Fri League (19 Aug 2011)

My scores were no where close to what I expected the 1st night of bowling.  A couple of days prior, I rolled a 234 and a 185 in practice, but that didn't seem to carry over to Friday night.  The lanes were rather dry on the outside, and there didn't seem to be a lot of strikes from anybody.  With that being said, I was not upset with my bowling overall.  My spare shooting has continued to improve, and the majority of my opens were due to splits (except for a stretch in the 2nd game where I had 4 opens in a row).  I ended up with a 141 average after the 1st night of bowling (154, 122, 148).  I finished up last season with a 159 average, so if you throw out that 2nd game, my night wasn't too awful.  Guess I will have a little bit of handicap next week.  My goal for this season is to carry at least a 175 average, and I believe that is a realistic goal.

Wendy Macpherson named BWAA July Bowler of the Month | bowlingdigital.com

Macpherson continued her success on the Japan Professional Bowlers Association (JPBA) Tour with back-to-back wins in July, her ninth and tenth career JPBA titles. This pair of victories gives her 30 professional titles overall, in addition to her 20 PWBA titles won through 2003.

Sport Tournament (3 July 2011)

Well, bowled in a sport tournament on the 3rd, and I am glad there was no entry fee.  I don't believe I have bowled worse in a tournament before.  I wasn't able to get anything going.  The way I started out, I said to myself that I would be happy if I could manage to average 150 or better.  Well, I ended up averaging 149 for the 9 game set.  About 3 quarters through the tournament, my wife mentioned that I was lifting my head before I was releasing my shot (meaning I was not keeping my eyes on the target through the delivery).  Not only that, but I found in practice that I was also not staying down through my delivery (standing up at the line).  It was hard to come away from the tournament with many positives, other than I have a lot to work on.

Friday Night Mixers (8 Apr 2011)

Rolled the last week of the league last Friday, and had a decent night.  There seemed to be more oil on the lanes which resulted in a few more splits and a lot more spare opportunities.  During the 1st game, I moved where I was standing a couple of board to the left, and was able to get my ball to the pocket.  But I pretty much had to roll a perfect ball to get a strike.  During the second game, I moved back to my normal board, but moved my feet forward about 1 1/2 feet in order to slow down my ball.  That seemed to do the trick.  I did struggle a bit on the last game again.  I rolled a 157, 202 and a 161 for a 520 series.  I ended up with a 159 average after 12 weeks bowling left handed.  I am very happy with my progress.  Of note, in the last 8 weeks of the league, only 2 of them were below a 500 series, and I bowled at least 1 200 game each of the last 5 weeks.

My stats for the last 12 weeks can be viewed here.

My pin fall for last week:

Friday Night Mixers (1 April 2011)

Had a good start for a change last night, and thought I was going to have my 1st left handed 600 series.  Rolled a 217 and 216 for the 1st 2 games, but struggled on the last game for a 151 and a 584 series.  Even with the 151, it was still a good night.  It was my 1st back to back 200 games, and it is also my high series so far.  My second game should have been a lot higher, but I dropped the 1st ball of the 7th frame in the channel after starting off with the 1st 6 strikes.  After that I wasn't able to get anything going.  Looking forward to next week.





League record

Friday Night Mixers (25 Mar 2011)

I ended up having a good night at the bowling alley tonight (despite choking a couple of times).  I rolled my 3rd 200 game in 3 weeks, and rolled my high series (558).  As usual, I had a rough start.  I managed to roll a 171 the first game (despite having 4 opens).  The first game was tight, and I was able to strike in the 9th, 10th and 11th for the win.  (We wouldn't of had a chance if the other bowlers on the team didn't show up in the 10 also.)  In the 2nd game, I had an open (split) in the 2nd frame and guttered in the fill ball on the 10th frame for a 184.  I rolled a 203 the last game.  As with the other games, I tried to spoil a decent game with a 4 count on the 1st ball following a 4 bagger.

Overall, I am happy with my bowling tonight and my progress overall.  After this week, my average is up to a 154.

My league record can be viewed here.

My pin-fall for tonight is below.

Friday Night Mixers (11 Feb 2011)

Again this week, nothing impressive with my scores.  I rolled at 153, 127 and a 123 for a 403 series.  I came into tonight with a 137 average and averaged 134 for the night.  My first ball was better.  I didn't have any frames where I pulled the ball and lost count after a strike or spare.  I have gotten better at keeping my hand behind the ball through my release which has resulted in better pin counts on the 1st ball.

However, now that I am able to roll the ball with less hook, I need to adjust my target and where I stand on all of my spares.  It was a good sign in the 3rd game when I started out with a 9 count in the 1st 3 frames (I am starting to keep my ball around the pocket) but I didn't pick them up.  In fact I only had one mark in the 1st 6 frames.  I did turn it around after that and started picking up spares.  Additionally, my team did not want to change the lineup, so I am still bowling anchor (with the lowest average on the team).  So I still have the added pressure of that on top of just trying to learn to bowl with my left hand.  I am still enjoying the challenge, and we were able to win 5 out of 7 points tonight.

My average since I switched to the left hand can be found at https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AoYRqw1wwNtNdDQ3R09RX2xXWGdRQWozN1p0YUhKdmc&hl=en#gid=0.