PRACTICE ON SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

All we can bowl for $10

We'll be practicing at AMF Pinole Valley Lanes at 11:00 AM on Sunday. This will be the first time in awhile that all of us have gotten together to work on skills. Please put together a list of things you'd like to work on. I'm sure there will be a fair amount of overlapping between us. (Did I hear someone say "10-pin?") Since this is a bowling buffet with all we can bowl for $10, we might as well exploit it for all we can.  

At 1:00, which may be right around the time we finish, ESPN will be broadcasting the PBA Super Clash between Jason Belmonte and Sean Rash. They're bowling a head-to-head three game series with a $2,000.00 prize for each game and $10,000.00 for the winner of the series. You can read the details about the match here. I'll stick around to watch it if anyone else feels like it.



That's 1 PM Pacific Time



THE COACH'S EXPERIMENT



Red: Before

Black: After

You might have noticed The Coach experimenting with a different line to the pocket on Monday night. The past few weeks he was getting lots of splits resulting mostly from shots hitting high on the headpin. He was setting up far to the right on the approach and rolling over the first arrow which put his ball outside the oil.

After suffering with splits again in our first game this week, he tried moving to his left to get his ball in the oil and rolling over the second arrow at a slight left-to-right angle. Going through the oil helped the ball to skid longer before going into its roll and hooking. The change in the angle also helped to keep the ball from hooking past the pocket. The results were good with scores of 190 and 192 in the second and third games. Perhaps we can get out this weekend for some practice and further experimentation with The Coach's new approach.

DROPPING IN AT RAY'S CLINIC

Ray Spackman held one of his drop-in bowling clinics at Diablo Valley Bowl on October 5th. Sharon handled the bowling this time while I observed and shot some video. The clinic was very well attended. I counted ten lanes of bowlers. For $20, each attendee bowled for two hours while Ray roamed from lane to lane, providing instruction and encouragement.

My impression was that Sharon made some substantial improvements in her game. Ray worked with Sharon primarily to smooth out her first two step to resemble regular walking steps and to stop muscling the ball with her forward arm swing. Sharon kept an open mind and made a strong effort to work on the things Ray showed her. By the time the two hours were up, Sharon had a smoother, less strenuous delivery that will be easier to repeat consistently. Here are four shots taken during various points in the lesson. In the first you'll see Sharon is muscling the ball less than before and in the three subsequent shots, a vast difference is detectable.

RAY'S NEW DROP-IN BOWLING CLINIC

As we enter that time of year when the office is often closed on Saturdays, here's something we can do with our suddenly free time:


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GOING BACK TO DIABLO VALLEY BOWL

It's rare that we go for over a week without bowling at Diablo Valley Bowl but that's where we stand now. We last bowled there March 9th (except for The Coach who bowled there on the 11th). Since then, I have bowled on slightly heavier oil at Castro Village, Olivia and I have bowled on light oil at Bel Mateo, and Sharon has bowled twice at Stars (I don't know the conditions there). Of course, all of us bowled in the oil slick at Paddock Bowl yesterday.

The pattern on the right resembles the house shot at Diablo Valley Bowl.
I suspect we played the pattern on the left (or something like it) yesterday.

I highly recommend that we reacquaint ourselves with the conditions at Diablo before we start bowling games that count. A small number of warm-up shots during our shadow bowling tonight may not be enough to shake yesterday from our heads. It took a Herculean effort to hook the ball just a few boards in the CBT Doubles yesterday. If we don't readjust to Diablo's house shot, we'll be on the left side of the lane all night. I plan to arrive by 5:45 and I'll get a lane to roll some extra shots. I hope to see you there.

THE BLOOD DIAMOND REVISITED

Sharon & her Blood Diamond

I have a few more shots of Sharon's new ball, the Blood Diamond by Lane #1. When we practiced on Thursday night, people from the league at the opposite end of the house came down to check it out. It's a very distinctive ball and Sharon enjoyed success using it to shoot at her single pin spares. I expect the Blood Diamond with make its debut in Over The Wall II tomorrow night.

DEBUT OF THE BLOOD DIAMOND

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.

A SPARE NIGHT IN DANVILLE

I practiced at Danville Bowl last night. I didn't roll many strikes but it wasn't entirely bad. It gave me plenty of opportunities to work on my spare shots.

SUNDAY MORNING PRACTICE

Olivia and I bowled for a couple of hours at Diablo Valley Bowl this morning. Ray stopped by to offer some tips which we did our best to employ. (In case anyone forgot, league bowlers in good standing at Diablo Valley Bowl can bowl for free Sunday mornings from 9:00-11:00.) Here's a video from today's bowling:

SATURDAY'S PRACTICE + MONTE CARLO

I met Sharon and The Coach at Diablo Valley Bowl for some practice Saturday morning. It was a typical practice session except for some notable split conversions.

9-10 Split

Sharon left a 9-10 split which is rare enough in itself. The remarkable thing was that she didn't convert it by bisecting the gap between the 9 and 10 pins. Instead, Sharon's shot barely skimmed the left side of the 9 pin which tipped it toward the 10 pin. The top of the 9 pin tapped the 10 pin ever so lightly but enough to knock it off balance.

JUST MISSED IT!

I almost had a 300 game Wednesday night bowling with Garrett Richardson and Mike Howes at Diablo Valley Bowl. The only blemish was a 4-pin in the 8th frame. My strike in the sixth frame was an ugly Brooklyn shot that I tugged so there was definitely some good luck.

SATURDAY BOWLING

Olivia at Delta Bowl

I met Olivia and The Coach at Delta Bowl in Antioch for some practice at 9:00 AM. Sharon wasn't able to join us. We couldn't practice at Diablo Valley Bowl because they were hosting a tournament. We chose Delta as an alternate because it was only $2.00 per game. Most of the other places around the East Bay charge $4.50-$5.00 per game for non-league bowlers and we were planning to bowl four or five games.

The Coach endures the party lights

Everything started off fine at Delta Bowl. The place was nearly empty and we had a peaceful environment for our practice. Then just as we were getting warmed up, the place went dark. Soon after, the disco lights and loud music videos came on. It was time for us to go. We didn't have anywhere else to bowl that morning so we called it quits. Though Sharon couldn't bowl with us in the morning, she planned to bowl in the Monte Carlo game at Paddock Bowl in the evening so we decided to go with that.

Olivia finished with five strikes

As it turned out, Sharon and The Coach backed out but Olivia and I made it out to Paddock Bowl. So did Peter and Brett from our league. It was a light turnout but Kate made the bowling interesting with some extra contests and prizes. Olivia had a real good night including a 210 game.

MORE WORK ON THE TEN PIN

The Coach, Olivia, and I had a practice session this morning in which we targeted the ten pin much like Sharon and I did last night. We shot two full games at the ten pin and made some decent progress. Each of us found a line we were comfortable with and we were hitting the ten pin at a rate greater than 50%. When we hit our targets, we hit the ten pin. Now we need to keep at it and get some repetition so we hit our target consistently.

CONQUERING THE TEN PIN

Sharon expressed a desire to defeat her old nemisis, the dreaded ten pin. It's something I need to work on as well so we dedicated a practice session to it. We bowled after work Saturday and started with four full games doing nothing but shooting at the ten pin.

PRACTICE AT DIABLO VALLEY BOWL

Sharon follows through

Sharon, The Coach, and I met at Diablo Valley Bowl yesterday afternoon for a tune up before our season begins Monday night. We worked especially hard on our spares. In the end I think everyone felt better about their games than when we started. Sharon finished strong with a clean 206. Unfortunately, Olivia wasn't able to join us.

HIGHWAY TO HELL

Monday night was our last on the Carmen Salvino pattern. Next week we move on to Highway To Hell. This is what Bowlingdigital.com has to say about it:


WARNING!


"With an increased amount of conditioner outside, the Highway To Hell is a low latitude ratio pattern with very little left to right shape to help guide the bowling ball towards the pocket. Each player will have to decide and make sense of their ball reaction to decide what’s best for them to find their way down the HIGHWAY TO HELL!"

PRACTICE ON EARL ANTHONY

Olivia with her Storm Frantic

We gave the new pattern a try at Diablo Valley Bowl last night. For all tbe doom & gloom we've heard about the Earl Anthony pattern, it didn't seem so tough. I shot mostly in the 170s with one game over 200. The Coach and Olivia didn't seem have any troubles with it either.

It played much easier than Cheetah, IMO. I suppose the true test will be tonight when the games count.

PBA OIL PATTERN: EARL ANTHONY

Sport Doubles 23 changes oil patterns from Cheetah to Earl Anthony beginning Monday night. Diablo Valley Bowl will have the Earl Anthony pattern on several lanes Sunday at 6:00 for practice. I will be there.

I wish I had some useful tips for the Earl Anthony pattern but my searches have thus far come up empty. The link on the sidebar leads us to this info on the PBA's website:

"The Earl Anthony Pattern places a premium on execution and repetition, qualities which Earl Anthony exemplified. This 40 foot pattern has a unique design in which the oil widens, as opposed to narrows, down the lane. The unusual placement of widening oil down the lane will force players to make premium shots from a variety of angles. As the pattern breaks down, look for players to make unique moves and precision shots, ala Earl Anthony."

Oh, really? We'll need to execute our shots well to be successful in a target shooting game? Gee, thanks for the tip, PBA. All I can say with any certainty is the oil for Earl Anthony (40') is shorter than we experienced with Paris (47') and longer than we experienced with Cheetah (35'). Perhaps Fred Kaczmarczyk will be there to share some insights and show us how he plays it. Not that any of us will be able to duplicate Fred's technique...

ALL YOU CAN BOWL FOR $10

Mel's Bowl in Alameda has a summer discount on Sunday through Thursday nights. From 8 PM until midnight, you bowl as much as you want for $10.00. I visited Mel's on my way home from the office softball games at Nicholl Park and found the place only about a quarter full.

The lanes had fresh oil and the NBA playoffs were on some of the vacant scoreboards. I stopped counting after I bowled my tenth game. When you're bowling solo with two lanes and not taking any breaks, you can pile up a bunch of games in four hours. 

A GOOD PRACTICE

Sharon and I practiced at Diablo Lanes last night. Kris joined us after a couple of games. It was quiet with the Showcase League done until the next fall season. The only league operating was a scratch trios league that has only about eight teams.

Sometimes we feel like giving up.
We can't allow ourselves to do it.

Many times I've said that even when one isn't bowling well, practice can do a lot of good. There's almost always something that can be learned, even on a night when nothing seems to be working. Last night was a classic example of this.

In our first few games, Sharon was struggling and growing very frustrated. Her ball wasn't hooking and she was leaving washouts and other difficult spares. Near the end of her third game, she realized she wasn't bending her knees enough, causing her to bowl too upright. She finished that game with a couple of strikes and a spare. She decided to stick around and see if she could build on what she learned at the end of that game. She focused on staying low and her shots hooked sharply and consistently. When she didn't strike, she converted nearly all of her spares. After feeling disappointed and frustrated through the first few games, she finished with scores of 212 and 196. She was all smiles at that point.

It was a good night overall. All three of us hit some rough patches early but made some adjustments and finished the night with some very strong games.