Lesson, Sweeper, Practice

I got up early today. Could not sleep very well last night. I was too excited about all of the bowling that was going on today. I got to the Stadium at 11:30 to give me plenty of time to get settled in before my lesson with Mike Jasnau. I hadn't picked up a ball in a couple of weeks and it showed. The lesson turned out great. There were not a lot changes that were made in my game. Two of my biggest problems - muscling the ball and raising up at the foul line have been corrected. The first correction was made in my first two steps. I was basically pushing away on my first step and then carrying the ball in my second step which caused me to muscle the ball in my third step to get me in time. All of this caused me to rare up at the foul line at the time of my delivery. That has all gone away. Mike now has me holding the ball a higher when I start and on my first step I hold the ball until my second step where I am now pushing off and letting the weight of the ball carry me into steps 3,4 and 5. I am now posting the shot at the foul line. The coolest thing is that the video analysis that was done shows the difference in both deliveries and I can now practice this and check back to the video to see how I am doing. It feels a little awkward, but I like the changes that were made in my game.

So, it was now off to the sweeper. The sweeper started at 2:30, only 1 hour after my lesson. The sweeper did not start out so well. First ball was a 4-6-7 split. OUCH. Way to take those lessons and apply them. For the next couple of shots I was trying to get comfortable on the lanes and use the adjustments in my game that were made by Jasnau. I ended up shooting a 168 with a couple of other splits. The scoring was very low, so I knew that I had a chance if I could bring it back it games 2 and 3. We then moved 10 pairs. Yes, that is correct. I started out on lanes 35-36 and had to move to lanes 55-56 for game 2. Needed oxygen to get to the next pair. What a jaunt. I started off with the front 4 and then went back to back splits. The lanes are really dry in the heads and if you pull it just a board or two, the ball goes through the nose. Of course, there is also out of bounds outside of the five board. Not an easy condition at all. I then struck on my next three balls and finished with a very respectable 223. I then had to move to the other end of the house on lanes 7-8. MORE OXYGEN PLEASE> I started out really good again with a spare and a double. I am looking really good until I lost ball reaction for a couple of frames where I left the big four on one shot and then had a washout in the tenth and ended with a 185 game. I ended up shooting 576 with the cash cut score being 588. I finished 32nd out of 97 bowlers. All in all not a bad start, just wish I would have thrown a couple of better shots when I needed them. Especially in the tenth the last game when I washed out. All I had to do was stay clean and I would have cashed. I don't feel to bad considering I just went through a pretty major change in my game.

Kristi and I then went to dinner and got something to eat before my practice session at 8:00. This went very well. I could really start concentrating on my new delivery and I am really anxious to get started tomorrow. I was throwing the ball really good in practice. I just relaxed more and told myself that I can make good shots and it showed. I hope I can stay that relaxed tomorrow in qualifying. If so, I feel I have a decent shot at shooting some good scores. It is really cool to hang out with Croucher. He knows all of the touring pros and it was fun to be around him just talking bowling. Mark Roth, Tom Baker, Bob Handley, David Ozio and Dave Soutar are just a few of the pros that I was able to talk with today. What an experience.

Sorry, there are no pictures today. Just my boring blog. I will try and get some pictures posted tomorrow with my qualifying scores.