What an interesting and always tough Hoosier Tournament this past weekend. If you believe you have bowled in a tough environment before, try bowling on some of the trickiest and mind-melting patterns ever. Besides the patterns, it is also the largest tournament of the year. This years mens field had 77 teams and i think around 50 or so womens teams. The men also had to start bowling each day at 7:45 in the morning. Saturday took 8 hours to bowl 6 games and Sunday about 4 hours for three games. THEN, there was a cut and single elimination match play. The first two rounds were best of 3, second round best of 5, and the final round best of 7.
A big congratulations to the girls squad for taking the title. They bowled amazing and made every shot count. Something that everyone can learn from.
Overall, i will say that i bowled ok. I made the change to grips in the week before and was still getting used to the feel. Its hard to say if i liked one over the other as they both have certain benefits that the other doesnt. With grips, i can get a little more on the ball with less effort, allowing me to focus on something else during the shot. Gripless allows a much better feel and "softness" to the shot which is sometimes more important. However, for the remaining college tournaments, i feel the grips will help with getting left and wheeling the ball.
The shots at the Hoosier were extremely difficult. First one on saturday was a 37ft pattern. Pretty much flat, with i think a medium volume, we had no miss room. Somehow, Jacob and myself started strong, firing a 259 and 246 game respectively. However for myself, the next three games i stumbled, only mustering games below 180 before getting yanked out. As for the team, we ended the day -200 overall for the six team games. Not bad considering we shot 840 one of the games. The pattern was so tough that leader for the mens was +2 overall. Crazy.
The next day was suprisingly the easiest pattern in terms of scoring. 48ft with a lot of volume in the middle forced us to play the gutter. A very rare occurence for long patterns. After breaking down 3-5, we were able to move in and kind of ride the hook we created at 4-5 and strike. I rolled a 205 to start then stumbled once again to a 170 game. As a team, we never shot below 1000 on sunday, allowing us to climb from 10th to 5th, missing the one round bye by 3 pins.
In match play, against McKendree, we bowled on a 42ft, flat, light volume pattern. This pattern was attacked by different angles from different teams, with us electing to move in and hook it from around 7-8. Unfortunately, we didnt make enough good shots to overcome McK, losing 0-2 and ending our run in the tournament.
Overall, i thought saturdays pattern was probably the fairest pattern, allowing for multiple style to have a whack at it. The light volume was probably the hardest, mainly because of the fact that we only had 10 balls on each lane to figure it out. This meant no time to break down a friction spot, so shots had to be pretty much spot on to strike.
As for the balls i used,
Saturday:
Nexus, Defiant Soul, Versa Max
Sunday Morning:
Defiant Soul
Sunday Afternoon:
Victory Road Pearl
So all my equipment saw action at one point. If one thing stands out from this weekend, its that playing the lanes from front to back, instead of side to side, can be crucial if wanting to make a run on anything tough, especially something fresh like sunday afternoon.
Signing out,
Cameron
Monday, February 18, 2013
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Team Trials Recap
Hey Guys, I know it has been super long since I have been on here and posted a blog. I am sorry for the extra long delay, been super busy with school and college bowling.
So lets see where do we begin, lets start with my recent big tournament that I have bowled, Team USA Trials. I finished 36th overall out of 171 bowlers, and I can't say that I am completely satisfied by it, but I am okay with it. I saw some good things with my bowling, saw some bad things, and most importantly I learned something new each time out. My best day of bowling was day 1, I finished 153 over and finished 12th for that day and I'm super happy with it. I threw the ball with some confidence and got into one of those tunnel vision type modes where everything feels great. Day 2 was a different story, here is where I saw things that I learned from and what I should of done differently. It was Short, I threw my Urethane and had an okay look, wasn't great by any means but it was manageable and scores weren't completely through the roof so I felt like I was at the scoring pace. Well my gameplan coming in was to stay right with urethane as long as I possibly could then ball down from there to my avalanche solid which is a weaker ball but really good on short and throw it harder and firmer. Well I always had my Dad go check the next pair and see how they were playing them so I was aware of what I would be facing after my game was done. I ended going away from my game plan for the next 2 games and struggled a little bit then finally game 6 i went back to my gameplan and shot a good game out of it.. here is what I learned from that day, obviously stick to your strengths and trust my self and do what i know is gonna work for me. I completely went away from my original plan and it ended up costing me, on what I say is my Strongest pattern or shot.
Day 3 Paris 47ft this was a grind for me for the first 3 games, I didn't have the greatest match up and started too far left. I didnt really have the equiptment match up and I was throwing too strong of stuff with too much cover prep. I was all over the place for the first 3 but managed to stay around even. Thats when they started to hook a bit and thats when I started scoring. I made a ball change to a strong symmetrical with a medium surface and went 90 up for my last 3 games which was a huge boost for me in the standings and kind of a confidence boost as well.
Day 4 was a bust.. worst block of the tournament and the dagger to me.. averaged 197.. I will sum it up in one word: "Splits" that all i did that day. and just couldnt get anything going, it was a grind out there and i just didnt seem to match up with it at all.
Day 5. started out great, great look and couldnt miss. it started to go away then i had a huge hole in my bag and it showed couple low games and finished my tournament not the way i wanted to finish it.
This is okay though, I am starting to see the results of the hard work that I am putting into my game and it is starting to show results.. I will put a post up sometime in the short future about the collegiate season..
To end this blog im going to show a before and now clips of my bowling.
1 1/2 years ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoXw0PkHN4
Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSDqQQY8RQk
enjoy
PC4
So lets see where do we begin, lets start with my recent big tournament that I have bowled, Team USA Trials. I finished 36th overall out of 171 bowlers, and I can't say that I am completely satisfied by it, but I am okay with it. I saw some good things with my bowling, saw some bad things, and most importantly I learned something new each time out. My best day of bowling was day 1, I finished 153 over and finished 12th for that day and I'm super happy with it. I threw the ball with some confidence and got into one of those tunnel vision type modes where everything feels great. Day 2 was a different story, here is where I saw things that I learned from and what I should of done differently. It was Short, I threw my Urethane and had an okay look, wasn't great by any means but it was manageable and scores weren't completely through the roof so I felt like I was at the scoring pace. Well my gameplan coming in was to stay right with urethane as long as I possibly could then ball down from there to my avalanche solid which is a weaker ball but really good on short and throw it harder and firmer. Well I always had my Dad go check the next pair and see how they were playing them so I was aware of what I would be facing after my game was done. I ended going away from my game plan for the next 2 games and struggled a little bit then finally game 6 i went back to my gameplan and shot a good game out of it.. here is what I learned from that day, obviously stick to your strengths and trust my self and do what i know is gonna work for me. I completely went away from my original plan and it ended up costing me, on what I say is my Strongest pattern or shot.
Day 3 Paris 47ft this was a grind for me for the first 3 games, I didn't have the greatest match up and started too far left. I didnt really have the equiptment match up and I was throwing too strong of stuff with too much cover prep. I was all over the place for the first 3 but managed to stay around even. Thats when they started to hook a bit and thats when I started scoring. I made a ball change to a strong symmetrical with a medium surface and went 90 up for my last 3 games which was a huge boost for me in the standings and kind of a confidence boost as well.
Day 4 was a bust.. worst block of the tournament and the dagger to me.. averaged 197.. I will sum it up in one word: "Splits" that all i did that day. and just couldnt get anything going, it was a grind out there and i just didnt seem to match up with it at all.
Day 5. started out great, great look and couldnt miss. it started to go away then i had a huge hole in my bag and it showed couple low games and finished my tournament not the way i wanted to finish it.
This is okay though, I am starting to see the results of the hard work that I am putting into my game and it is starting to show results.. I will put a post up sometime in the short future about the collegiate season..
To end this blog im going to show a before and now clips of my bowling.
1 1/2 years ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msoXw0PkHN4
Now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSDqQQY8RQk
enjoy
PC4
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
A long time....
Wow, another year where we did not do anything with this. Unfortunately, this is a terrible thing and i cant expect anyone to stay following for that amount of time. I personally apologize to everyone who has read and contributed to this blogs success.
With that being said, i am excited to say im going to once again, dedicate myself to keeping this up to date. I have a couple things to hopefully keep focus to this blog, and those things dont take much time out of my schedule.
So, here i am. I am going to give a somewhat brief rundown of my personal bowling and RMU team bowling. The following are the results of tournaments bowled by the RMU mens team since the first tournament of the year:
Western Shootout - 1st
ISBPA Kegel - 1st
Boilermaker - 1st
Titan Invite - 1st**
*Team Match Games - 1st
Warhawk Open - 1st
*Keystone Quaker - 1st
*Lehigh Valley - 1st
Eagles Baker - 1st***
Blue and Gold - 6th
McKendree Baker - 4th
(* denotes Tier 1 events)
(** Jacob Kent, Marshall Kent, Matt Gasn, Kyle King, Dominic Partipilo did NOT participate. Mostly B-teamers along with myself and Mason Petrin)
(*** I bowled on the C team and we won the JV division defeating the B team in the final match. The A team was knocked out in match play)
Overall, not a bad season at all. The Hoosier is right around the corner and then its the year end tournaments.
A couple of things to note,
- I once again won singles at Team Match Games. Threw my Lucid to do so.
- The Titan invite i requested to bowl and had a great time and bowled well. Just missed all tournament team.
- The Blue and Gold had some controversy surrounding the oil patterns put out. We believe that our shot played extremely different as there were 9 teams in front of us when we probably bowled the best we have all year.
- The Eagles Baker was the first time i bowled on any team besides the top team in my college career. I had a blast as it was one of the final tournaments for a couple seniors. Felt humbled to help them win. Bowled anchor all weekend.
------------
As far as singles tournaments go, i only bowled one. I bowled the ISYL in december in Kankakee IL. Threw the Versa-max pretty much all day. Averaged around 230 on the day and probably 240 in match play. Ended up winning by around 150. Teammates Dominic Partipilo finished 2nd and Mikey Preston also made match play. 17-0-1 all time in match play in ISYL's.
-------------
Feels good to get an update. I think the Hoosier weekend will definitely decide if im truly dedicated to resurrect this blog or not.
As always, thanks for reading and following. Looking forward to the future.
-Cameron
With that being said, i am excited to say im going to once again, dedicate myself to keeping this up to date. I have a couple things to hopefully keep focus to this blog, and those things dont take much time out of my schedule.
So, here i am. I am going to give a somewhat brief rundown of my personal bowling and RMU team bowling. The following are the results of tournaments bowled by the RMU mens team since the first tournament of the year:
Western Shootout - 1st
ISBPA Kegel - 1st
Boilermaker - 1st
Titan Invite - 1st**
*Team Match Games - 1st
Warhawk Open - 1st
*Keystone Quaker - 1st
*Lehigh Valley - 1st
Eagles Baker - 1st***
Blue and Gold - 6th
McKendree Baker - 4th
(* denotes Tier 1 events)
(** Jacob Kent, Marshall Kent, Matt Gasn, Kyle King, Dominic Partipilo did NOT participate. Mostly B-teamers along with myself and Mason Petrin)
(*** I bowled on the C team and we won the JV division defeating the B team in the final match. The A team was knocked out in match play)
Overall, not a bad season at all. The Hoosier is right around the corner and then its the year end tournaments.
A couple of things to note,
- I once again won singles at Team Match Games. Threw my Lucid to do so.
- The Titan invite i requested to bowl and had a great time and bowled well. Just missed all tournament team.
- The Blue and Gold had some controversy surrounding the oil patterns put out. We believe that our shot played extremely different as there were 9 teams in front of us when we probably bowled the best we have all year.
- The Eagles Baker was the first time i bowled on any team besides the top team in my college career. I had a blast as it was one of the final tournaments for a couple seniors. Felt humbled to help them win. Bowled anchor all weekend.
------------
As far as singles tournaments go, i only bowled one. I bowled the ISYL in december in Kankakee IL. Threw the Versa-max pretty much all day. Averaged around 230 on the day and probably 240 in match play. Ended up winning by around 150. Teammates Dominic Partipilo finished 2nd and Mikey Preston also made match play. 17-0-1 all time in match play in ISYL's.
-------------
Feels good to get an update. I think the Hoosier weekend will definitely decide if im truly dedicated to resurrect this blog or not.
As always, thanks for reading and following. Looking forward to the future.
-Cameron
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