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| The Blood Diamond by Lane #1 |
Sharon broke out her new Buzzsaw Blood Diamond at Diablo Valley Bowl last night. The Blood Diamond is a clear polyester ball with a red diamond in it. It's designed primarily for shooting straight at spares.
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| Ray finishes the finger inserts |
Sharon and I had an excellent practice. We bowled about eight games with our focus being on shooting straight at spares that don't have double wood (Two pins with one directly behind the other; 1-5, 2-8, 3-9). In the past, Sharon has used her plastic ball only to shoot straight at pins on the right side of the lane. Last night we experimented with shooting straight at left side spares such as the 2, 4, 7, 8, 4-7, and 2-4-5.
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| Like Cinderella and the glass slipper |
The experiment was inspired by the conditions we experienced Monday night. Unusually heavy oil in the center of the lane made it difficult to rely on a hooking ball to hit a 4-pin or 7-pin. Sharon and Olivia both had shots that came up short when they hit a patch of oil (with the ball skidding by the pin to the right) and others that hit a dry patch (with the ball grabbing the lane and hooking sharply by the pin to the left). By rolling a polyester ball straight at the pin, one eliminates that variable from the equation. The shot is reduced to lining it up properly and hitting the target. Unless you go out of your way to make a polyester ball hook, it's going to roll straight as a laser in light or heavy oil.
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| A true attention grabber |
For Sharon's first time trying it, she handled it extremely well. Through trial and error, we identified her line to the 2, 4, 7, and 8 pins. She used the third arrow (15th board) as her target and moved her position on the approach to line up the third arrow between her right shoulder and the pin. When she hit the third arrow, she was dead on target. She nailed several 2-4-5 spares (which had been giving her trouble lately) and she even converted a 2-4-10 split. With more practice, I expect Sharon's spare conversion rate to increase substantially.
I added a video clip of Sharon picking up a ten-pin with the Blood Diamond.
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