New Ball - Brunswick Ultra Zone

So a few brunswick balls were on bigtime sale at bowlingball.com. I had the choice between a twisted fury, twisted fury solid, smash zone, and a swarm for $89, or the ultra zone for $69. I really really wanted to get one of the twisted furys but michael brought a good point up. Do you ever seen anyone throwing a twisted fury? Nope. I think i saw someone once with a twisted fury destruction sitting in the bag, but not throwing it. Storm really seems to be dominating the market right now. 

Since i have always been a brunswick fan, i didnt mind getting a ball for almost half off. I bowled in a tournament a couple of months ago at ten pins and I saw David Hoffer there. I used to bowl with him in Ruidoso about 10 years ago. He is also a brunswick fan, and he is the one that gave me the Danger Zone HPH that i still have. He was talking up the ultra zone that he had bought. So based on what michael said, and what hoffer said, i ordered the ultra.

It will be here today, an I am debating on if i should get it drilled and throw it for league or wait and practice with it first. I have time tomorrow to get it drilled before league, but the race for high average is SOO tight and I cant afford to be bowling with something i am not comfortable with. Not to mention, we are on 1 and 2 tomorrow.

So i think i will get it drilled saturday and throw it sunday. 

Monday Night Practice

Decided to give the VG one last shot at redemption before i threw it in the dumpster. I guess its good that i didnt. I am thinking I was just getting a good read on the lanes. 

WOW. what happened right? I figured out some issues that i was having with timing and with my release. And i found the line immediatley. 

The best part of this practice session is the number of open frames i had. 2!! they were stupid ones too, i missed them with my spare ball. I forgot to mention that I am on a 15 for 15 ten pin pick up streak from the tournamnet and this practice. I am no longer scared when i see the 10 pin standing there. 

Another interesting thing about this practice is the number of splits i left. NONE. usually thats the majority of my opens. Even though swinging it out to the 1 board looks cool, it doesnt score well because when i do that I am guaranteed a split. 

There were a couple times when i would throw the VG just like every other ball but it would come in harder. Oh well, I think i will just keep it after i get the ultra zone I ordered and use it if the lanes are super slick.

Sunday Scratch Tournament

Even though i have been in a slump lately, I decided to enter the monthly scratch tournament. There were only 12 scratch bowlers taht showed up this time so i thought my odds were actually gonna be pretty good. 

I started the tournament with my virtual gravity. I had some new confidence in it after saturdays practice. Came out shooting a 194. not bad, i could do better. Then the ball just got weird. The next game i left 2 pocket 7 - 10 splits. That was discouraging. So discouragin i shot a 155. SIGH. So I put the VG up and got out the danger zone (ol faithful).

SO the first ball with the zone, i threw in the gutter. haha i picked up the spare though. Then i struck to the 10th frame where i opened like an idiot for a 234. 

After that i shot a 207, 203 and a 200. If only i had started with the zone.

Saturday Practice

After my beating on friday, I decided to soak my ball in hot water mixed with simple green. Surprisingly a lot of crap came out of the ball. Didnt really change things though, but i managed on shooting sorta decent. I just dont know what to do.....

I was playing a very tight line near the gutter though. I really like shooting that. Not only does it look cool, i think i get the best carry that way. I really think playing that line helps my accuracy too because if you miss right playing that line, it really hurts your score. 

Friday night league - 591 series

Yep, i am on the verge of giving up. I just dont know what my problem is. I know that i am throwing it harder but i just cant seem to slow it down. Plus, my virtual gravity has seems to have lost its consistency. Sometimes it will hook, sometimes it will go long. Heres the thing about it though, I have polished it and resurfaced it so many times who knows what is going on with the cover. I ordered a new ball, an ultra zone. Mostly because it was on sale but also because i always rely on "ol faithful", my danger zone hph. Figured i would try another zone. 

I think my first game was a 179. Yeah.

Second was 194 - better but still crappy

third i finally got something going and shot 218. 

Larry and I are tied for average now going into next week with a 207.8. SIGH

2009 USBC Open Championships - Cashman Center, LasVegas, NV

So i made another trip to vegas to bowl again. This time, even thought the oil pattern was going to be much less challenging, I was looking for redemtion. Thats not what i got :(

We stayed at the Monte Carlo this time instead of the freak show circus circus. That place is starting to get pretty dumpy. The monte was nice, but I wasnt to impressed. We were just in vegas a month and a half prior, so it felt like yesterday when we rolled into town. After we got checked in, we went straight to Fat Tuesdays :)

My first day of bowling was the team event with a team i never met. I got there early to see what shot the guys were playing. They were shooting on the burned up shot, and they were mostly playing down and in. Made me think that it was going to be super slick. Went to the back and got my balls weighed and inspected, then met my team. Then we did a march out, my second march out in cashman center. They had just oiled the lanes too

After a couple of practice throws it was pretty obvious that the lanes were not slick at all. I was playing my normal 12/13 to 4 and hooking back into the pocket. I opened up with a 214. i felt pretty good about that. My teamates were really impressed with the reaction i was getting out of my ball for my style of throwing. One guy even said "lot of forward roll on your ball huh?". I never really thought that I had forward roll.

Anyway, I sucked it up the next 2 games and got a 557 series. I remember my last game was a 156 only because i struck out in the 10th. And the reason i struck out in the 10th is because i made a drastice move(5 left with feet/ 3 left with mark). Had i done that a lot sooner, i probably couldve scored higher. Why i still refuse to move when i dont carry is beyond me.

So the second day i had to bowl at 7am. That sucked, i dont do anything good at 7am. We got another fresh shot which was weird. My first game was a 234. That felt great and I had high hopes for a good series. then in the 3rd frame i threw a gutter ball onmy first ball. Then, i guttered the second ball. Out of no where. I dont think i have ever done that. Somehow, i managed a 189 out of that game. I dont remember my third game but it wasnt good, and i got a 581 series.

Then the next set, we moved lanes to where a bunch of straight ball people were throwing. I couldnt figure out the shot at all. I ended up throwning the track hitting the 17 out about the 4. This is the first time i have experienced the "skid flip" ball. It looks really cool going down there, but was so hard to control. i had a 534 series...

Didnt get remption, but i did bowl ok for 2 games. ha.

Friday Night League - 629 Series

So this blog is a little late because I didnt really have time till today. We bowled the old men on Friday, so there was a TON of crap talking going on. I actually like bowling those old guys though, its pretty fun to mess with them about their lack of revs or speed of the ball.

I started off pretty strong, had a strike, then a spare that i missed my mark by 2 boards right, then struck to the 10th. I got up for the 10th frame thinking about how i needed to close the frame out. I missed my mark bad and left a split. SIGH. Opened in the 10th for a 245. 

Thats ok i was thinking, i was throwing it well. Second game i had the front 5, then what do i do? I come in high and leave the 4 ten. Miss it. Come in slightly high and leave the 10, miss it. Then hit pocket and leave the 7 - 10. I went from the front 5 to a 189. 

Last game i just couldnt carry anything. 195. 

Got my usual 6 opens. 4 of those were splits though, not that it makes it any better. I picked up one split but i cant remember which one. 18 strikes. 13 of those were in the first 15 frames. I just dont understand what my problem is. Its all mental i think. And i dont adjust quick enough to keep my scores high.