I should start off by saying that we drove down to Las Vegas which means 2 days of travel, which for me was very unfortunate because I am a bowler where I have to keep up on my practice to continue to perform. So of course do the non stop travel and getting into Reno late, I didn't get to keep up on my practice schedule, which was gonna throw me all off. Luckily we got into Las Vegas, late afternoon/ early evening, which was gonna be perfect for me to work out all the kinks in my game. We decided to eat then head down to the Bowl after dinner, and that kind of back fired on me as cosmic bowling started early that night. I didn't really care that much about the lighting as I was just focusing on my approach first, (I always start with my feet and approach first because you have to have proper footwork and timing in order to bowl at your best. I could talk about that another time. Possible Post?) My footwork during that practice was not good at all, it was off and it was fast, which caused a huge snowball effect to the rest of my game. After a hour of practice, I was getting it back, slowed my feet up, walking straight and the release at the bottom was wierd, I was spinning it which is never good. One thing that always works for me when I am struggling or bowling bad is video tape or have an extra set of eyes watching you (important that they know your game very well) in this case was my Dad. It took time and I just told myself "fingers inside of thumb" which made everything better and ready for the weekend.
So I will be honest, I didn't have very much confidence going into this tournament due to my lack of practice. We started off on Boardwalk, 35ft pattern, which was a good pattern to start off because short patterns are my better patterns I guess you can say. I had this idea in my mind of starting with surface and staying with surface and staying right as long as possible. The ball I started out with was a Storm Tropical Heat Hybrid (one of the best balls i have thrown) with 2000 surface on it. I wanted something that was gonna "burn" off down lane and be smoother and not so snappy in the backend, I wanted my breakpoint to be smooth and predictable. In my opinion, I prefer to use surface on short, it gives you a nice look and not so over/under like what a polish ball would give you. Like other things there are always risks, you gotta know when its "burning" up too much instead of leaving corner pins all day. Once I got to that part in the tournament where I left a couple 10 pins in the game and wasn't carrying how I liked, I switched to the Brunswick Avalanche Solid with 4000 surface on it, just basically knocked the shine off of the cover. It gave me a real good look and cleared the heads where the tropical heat began to check, which gave me a great 1-2 punch for that pattern and it showed as i finished 95 up for the block.
After lunch, we bowled on by far my toughest pattern, 2007 Asian Bowling Federations Indoor Games Long pattern. I honestly have never been so lost or never had that much trouble bowling on long, it was really low scoring and your name had to be Marshall Kent to score on it :) Lol. But I think my problems were largely due not having the right ball in my hand or the right ball in the bag, or even in the state of Nevada for that matter. I just couldn't get anything going, couldn't get a consistant ball reaction. I tried playing the fall back shot, tried playing up the boards but i just couldn't get anything going. It was even harder to bowl because I tensed up because I had to split the boards to get to the pocket, and the fact that I knew I had to split them too so I probably forced the ball trying to force it there instead of letting it get there on its own for lack of better terms. Anyways I had enough of this pattern, moving on.... by the way finished like 100 down for the block... my point exactly.
I qualified 17th for the quarterfinals, for the 5 game match play. We bowled on Beaten Path, one of the patterns I have had success on previous in my career. I had the mindset where I didn't have to beat anybody, I had the target on my back, they had to beat me. They had to bowl their best game to beat me, knowing they had to earn it when they bowled me. The first game, I was trailing the first 4 frames of the match than I made a great ball change and sheet to win by 10 pins.. I believe. Then I started to string and start getting that confidence which was great because I started throwing good shots together and winning matches. I ended up winning 4 of my 5 matches and ended up 6th for the top 10 semi finals.
I just wanted to throw a shout out to all the PAC NW who made the top 10 in both Scratch and Handicap, 11 of the 20 total bowlers in both division hailed from the Northwest, safe to say that we represented very well :)
We bowled on the 2008 Team USA Trials Medium, it was very demanding and was basically a grind out from the get go. obviously being somewhat flat, you had very little room to miss. I started with surface and then switched to polished game 4 of 8 and basically grinded out with the rest of them. after 7 games and going into the position round I found myself sitting in 5th, one spot out of the top 4. I was in striking distance, win my match and beat the 4th place guy scratch plus a couple of pins and I would be in, but the catch is that i wasn't bowling the guy in 4th place, so i really had my eyes on two games... BIG MISTAKE.. I was grinding out but then i found my self forcing shots and ended up missing by a few sticks.
Congrats to Vince Bachteler and Tristan Curtis on their TPC victories and a very fine bowled tournament to Kjerstin Richards and Marshall Kent. Very demanding patterns and you 4 bowlers really deserved it.
I'm will post my recent physical game updates and try outs for Midland U Bowling.
Just thought I would finish off on a quote I find myself saying all the time...
"Strikes for Show, Spares for Dough"
Peace, Love and Good Bowling
PC4
No comments:
Post a Comment