for the two of us  but i set my self pretty good for allevents if i can keep the momentum going......

 

For singles we moved 1 pair to the right I started where i finished doubles playing 10-5 with the World Beater and the reaction was exactly like it was on the previous pair..  I ended up shooting 640 in singles without making a move or ball change at all for singles.....   Finished with 1825 for allevents... It was the best i have ever shot in the bowling stadium as well as my best usbc open  championships yet......

 

The one thing i left out was the approaches..  The last time i was at the stadium was 2004 and the approaches were really tacky...  This year they were actually really good.. I had no issue sticking infact i was really worried about too much slide.........   So I'd prepare to slide or if you like to plant you may need to adjust your shoes a lil bit...

 

 

All in all it was a good tournament ..  Good luck to everyone thats going out......