First 600 of the season

It’s taken me 14 weeks of league, but I FINALLY broke the 600 mark! I finished the night with a 634, which seems to about where I tend to finish if I bowl 600’s.  Weird.

So I started the night with my Twisted Fury, shooting 10 and 5 and standing on 20, making my lay down about 15.  In plain english, I was standing on the big dot in the middle on the approach which is board 20, aiming at the second arrow on the lane, which is board 10 from the right gutter, wanting the ball to get out to about the first arrow, which is board 5, at the end of the pattern and laying the ball down on the floor at about board 15, which is the third arrow on the floor.

I made sure to keep my feet nice and slow and just let my arm fall. I recently discovered that I have a tendency to drift as much as 6 boards to the right on the approach, so I made sure to make sure my first and third steps were to the left. This ensures that as I enter the slide step, which is where most of the drift seems to be coming from, I’m already left of my target. This seemed to work out pretty well, as I seemed to be sliding at about 20 which is where I was starting. Yay!

Game one

So the first game was good. I opened the night with the first two, then an 8-spare, followed by two more. From there it was all spares but for one open. I finished that game with a 190. I’m always happy to finish the first game with anything over 170, because that puts me in a great position to shoot at least a low 600.

Game two

The second game, I started off with an 8-spare. I then managed to put together the next 5 in a row. I missed in the 7th, getting an 8-spare. The lanes were beginning to transition and my shot was getting really burned up making the ball drift high. I moved my feet one board left to account for that. The next two shots looked pretty flush, but left ringing 10 pins, I suspect due to transition. Thankfully, I picked them both up and stepped up in the 10th with a 200 already in hand and a clean game so far. First shot in the 10th, I hit a little high again, leaving a 6-10. I picked up the spare and took the approach. Moving another two boards with my feet and one board with my eyes. Unfortunately, something went wrong at the bottom and I missed right by about four boards. I could just stand and watch as the ball sailed into the gutter.

I finished the game with a 224 giving me 414 over two games. I should have been at least a 230 this game, but I was still happy with the night so far. I even got a slap on the hand from Anthony for throwing the last ball in the gutter. I was definitely disappointed about that, but was happy with the look I had overall. On to game three…

Game three

Before this game started, I decided it was time for a ball change. I changed to my Arch Rival because it had more surface and would allow me to play a little deeper on the lanes. Since the lanes were starting to get torched, I could utilize the river of oil toward the middle of the lane to get the ball to the same break point as my previous. I moved my feet 4 boards left, standing on 24, shooting 12 and 5.

Unfortunately, I didn’t adjust to the new line very well. I plain missed in the first frame, leaving a 5-9, which I just plain missed. I picked up an 8 spare in the second frame and left a wash out (1-2-4-6-10) leaving me with 31 in the third frame. Such a fantastic start! I picked up an 8 spare in the 4th frame, leaking the shot just a little high.

So I made a 1 and 1 move left in the 5th frame, which really seemed to open up the lanes for me. I picked up the next 5 in a row, securing the 600 series before I even stepped up in the 10th. I threw the first shot in the 10th flush, knocking all 10 in to the pit. I left a 9 count in the second shot, and cleaned up the spare for 220. As it turns out, my wife shot a 221 that game, beating me by one pin.

Summary

I finished the night with hard fought 634. I thought for sure I had ruined any chance of shooting a 600 the way I’d started the third game. Thankfully, I knew my equipment well enough to make the adjustments and know that they would work. The biggest difference between last night and the 14 weeks before it was simple. Spares. I picked up all but three spares all night.

Admittedly, there weren’t too many spares to shoot at anyway, but ordinarily I would leave at least two open frames per game which require a string of at least five strikes to make up for the lost count. I’ve known for quite some time that I really needed to work on spares. I finally felt comfortable with the lines I was shooting and I’m feeling very comfortable with my release and have done for quite a while. Last night, I finally got my feet doing what they needed to do and that allowed the rest of my game to flow. Its amazing what happens when things work the way they should.

I shot a 598 last Sunday, and we didn’t bowl this Thursday so I’m already looking forward to Thursday. I can only hope this bout of form continues. I would really like to knock the first 700 of the season out some time soon, but I will most definitely settle for a couple more 600’s.


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