Summer League: May 14th 2009

Week three of the Summer League ’09 at Fugate’s Bowl-a-rama in Hazard, KY was a good one, if I do say so myself. My team is by far and away the best team in the league.  We currently hold three of the top four averages (yes, I’m the fourth highest average), which doesn’t mean a whole lot, considering we’re only three weeks in to season, but its a great way to start.  Three weeks, three wins, all clean sweeps. It’s a great feeling knowing that I’m not dead weight as well. I might not be bowling 600’s, but I’m there and there abouts. I need to make a few simple adjustments to my game and I’ll be getting the 600’s before you know it.

So on with the run down.  This week was a pretty solid week I thought.  I didn’t have any really weak games, which is a good feeling.  I know I’m going to bowl the occasional 160 game, but I don’t wanna make it a habit. After arriving late, I threw four warm up shots and we got started. I quickly figured out the right lane (which is incidently the lane I threw all my warm up shots on) and struck 4 of the five times I was on that lane.  The left lane, however, had me guessing a little. For some reason, I was pulling every shot on that lane and went high just about every time I got on the approach.  Unfortunately, I opened a couple times on that lane and finished up with a 185. A respectable start. Not quite the 200, but it’s there and there abouts.  No complaints here.

Unfortunately, I had injured my elbow earlier in the week while I was bowling an open session. I managed to aggravate that injury a little in the first game. Not the best way to go in to a new game, but I had no choice. My elbow didn’t hurt too much, so I just sucked it up and got on with the job.

So, injured elbow and all, I managed to open the second game with a turkey. I had switched balls on the left lane, preferring to use my Twisted Fury because it pushed a little longer down the lane.  I was, however, still pulling every shot on that lane.  I’d just got lucky in that I was pulling it just enough to get it to go Brooklyn.  Unfortunately, after some discussion about my elbow with my team mates and my wife, and some on going comments about what they decided were mechanical problems in my armswing and release (more to come later), I had started to be really conscious of what my arm was doing throughout the swing. The problem is the more you focus on one aspect of your game, the more you accentuate other problems in your game, in this case a muscled release.  As a result of the muscled release, I was now pulling shots and sending them straight down the middle of the lane. I did this for the next four frames, including the spare shots, leaving me with a really close miss on a single pin spare, and splits I couldn’t convert leaving three of those four frames open. I forget how I finished the game, but I finished with a 174.  Not a strong game, but not a weak one either.  The 600 was still in sight, but the hopes of a 700 were dead.

So the last game, I finally managed to settle in to a rhythm again and keep a clean sheet.  I didn’t manage to string very many strikes together, but I got some nice messenger strikes, on the left lane might I add. I finally felt more comfortable with my arm swing and shot all my spares.  I finished the game with a 235, giving me a 594 series, just 6 pins short of the 600.  While I’m not disappointed with a 594, I now feel that I’m capable of shooting at least a 600 every week. At the moment, I’m missing by just a few pins every week which is both encouraging and frustrating at the same time. I guess you can’t win ’em all, huh?


Posted

in

by

Comments

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

%d bloggers like this: