I want to talk about bowling! In another thread, I learned that there are at least two other league bowlers here on FOFC, so it's time to chat. Here's my story:

Four years ago, right before I moved from New Orleans, my co-workers threw a bowling party for me to say goodbye. I had only bowled once in my life before that, and I had no idea what I was doing, but it was fun. So I moved to Pennsylvania, and there happens to be a bowling center half a mile from my house. My wife and I figured that it was a year-round activity that we could learn to enjoy. We used house balls and rented shoes for about a year, and then we stepped up.

I got my own 12-pound Columbia Scout and started getting used to having my own equipment. A year after that, I went up to a 12-pound Ebonite Gamebreaker which introduced me to a fingertip grip. Finally, last year, I upgraded to a 14-pound Ebonite Complete NV and also got my first spare ball (a White Dot).

I just finished my second year of a winter league that bowls every other week. Last year, I averaged 150. This year, I averaged 173 and also had the second-highest single game (275) and highest series (678) of anyone in the league. As I mentioned in another thread, I am switching to a USBC-sanctioned league next winter. It competes every week and has somewhat more serious bowlers, so my wife and I are both looking forward to the increased competition.

We are bowling summer league (starting tomorrow!) for the next 14 weeks or so. This will be our second year in this summer league, and it's very fun and laid-back. There are some excellent bowlers, some very good bowlers, and some casual bowlers. It's a good mix, and we're glad to be a part of it again. My goal for the summer league is to average at least 180 and to bowl at least one 600 series. They are very reachable goals, but they are also challenging.

Who else here bowls regularly? Any leagues or just for practice and fun? I practice 10-15 games a week. I'd practice even more if I could convince my wife to go with me more often. Also, do any of you guys have particular challenges that you face out on the lanes? A big one for me is mental focus. I recognize when I need to make adjustments out on the lanes, but I fight it for three or four frames before I finally do the right thing. I end up probably costing myself 20-40 pins because I leave silly splits or just fail to convert makeable spares.

So that's my long story. Anybody else got something to share about bowling?

Nothing about a league... but I have two stories.

-When I was a kid (grade 6 or 7, or around there), I went to a 5-pin place with a friend that bowled in a 5-pin league at the time. I ended up getting something like 275 and still have the printed out score sheet somewhere in a box at home. It's not a crazy-high score for 5-pin, but it was a really nice moment for me as a kid. The guy running the lane asked me if I wanted to join a league because I bowled well in that game, but I declined.

-There's been two occasions where I've gone 10-pin bowling with two random different groups of friends for a birthday or something... first game everyone bowls, and then before the second game someone will bring up bowling for money... highest score wins everything. I'm a crappy bowler, and I can't even throw the 10-pin ball properly... but for those two games I somehow ended up with the highest score both times, taking the money. The final score was somewhere in the low 100s (like 120 or whatever), but again it makes me feel good. :)

Nothing to contribute other than that I miss league bowling even though I'm not a great bowler.

I used to bowl for several years. I stopped after I blew my knee out playing indoor soccer about 10 years ago. Had around a 180 average at that point.

Unfortunately it seems that the Marfan Syndrome has gotten me a bit here. One thing it affects is connective tissue in the body and can have various consequences. I found one of those when I tried to bowl again after recovering from the knee problem. When I went lift up for the spin on the ball I felt incredible pain in my middle and ring ringers on that hand. I thought I had broken them initially. As it turns out they both "dislocated" at the knuckles and reset. They became inflamed and I could not continue. I have tried three other times since and I cannot put any torque on my throw at all or it happens every time.

This sucks too because our poker group has been thinking of starting a team or two. Unfortunately everyone looks at me like I just told them I was obducted by an alien when I tell them about this (how you are looking at this post right about now :) ).

When I was like 11 I dropped my balls.

Oddly enough, I just got home from winning my first league championship! Ill post a picture when it hits the league website.

Tenpin bowling is too easy. Bowl duckpins (East Coast thing) if you want a challange.:D

Sounds like you are far better than I am bowling wise Pumpy. I've been bowling since 2000 (although I stopped for 2-3 years because of personal life issues during the middle of that). I have been pretty consistant 140 average for the most part the entire time. I always start out the season bowling 125-130 though, and average closer to 150-160 the last 8 weeks of the season. (This year I averaged 154 over the last 2 months). I think that is due to my not bowling a single time ever outside of league time :)

My best game this season was a 208, and I never have had a 600 series, I only had 3 500-series this year.

I wish I bowled more often. The only time I bowl now is when I have a company outing (which I have one today). I went with some friends a little over a year ago and bowled a 190, despite having not bowled in a year prior to that. I could probably be good if I went on a regular basis and got my own ball.

I just went bowling again this weekend after not doing it for a while. My wife and I were in a league two summers ago, but it was just too far of a drive to go every week. I wish there were leagues inside the city.

Anyway, I want to get my own ball but I have no idea what to get. Hopefully I can get out to a shop sometime soon and see what the deal is. I'm working on learning to throw a hook.

I have been in a league the last two years. I finished this year with a 140 average, but I improved greatly over the second half of the year. For me, I think about it to much. It gets into my head. I had a streak in October where I went 3 weeks without breaking a 300 series, but the last week of the year (in April) I bowled a 650.

I have been bowling league for 2 and a half years now. I started my second semester of my senior year in college - college leagues are awesome. We really didn't care, just a good excuse to drink. I graduated and moved back home and realized I wanted to continue bowling. I am nowhere near good (closer to Alan than anyone else in this thread, right around a 130 average), but I figured it would be a good time. Found and joined a league called the Tavern league that bowls on Friday nights (that right there tells you it's gotta be good, right?) My dad, my brother, and 2 of my buddies joined me on our team and we just finished our second year. We are by far the worst team scratch-wise, but with handicap we are always able to compete (in fact, we have been in the Championship roll-off both years, yet to win one yet though) I have been unable to master a decent spin yet, but I am hoping to get some decent practice this summer to get something going. I really do love bowling though.

Also - I have never had a 200 (highest is a 193), nor a 500 series. Here is hoping I can pick my shit up and break that next year :)

I don't bowl with a spin.. perhaps one of the only ones in my league that don't it seems. I actually just bowl a straight ball and line up where I want to place it on the arrows. My problem isn't actually keeping up with the strikes/spares that others do.. I actually have really poor bowling form and for some stupid reason my left knee is in horrible pain after a third game of bowling every night.

So my normal bowling scores are typically: 170ish, 150ish, 120ish or along those lines.

The one problem I run in to is I have a very tough time with split conversions that the spin balls seem to do better with. (I did hit a 3 - 7 - 10 split last week though which was cool)

Yeah I know what you mean about the split conversions...my coolest was a 4-7-10.

Nice to see quite a few other bowlers here, and I love hearing from the casual bowlers as well as everyone else. The great thing about it is that anyone can compete with handicaps.

I tried to throw a hook with my first ball (the 12lb Columbia Scout), but I just couldn't get the rotation I needed. I still have that ball, but I only use it for my backwards trick shot now. The difference for me (and for most anyone else) would be the fingertip grip I got in my second ball. It is much easier to hook the ball with a fingertip grip instead of a conventional. For those who don't know what a fingertip grip is, your two fingers only go into the ball to the first knuckle. So only your fingertips are in the ball. If it's drilled properly, it will fit fine and won't be uncomfortable. It really is the next step to improving your game, if you're interested in taking that step.

Every league will have its share of bowlers who bowl a straight ball, and that's fine. There are advantages to throwing a hook, but it takes dozens of practice games to really get comfortable with it. If you're not a heavy bowler, there's probably not much reason to switch unless you just really feel compelled to.

To lordscarlet: Definitely check out a nearby pro shop and talk to them about your game. If you're just starting to learn a hook, they will likely start you off with a value-priced reactive ball, just because it has a more predictable roll to it. It won't give you a huge hook or a lot of power when it reaches the pins, but it's very much WYSIWYG.

To move up to a higher-performance ball, you need to know your personal style very well because there's a huge difference in what the various balls do. My wife and I both use 14lb high-performance balls, but hers breaks much later on the lane than mine does. I would be completely lost if I used a ball like that. It's great for her, though. The pro shop guy recommended it for her because he's seen her bowl dozens of games. He knew what she needed.

Split conversions are tough as hell, no matter how good you become. Even "baby splits" like the 3-10 give me trouble sometimes. My shining moment, I guess, is the one time I made a 7-10. There was one problem, though. I actually had a 6-7-10 split. I rolled the ball, knew I was going to miss the 6, so I just turned around and walked back to my seat. All of a sudden, people started screaming at me. They were like "You made the 7-10!" Sure enough, I had left the 6 pin standing. I think making a 7-10 and leaving a 6 is more impressive than making a 6-7-10. At least that's what I tell myself. :)

I have had a couple of VERY good practice weeks lately, so I'm hoping to get at least a 550 series tonight. I just have to recognize the adjustments I need to make, and I also have to MAKE those adjustments. I'll also have to balance that with getting to know my new teammates. I love this stuff, and it's something for me to look forward to every Wednesday this summer.

You are going to have to deal with me coming and heckling you in a Colin White jersey!

I have heard that about the finger-tip grip too. I have a 14-lb ball that I have been using for 2 years with a conventional grip. I am considering a new ball this summer with a finger-tip grip.

And the 7-10 story is nuts :)

Right now I'm trying to hook with alley balls, so anything is an improvement. ;) My plan is definitely to get something fairly close to entry level and see where it takes me. Thanks for the advice, Pumpy!

You are going to have to deal with me coming and heckling you in a Colin White jersey!
oh fuck me

I have heard that about the finger-tip grip too. I have a 14-lb ball that I have been using for 2 years with a conventional grip. I am considering a new ball this summer with a finger-tip grip.

And the 7-10 story is nuts :)
My personal recommendation would be to switch. It's difficult at first because it feels different, but you really get so much more control over the ball with the fingertip grip. You'll get more consistent hook on the ball, and once you know how your ball behaves on the lane, you can figure out how to adjust. If you switch, your scores will probably drop for the first 30 games or so, but the benefits are amazing once you've got the hang of it.

And I hope I never leave another 7-10 in my life, but if I do, maybe I'll get it without leaving an extra pin standing. :)

Right now I'm trying to hook with alley balls, so anything is an improvement. ;) My plan is definitely to get something fairly close to entry level and see where it takes me. Thanks for the advice, Pumpy!
I can hook my own ball with ease, but I tried to hook a house ball last year and absolutely could not do it. Part of it was because I didn't have my wrist brace with me, but a bigger part was just that I was using a house ball. Yeah, you'll definitely need your own. :)

What are the advantages to learning a hook? I don't really have too much problem with control usually. I line up to the marks and have figured out where to aim the ball for a desired result. I sometimes feel amateurish compared to everyone else I bowl with, but in the end I don't care too much about that. :)

I'm kind of tempted to try to learn one just because I want to learn one.. what else does it help you do?

Bowling the game of my life as a kid, I had 198 after 2 strikes in the 10th and then faulted on the last ball.

:cry:

There was a time in my life when I bowled in leagues 5 nights a week, spending about $125 a week in league fees.

I stopped bowling about 18 months ago, carrying an average between 195-200. My highest score is 296, choked on #12 for 300. I have bowling 280 6 times and 279 7 times. I had a 6 week stretch back in 2006 where I had 11 strikes in 1 game, 5 weeks in a row. I was that close to 300, but never did it.

I got tired of the 35 week commitment and gave it up. It was probably one of the most stressful things I've ever done because I rarely bowled as well as I thought I could. I was nuts I guess.

Tenpin bowling is too easy. Bowl duckpins (East Coast thing) if you want a challange.:D

I would argue it's a Maryland thing, not an east coast thing. :)

What are the advantages to learning a hook? I don't really have too much problem with control usually. I line up to the marks and have figured out where to aim the ball for a desired result. I sometimes feel amateurish compared to everyone else I bowl with, but in the end I don't care too much about that. :)

I'm kind of tempted to try to learn one just because I want to learn one.. what else does it help you do?

It's not about control. If you bowl straight, the physics just aren't working with you as well IMO. If you're coming in with a hook, you swipe through the pins rather than just relying on the middle pins to fall in the correct direciton.

I'm a league bowler and as a matter of fact, my wife and I leave for Vegas this weekend for sweepers. We started bowling in leagues about 8 years ago with another couple. They had a baby and that put an end to us being able to get out weekly for leagues. We just started up with them again as their boy is now six years old and they figured he could handle the playroom.

My brother is a very good bowler and when he found out I had joined a league he started tutoring me. He convinced me to switch to a finger tip grip and gave me two of his bowling balls to be redrilled. In our initial leagues I was bowling around a 140 average. I'm now up around a 180 average. The league I bowl in is a handicap league calculated at 90% of 210. The 180 average I have now has been rising throughout this season and I fully expect to be around 190 when the next league starts in June. In fact, I've been confident enough in my game in this league that I've been buying into the side brackets and I've been winning some cash pretty consistently. Last week I won 4 brackets. I squeezed by in the first round with a 197, but cruised in the final round with a 237 on my second game. I bowled a 209 on the 3rd game which got me $18 per bracket for $72. I signed into about $100 worth of brackets for Vegas so there is a potential of $600 there.

I love bowling in leagues. I know it's not some killer sport (although I'm taking Jiu Jitsu now for that), but it does provide a certain level of competition which I thoroughly enjoy.

Cool thread Pumpy... I like it.

What are the advantages to learning a hook? I don't really have too much problem with control usually. I line up to the marks and have figured out where to aim the ball for a desired result. I sometimes feel amateurish compared to everyone else I bowl with, but in the end I don't care too much about that. :)

I'm kind of tempted to try to learn one just because I want to learn one.. what else does it help you do?
The "problem" with a straight ball (I hestitate to use the word "problem" because I don't want a straight ball bowler to think they're bowling "wrong") is that there are only two directions the pins can go. They'll either spray out sideways or go straight back. There's very little room for error. If you don't hit the head pin in just the right spot, you can forget about a strike. With a straight ball, you're relying on the ball to hit at a very precise angle. With a hook, the ball comes in at an angle that sends different pins in various directions. There is a lot more opportunity for something to make contact with all 10 pins even if you're off by a couple of inches. One common thing I see with the straight ball is that the 5 or 9 pin gets left standing a lot. That's because the ball missed by just an inch or two. If you throw a hook, there's enough deflection and pin action down there to "carry" that extra pin.

Another nice thing about the hook is that other hook bowlers will burn a groove in the oil on the lane. So once the better bowlers have prepared that line for you, all you have to do is put your ball in that groove and it'll follow everyone else's path to the pocket. It's great when other people help do the hard work for you. :cool:

The "problem" with a straight ball (I hestitate to use the word "problem" because I don't want a straight ball bowler to think they're bowling "wrong") is that there are only two directions the pins can go. They'll either spray out sideways or go straight back. There's very little room for error. If you don't hit the head pin in just the right spot, you can forget about a strike. With a straight ball, you're relying on the ball to hit at a very precise angle. With a hook, the ball comes in at an angle that sends different pins in various directions. There is a lot more opportunity for something to make contact with all 10 pins even if you're off by a couple of inches. One common thing I see with the straight ball is that the 5 or 9 pin gets left standing a lot. That's because the ball missed by just an inch or two. If you throw a hook, there's enough deflection and pin action down there to "carry" that extra pin.

Another nice thing about the hook is that other hook bowlers will burn a groove in the oil on the lane. So once the better bowlers have prepared that line for you, all you have to do is put your ball in that groove and it'll follow everyone else's path to the pocket. It's great when other people help do the hard work for you. :cool:


I leave the 5 - 8 alot, but I understand what you are getting at. I tend to have very often the right side pins kick back across the lane to take them out though. Probably half of my strikes tend to be like that. Perhaps I get better pin action due to throwing the ball harder, or using a heavy bowling ball?

What is the best way to learn a proper hook? It sounds like using house balls is frustrating, and obviously it takes practice. I would have to re-learn where all of the arrows end up putting the ball at..

Why wouldn't people use a hook for the first ball and use a straight ball for picking up spares when you just need to hit specific pins? Is it just to not mess up their form by changing it up?

I bowl tonight in our last league match of the year (position round). We are in 10th (out of 15 teams) but have a chance to move up if we do well. It is a mixed league that I joined about 10 years ago, and only the team captain and myself have been there all 10 years. Picture me, a 42-year old male, with an 82-year old woman (team captain), her 80-year old sister, and a 79-year old man. Kind of a weird looking team, but we have fun (which is all that matters).

I have been in this league for 10 years now and my average has been between 140 and 155 (this year I'm right at 150). I have been struggling recently, with my left knee hurting, so I am trying a different release point. I use a 16-lb full finger ball which I have used for almost 10 years. I also have a 16-lb fingertip ball that I used one season, but I feel that I drop it (can't control the release). I need to get a 15-lb or something lighter for fingertip release. I have never had a 600-series but I have had many 200s (usually 2-3 a season), with a high of 243. I throw a straight ball that hooks ever so slightly. My problem is inconsistency. I miss more single pin spares than I care to remember. Also, I am the anchor bowler and that puts more pressure on my game than some other factors. Luckily, we almost always are getting a lot of pins from the other team (due to handicaps). With my knee hurting, I'm happy that tonight is the last night bowling for about 3 months. Maybe by next season, I will buy a new finger-tip ball or maybe get the 16-lb redrilled.

People throw straight on spares to remove oil from the equation. It is easier to throw straight at just one pin than hook to it. You may know where to put the ball to pick it up with 1 pin, but the oil could change on you and you may miss.

In all my years bowling, the 10 pin is the only spare I ever through straight. I would always throw the ball the same way as my strike ball when picking up spares. I never saw a big need in throwing straight.

Why wouldn't people use a hook for the first ball and use a straight ball for picking up spares when you just need to hit specific pins? Is it just to not mess up their form by changing it up?

Some people do. A lot of splits are easier to pick up with a hook, though. If the ball is moving in the direction of the second (third?) pin, it helps to slid the pin you're making contact with into the split.

I bowl tonight in our last league match of the year (position round). We are in 10th (out of 15 teams) but have a chance to move up if we do well. It is a mixed league that I joined about 10 years ago, and only the team captain and myself have been there all 10 years. Picture me, a 42-year old male, with an 82-year old woman (team captain), her 80-year old sister, and a 79-year old man. Kind of a weird looking team, but we have fun (which is all that matters).

I have been in this league for 10 years now and my average has been between 140 and 155 (this year I'm right at 150). I have been struggling recently, with my left knee hurting, so I am trying a different release point. I use a 16-lb full finger ball which I have used for almost 10 years. I also have a 16-lb fingertip ball that I used one season, but I feel that I drop it (can't control the release). I need to get a 15-lb or something lighter for fingertip release. I have never had a 600-series but I have had many 200s (usually 2-3 a season), with a high of 243. I throw a straight ball that hooks ever so slightly. My problem is inconsistency. I miss more single pin spares than I care to remember. Also, I am the anchor bowler and that puts more pressure on my game than some other factors. Luckily, we almost always are getting a lot of pins from the other team (due to handicaps). With my knee hurting, I'm happy that tonight is the last night bowling for about 3 months. Maybe by next season, I will buy a new finger-tip ball or maybe get the 16-lb redrilled.


Your bowling style is pretty close to mine it sounds like, and your left knee pain seems to be pretty similar to what I descried earlier in this thread.. plus I also use a 16-lb ball.. I guess that likely is not a coincidence?

[QUOTE=lordscarlet;2020149]I would argue it's a Maryland thing, not an east coast thing. :)QUOTE]

You are correct. There are more duckpin houses in Maryland than any other state.

Maryland 26 houses
Connecticut 15
Rhode Island 7
Virginia 5
Massachusettes 4
and some other single states

My high game is 233, high average 147.

Crazy Marylanders!

Glad to know I am not the only one with knee pain at times, although mine is in my right knee.

I rough up the outside of my thumb a lot. It typically gets pretty calloused and funky looking. However, this last time it got severely bloody under the skin -- I think maybe doing a hook with an alley ball that was perhaps too heavy? I don't know.

So if I want to go to a finger-tip ball, would you guys suggest just using the ball I currently have and getting it plugged or getting a whole new ball? My current ball is 14 pounds, and I was considering going to 15, but I like the size of it and from what you guys are saying, it sounds like too heavy is not a good idea.

Wow, a lot to cover here! I like it!

If you're bowling a straight ball, the heavier ball will initiate more pin action than a lighter ball. You are sacrificing margin for error, though. A heavier ball will not deflect as easily off the pins, so the ball can only take one path through the pins. That's why single pins in the middle (the 5, 8, or 9) often get left standing. You're counting on the pins to careen off the sidewalls, and it's not easy to come off the sidewall into a specific spot in the center of the lane. It's unpredictable.

With a hook, the idea is to get very predictable action. Yes, you sometimes need a lucky bounce or deflection, but the ball deflects off the head pin ever so slightly into the 5, then the 5 takes out the 8, and the ball takes out the 9 (for a righthanded bowler). The hook and entry angle introduce this deflection into the shot, and that really makes it easier to strike.

When choosing a bowling ball, remember that comfort is important. If it hurts to roll the ball (or if it's so heavy that it saps your energy), something's not right. We all have different levels of stamina, but three games should not be killing your hand or arm. I am going to move up to a 15lb ball later this year, but that's as far as I'm going. I don't want to move up to 16 because it's too heavy for me and I will lose some of that deflection I need in order to get consistent strikes. Many pros use 14s and 15s, so don't think that you need to step up to 16 to get better. That's not necessarily true.

Some people pick up all single pins with a straight ball. That works for them. Others like spleen1015 and myself only shoot at the 10 pin with a straight ball and use a hook for all other spares. It's all preference.

PackerFanatic, what kind of bowling ball do you have? Your answer will help me decide whether I think you should get a new one or not. :)

I used 16 lb balls, but I know a lot of folks who moved down to 15 lb because the new ball technology was causing 16 lbs to hook too much and they were missing the 9 pin on perfect pocket shots.

I can't recall right now...I will have to let you know when I get home. I know it's nothing fancy, just something cheap I picked up at the pro shop.

I am pretty sure this is the ball I have...

Orange/Navy | Classic Bowling Balls | Storm Products, Inc — The Bowler’s Company (http://www.stormbowling.com/products/balls/classic/orange-navy)

I am somewhat amazed this thread has gone so long without a picture from Kingpin or The Big Lebowski, or even Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama. That is a pretty big accomplishment on this board. ;)

Here ya go Cringer

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc59/Dodgerchick74/cleaningballs.gif

I bowled in leagues when I was a kid and stopped at around age 14. I averaged 185 as 14 year old. Now I will bowl occasionally (maybe once a year) and usually bowl around 170.

Here ya go Cringer

http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc59/Dodgerchick74/cleaningballs.gif

Hook, line, and sinker. :p

How much does an average ball cost? My wife and I bought shoes and were bowling several games a weekend a while back, but we stopped because it never seemed like we were getting any better and she had problems finding a ball that she could control that fit her hand.

I am pretty sure this is the ball I have...

Orange/Navy | Classic Bowling Balls | Storm Products, Inc — The Bowler’s Company (http://www.stormbowling.com/products/balls/classic/orange-navy)
My opinion would be to get a new ball. Now, of course that depends on if you can afford to spend the money. I'm not really an advocate of getting something new and better "just because." But that ball has a pretty low hook potential, and a fingertip grip would be better suited to a more reactive ball.
How much does an average ball cost? My wife and I bought shoes and were bowling several games a weekend a while back, but we stopped because it never seemed like we were getting any better and she had problems finding a ball that she could control that fit her hand.
"Reactive" balls (ones that will actually hook, even a little bit) start as low as about $60 and go way up from there. I've seen some as high as about $300. Mine was $150, and then I spent another $60 on a spare ball. If you two want to bowl several games a week, you really should get your own bowling balls. It'll be much more comfortable.

For anyone who wants to get into bowling semi-regularly, I recommend getting to know the people who work at the bowling center. Almost all the people I've met are very helpful and will give tips. My wife and I have basically gotten free coaching for the past 3 years, and it's because we showed a real interest in learning more about the game. It's amazing how much improvement you can get from just a few pointers here and there.

http://entimg.msn.com/i/BillMurray/Kingpin_300x298.jpg

So my first night of league was a success for me. First of all, my team swept the series. Secondly, I discovered that I'm the team captain. Finally, I bowled 191/169/191 for a 551 series. Not a bad start! Definitely looking forward to next week.

Haha, how do you not know you are the captain? ;)

I think I will definitely look into getting a new ball.

And what tells you in that ball description the "hook potential" as you call it?

Haha, how do you not know you are the captain? ;)

I think I will definitely look into getting a new ball.
I didn't even know who my teammates were going to be until I walked in the building. :)

And what tells you in that ball description the "hook potential" as you call it?
Nothing in the description does, but I looked up information on the ball at New Bowling Balls, Bowling Bags, Bowling Shoes, and Bowling Supplies at bowlingball.com (http://www.bowlingball.com). I also have a subscription to Bowling Ball Info: The best website for bowling ball information (http://www.bowlingballinfo.com) also, so I could dig up more detailed information, too.

Anyway, about bowlingball.com, it has something called the "Perfect Scale." Every ball on the site is rated on a scale of 1-300 to show its hook potential. This ball rates around a 50. My ball is rated over 200 for reference. Drilling a 50 as fingertip is OK, but if you can afford a ball with more hook potential, it would be worth it. As you improve, you can grow into the ball, rather than outgrowing it in a hurry. Just an idea, though.

What do you think of this one?

Brunswick Twisted Fury Bowling Balls $149.99 FREE SHIPPING Product ID: 5996 at bowlingball.com (http://www.bowlingball.com/brunswick-twisted-fury-bowling-ball.html)

Reviews look good on it too.

What do you think of this one?

Brunswick Twisted Fury Bowling Balls $149.99 FREE SHIPPING Product ID: 5996 at bowlingball.com (http://www.bowlingball.com/brunswick-twisted-fury-bowling-ball.html)

Reviews look good on it too.
I know the Twisted Fury is a very nice bowling ball, and it's definitely one that you would grow into. I just want to point out how that ball reacts, just in case it doesn't fit your current game. It can have a huge hook (217 is one of the highest Perfect Scale scores available, as no ball has even approached a 300 yet), but it works with an arc. So, assuming you're righthanded, you would need to start in the center of the lane or a little left of center and throw the ball right. It would then gradually hook back. Some other balls tend to be more of a "skid/snap" type, where they roll straight for 40-50 feet and then "snap" back into the pocket. The skid/snap is not a gradual hook at all. The Twisted Fury is not a skid/snap, however. I just wanted to point out the differences.

At the sale price of $90 on bowlingball.com, that Twisted Fury is a bargain. Count on spending maybe $30-$50 to get it drilled at your local pro shop, but it's definitely a great deal. Maybe see what your pro shop has on sale, too, as some shops include drilling with their prices.

It's amazing how Pumpy knows so much about balls.

Okay here it goes. A balls hook potential is relative to lane conditions. If a ball that has an aggressive cover is used on a lane with a short low volume pattern, the ball will run out of energy at the pins. I would strongly suggest you watch league bowling on the night you are going to bowl and see what type of balls are scoring. What you really should do is find the house pro usually a regional PBA member and talk to them about equipment. Most guys are always happy to share knowledge.

Your bowling style is pretty close to mine it sounds like, and your left knee pain seems to be pretty similar to what I descried earlier in this thread.. plus I also use a 16-lb ball.. I guess that likely is not a coincidence?

Well, I am overweight, and that puts a lot of pressure on my left knee when I release. So I try bowling different ways (which doesn't help my consistency). Actually, my left knee didn't start hurting until the middle of the third game last night. At least I have all summer to rest it. We ended up sweeping all 4 points and moving up a position (to 9th out of 15 teams). I bowled a 169, 153, and a 201 to finish out. I was happy.

I've had several surgeries on my sliding knee due to various things not bowling related. I went through a period where my knee would kill me while bowling after a while. I figured out changing my balance and where my weight was in relation to my balance had a big impact on my knee and the pain went away for the most part.

Okay here it goes. A balls hook potential is relative to lane conditions. If a ball that has an aggressive cover is used on a lane with a short low volume pattern, the ball will run out of energy at the pins. I would strongly suggest you watch league bowling on the night you are going to bowl and see what type of balls are scoring. What you really should do is find the house pro usually a regional PBA member and talk to them about equipment. Most guys are always happy to share knowledge.
This is good advice. The lane conditions certainly affect the ball reaction.

Because my budget only allowed me to have one strike ball, I had to pick something that I could learn to adjust based on changing lane conditions. My ball does tend to hook a little too much on a dry lane, which is what I often practice on. My league is on a freshly-oiled lane, so there are big adjustments that I need to make. Unfortunately, that's a downside of bowling on a budget. If the lanes are not slick enough or dry enough, I can't just change my ball. I need to change something else (ball speed, starting position, or target). It's challenging.

I feel like my league performance was a disaster last night. I mean, I'm not broken up over it or anything, but it sucks. I bowled 190-133-194. Sure, for the night, my average was 172 (and my winter league average was 173, so I'm on target), but damn, that 133 sucks.

There was an article in a recent USBC magazine about changing balls before the second game of league. If I remember correctly, it's because there is such a drastic change in the lane conditions from the start of game 1 to the start of game 2. By the time you get done with game 2, you figure it out and are back to normal on game 3. The article suggested switching to a ball that would compensate for the changes. Of course, as I mentioned in my last post, I don't have another ball to use. It really messed me up.

My problem was really that I could not fit the ball into the groove that the other bowlers had made. The opposing team really burned up the lane. The breakpoint was way too early for my shot. I tried to play on the outside near the gutter, but they pushed the oil out that way, and I couldn't make the ball come back. When I tried to move more inside, the ball didn't have enough "snap" to whip back into the pocket. Yes, it hooked, but it was a weak hook that hit the head pin too light. By the third game, I had made myself a nice little track in my preferred spot, and my wife and another of my teammates started using my line, too, so I was good again. We ended up ruining the other team's shot for game 3. Good stuff.

The bright side for my team is that we were getting 200 pins a game in handicap, and the opponents were only getting 49 pins. We ended up taking all the points. This is because the league was using last summer's averages for the players. Since I only averaged 155 last summer, I'm really getting more pins than I should be. The same for my wife. Her current average is up almost 20 pins from last summer. Next week, they will recalculate averages based on the first two weeks of this summer, so instead of bowling from a 155 average, I'll now be bowling from a 177 average. I'll need to stay away from any more of those 133 scores like I had last night. Ugh.

Oddly enough, I just got home from winning my first league championship! Ill post a picture when it hits the league website.

Victory!!! Im the dude with the glasses. :)

http://recesstimesports.com/images/uploads/Rohns_Alley_Cats_Recesstime_Sports_Leagues_Portland_Bowling.jpg

Very nice, chinaski! Congratulations! The big guy with the purple bowling ball looks like he wants to kiss me, though. I'm not sure how that makes me feel.

It's amazing how Pumpy knows so much about balls.

No it's not:eek:

Love the shirts, chinaski

Very nice, chinaski! Congratulations! The big guy with the purple bowling ball looks like he wants to kiss me, though. I'm not sure how that makes me feel.

You and everyone else who knows him feels the same way lol.

The girl with the golden pin is his gf, she got that for rolling the highest ladies score of the year, 209. She managed to pull that off in the finals too!

Love the shirts, chinaski

The famous "Red Shirt"... this rec sports league covers bowling, kickball and dodgeball - when you win a championship, your team gets a red shirt. My first one, woot!

I've been bowling in the county teacher league for six years on my wife's team. We've been in the playoffs four straight years (the four quarterly winners roll off). Two years ago we won.

This year I thought we had the match won when myself and the other male on the team notched spares in the 10th to pull us back to -3 after being down over 200 at the start. We gave up a ton of handicap to a new team. This brought up the fourth bowlers on each team--my wife, whose grandad is in the Missouri Bowling Hall of Fame and whose dad chose a career at Bell Labs over the PBA tour (since he had a family to support).

The other team's last bowler was a woman in her first year of bowling. She had averaged 88 for the year, and had an 83 coming into the 10th (with no mark, of course.) So I liked our chances.

Her first ball came in slow and just off the head pin. For a moment, she had left the 4-6 split, essentially impossible to make. I started to high five my teammates. Then the 4 wobbled and slowly fell over sideways to knock over the 6. Strike. They are up 13, but a gutter ball is far from out of the question and my wife can still mark and we'd win.

She rolls another right down the middle. Slow ball, slow motion strike. +23--but my wife can double strike and win, but it looks bad. Her last ball is again right down the middle, and she gets 8. +31 and we're shut out becasue my wife isn't working on a mark either. We lose by 11.

So we wait for next year.

Still, it is great for the league when newbies can win it all.

As to style, I'm a big slow hook most of the time with my 35-year old Dick Webber ball. My team mate bowls like Fred Flintstone, big run-up and rifles it in straight but angled. Its all or split, with the pins flying around for their lives. The other woman on the team throws a backup ball, but did have the highest average of all women two years ago.

He's one of several math-science teachers who are deeply into ball physics this season. One guy holds the ball two handed and twists it out for an amazing hook. He sends the ball from the far left towards the 10 pin and then hopes it won't go back across to the left gutter.

For the last night we play 'No-tap' for prizes. No-tap means 9's count as strikes, so there are some pretty high scores. I've had 266 doing this. Well this science teacher goes nuts with 9's and has all strikes coming into the 10th. Now he gets his three 'real' strikes, the scoreboard goes nuts flashing 300 and its cheers all around.

With his handicap, it was a 341. Try to beat that.

So bowl for fun, everybody.

My winter league did no-tap at the end of the season. I bowled a pair of 278s. Each of those games had 11 strikes and an 8-spare. I was disappointed because I just screwed up my shot on the ones I missed. I can handle bad luck. Bad bowling is unacceptable. :)

The one thing I was locally at least, is that pro shops would have some older balls drilled in a generic fingertip and semi-fingertip grip, and let folks try it. For those wanting to move up to the next level, the 'Net is a great place to garner info, but, knowing whether you are a stroker, tweener, or cranker is beyond most people's reach.

I don't think I have the wrist strength and legs to be a cranker any more, so, I believe I am either a tweener or stroker bowler. But, trying to pair those kind of bowling terms with balls that would be best is almost an ongoing long research period for that term paper in college...

What made you make your decision to go with what you bowl with normally and why?

I feel like my league performance was a disaster last night. I mean, I'm not broken up over it or anything, but it sucks. I bowled 190-133-194. Sure, for the night, my average was 172 (and my winter league average was 173, so I'm on target), but damn, that 133 sucks.

There was an article in a recent USBC magazine about changing balls before the second game of league. If I remember correctly, it's because there is such a drastic change in the lane conditions from the start of game 1 to the start of game 2. By the time you get done with game 2, you figure it out and are back to normal on game 3. The article suggested switching to a ball that would compensate for the changes. Of course, as I mentioned in my last post, I don't have another ball to use. It really messed me up.

My problem was really that I could not fit the ball into the groove that the other bowlers had made. The opposing team really burned up the lane. The breakpoint was way too early for my shot. I tried to play on the outside near the gutter, but they pushed the oil out that way, and I couldn't make the ball come back. When I tried to move more inside, the ball didn't have enough "snap" to whip back into the pocket. Yes, it hooked, but it was a weak hook that hit the head pin too light. By the third game, I had made myself a nice little track in my preferred spot, and my wife and another of my teammates started using my line, too, so I was good again. We ended up ruining the other team's shot for game 3. Good stuff.

The bright side for my team is that we were getting 200 pins a game in handicap, and the opponents were only getting 49 pins. We ended up taking all the points. This is because the league was using last summer's averages for the players. Since I only averaged 155 last summer, I'm really getting more pins than I should be. The same for my wife. Her current average is up almost 20 pins from last summer. Next week, they will recalculate averages based on the first two weeks of this summer, so instead of bowling from a 155 average, I'll now be bowling from a 177 average. I'll need to stay away from any more of those 133 scores like I had last night. Ugh.

Transition cost me a few checks, or my poor descisions did. What I did learn is straighter is greater during those 6 or 7 shots. Just try to get 9 and pickup your spare you'll see those 130's turn to 190's. In my first National PBA event I shot 300 in game 2 and followed it with a 156 and 279.

What made you make your decision to go with what you bowl with normally and why?
I asked the guy at the pro shop for advice. That's it, really.

I want to light myself on fire.

116-197-141

On the bright side, my team swept again, so we're still undefeated on the season. In the first game, I went up knowing that I needed 16 pins in the 10th frame to win the game for us. I left the 10 pin after my first ball and wanted to cry. I managed to cover the spare, though, and then I nailed a strike on the last ball to make 20 pins when I needed 16. That was the most satisfying 116 I've ever bowled, even though it was 62 pins below my average. I really need to work on my mental game some more.

I missed this earlier. My wife and I started bowling a little over a year back, although she took several months off. My average crept up from 120 to the mid 140s. I've been picking up my consistency a bit, and am hoping that I average over 150 in our summer league.

I'm currently using a 15 lb Brunswick Maxx Zone. The lanes we bowl on are very heavilly oiled, so it seems to be an appropriate ball for me. It is making the ten pin hard to pick up for me.

All time, my highest series is a 513, with a high game of 237. I'm simply brutally inconsistent...and throw at least one first ball in the gutter every night.


If we're making league reports here...We did very well the first two weeks of summer league, winning seven of eight games. The third week, we gave up over 100 pins in handicap, and just couldn't overcome the deficit. We were mildly under our average the first game (128 for me), and just barely lost. The last two games a couple of them with threw a 211 and then a pair of 150-160 games. We couldn't keep pace with those scores and their handicap, so we lost all four games.

We're not used to losing that badly, as we are just coming off a great run in our fall/spring league where we managed a second place finish.

By all means, feel free to use this thread to make league reports. It is the FOFC bowling thread, after all. :)

I want to light myself on fire.

116-197-141

On the bright side, my team swept again, so we're still undefeated on the season. In the first game, I went up knowing that I needed 16 pins in the 10th frame to win the game for us. I left the 10 pin after my first ball and wanted to cry. I managed to cover the spare, though, and then I nailed a strike on the last ball to make 20 pins when I needed 16. That was the most satisfying 116 I've ever bowled, even though it was 62 pins below my average. I really need to work on my mental game some more.

Nice clutch bowling, you were there for your team!

Nice night for me tonight. 207-143-231. A solid 581 series gets my season average up to 175. Unfortunately, my team lost two games, so we're no longer undefeated. Still, summer league is all about improvement, and I'm getting there.

I've never been a good bowler (goal is to reach 100) but somehow on Monday night I pulled off a 130-180-155..

Those three might be my highest scores ever, and I was really intoxicated so I have no idea how that happened.

It's pretty amazing how good some people are at bowling once they're drunk. I don't know what it is. Sometimes, I feel like I should start drinking while bowling. Maybe then I won't crap out a 116 like I did a week ago!

Been a while without an update. I'm learning something new all of the time. I finished my last league on a roll, averaging 150 over the last several weeks. That carried over into the first week of Summer league....Then I started being really really inconsistent. I bowled an 84 two nights ago. five splits.

My ball simply wasn't hooking as I'd grown accustomed to it doing. It was very frustrating, and I started changing things. All kinds of things, everything...I even hurt my wrist by over cocking my hand in my delivery. A bowler on the team we were bowling, he carries about a 210 average, pulled me aside. He told me, that my ball was inundated with oil, and told me to take it to the pro-shop to have them extract the oil. He said that my ball with my release should have been really breaking, and that he'd seen this before.

I took it into the pro-shop, and they said they could put it into a machine that would do something to pull the oil out of it. Two to six hours they said. Not only that, but they told me that with the finish my ball has, that I should have this done every 40-50 games.

Who'd have thunk it. I'm really interested to see how it handles when I get it back.

Glengoyne, I have heard that it is important to get the oil extracted. I have never done it with mine, but I'm thinking about it. As much as I bowl, 40 games could be done in 3 weeks. I'm not sure I want to pay the pro shop $20 every 3 weeks, but I'm cheap sometimes. Now, I am in no position to recommend what I'm about to say, but I have read of a homebrew method to extract oil from a bowling ball:

Put some hot water into a bucket, add a few drops of dishwashing detergent, and then place the ball in the bucket for about 20 minutes. Take the ball out, wipe the oil off the ball with a towel, empty the bucket, and repeat the process. Keep doing it until the ball comes out of the bucket with little to no oil on it.

Again, I can't recommend it because you can damage the ball if it's not done right.I started the process on a bowling ball that I no longer use, and it certainly was getting some of the oil out. I'm not sure if I'm gutsy enough to try it on my current ball, though. If you want the oil out of the ball, it's certainly best to let the pro shop do it for you. I would take mine to the pro shop, but I am planning to get a new ball within the next 3 months anyway, so I'm not that concerned about it.

Here's my story from this week's league play. My team won the first two games fairly handily. In those games, I bowled 201 and 232. In the last game, but team had to come from behind to have a shot at winning. I went into the final frame needing 29 pins to tie and 30 to win. I got strikes on the first two shots, so that left the game in my hands. My score for the game was 192 at this point. I focused a little too hard on just keeping the ball on the lane, so I rolled it slower than usual. That caused the ball to hook too far and I missed the pocket. I only managed a 7 count, leaving the 3-6-10. My score was 199, and my team lost by 2 pins. :( Still, it was my best series of the season, and my average is now up to 178. I just wish I could have that last shot back.

I'll have to say the difference in the ball's reaction changed rather dramatically. (I'm talking about prior to the oil extraction) I'm attributing that change to the oil it was retaining. I went from throwing a ball that "caught" the lane, and started rolling fairly early, to throwing a ball that was sliding all of the way down the alley and through the pins. When that happens, there is little to no pin action.

I think I'm actually going to have this done to my previous ball as well, because its response deteriorated in a very similar fashion. That is actually what led me to buy the new ball. The folks in the pro shop said that a lot of people describe exactly what I did. They assume they've started doing something wrong, and start adjusting, when all along the ball is the real variable in the equation.

I'll bowl a series once I pick up the ball today, and report back here with what I find.

Oh I picked up the ball this afternoon, with my wife, who by the way was the one who actually dropped the ball off at the pro shop for me. Now that she comes here and reads the forum...frankly more than I do now adays...I have to be much more careful when I edit her out of a story. Who'd have thunk this was a story where she wanted to get full credit for polishing my balls.

In any case. We, the two of us picked up the ball today, and it seems to be right back where I liked it. I put up a series just a few pins shy of a 150 average, which is 25 pins over my average over the past month. It doesn't seem like much, but I really felt like I was in control again.

That's awesome news. I think when your ball has a more consistent reaction, you will have more control. The ball does what you expect, it does it consistently, and your scores go up. Great job!

I am recovering from a week in which I bowled 40 games. I have never bowled that much in a week before, and my back in paying for it. I will be fine for Wednesday night's league play, but I definitely need some rest before then. I know some people who bowl that much on a regular basis, and I am now in awe of them!

That's awesome news. I think when your ball has a more consistent reaction, you will have more control. The ball does what you expect, it does it consistently, and your scores go up. Great job!

I am recovering from a week in which I bowled 40 games. I have never bowled that much in a week before, and my back in paying for it. I will be fine for Wednesday night's league play, but I definitely need some rest before then. I know some people who bowl that much on a regular basis, and I am now in awe of them!

Who says bowlers aren't athletes? ;)

Very excited for the bowling season to start up again in only two short weeks! Had our captains meeting tonight and got to bowl some free games afterward. Bowled 8 games (yikes!) after not bowling since last April, so I definitely needed the practice. Safe to say my arm is going to not like me this weekend, but it was worth it. Averaged a 144 in my games (well over my ending season average) and topped out at a 181 - best part is, that was my last game, when my arm was dead. I was trying all sorts of different throws, and I might have figured one out that will help me out greatly. Not a TON of spin, but a lot more than I have ever put on a ball, and it's working well so far, so I am excited to try it with a fresh arm in a league game. Can't wait to get rolling again :)

I can't imagine going two weeks without bowling, much less four months. I would be an absolute wreck. I just finished up my summer league with a 169 average. My team finished in 3rd place out of 13 teams. We ended the season with a no-tap tournament, and I finished in 4th place on the men's side. I'm not sure how many bowlers we had, but I think it was about 25. So it was a nice end to the season. Winter league officially kicks off for me on the Friday after Labor Day, so I have some time to practice. I'm looking forward to it!

Serious Pumpy posts always through me for a loop. They read the same as many of the joke ones for the first 2 or 3 sentences, and then I find myself waiting for the story to take the turn towards hilarity. Finally, when it doesn't happen, I find I need to re-read the entire post so that I can evaluate it on its proper merits.

Serious Pumpy posts always through me for a loop. They read the same as many of the joke ones for the first 2 or 3 sentences, and then I find myself waiting for the story to take the turn towards hilarity. Finally, when it doesn't happen, I find I need to re-read the entire post so that I can evaluate it on its proper merits.
I am levels upon levels, baby.

I can't imagine going two weeks without bowling, much less four months. I would be an absolute wreck. I just finished up my summer league with a 169 average. My team finished in 3rd place out of 13 teams. We ended the season with a no-tap tournament, and I finished in 4th place on the men's side. I'm not sure how many bowlers we had, but I think it was about 25. So it was a nice end to the season. Winter league officially kicks off for me on the Friday after Labor Day, so I have some time to practice. I'm looking forward to it!

I couldn't imagine what I would do without bowling. I am the director of the youth program where I am at and actively bowl in a couple leagues. This past year I had surgery to correct a problem I had been having for about 3 or 4 years that got to the point it prevented me from even bowling. When I first found out I had to stop bowling my wife said I looked like I was going to cry. I spend so much time in the bowling alley its like home away from home. I started back this summer and finished with 203 and 199 averages. I am at about 85% so I have a little way to go to get to where I want to be but I am soo looking forward to being able to bowl a 39 week schedule without pain !!!!!!! I can't wait to be able to bowl in a couple of regionals this fall. I am still searching for my first 300 game so my daughter will leave stop harassing me !!!

http://photos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc1/hs150.snc1/5580_140953936517_634461517_3289916_1782358_n.jpg

Wow that is cool!

My bowling league card came in last week, we're starting back up September 10th. I'm sure I will be awful, but it will be fun!

Next week is my last week of softball, then the focus shifts to bowling. Too bad my season doesn't start until October :(

Next week is my last week of softball, then the focus shifts to bowling. Too bad my season doesn't start until October :(

Mine are scheduled almost perfectly. Softball playoffs are August 29th, Bowling starts September 10th. On the other side of the season, they overlap just slightly with softball starting in April and Bowling finishing in May, but no one other than my wife minds that :)

Well, we're 3 weeks into our fall season, and I am doing better than last season. I got my fingertip ball redrilled before the season (week 1) and this last Wednesday had one of my better (and most consistent) series. I had a 179, 172, and a 178 (finished up the last game with 5 straight strikes, but only got a 178 because I missed two one-pin spares and had some weird splits). I'm still working on my pickups with the fingertip ball, since it curves a heck of a lot more than my last ball. One thing that I wasn't very happy with this week, I left the 5-7-10 split, twice. I don't think I had left that one once in the last 10 years and to have it twice in one night was a little much.

The 5-7-10 is always so weird...it's like "how the HELL does that happen?!"

My league starts tonight and I could not be more amped. I really want to get a new ball, but just don't have the ching right now, so I am making the most with it. It isn't the best ball in the world, and I really should have gotten it fingertip drilled (instead of full-finger) but I am dealing. As I said earlier, I bowled the last two weeks and felt really good about some of my new tweaks. Let's rock!!

Has anyone picked up the Brunswick Siege ball, and if so, what did they think of it? I also wonder what kind of ball a guy should get being a stroker bowler instead of a tweener or cranker?

Any ideas? (Would love to join a league this year, but, it might be out of the question this fall)

Anyone else bowling this weekend? Special rates this weekend to "get out the bowlers" etc.

Has anyone picked up the Brunswick Siege ball, and if so, what did they think of it? I also wonder what kind of ball a guy should get being a stroker bowler instead of a tweener or cranker?

This sounds like it should be posted on some kind of kinky sex toy board or something.

This sounds like it should be posted on some kind of kinky sex toy board or something.

You know I hated even typing that for the SAME reason. :)

Didn't have as good of an opening week as I would have liked (I think the beer might have contributed to that towards the end...) but my team ended up 7 - 0, so definitely a good way to start the season :)

I want a Brunswick Siege so badly, but I can't justify the cost right now. I will have to wait until my birthday in a couple of months. I may get a different ball, though. I will need to visit the pro shop and find out if the Siege is really the best one for me.

hoosierdude, I'm not sure what you should do as a stroker. I'm a stroker myself, and I use an Ebonite Complete NV. There are things that I love about it, but I really shouldn't be using it when the lanes are dry. I can't stay in the pocket at all. The problem is that I don't have another ball, so I just have to live with it.

My league doesn't start until this Friday. I'm bowling in a sanctioned league for the first time, so I'm looking forward to having my scores officially recognized by the USBC. I intend to enter a local tournament in February, and having a sanctioned average will be incredibly useful. I'm very excited!

My league starts on Thursday!

So I started my league last Friday. Good start. My team took 5 points out of 7. Our only loss was by 5 pins. I am taking partial blame because I didn't get a mark in my 10th frame that game. If I pick up my spare, I easily clear at least 6 pins to sweep the match outright.

Anyway, my numbers for Week 1: 198-173-180 for a 551 series. I bruised my bowling thumb early in the first game (accidentally banged it against the console), but it clearly didn't hurt my game at all.

This week, we will be giving up 98 pins in handicap to our opponents. It will be a little tough, but I'm up for the challenge. I will keep FOFC posted.

Last night I had a 188-157-198 (543) series but we lost all four points. Other team was giving us 11 marks and we still couldn't win one. My average was 153, so it will be heading up next week. Am liking the redrilled fingertip ball, but I am missing some spares (chop a pin here and there).

You guys are way outta my league. We just finished our third week. My team is 11-1 over that stretch. We took all four this week, although one of them was really nip and tuck. We were 80 pins down going into the 10th, but none of them marked. We all struck out or at least got marks in the 10th. My series was 141, 145, 172 for a 458 series.

This next month will be interesting, as we are in second place, and will be facing the rest of the top 5 in consecutive weeks. To top that off...the first three weeks our handicap was based on our previous season averages...next week we lose almost 40 pins of handicap.

No worries, Glen - I am even worse off then you :) I had right around a 430 series last Friday, and that is really good for me. My average at the end of last year was 127, I have put that into the 130's after two good weeks to start the year, but I still have a long way to go obviously, heh.

Tonight, my "coach" (a longtime bowler who works at the bowling center) completely changed my delivery. He's got me starting the ball higher, squaring my shoulders a bit more, and essentially making me get the ball down the lane quicker. The last time my delivery got changed, my scores dropped about 30 pins. I hope that doesn't happen this time, but in tonight's games after the switch, I managed to top 180 in all of my games, so I guess he knows what he's talking about. We'll see if I remember how to do it in league tomorrow night.

Quick updates after 9 weeks:

My team is in first place. We've won 18 of our 27 games, and we've won total pins 7 out of 9 weeks. This puts us at 43 points ((18*2)+7).

My average is 182. My highest series scores are 607 from a few weeks ago and a 599 last week. I shot the 599 half an hour after I bought a new ball. I think 599 is a pretty good start for my first time with a 15lb ball (a Brunswick Wild Thing, if you're curious).

My game averages are eerie. Over 9 weeks, I average 183 in Game 1, 183 in Game 2, and 180 in Game 3. Over the summer, my third game was consistently better than the other two. So far in the winter league, it doesn't seem to matter. I'm about the same in all three.

My high game of the season is 234 which was achieved in Game 2 of my 599 series last week. So in my second game with the new ball, I shot my best score.

Last night, I was asked to sub for another league. It just happens to be the most competitive league in the building. There are several bowlers there with 200+ averages. I was selected to sub because I am steadily improving as a bowler, and it will also help my game to be surrounded by great bowlers. So I am basically an "on-call" bowler on Tuesdays. It sounds like a good league, but it's tough competition. It's a money league with a $24000 total prize pool, but since I'm a sub, I don't have to pay when I bowl. I will get a (small) cut of any prize money that goes out to my team(s), though. I'm very excited for the opportunity to bowl with the best that Greensburg has to offer.

aight peace

I'm very excited for the opportunity to bowl with the best that Greensburg has to offer.

I'll be at Headkeepers down the road from Main Bowl. Make sure you tell me which car is yours in the Video/Main Bowl Parking lot...cause sometimes I get drunk and piss in the lot. I don't want to get it on your car.

I'll be at Headkeepers down the road from Main Bowl. Make sure you tell me which car is yours in the Video/Main Bowl Parking lot...cause sometimes I get drunk and piss in the lot. I don't want to get it on your car.
It's the red one with the Broncos sticker and University of New Orleans sticker on the back windshield. There's no other car like it.

I like Headkeepers. Can't remember what I ate last time I was there, but it was definitely good. I think it was like an egg roll or something? What I didn't like was that I drove past Headkeepers one Saturday afternoon and some guy was vomiting in their parking lots. I think he had actually come from the pool hall next door, though.

But I digest.

Quick updates after 9 weeks:

My team is in first place. We've won 18 of our 27 games, and we've won total pins 7 out of 9 weeks. This puts us at 43 points ((18*2)+7).

My average is 182. My highest series scores are 607 from a few weeks ago and a 599 last week. I shot the 599 half an hour after I bought a new ball. I think 599 is a pretty good start for my first time with a 15lb ball (a Brunswick Wild Thing, if you're curious).

My game averages are eerie. Over 9 weeks, I average 183 in Game 1, 183 in Game 2, and 180 in Game 3. Over the summer, my third game was consistently better than the other two. So far in the winter league, it doesn't seem to matter. I'm about the same in all three.

My high game of the season is 234 which was achieved in Game 2 of my 599 series last week. So in my second game with the new ball, I shot my best score.

Last night, I was asked to sub for another league. It just happens to be the most competitive league in the building. There are several bowlers there with 200+ averages. I was selected to sub because I am steadily improving as a bowler, and it will also help my game to be surrounded by great bowlers. So I am basically an "on-call" bowler on Tuesdays. It sounds like a good league, but it's tough competition. It's a money league with a $24000 total prize pool, but since I'm a sub, I don't have to pay when I bowl. I will get a (small) cut of any prize money that goes out to my team(s), though. I'm very excited for the opportunity to bowl with the best that Greensburg has to offer.

aight peace

Man, I only wish I was doing as well as you. My team is in dead last. Seems like everyone want to bowl there highest scores against us. Have to admit, part of it is me. Coming back from hand surgery wasn't as easy as I thought. I have spent the better part of the season trying to stop tracking over my thumb hole. I manged to get a 689 (after switching to a Lane #1 Red Death) set out but even with that I am only averaging 186, which is about 20 pin under my average. I have had many people watch me and know one can clearly tell me what the heck I am doing different. My release is fast which is probably not giving them a chance to clearly see it. Guess it's time to break out the video.

Man, I wish my league would start already. I have to defend my Busted Pin Award (lowest average in the league) and my team is going for a four-peat!

My team is 7th currently (6 way tie for 2nd place actually but we lose out in total pins) after 8 or 9 weeks. I'm pretty much bowling my normal average of 144 thus far, but have been all over the place. For my team, I have a season high score of 199 and a season low score of 84.

My biggest issue so far has been health issues though, I went through 3-4 weeks of an injured toe that made it painful to bowl well. The weeks that I've actually been healthy, I've been averaging over 150 which is far better than past seasons.

Further updates:

Three weeks to go in the first half, and my team is rolling. We're in first place with a 10-point lead over second place and a 12-point lead over third. We're on a 7-point system, so if we get some help and push our lead to 15 points after tonight, we can coast for the final two weeks. Even if we can't wrap it up tonight, we'll be hard to catch unless we go into a tailspin.

I decided to put my stats online, for myself and for the internet at large. (BowlingTracker.com - View Profile (http://www.bowlingtracker.com/index.php?page=viewprofile&PS_LeagueID=13661)) Week 12 was just a disaster for me. Fortunately, we were up against a team that had to forfeit all 7 points because only one bowler showed up. The league rules require two bowlers on a team. The sad thing is that the one bowler actually beat us in Game 1, but we still got the win because of the forfeit. That was embarrassing.

As for the Tuesday league that I was going to sub for, it looks like that experiment is over. The team I was subbing for has disbanded, and it doesn't look like that league is going to form another team. So I only got to sub for one week. Oh, well. It was a good idea. I guess I'll just have to think about joining that league next year.

Well, we only got 2 out of 7 points tonight. Both of the teams chasing us got 5 points, so we are up by 7 on second place and 9 on third place. If we can win at least 5 points next week, I'll feel very comfortable going into the final week of the season. It's a close one!

And another update as we enter the penultimate week of the first half!

I was given bad information last week. We are actually up by 12 points on the 3rd place team. Tonight (in about 3 hours), my team faces the 4th place team, while 2nd and 3rd face off against each other. We are giving up only 5 pins in handicap tonight, so the teams are evenly matched. I am fairly consistent with my game, and my wife isn't too bad either. The question mark is our teammate. His average is 163, but he is all over the place. He's the kind of guy who can bowl 220+150+120 on a single night. So his average looks halfway decent, but those really bad games are killers.

At least we know that we'll be competing for the first half championship next week on position night. We'll either be alone in first or tied for first. I just hope that we can extend our lead to more than 7 points tonight so we can have it all wrapped up. As long as we win a couple of games tonight, we'll be in good shape. I had a good practice last night, so I feel confident.

When I started bowling four years ago, I was nervous about the idea of being in a league. Now that I've been in leagues for a couple of years, I find that I really love the competition. Tonight almost feels like playoffs to me. It's exciting. The x-factor for me tonight is that we're bowling on lanes 5 and 6, and if you look at my stats, you'll see that I don't have much experience on those lanes. It's been 3 months since I bowled there. That makes me a tad edgy.

For those who care, I'll report back with an update at the end of the night!

We won 1 out of 3 plus total pins. So we got 3 points, second place got 5 points. We're up 5 going into the final week of the first half. If we win one game next week, we are the first half champions!

... The question mark is our teammate. His average is 163, but he is all over the place. He's the kind of guy who can bowl 220+150+120 on a single night. So his average looks halfway decent, but those really bad games are killers.

...

Hey I could be your teammate. My average is 150, but I'm all the hell over the place. No consistency. NONE whatsoever. This last week I put up a 111 and a 120 to go along with a 155. I threw four first ball gutter balls this last week. I ended up with three out of four spares on those frames. I've been wickedly inconsistent these last two weeks, and my team has plummeted out of first place, dropping six out of eight games.

I gotta get more practice.

Wow, I thought I had updated here. My team needed to win one game to win the first half, and we did exactly that. We only won one game. I pushed my season average up to 184, and the second half starts this Friday. It feels good to relax through the second half of the season without worrying about the standings too much. Yes, it would be nice to win the second half and automatically be the champs, but it's not necessary. So I'm just going to relax, try to improve my mechanics a little bit, and we'll see where the chips fall.

I would absolutely love to get my average up 190 for the season, but I would have to average 195 the rest of the way to get there. That's asking an awful lot out of me, considering I've never even averaged 175 over an entire season. It does give me a personal goal to shoot for, but I'll try not to put a lot of pressure on myself. If I can just stay above 180, I should be happy.

Wow, I thought I had updated here. My team needed to win one game to win the first half, and we did exactly that. We only won one game. I pushed my season average up to 184, and the second half starts this Friday. It feels good to relax through the second half of the season without worrying about the standings too much. Yes, it would be nice to win the second half and automatically be the champs, but it's not necessary. So I'm just going to relax, try to improve my mechanics a little bit, and we'll see where the chips fall.

I would absolutely love to get my average up 190 for the season, but I would have to average 195 the rest of the way to get there. That's asking an awful lot out of me, considering I've never even averaged 175 over an entire season. It does give me a personal goal to shoot for, but I'll try not to put a lot of pressure on myself. If I can just stay above 180, I should be happy.

195 is not impossible. Hard, but not impossible from where you are. 2 more spare conversion per night and you are there. Biggest keys would be hitting the pocket 95+% to reduce splits and converting single pin spares.

First female to win on the PBA tour, Kelly Kulick, comes from my alma mater of Morehead State.

First female to win on the PBA tour, Kelly Kulick, comes from my alma mater of Morehead State.
She was amazing in the match against Barnes. She had to fight hard against Koivuniemi, and she needed that 10th frame against him, but she just dominated in the final. It's been a long time since I've seen someone make every strike look picture perfect. I was impressed. I'm hoping to see her make a few more TV appearances over the next couple of years while she's exempt.

Not much highlight coverage, but they interviewed her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6vxI_q8ztE

She's absolutely right when she said she didn't bowl against Chris Barnes. She was bowling the pins. It was obvious throughout the match that she was only interested in her own game, which is really the way you have to bowl when you're a big underdog. Barnes made a couple of big mistakes, but even when Kulick left a 7-10 split in the middle of the match, she recovered. Not once did it appear that she thought the door was open for Barnes. She was dialed in on her own shot, and she was amazing.

I didn't watch a lot of pro bowling earlier in the season because it clashed with the NFL games, but now I can watch this stuff every Sunday through the rest of the season. I hope other telecasts are at least half as exciting as this one was.

Congrats to Kelly Kulick!

Best part of the match: At the end of the match, when presented with the trophy, she took it over to her mom and gave it to her. The trophy basically looked like a big bowl. She gave it to her mom, who looked like a hard-living type, and told her "this is for you". Her mom didn't skip a beat and said, "I'll make it an ashtray."

I wish I was kidding or misunderstood her, but it was pretty clear. The mom was probably kidding, but still.... Funny stuff.

I am really surprised how little EPSN played it up. Didn't even make the front page cycle. Let Michelle Wie beat Tiger Woods and that's all we would have heard for the week.

On a side note, Barnes never even stood a chance. He was shelled shocked from the first frame and she pounced on him. She rammed that bowling ball right down his throat ! AND I LOVED EVERY MINUTE OF IT !

Yeah Pumpy there are 39 teams. 36 weeks plus position weeks. I use a ball older than me, it's 16 lbs.

Our 5 person team did have a 315 handicap. But slowly went down to 305, we had a really good week two weeks ago and went from 300 to 297. Monday was easily our best series so it might be really close to 292. We are tied for 5th and you have to go down to 19th to find a team with more handicap pins than us. This is in the Woodlands and they have 40 lanes. That's where I bowl Monday, I bowl in Conroe on Wednesday also with my dad. They have around 30 lanes but only 11 teams in the league. There is this really good bowler on my team there, he bowled a 87x series, 19 strikes in a row. His average after 5 weeks was 236, then he had shoulder surgery and his average has dipped all the way down to around 205. That high early average hurt us a little so we're in 4th.

Very nice, TCY Junkie! My team is in the garbage right now. After winning the first half, we have only 2 points total after the first 2 weeks of the second half. I think we'll get back up to respectability, though.

I bowled a 139 three weeks ago! Take that!!

I bowled a 139 three weeks ago! Take that!!
i could bowl a 139 with one eye tied behind my back

It got so little coverage that even Wrongway couldn't manage to clone his way back into the forum to bash her.

i could bowl a 139 with one eye tied behind my back

Pumpy, ehm, you do have one eye behind your back. We didn't want to tell you so soon, though.

dang!

i could bowl a 139 with one eye tied behind my back

*refuses to disclose his average*

On a league note, my uncle's team (well, it's actually two of my uncles on that team, heh) in my league are on a tear as of late. Last week, they bowled a 3571 scratch series. Yes, you read right - scratch. A 714 average per person. The first two games, they won by over 250 pins a piece. My one uncle had his first 700 ever. And of course, they beat the season high for scratch series by over 500 pins. Pretty crazy.

*refuses to disclose his average*

On a league note, my uncle's team (well, it's actually two of my uncles on that team, heh) in my league are on a tear as of late. Last week, they bowled a 3571 scratch series. Yes, you read right - scratch. A 714 average per person. The first two games, they won by over 250 pins a piece. My one uncle had his first 700 ever. And of course, they beat the season high for scratch series by over 500 pins. Pretty crazy.
Sorry, I just saw this post. A 5-person team bowling 3571 scratch is nuts! It's hard enough to get one bowler to shoot 700, much less getting a team of 5 to average that. Absolutely amazing!

My average has been stuck at 184 for four straight league weeks now (as you can see if you click the link in my sig). I am soooo close to getting my game consistently above 190, but I need to keep my focus and convert my spares. When I shot 572 the other night, I left one open frame in each game. At my level, that really isn't acceptable. Bad games happen, but I should be able to put up at least one clean game every week. I'm getting there, but it's hard to maintain. At least I'm still in good shape for reaching one of my big goals, which is averaging 180+ after an entire league season. I just need to keep my focus.

In two weeks, my wife and I are competing in a scotch doubles tournament for the second straight year. It's a fun tournament, but we are definitely taking it seriously. We will start practicing scotch doubles this week just to get back into the feel of it. For those who don't know what it is, the couple alternates shots throughout each game. The female goes first in games 1 and 3. The male starts game 2. So my wife will throw the first shot. If she makes a strike, I start the second frame. If she leaves a spare, I shoot for the spare, and then she starts the second frame. So you don't alternate frames. You alternate shots. It's a lot of fun.

And to wrap up this long post of mine, my team is pretty much in the tank so far in the second half of the season. Three weeks, only four points. As long as we're back in shape for the final week, it's no big deal. I just feel like we're not competing very well right now, so I'm hoping we get past this bad stretch pretty soon.

Just want to add that my wife and I are entered in our city's biggest tournament. We're competing this Sunday. We're bowling on an oil pattern called "Highway to Hell" and after looking up the details of it, I am officially petrified. I feel like I'll be lucky to shoot a 500 series on that pattern. It will definitely be an adventure.

Good Luck, Pumpy

I've been meaning to post about my last week of February games.

I'm on my wife's team in the local teachers' league and we only bowl two games. We've had a disappointing season with all our averages way down and finishing no where near a playoff spot (so far).

The other team pre-bowled, and badly, so it was just the four of us, and we decided to have fun, not press, since we anticipated an easy night. My teammates relaxed too much, and at the end of five frames I was the only one with a good night going having four marks. Then I ripped off three strikes. In the ninth I had to make a six pin for a spare, and just hooked wide when I threw to soft a ball. Even with a spare in the tenth, I only made a 194.

Angry I missed my chance at a 200, I did notice that I just eked into the high game with handicap for the year by a pin. So it wasn't a total loss. Anyway, I figured I was tired and would not do much in the second game. This time, I started out with four marks--much to my surprise. Then I ripped off four straight strikes. In the ninth, I missed a seven pin when I made up for the soft toss in the first game by blazing this one past with no hook at all. But I was at 196 ("No, don't look at your score!"). I finished with a spare and a 213, my all-time high game.

I don't know where that came from. Last week was back to normal with a 156 and a 133, so who knows tonight.

Congrats on your 213, OldGiants! Now you have a new high score to shoot for. Try to hit 214 next week. ;)

Thank god for the handicap, but my team (Two Fingers and a Thumbhole) defeated Team Pump and Pray last night for our fourth consecutive Sauk City Lanes championship!

Congratulations, lungs!

I had a great night bowling a few weeks ago. Great for me. My three game composite score was just over 400...which is probably the best I've done with the new ball my brother gave me.

Tuesday, however, was terrible. Maybe I was nervous around the chick I went with, but I DIDN'T CRACK 300 in three games combined.

At least I got the girl.

You sound like you'd be awesome on my team, Poli ;)

Actually, I am not giving enough credit to my teammates - we are just about finish up our third year together and the other four guys on my team have grown and gotten better quite a bit since we started (unlike myself, who has a worse average by a few pins than when we started, heh)

Although last week might (I am hoping...) been a breakthrough. I didn't do much different than I normally do, I just took my time and hit my marks. I started with a 194 (very close to my best score ever, and only 2 opens) - but I hate starting so well because I am awful at staying consistent. I hit 152 and 138 for my next two games, which for me is awfully consistent (my average this year is 128...ick...) The 484 series is probably my best ever, and 100 over my average for this year. The real test will be how I do tonight and if I can keep it up (just don't want to put too much pressure on myself) Sad that we only have a couple more weeks left :(

I only hit the lanes every few weeks. It's mostly to show Pumpy how it's done.

I only hit the lanes every few weeks. It's mostly to show Pumpy how it's done.
Wish I spent as much time in the gutter as you

I had an amazing night of practice last night. My scores included 193, 200, 233, and 234. Of course I want to keep that up when I bowl league tonight. My team is pretty much out of the running for the second half championship. That's fine, though. We did win the first half, so we'll be bowling for the title in a few weeks anyway. I just wanted to win both halves. No biggie.

I never did mention how my wife and I did in the tournament last month (see my post up the thread a tiny bit). I did not manage to hit 500 on the "Highway to Hell" pattern. It was very difficult, but it was a good experience. I will enter the tournament again next year.

I have people urging me to bowl in the summer PBA Experience league. The league uses actual PBA oil patterns, so it's super challenging. Unfortunately, the $20/week is just not in my budget right now. I could probably swing it if I dropped out of the casual summer league (only $9/week), but I don't want to do that. If I find some extra cash, I'll enter it. I have no shot of winning the thing because it's scratch and not handicap, but it would be a great experience.

Last night in practice, I bowled my best series ever. I bowled a 734 (221+267+246). I clearly have this type of performance in me, but it just doesn't translate to league play. Part of it is that I have to wait longer between shots in league, and also I have trouble remembering how to attack both lanes in league. I can remember how to play one of the lanes, but I tend to forget how to approach the other. Both of those problems would be resolved with more mental focus on my part.

I think it's just that the long season is wearing on me. Physically, I'm fine. It's just hard to stay centered after 26 weeks or however long we've been bowling this season. I feel like I'm going through the motions. This must be how the Pittsburgh Pirates feel every Memorial Day.

My all time high 514 series, just this Tuesday. I've been consistent for almost a month now. It may just be that something is starting to Click?

My all time high 514 series, just this Tuesday. I've been consistent for almost a month now. It may just be that something is starting to Click?
Congratulations! Every time you hit that "next level" of scores, it feels great. Things like first 500 series, first 200 game, first 600 series, etc. It's awesome. It probably is clicking for you right now. Just remember to stay focused when you're in that groove. Don't get lazy! The same level of focus has to go into every shot.

Easy for me to say, though, especially after I just posted about how I'm losing focus. :lol:

Easy for me to say, though, especially after I just posted about how I'm losing focus. :lol:

When I first started I kept imagining the arrows were levitating, not on purpose. I just couldn't focus. I started past the midway point of the year last year. My average after 6 weeks was 135. Now I got it up to over 150 and usually beat that by at least 10 pins now that I focus better. My high game is only 206 and my high series is 523. Last week I shot 181 and 189, I thought I was going to break my series easily but I lost focus. I could write another paragraph about it, but I won't this time.

Not gonna talk about the night I just had (at least not yet). Just click the link in my sig and check out week 28.

Not gonna talk about the night I just had (at least not yet). Just click the link in my sig and check out week 28.

Tremendous. Well rolled :)

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

I pretty much tore the side of my thumb open last night while bowling. I will not let the injury stop me. I'm going to glue it shut and bowl again tonight in a meaningless match for my squad. Next week is the championship, and I would be smarter to just take an absence tonight and rest up for the final, but no.

I need help.

I bowled a 124, pumpy. Suck it.

I bowled a 124, pumpy. Suck it.
You:bowling center::card counters:casino

"Poli, you are too good for this game, but you are welcome to play the candy grabber machine in the corner."

Don't be jealous.

I bowled a 124, pumpy. Suck it.

Until you can bowl your 124 by striking out in the 10th, you're nothing.:devil:

Took my almost-5-year-old son bowling Saturday (daughter had a bowling birthday party) and he eschewed those nice ball-rolling-ramp-thingies in favor of flinging the ball down the lane Daddy-style. It was fun watching him take an 8-pound ball (he's around 40-45), hold it in the crook of his right arm, left arm cradling the front, stand at the base line, go running up and right before the foul line stop and fling it down the alley. He rarely got much velocity, and as he started getting tired it was hitting the bumper closer and closer to the foul line, but he was leading me through about 5 frames due to my complete lack of recent experience (I could not for the life of me remember how to slide and instead kept getting my front leg planted).

I did manage to break 100 on my first game, and had a good string going in the second game (was over 90 after 5) before my arm got tired and I started leaving opens again, so ended with around a 150 in the second. But my son just had a blast, jumping up and down, laughing, and thoroughly enjoying himself.

You're on notice, Pumpy: Kamron Doyle, 12, youngest to win cash in PBA event - ESPN (http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=5179290)

Damn. I fucked up my championship match and cost our team the title. I feel like a guy who missed his free throws with no time left on the clock. And a 12-year-old could kick my ass, apparently.

Good news: Last night, I bowled a 193 on the Dick Weber Open oil pattern. It's the best I've ever shot on a challenge pattern.

Bad news: I shot 128 on the Cheetah, which is supposed to be the highest-scoring challenge pattern out there.

Good news: I shot 182 on the Shark, which is a pattern that doesn't really suit my game at all.

Bad news: Pushing the ball through the challenge patterns now has my ball oil-soaked to high heaven.

Good news: Summer league starts tonight, which is always fun.

Bad news: I tore the hell out of my thumb again while practicing on the challenge shots last night, so I'll need to glue it shut and get out there.

Good news: I'm bowling tomorrow night for practice, Friday for my winter league's no-tap tournament, and Sunday for a charity tournament.

Bad news: I'll have to glue my thumb shut three more times after tonight.

Good news: Summer league really is fun.

Bad news: There are at least two middle-aged women in the league who are in love with me, and they haven't seen me since August. It will be hard to bowl when they're trying to pull my pants off.

Good news: Once the pants are off, the bowling will be fine.

Bad news: There are at least two middle-aged women in the league who are in love with me, and they haven't seen me since August. It will be hard to bowl when they're trying to pull my pants off.

Good news: Once the pants are off, the bowling will be fine.

Sounds like Pumpy Season is now officially open.

I'm officially nervous. Tomorrow is my first appearance in a PBA Experience league. Twelve weeks, four PBA oil patterns, head-to-head competition every single match. Tomorrow is the start of three straight weeks of the Cheetah pattern. It's the shortest of all PBA patterns, and the only way to succeed is to play near the gutter. It does not suit my game at all, but I'll be bowling four matches tomorrow night against four different opponents. Then I'll have to do it all again for the two weeks after that.

Heaven help me.

what

something about bowling i don't know

Fall season starts up in two weeks! Huzzah!

I had looked at getting a new ball over the summer, but the money just didn't fall into place. We have a new fifth bowler this year and he is pretty excited about bowling with us, so hopefully we can turn around from our second-to-last place finish last year. Just excited to get back on the lanes :)

Good luck, PackerFanatic!

I need bowlers for my winter league. We will have 4 bowlers per team, and we have 25 bowlers right now. Either we convince somebody to drop out, or we need to find 7 more bowlers within a week. I know a guy who's been on the fence for two months now. I'm hoping he bowls. I have phone numbers for 6 other people, so I will call them tonight and see what they say. I have a feeling that we're pretty much going to be fucked, though. What a way to start my term as league president!

Fall season starts for me in a week!

My team finished second place in the second half of last year's season which was the best we've done in a few seasons. I ended up with a 144 average (which is pretty close to what I've had the past few seasons).

I didn't bowl more than twice I think since last year's season ended in May, so we'll see how bad I am this year :)

Good luck, Alan T!

And an update from Tudors:

My league started last week. My stats are linked in my signature. I need to roll off for this Friday, as I will be out of town over the Labor Day holiday. My goal last year was to bowl at least one 600 series (I ended up with 4) and to carry a 180 average (I ended at 185). As I was well ahead of both goals, I need to aim higher this year. So I'm stating them now:

At least one 700 series
A 190 average

I'm not off to a great start, but it is a long season. There will be plenty of opportunities.

I also subbed for another league at a different house last night. The house was an absolute dump. I shot 515, and I feel lucky to have hit that. The place would probably have been considered classy back in the '70s, but I wasn't too keen on it. It was a very compressed space. It had 20 lanes, but the area was smaller than my normal house that only has 16 lanes. Obviously, the lanes were regulation size, but people were bumping into each other in the seating area all night. Add that it was hot as hell, and it wasn't good at all. I will probably need to sub for them a few more times this season. I may start tracking those stats, too, since it is a sanctioned league.

Good luck to all bowlers this season. I want to read some good stories!

Urgh. I am subbing at the dumpy bowling center again. And stupid me, I dressed in black today. I'm going to melt tonight.

Bowled my best game ever tonight - a ridiculous clean-game 234. Never shot a 200 in my life but I was raking in my first game of the night. Unfortunately, it was the first game, because I couldn't keep my nerves down after that, only finishing with a 486 series (really close to my high series all-time too). But for a guy that has a 131 avg. at the start of the night, that's pretty awesome :)

Bowled my best game ever tonight - a ridiculous clean-game 234. Never shot a 200 in my life but I was raking in my first game of the night. Unfortunately, it was the first game, because I couldn't keep my nerves down after that, only finishing with a 486 series (really close to my high series all-time too). But for a guy that has a 131 avg. at the start of the night, that's pretty awesome :)
That is epic! Congratulations on the 234!!!

Bowled my best game ever tonight - a ridiculous clean-game 234. Never shot a 200 in my life but I was raking in my first game of the night. Unfortunately, it was the first game, because I couldn't keep my nerves down after that, only finishing with a 486 series (really close to my high series all-time too). But for a guy that has a 131 avg. at the start of the night, that's pretty awesome :)

Screw you, my best game is 212. I did average 135 when I first started bowling last summer but now got it up to 170. Bowled a 545 my second highest series ever Wednesday. My high series is 568 now. Been bowling much better as I kinda got a routine down the last few weeks when I approach the balls, not all of it pertains to bowling.

That's what usually gets me (the non-bowling related head games, heh). I still do need to get a new ball so I can actually get some curve and decent pin action, but I am usually decent at hitting my mark or at least releasing at the same point - as long as my head doesn't get in the way, heh.

And thanks Pumpy :)

Last week, I bowled my first 600 of the season (a 625) and raised my season average by 4 pins in the process. Dating back to the previous week, I've now bowled 4 consecutive games over 200 in league play. I also did a practice series over the weekend, and I put up a 618. I feel like I'm hitting a groove. I'm reading the lane better than I have all year, and I'm making the necessary adjustments. I think my experience of bowling on PBA lanes this summer is finally paying off. I'm learning the right moves to make, and I'm making them quickly. It is never cool to waste frames, and I'm finally figuring that out.

I have to roll off for this week as I have plans this Friday night, so I'll get my 3 games in on Wednesday or Thursday and see if I can keep the streak of 200s alive.

That was one of the things I always struggled with PT. I would always adjust 2-3 frames later than I should.

Started the season even more erratically than last season. We bowl two games in the teachers' league, and I have been 150 or so in one game and 100 in the other every night.

Is it possible to bring in a hand gun to blast the ten pin? A little one do, a mere derringer.

Of course I would likely take out the seven pin in the next lane instead.

I've changed bowling centers this season. The new place is actually quite an old and fairly run down place, but they take good care of their equipment. So the "business end" of the alley is in great shape. The thing that sealed our involvement with this center is free child care for league members. Last year the wife and I would spend $30 a week for bowling, but then throw down another $40 or $50 for child care.

This new place is a Brunswick center as opposed to AMF, and as I was told by my fellow bowlers, I have added a good 15 pins to my average since moving over. Whatever the difference is, it is quite notable. I'm up to a 160 average, and bowled my best ever in a sanctioned league 567 series this last week.

The league is quite different, one of my team-mates from last season is in this league as well, on a different team however. He was the best bowler in last year's league, and we finished second overall. He carries about a 200 average. In this new league, he isn't even in the top ten bowlers. A number of folks are carrying 230 or better averages. My team is getting a ton of pins every outting, but we're getting drubbed most weeks. It is looking to be a long season.

Have to bump my own post. A new personal best this week. Three two hundred plus games(224,250,213) for a 687 series. I'm torn between being ecstatic with my first ever 600 series, and throwing away a 700 series by opening the eighth and ninth after opening with six strikes in seven frames. This week that was good enough to net us three out of four games. Actually that is three out of four for two weeks in a row, ending a LONG dry spell.

These last few weeks are going to my head. This month at least, I could bowl with Pumpy.

Pumpy never visits Houston for bowling or at least lets me know, anyway congrats Glengoyne.

Pumpy never visits Houston for bowling or at least lets me know, anyway congrats Glengoyne.
i'm on my way

wait outside for me

i'm on my way

wait outside for me

Outside one of the two airports or one of the plethora of bowl alleys?

Got my average of 165 tonight the first game. I worked it up to 170, but sometimes I just don't enjoy bowling with a bunch of old people. Had to be my worst series since I started bowling. Jumping on the trampoline over the weekend with my nephew must of made my jeans weak. I noticed them splitting in the second frame of the second game. I thought they would last the night but I was wrong kind of. I stopped following throw and then I said the hell with it after a few frames of crap, but I got my approach of and then I was just jerking the ball, I couldn't get nothing to feel right. It was funny but wasn't. 84 and 84. Hopefully I bowl better when I get some new jeans, it's distracting when you grab your ball and you get a blast of air.

Always blaming the jeans.

And outside the airport.

... it's distracting when you grab your ball and you get a blast of air.

None of the stock smileys seem appropriate in reply.

Back on Topic. 84. The inconsistency I had in my first couple years bowling brought on a number of sporadic low scores. I'm sure that I've bowled sub-100 in the past year. back to back is rather impressive however. The 84 specifically reminds me of a game where after posting an 84, my team mate, who had just put up a 230 something, looked at me and said "You scored 84 with two spares. That is actually pretty hard to do."

Better luck next week, and know that I'll be adding "check pants" to my list of pre-bowling procedures.:eek:

...There's the smilie I was looking for.

Bowled my first 500 series last night in our position round - a 542! I was on from the 6th frame of the first game on - I put up a 7 in our beer frame in that game, and everyone else struck. So I was feeling disappointed I didn't strike as well, so I ran 5 in a row after that. Finished with a 198, and it didn't go too far down hill after that. 174 and 170 to finish the night (remind you, my current average is 136, heh). So it was a great finish to the first half of our season - even if we did take last :) Things start fresh after the new year, so I hope I can continue my upward swing!

Congrats on the 540 series!

If it weren't for my 'No Tap' 230 games this week, I'd be having a miserable season. Far too many splits with two pins wiggling and deciding they'd both better stand up.

OTOH, we are in second place and face the first place team after the Winter Break.

Thanks :)

I wish I could say our team was doing well too - but we had a miserable first half. We had about a 4 week stretch where we went 2 - 5 each week - then followed that up with back-to-back 0fers. With how well I have been coming along and how well our newbie has been coming along, I am hoping we can get some consistency together in the second half. I mean, it's fun to hit personal goals and everything, but its even more fun to roll for a title as a team :)

I went to throw the ball like 3 hours ago and people behind me said it would have been a youtube clip. The ball was slipping out of my hand when I was going back and it was all I could do not to throw it backwards. It went straight up in the air. It wasn't like I struggled with it for a second, it happened in a flash. Went about a foot over my head and then straight down. All the spin on it from the two fingers I had in it after my thumb left the hole made it go straight to the right when it hit the ground.

My dad said he thought the ball was going to come backwards or even hit the table 15 feet back. Mention he would have thought I would have been scared it would have hit me, but I could tell it wasn't going to when it left my finger tips. Notice I didn't say let go, it was instantaneous. I thought when it left my fingers it might get up to head level but it went almost a foot above me others said. Damn I wish I had this on tape.

TCY Junkie gonna kill himself on the lanes. Calling it now.

I'm on a roll lately. Check out my 2010-11 stats in my sig. At least one 220+ game every week for the past 4 weeks. I've bowled at or above my average for 12 weeks in a row, and I've raised by average by 15 pins in the process. Granted, I was way below my regular average before that, but this is still quite a run.

Sadly, I'm nursing an injury as of Monday night. I have a bad hip. I don't know what happened, but it is probably the worst pain I've felt in years. I don't know whether I'll be able to bowl effectively this Friday. Can I bowl? Yes. Will bowling make the injury worse? Maybe. I'm going to hit an urgent care center tonight to have them check it out. I'm hoping that it's nothing serious. I have a fan club waiting for me at bowling tonight, and I've already warned them that I probably won't be able to see them. I've already gotten multiple Facebook messages and text messages on my phone with fans begging me to show up tonight, even if it's just to say hello. Next thing you know, they'll come to my house and beg me to bowl just like the Vikings talked Brett Favre into coming back last year.

This is what my life has become.

I want to be Pumpy when I grow up.

I just had a couple of awkward moments on the phone with a teammate. My wife and I have been on a team with a married couple. The four of us won the season's first half, and we're three weeks into the second half. We're guaranteed a spot in the championship match at the end of the season, but if we win the second half, we win the championship automatically. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Here's where it gets screwy.

Last week, our teammates didn't show up to bowl. They usually call if they're not able to make it. It was just one week, though, so it wasn't a huge deal. Today, the woman called me. She explained that she was in the hospital last week, but she is feeling better and she expects to bowl tonight if the weather isn't too bad. I told her that it was OK if they couldn't make it. If she's not feeling up to bowling or if the weather is too bad, they could sit out another week and come back next week. That's when she dropped the bomb on me. She and her husband split up. She has absolutely no idea if he's going to bowl for the rest of the season. I now have the uncomfortable task of asking her for his cell phone number (assuming he even has a cell phone) so I can find out if he's coming back. If not, we'll get by. If he is coming back, my wife and I will be in the position of bowling alongside a couple that just split up in the past two weeks.

Awkward.

ugh

I just had a couple of awkward moments on the phone with a teammate. My wife and I have been on a team with a married couple. The four of us won the season's first half, and we're three weeks into the second half. We're guaranteed a spot in the championship match at the end of the season, but if we win the second half, we win the championship automatically. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Here's where it gets screwy.

Last week, our teammates didn't show up to bowl. They usually call if they're not able to make it. It was just one week, though, so it wasn't a huge deal. Today, the woman called me. She explained that she was in the hospital last week, but she is feeling better and she expects to bowl tonight if the weather isn't too bad. I told her that it was OK if they couldn't make it. If she's not feeling up to bowling or if the weather is too bad, they could sit out another week and come back next week. That's when she dropped the bomb on me. She and her husband split up. She has absolutely no idea if he's going to bowl for the rest of the season. I now have the uncomfortable task of asking her for his cell phone number (assuming he even has a cell phone) so I can find out if he's coming back. If not, we'll get by. If he is coming back, my wife and I will be in the position of bowling alongside a couple that just split up in the past two weeks.

Awkward.

I recall you having another bowling buddy that you liked very much and he liked you very much. Maybe he could be the replacement?

I recall you having another bowling buddy that you liked very much and he liked you very much. Maybe he could be the replacement?
oh shi

I just found out last week that the new bowler added to our team is one of only 3 bowlers to ever shoot a sanctioned 800 series after the age of 80. And he did it his first week back after recovering from pneumonia!

He currently is carrying a 209 average as our leadoff bowler at the age of 82. Pretty awesome guy to boot.

It looks like one of my teammates is just out of the picture. I don't think the husband is coming back. The couple bowled together in another league, and he just stopped showing up to that one. She's going to keep bowling with us, so after next week, we're going to just take a vacancy for the rest of the year and bowl as a three-person team. No big deal.

I just bowled my highest series of the season, a 665. I also bowled a 258 in there which is my highest game of the season. My average is up to 190 for the first time ever. I don't know how I'm doing so well this season, but I'm not complaining. What's funny to me is that I've only bowled all three games over 200 once this year. I've got 7 series of 600+, but only once did all three games get over 200. Again, though, no complaints. It's a great season so far.

I joined my first bowling league in 12+ years about 10 weeks ago. I bowled a ton when I was a kid until about age 15 and then had only bowled maybe a a half dozen times in the past 12 years.

I started off the league ok (averaged 167 the first week), but have improved my average every week and am currently averaging 202. It's amazing the way muscle memory works as even all those years off and my body still knew what to do. I've actually avered around 220 the past 5 weeks, so hoping I can get my average up to 210 before the season is over.

I joined my first bowling league in 12+ years about 10 weeks ago. I bowled a ton when I was a kid until about age 15 and then had only bowled maybe a a half dozen times in the past 12 years.

I started off the league ok (averaged 167 the first week), but have improved my average every week and am currently averaging 202. It's amazing the way muscle memory works as even all those years off and my body still knew what to do. I've actually avered around 220 the past 5 weeks, so hoping I can get my average up to 210 before the season is over.
Wow, great job! I feel like I'm losing it if I go even two weeks without bowling. Good luck getting the average up to 210. Sounds like you certainly have it in you.

I just had a couple of awkward moments on the phone with a teammate. My wife and I have been on a team with a married couple. The four of us won the season's first half, and we're three weeks into the second half. We're guaranteed a spot in the championship match at the end of the season, but if we win the second half, we win the championship automatically. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Here's where it gets screwy.

Last week, our teammates didn't show up to bowl. They usually call if they're not able to make it. It was just one week, though, so it wasn't a huge deal. Today, the woman called me. She explained that she was in the hospital last week, but she is feeling better and she expects to bowl tonight if the weather isn't too bad. I told her that it was OK if they couldn't make it. If she's not feeling up to bowling or if the weather is too bad, they could sit out another week and come back next week. That's when she dropped the bomb on me. She and her husband split up. She has absolutely no idea if he's going to bowl for the rest of the season. I now have the uncomfortable task of asking her for his cell phone number (assuming he even has a cell phone) so I can find out if he's coming back. If not, we'll get by. If he is coming back, my wife and I will be in the position of bowling alongside a couple that just split up in the past two weeks.

Awkward.

Two years ago a divorced, male teacher began dating a woman from the School Board office. She joined his team in the bowling league and they got married over the summer. At the start of the new season, one his teammates broke her leg, and they needed a sub for the rest of the year. So he got his ex-wife to be the sub.

Now he's divorced from #2.

Don't have any divorce stories to tell but I did bowl 22 pins over my best and now beating 234 is something really to aim at for me. I am still alive pumpy.

Don't have any divorce stories to tell but I did bowl 22 pins over my best and now beating 234 is something really to aim at for me. I am still alive pumpy.
Come bowl with me, baby. I have a vacant spot on my team.

I don't have a vacant spot on my team. Never mind. The husband half of our teammate couple is still bowling with us.

In other bowling news, I bowled my first 700 in competition tonight, a 707. Love it.

Nice! Congrats!

I bowled like total crap tonight. Scores of 187, 193 and 173, but strike ball was all over the place and I bowled about as bad as I could have.

707, nice!

I wish scores like that were total crap for me ;) I bowled a 530 tonight, with a 204 in there for my first game. Absolutely awesome series for me :)

They showed the final match of the PBA Tournament of Champions today. The runner up, Tom Daugherty had the worst score of a televised match ever, rolling a 100. Yep, a pro bowler rolled a 100 game on TV. The winner of the match was on the opposite end of the spectrum. Mika Koivuniemi rolled 11 straight strikes, and on his twelfth roll hit the pocket, but the 10 pin stayed solid, even though it was hit by at least two other pins.

I don't have a vacant spot on my team. Never mind. The husband half of our teammate couple is still bowling with us.

In other bowling news, I bowled my first 700 in competition tonight, a 707. Love it.

Sit in between them and then she'll think he doesn't want to be around her and want to quit, at least that's what happened when my dad sat between this couple that just got divorced cause he's inept. The guy always sat next to her but there was a chair missing so when my dad brought a chair the biggest space was between them, everyone else was practicing already. He's totally inept and girls are crazy.

Congrats on the 700, maybe I did have a divorce story to tell after all.

I had a better night this past week. First two games were a 260 and 242. Third game killed my series though with a 153. First two games I missed pocket once each, both times high and left bad splits both times. Third game was not my game. I left a 7-10, 6-7 and 6 on pocket shots and a 2-4-7-10 on a headpin shot.

Just shot my second 700 of the season, but we had a bit of an ugly situation in my league at the same time.

We've got an ambidextrous bowler in the league. He's a natural righty, but he's throwing lefty this season. He's the treasurer this year and has been president in the past. We do a weekly "powerball" drawing where you buy raffle tickets, and if your number gets called, you throw one shot - which doesn't count as part of your normal game - for the money in the pot. If you get a strike, you win. If you don't, the money carries over to the next week. The ambidextrous bowler had his number drawn, and he proceeds to grab his righthanded ball and throw for the money righthanded. He got a strike and I heard people protesting about him throwing righty. Now, I'm a rookie president, and I actually thought people were joking (and I'm still sure most of them were), so I ruled that he could have the money.

Immediately after I ruled, the league secretary told me quietly that he was protesting. I figured that because the powerball shot did not count for league scores, it shouldn't matter which hand the guy threw with. Several minutes later, I was approached by the guys who work at the bowling center. One of them has been bowling for 40 years and has taught me almost everything I know about bowling. He said that I was fine to rule either way, but the proper ruling would really be to make the guy throw lefty.

After speaking with other league members and hearing opinions, I realized that I had made a mistake. He should not have been allowed to throw righthanded. I went to the league secretary (who had the only serious protest) and admitted my mistake. He said that I should make the other guy forfeit the prize. I said that I couldn't make him give the money back after I'd awarded it to him, but I would speak with him. I approached the guy who won the money, and I told him that after discussion with others, he really should have thrown the shot lefthanded. He protested a little bit, but then he said, "If you want me to give the money back, just say so. I don't really give a shit." I told him that I couldn't really tell him to do that, but I had made an uninformed decision when I awarded him the prize. He was willing to give up the money, a prize of $27.

I'm really torn on this. On one hand, I acknowledge that I'd made a mistake, and I owned up to it. On the other hand, the guy who won the money has been bowling long enough to know better than to switch hands - especially to his natural hand - in a league event, whether it's for score or not. Apparently, someone even told him before he threw the shot that he shouldn't do it righthanded. I did not hear any protests before he threw it, even though he was clearly lining up to shoot righty. I feel badly about essentially taking away a prize that I had already awarded to him, and that's really the only thing I question. I did not tell him to give back the money, but he knew that I was suggesting it.

Looking back on it, I wish I had told him that he could keep the money, but he is not allowed to do that again. I have already made one ruling and rescinded it, however, so I will look absolutely terrible if I adjust the ruling yet again. It would make me look spineless or wishy-washy, and that's not what people want in their league president. I'm trying to just let it go in my mind, but I've been constantly second-guessing myself on the whole series of events for over 24 hours now, and I'm actually having a hard time sleeping because of it. I feel like I did a lot of things wrong in this situation.

I get that people in authority make mistakes sometimes, and I need to treat this as a learning experience. I just wish I had had more time to think about everything before making a decision, and I'm not happy with the way things turned out. Not to toot my own horn here, but most people love having me as the league president. I have had people tell me that the only reason they're in this league is because of me. There are other people who want to join the league as new bowlers next year because of me. People are always reminding me how much of a positive impact I bring to the league. This one mistake probably won't undermine all of that. Still, this is eating away at me, and it's taking away a lot of the enjoyment that I get from bowling.

I just want to let this go and live with the ruling that's been made instead of thinking about it over and over. I guess I just need to grow a thicker skin and stop worrying about things. To everyone else in the league, the situation is done. To me, it's probably going to affect my concentration every time I bowl in this league until at least the end of the season, maybe beyond.

This sucks.

tl;dr version: i made a bad decision as president, tried to fix it, possibly made it worse, and now i'm mad at myself. and i shot a 700.

Pumpy,

It was $27.

You cannot be perfect in life.

Making quick decisions on the small stuff is better than agonizing over them, even if you get it wrong.

By April, the vast majority of league members won't even remember this incident.

Enjoy your 700 and keep encouraging others, but above all, keep having fun.

What the Old man said.

Pumpy I don't know if you were wrong about that. Since his ball was not part of a game he didn't break the rule of changing delivery. And if the there was no rule to stipulate which hand a bowler had to use I think it's fair game. I am also a Secretrary and run our youth league and even that one has me stumped. If the shot counted toward his score then he broke the rule but there us no rule for what he did in this case (at least that I have heard off). I would have ruled the same way as you fwiw. And congrats on your second 700 :-)

Pumpy I don't know if you were wrong about that. Since his ball was not part of a game he didn't break the rule of changing delivery. And if the there was no rule to stipulate which hand a bowler had to use I think it's fair game. I am also a Secretrary and run our youth league and even that one has me stumped. If the shot counted toward his score then he broke the rule but there us no rule for what he did in this case (at least that I have heard off). I would have ruled the same way as you fwiw. And congrats on your second 700 :-)
The rationale was that this game does contribute to the league, so it is a league event. We take $10 out of the pot each week to go toward league prizes. From what I'm told, for league events, you're not to change delivery. Additionally, only league members are allowed to participate. Technically, the lefthanded "version" of him is a league member this year, not the righty.

From a personal standpoint, it doesn't bother me at all that the guy threw righty. The whole thing is just supposed to be fun. From a league standpoint, however, it's probably best to keep things simple and treat the game with the same rules that we would use on a league shot.

What a strange situation. Trial by fire as a league president, I suppose.

Thanks for the input, folks. I appreciate it, and I'll try not to feel bad about any of it.

Try kicking the guy in the nuts. I bet you then roll a 900 series.

So you can't bowl left handed one week and then right handed the next? I know about not throwing left and then right in the same series. A guy I bowl with said he hurt his right hand and bowled with his left after that. I took it as he finished the season with his left. Is that usbc rules or what?

So you can't bowl left handed one week and then right handed the next? I know about not throwing left and then right in the same series. A guy I bowl with said he hurt his right hand and bowled with his left after that. I took it as he finished the season with his left. Is that usbc rules or what?
You are allowed to switch in case of injury, but you must get permission from the league, and you establish a new average with the other hand. To switch back, you need permission from the league again. That's the USBC rule. Technically, you can switch as often as you need to, but the league has to approve each switch individually.

Got my second 773 of the season tonight and my 5th 700 in the last 10 weeks. To any of you that have bowled an 800 I tip my hats to you. I now fully understand how hard it is to reach that mark. Literally had about 6 spares all night just in bad places. It amazing what carpal tunnel surgery and new equipment can do for your game. In my case, the carpal tunnel surgery now allows me to bowl pain free. It also affected my PAP and caused my track to move higher. New equipment drilled to match that change and my game (cranker) and I finally feel like I am back on track.

Pumpy, do you use LeagueSecretary.com. If so I would love to see your stats for the season.

Wow 700 series is pretty cool. I've come close 687 back in September. Last week I put up a 636.

With the 636, I bowled a 238 and a 227. Both games I felt like I bowled close to perfectly. Not my highest game ever, but with the 238 I opened with seven strikes. Then hit the pocket light in the eighth, leaving 2-4-7-10. I then tried so hard to pick it up, I missed the 2-4-7 to the outside. Struck the ninth, then adjusted my line for the tenth, insufficiently..this time leaving the 2-4-10. I did pick it up, and then made another adjustment for the strike on the last ball.

I was bowling really well, and only missed seven freaking pins. Three of them I picked up in the end. For that I get a 238. So yeah an 800 series is pretty crazy tough.

Congrats to you guys for putting them up.

Oh and Pumpy. I had no idea about the lefty righty switch requiring a permission change from the league. In a previous league one of the best bowlers in the league, multiple 300s, best average, switched all the damn time. Usually whole games, but I saw him switch to lefty mid-game at least once. In that league, no one knew any better or probably cared. In the league I'm in now, I'm sure some folks know and would care. Of course there are a handful of folks that have put up multiple 300s and two 800 series in league, and we're not even the "serious" Tuesday night league.

I'm starting to wear down a little bit this year. A lot of bowling. I've got my own league on Fridays, I'm now a "permanent sub" in a Monday league (one guy is injured and out for the season, so I'm replacing him), and I occasionally sub on Wednesdays. Throw in my regular Wednesday and Thursday practices, and I am bowling about 25 games per week every week. Physically, I'm fine, but it's hard to keep the mental focus. I'm thinking about entering a local tournament next month to give me a little motivation, but I want to feel a little more confident before I make that decision. I'm working on it.

mtolson, my league does not use leaguesecretary.com (though I wish it did), but my own stats are linked in my signature. If you have sigs turned off, here are the links:

BowlingTracker.com - View Profile (http://bowlingtracker.com/index.php?page=viewprofile&PS_LeagueID=15029) (this season)
BowlingTracker.com - View Profile (http://bowlingtracker.com/index.php?page=viewprofile&PS_LeagueID=13661) (last season)

I've improved a lot from last season to this season. Each season, I've set two goals for myself. Last year's goals were a 600 series and a 180 average. I got there. This year's goals were a 700 series and a 190 average. I've got two 700s and I'm shattering the 190. I'm entering this week at 196. Even if I average only 150 for the rest of the season, I'll be over 190 at the end. So now I'm thinking about next year's goals. I'm thinking a 750 series and a 200 average. Maybe that means I'll get an 800 and a 205. :)

We had our bowling banquet to finish off our season this past Friday and I got a pleasant surprise: I was given the award for Most Improved Average! I am pretty proud of that, since I have been working hard to improve and I was pretty disappointed with how I finished last year (128 average). I got my average up to 140 this year, helped a lot over the last 6 weeks or so with a heavier ball that I can control a lot better. That award and Highest League Average are the only ones (outside of League Champs, of course) that get a trophy, so I am pretty happy about that :)

We had our bowling banquet to finish off our season this past Friday and I got a pleasant surprise: I was given the award for Most Improved Average! I am pretty proud of that, since I have been working hard to improve and I was pretty disappointed with how I finished last year (128 average). I got my average up to 140 this year, helped a lot over the last 6 weeks or so with a heavier ball that I can control a lot better. That award and Highest League Average are the only ones (outside of League Champs, of course) that get a trophy, so I am pretty happy about that :)
Congratulations! Do you plan to bowl again next season?

I guess now is a good time to give my own update. My team finished second yet again. We got destroyed in the championship match. It's not that my team bowled badly. The other team just bowled over their heads. That'll happen. I'm not disappointed. The other team earned it, so we just accept second place and move on.

I'm happy to have a couple of weeks away from competition. In the middle of May, I start bowling two summer leagues. One is a PBA Experience league (some of you may recall that I did this last year and got spanked). The other is just a regular casual summer league. Those start on May 17 and May 18, respectively. I sort of want a new bowling ball, but it's not in the budget right now. I'll work with what I have, and maybe I'll pick one up sometime this summer.

Anyone else bowling this summer?

I do plan to bowl again next year (will be my 5th season...wow). At some point this summer, I am going to get my new ball re-drilled and work a little bit on getting a little bit more torque on the ball. My approach changed quite a bit over this past season and I feel if I can control my spin a little bit more, I could get my average up even more.

Two weeks into the PBA Experience head-to-head league, my record is 3-5. Considering that I started 0-4, I'm pleased. I got a really lucky draw last night to win 3 out of 4, though. My first match was against a vacancy (my opponent didn't show up). The rules state that you need to beat 160 to win, and I got to 165. My second match was against a young woman who bowls for the local community college. She seems to be pretty new at bowling. I watched her bowl during the winter, and she has a long way to go to be very competitive. Unfortunately, I tend to bowl to the level of my competition, and I barely squeaked out a 135-133 win. The third match was against a kid who really has no idea what he's doing. I hate to put it that way, but that's the most accurate way I can say it. I won 126-109, although I'll admit that it really wasn't that close after the 5th frame and I didn't try very hard on spares. Still, I should be trying on every shot, no matter who my opponent is. Finally, I faced a pretty decent bowler in my 4th match. He actually put up a 215 earlier in the evening. He couldn't carry corner pins against me, though, and I was hanging in there for most of the match. Unfortunately, needing a strike and a spare in the 10th frame, I couldn't pull it out. I started the 10th with a split and that did me in. Final score 161-145.

Overall, I'm happy with 3 wins in one night. I didn't do that at all last year. I do need to learn to stay focused when I'm up against a lesser opponent, but a win is a win. Of course, now that I'm learning the USBC Masters pattern we're bowling on, I'll master it just in time for them to switch the pattern over to something completely different like the Shark. Urgh.

Week three of our Summer league, and we're 6 and 6.

We've had two ties already this season. Last night was the most exciting. I'm bowling anchor for our team, and me and the other team's anchor came up in the tenth, both running on a strike in ninth. The teams dead even. He is a 200+ bowler in the midst of a 235 game...I'm a 165 bowler and I've been struggling to strike tonight. I matched him strike for strike for the first two balls, and then he hit the pocket a bit high, leaving a split. All I had to do was pull down a nine for the win. The pressure got me, or perhaps the lack of it, and I missed my mark by a good three boards. The ball missed the head pin completely, and I ended up leaving the 1-2 for the tie.

It really was a fun series, with only our final game being decided by more than 10 pins. We won that one by 12, again coming down to the two anchor's tenth frames. I finished with a 530 series, but our team was carried by our captain, who put up a 558 all time high series. He carries a 140 average, so it was a really nice night for him.

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QvJvICkSRH8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is my son from a couple weeks ago.
It should be noted that I live about 30 miles from Greensburg. This move got me wondering.
If he ever asks for a Colin White jersey, I'll be doing some serious investigating.

Nice, SR - I am going to have to try that one :)

I opened my first frame and then went 26 frames closed. I've only had 2 games prior without an open so I bowled really well. My belt broke as I was walking in, I was trying to make sure I wouldn't show everyone crack tonight and it came into at the buckle. It made me focus more and slow down. Usually I just go up there and throw. Had my high series with a 565. So yes Pumpy, I'm bowling this summer.

Well done, TCY! Still hoping to get out a few times this summer...

Super excited to kick off our season tonight! Likely going to be a major change to the format and I am pretty excited (I say likely because it needs a final league vote tonight, but it sounded like most people were happy with it at our Captain's meeting a couple weeks back). Basically, our current format is 2 15-week halves with a champion for each half. Those two champions roll-off in the final week for the Championship. Pretty standard. The suggestion at the meeting this year was to try and keep people interested for more of the season and instead split the season in quarters. So we have 4 7-week quarters. On each 7th week (so 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th) we have a position round to determine a quarter champion - then in the 29th week, we have two matches between those 4 teams. Winners of those two matches face off in week 30 for the Championship.

Given how my team hasn't been involved in the championship in 3 years, I think it is a good way to get more teams involved and keep people active. We haven't had too many issues of teams tanking it toward the end of halves (especially since overall wins is still what determines the payout at the end of the year), but this at least will side-step that issue from happening. I think it will be a fun change. Very excited either way!

Super excited to kick off our season tonight! Likely going to be a major change to the format and I am pretty excited (I say likely because it needs a final league vote tonight, but it sounded like most people were happy with it at our Captain's meeting a couple weeks back). Basically, our current format is 2 15-week halves with a champion for each half. Those two champions roll-off in the final week for the Championship. Pretty standard. The suggestion at the meeting this year was to try and keep people interested for more of the season and instead split the season in quarters. So we have 4 7-week quarters. On each 7th week (so 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th) we have a position round to determine a quarter champion - then in the 29th week, we have two matches between those 4 teams. Winners of those two matches face off in week 30 for the Championship.

Given how my team hasn't been involved in the championship in 3 years, I think it is a good way to get more teams involved and keep people active. We haven't had too many issues of teams tanking it toward the end of halves (especially since overall wins is still what determines the payout at the end of the year), but this at least will side-step that issue from happening. I think it will be a fun change. Very excited either way!
I like this idea. I subbed in a league last year that did quarters, and it does keep people interested throughout the season. How many teams are in your league? My league finished with only 6 teams last year, so halves were fine. This year, we have 10 teams, but we're still doing halves. I like the idea of quarters, but I think it works best if you have a lot of teams.

To pat myself on the back a little bit, I must say that I am quite pleased to look at my stats over the past couple of seasons and see the progression. I have gotten so much better as each season passes. It's through coaching and a lot of hard work, but I'm very happy with it.

I was cleaning out an old bowling bag a few weeks ago, and I found the practice scores that I used to write down. I was seeing a lot of scores between 110 and 140. Those scores were from maybe 4 years ago. It's amazing how different things are now. I've had a few games where I could barely break 140, but those are easily overshadowed by the multiple games where I've topped 240.

What's almost chilling to me is that I still have a lot more to learn. It's scary to realize that I still have so much more work to do on my game. The difference between a 150 average and a 180 average is three spares or a couple of strikes a game. With moderate practice, that's manageable over time. The difference between a 190 and a 220, though... well, it's still 30 pins, but you can't miss a bunch of spares and average 190. So now you're trying to take those spares you've been making and replace them with strikes. Now instead of bowling 5 or 6 strikes a game, you're trying to throw 7 or 8 strikes every single game. That's hard to imagine.

I am starting to imagine that this is what baseball players feel like as they progress through the minors. The difference between levels can be daunting, and you have to constantly learn more and more as you go along because each step is tougher than the last. I guess that's why I look back fondly at my 185 average in 2009/10 and my 195 average last year. Getting those extra 10 pins a game is not easy, so it really helps me understand how much better I've gotten. Now to get over 200...

I like this idea. I subbed in a league last year that did quarters, and it does keep people interested throughout the season. How many teams are in your league? My league finished with only 6 teams last year, so halves were fine. This year, we have 10 teams, but we're still doing halves. I like the idea of quarters, but I think it works best if you have a lot of teams.

I was really intrigued when I heard it too. This is my 5th year in the league and they've been doing halves for a very long time, so its quite a change, but everyone else seemed to like it too. We had 12 teams last year, supposedly up to 14 this year, although it sounds like one of the teams isn't sure, so we may have 13 and a bye (which sucks). But yeah - have a 4-team playoff will be fun for this league methinks.

I was really intrigued when I heard it too. This is my 5th year in the league and they've been doing halves for a very long time, so its quite a change, but everyone else seemed to like it too. We had 12 teams last year, supposedly up to 14 this year, although it sounds like one of the teams isn't sure, so we may have 13 and a bye (which sucks). But yeah - have a 4-team playoff will be fun for this league methinks.
I think quarters will work as long as you have at least 12 teams. Since only 4 teams get into the playoffs, it doesn't have that NBA/NHL vibe of "almost everyone makes the playoffs." Not bad at all. The league that I subbed in did the playoffs a little differently. There were 19 teams in that league, and 5 made the playoffs. That would be the winners of each of the 4 quarters and one wild card. I think the wild card was the team with the most points out of the non-winners. Then the 4 quarter winners were seeded by total points and the wild card was automatically #5. The league did a stepladder format from there.

Game 1: #5 bowls #4
Game 2: Game 1 winner bowls #3
Game 3: Game 2 winner bowls #2
Game 4: Game 3 winner bowls #1 for the championship

My team was #3, and we lost game 2 to the #5 seed. It kinda sucks bowling only one game, so I like your format more. It's better to do a whole match, but then you do need to spread it out over two weeks. I think your league's system will be a good one.

I shot 668 tonight (247+197+224), so that was a good night of bowling. Unfortunately, I had an additional shot where I would've won $140 if I'd made a strike. I missed and left the 10 pin standing. :(

This is my son from a couple weeks ago.
It should be noted that I live about 30 miles from Greensburg. This move got me wondering.
If he ever asks for a Colin White jersey, I'll be doing some serious investigating.
I just watched this for the first time. Somehow, I missed it before. I totally taught him that, and he also wanted me to mention that Zach Parise is better than Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin put together.

Super excited to kick off our season tonight! Likely going to be a major change to the format and I am pretty excited (I say likely because it needs a final league vote tonight, but it sounded like most people were happy with it at our Captain's meeting a couple weeks back). Basically, our current format is 2 15-week halves with a champion for each half. Those two champions roll-off in the final week for the Championship. Pretty standard. The suggestion at the meeting this year was to try and keep people interested for more of the season and instead split the season in quarters. So we have 4 7-week quarters. On each 7th week (so 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th) we have a position round to determine a quarter champion - then in the 29th week, we have two matches between those 4 teams. Winners of those two matches face off in week 30 for the Championship.

Given how my team hasn't been involved in the championship in 3 years, I think it is a good way to get more teams involved and keep people active. We haven't had too many issues of teams tanking it toward the end of halves (especially since overall wins is still what determines the payout at the end of the year), but this at least will side-step that issue from happening. I think it will be a fun change. Very excited either way!

We've always had the four quarter champs and it has made for greater interest for the simple reason a team can be rubbish for the first three quarters and then make and win the playoffs. It can also make for some really strange situations when a team wins more than one quarter, however. Make sure teams are never in a position where losing benefits them more because they are already in a slot.

We had an extremely bizarre situation where the last playoff slot came down to the last ball of the season, rolled by a team that was already in the playoffs. If the bowler made 7 or less on the shot, team A was in, 8 and we were in and 9 or more and the team they were bowling was in.

She wilted under the pressure and got a 6, lost total wood and team A was in.

To pat myself on the back a little bit, I must say that I am quite pleased to look at my stats over the past couple of seasons and see the progression. I have gotten so much better as each season passes. It's through coaching and a lot of hard work, but I'm very happy with it.

I was cleaning out an old bowling bag a few weeks ago, and I found the practice scores that I used to write down. I was seeing a lot of scores between 110 and 140. Those scores were from maybe 4 years ago. It's amazing how different things are now. I've had a few games where I could barely break 140, but those are easily overshadowed by the multiple games where I've topped 240.

What's almost chilling to me is that I still have a lot more to learn. It's scary to realize that I still have so much more work to do on my game. The difference between a 150 average and a 180 average is three spares or a couple of strikes a game. With moderate practice, that's manageable over time. The difference between a 190 and a 220, though... well, it's still 30 pins, but you can't miss a bunch of spares and average 190. So now you're trying to take those spares you've been making and replace them with strikes. Now instead of bowling 5 or 6 strikes a game, you're trying to throw 7 or 8 strikes every single game. That's hard to imagine.

I am starting to imagine that this is what baseball players feel like as they progress through the minors. The difference between levels can be daunting, and you have to constantly learn more and more as you go along because each step is tougher than the last. I guess that's why I look back fondly at my 185 average in 2009/10 and my 195 average last year. Getting those extra 10 pins a game is not easy, so it really helps me understand how much better I've gotten. Now to get over 200...


In retrospect, when I renewed my bowling membership, I looked through my past stats on bowl.com, and evidently since 2002 I've not gotten better at all and in some cases gotten worse :)

I like the stepladder format - that was one of the suggestions when we were talking about it, but we figured a 3 match playoff was easier :)

Started off my season with a 476 last night (190, 162, 124). My arm was pretty much toast by the 7th frame of the 2nd game and I nearly blew my 3rd game, but a double toward the end made it at least somewhat respectable, heh. I had one open in the 9th frame of the first game, otherwise I would have had an easy 200, but I can't complain about that start. Hopefully I didn't set myself up for a hard fall this year :)

My wife and I started bowling in a league last night with another couple.

I hadn't bowled in about 4 years. 256-158-213

I started the first game with the first 7.

We had a good time.

Very nice, Spleen!

Very nice, Spleen!

Thanks! I wasn't sure what to expect. I surely didn't think I would start my first game with 7 strikes.

I bowled 4 strikes in a row during warmups last night.. then proceeded to bowl a 105 in my first game.. Eventually I kind of turned it around and bowled a 142 and 170 in my other two games. Even with my abysmal first game, we managed to take all four points thanks to someone on the other team having an even lower handicap than me and bowling a 95 :)

Sandbagger.

My first week this season I put up a 600 series. My second week I barely scraped by with a 400.

So all in all, I'm right at my 500 series average...


That's OK right?

Right?

Hell yeah :)

Nice job, everyone! spleen killing it with his front 7, Alan T with his 4 warmup strikes (now bring those into the actual game!), PackerFanatic opening his season with a 190. Great stuff, guys!

Tonight, my quest continues to keep the average above 200. Funny, tonight is the first night that I've ever entered a session with an average above 200. It was really cool seeing my name on this week's recap sheet with a 205 after it. My overall season goal is to finish above 200, but I've set a sub-goal. My goal is to not fall below 200 at any point for the rest of the season. I'm such a goof. I finally get over 200, and now I don't ever want to leave. I need to shoot at least a 548 tonight to stay in the 200s. Good luck to meeeeee!

Go Pumpy Go!

We ended up going 3 - 4 last week, about what I expected. Our first game was great but we really tailed off the second too. We will definitely a monster week this week though - we bowl against my uncles team (two of my uncles are on that team actually) and normally they are very good scratch bowlers, so we always have a boatload of handicap going in. Well they, for the most part, bowled like crap last week (both of my uncles, for instance, who normally average 190 and 210-ish, had a 153 and a 147 average respectively) Needless to say, if they bowl anywhere near their normal, they will blow us out of the water :)

So I nearly gave Curt Shilling a run for his money with my own "bloody sock" game tonight. 6th frame, first game, I hadn't marked yet, just couldn't find my mark. My second ball that frame, I nailed the side of my ankle with my ball (thankfully the ball stayed in my own lane, lol). Hurt like a bitch, looked down later and noticed a hole in my sock right where I hit it. Pulled the sock down and it was bleeding (pulled back a good chunk of skin). Not that bad, but bad enough where it was getting on my sock. After that incident, I marked out and finished with a decent (for me score). Then I ended up with a 170 (which knowing me, is actually pretty good) in my second game and finished with a solid 450 series. Apparently I need to bash my ankle a bit before I can find my mark :)

So I nearly gave Curt Shilling a run for his money with my own "bloody sock" game tonight. 6th frame, first game, I hadn't marked yet, just couldn't find my mark. My second ball that frame, I nailed the side of my ankle with my ball (thankfully the ball stayed in my own lane, lol). Hurt like a bitch, looked down later and noticed a hole in my sock right where I hit it. Pulled the sock down and it was bleeding (pulled back a good chunk of skin). Not that bad, but bad enough where it was getting on my sock. After that incident, I marked out and finished with a decent (for me score). Then I ended up with a 170 (which knowing me, is actually pretty good) in my second game and finished with a solid 450 series. Apparently I need to bash my ankle a bit before I can find my mark :)
To open on your first 5 frames and still finish with a 450 is quite good. I hope your ankle gets better soon, though. That sounds rough!

As for myself, I shot a 651 tonight to push my average from 205 to 208. Ugh. The pressure is starting to get astounding now.

To open on your first 5 frames and still finish with a 450 is quite good. I hope your ankle gets better soon, though. That sounds rough!

As for myself, I shot a 651 tonight to push my average from 205 to 208. Ugh. The pressure is starting to get astounding now.

Just gotta keep chugging away :)

My uncle had a 279 tonight, closest he has come to a 300 yet. Ran the first 9 and buried the 10th ball but left the 10-pin. Even though they slaughtered us that game (and all night, as I expected, heh) it would have been cool to see his first 300 up close and personal.

I am pretty pumped...had another 470-ish series tonight. I was a little erratic with some of my shots, which cost me a 500, but I was able to calm and slow myself down and be pretty consistent. That means that I now have over a 150 average that is "established" (since we are 9 games in, its my new book average basically). Either way, I am really pleased with how I am doing. My team on the other hand - still needs a little work :) Although we had some great games last night, we got smoked out of the building again. With the averages so much in flux these first few weeks, I am not totally surprised. We still have 3 more chances with our new format to make the playoffs - if he keep playing as consistently as we did in our 3rd game last night, we could have a shot down the road. My dad threw his first 500 in a long time...he got a new ball early last year and it's been taking him a while to get used to it, so I was really happy to see that.

Hey, back-to-back 700s and a 217 average. I hope my league doesn't figure out that I'm on heavy steroids.

Two closed games in a series is something new, too bad I had my head up my butt for the second half of the second game or I might have been able to break my high series.

Almost two months since a post in this thread. I'll get this going again. Tonight, my team is bowling for the first half championship for the third year in a row. We need to win all 3 games tonight to take the first half.

My team has the following averages:
150 - my wife
137 - a girl who's fairly new to the team
155 - a guy who's been with us all season
207 - me

The opponents:
161 - this guy was averaging 120 only four months ago
159 - the first guy's brother who is just coming back from an injury, but he put up a 553 last week
206 - the star of the team, capable of bowling a 650 any given week
208 - a substitute who has filled in for another injured bowler, nearly bowled a 700 last week

Overall, we're only getting 24 pins of handicap per game, so if any of those guys on the other team bowls well over average, we're probably sunk. Any one of them could make up 24 pins fairly easily, so we've got our work cut out for us. In order for us to even be competitive, I will probably need to put up a 640 tonight, and I'll need one of my teammates to do well also. I'll report back with the results later.