Monday, November 13

Well, this will be either a joke, or something interesting to look back on when I'm finished.  What you're about to get here is the view of a fan, a very interested webmaster, and a PBA member (of less than one year) who has all of one previous national tournament under his belt at the tender age of 48 years old.

You see, I've decided to take Thanksgiving week and travel up to Vernon Hills to spend the week with my two guys that I do websites for, and at the same time, bowl.  Imagine that.  I will have, in tow, my sidekick on Jeff's website (and numerous others) and basically adopted son Allen to spend the entire week up there, regardless of how I finish on Wednesday.  We will be leaving our places of residence in the southeast part of Missouri on Monday evening after work and school, and driving up.  His mom has agreed to let him miss Tuesday school, and he's off the rest of the week for Thanksgiving anyways.  We've done this twice before, and enjoy it so much to be able to be at the tournament site, watching the guys, and reporting on it first hand.  Allen doesn't know it yet, but he will be writing something for publication on here too--his views of what happens next week.  He is sixteen years old, a junior in high school, and I know how much he loves to write for school, so he's bound to enjoy this--NOT!

So, you've heard from Jeff what it's like getting ready to go out there and live for a few weeks.  I'm finding out now what it's like to just uproot yourself and get ready to go out for just a week.  My experience last year at the World Championships in Indianapolis is a bit helpful ( we went to the store A LOT last year getting things that I forgot ) so hopefully I am prepared this time.  A carefully prepared list will be necessary for this.  One of the biggest considerations for me is clothing--do I have enough of the good stuff that I'm required to wear while bowling out there?  I bowl a few regionals now and then, and have enough to get through a short weekend, but doing laundry at the hotel may definitely be an option next week for me.

Today, I got online and registered to bowl the TQR, and saw the $300 get posted to my credit card shortly after.  If technology did nothing else, it sure made it easier for people to get their money from our accounts as fast as they can.

Tuesday, November 14

Even though my thoughts are already into next week, my regular job doesn't stop this week, and for that, I'm leaving today for Philadelphia to present the findings from a recent project we did to a client based out there.  These trips aren't particularly hard work, but the travel to and from the airport in St. Louis, and the time you spend in the airports now makes them tedious, and mentally tiring.

Wednesday, November 15

I returned from Philly after about an hour and a half rain delay (it felt like it was the NLCS all over again) and got to my home about 11:00 PM.  Two valuable days of preparation for next week pretty much shot.  It won't get better in the days to come, either.  Next Tuesday at Hawthorn will have to be very productive.

Thursday, November 16

Back in the office today, and I spent my time doing actual work, which I have to do still, and keeping both Jeff's and Parker's websites up to date as the Round of 64 Block 1 progressed.  Since we're in the same time zone, I got some stuff done early before they started bowling in Hammond.  Since I have no one out there actually watching what is going on, I depend on PBA.com for my up-to-the-minute information just as you all do.  It's after the block, when the guys get some time to relax, that I get to talk to them and find out what they saw, what they expect, and what their plans are for the next blocks.  Just from talking to them about things, I feel like I know a little more than the average person about what they deal with on a game-to-game basis.  Whether or not I can bring that into play next week is another story.  We'll have to see about that.

Getting equipment ready for this tournament is a story in itself.  I grew up bowling in the urethane age, and developed a release for pretty dry lanes.  I have 30 years of experience at being on the side of the ball, and my layout was designed for that.  I had what Allen has affectionately coined as a "funky ass roll" that was very effective for most of my life.  It looked like it was spinning going down the lane to most people, but would make the turn pretty good, and hit very well.  My philosophy always was, I know it's different, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Then, after all of these years, I decided to join the PBA because, like I said earlier, I'm 48 years old, and will be a raisin soon enough, so I wanted to get ready to potentially be competitive in PBA Regional and National Senior events.  The only way to get ready for that is to bowl, and so made the committment, and joined. 

Quickly, I found out that my release was not going to work out there.  I could make it work well enough on a house pattern where I had a few boards, or could use the soup to get the ball down the lane, and the dry parts to make it come back.  In the regional tournaments that I bowled, the condition only exacerbated the natural tendencies of my ball roll.  The side rotation made the ball want to push down the lane on its own, and the condition they put out (almost every one of them) also makes your ball want to slide down the lane.  Combine those together, and you get A LOT OF SLIDING GOING ON DOWN THE LANE.  Then, when you try to tighten up and play straighter to allow for the push, the side rotation makes the ball go basically 90 degrees once it leaves the pattern--so you can imagine, when I didn't strike, the pretty designs I was leaving at the other end.  I even made match play in a pretty large regional event this year using that release, but it just so happened that getting the ball to slide was very beneficial that week, and I was one of the lucky ones who had that release.  It was all I had, however.

So, what do you do if you want to be competitive?  Change everything, after accumulating 30 years of experience and intuition?  Wouldn't that be taking quite a chance, at this point?  I mean, after all, you bowl to have fun.  That's the bottom line.  Would it be fun to struggle through all of the ups and downs that you would undoubtedly have to face if you were changing something as major as this?  And, how long would it take?

Luckily for me, I have some people around me who give good, solid advice.  Once I started doing Jeff's website, I also started working on the lanes some with him.  We don't have all that many opportunities, because we live 3 hours apart, but he's crossed with me already in a regional event, and has had the opportunity to sit behind and watch on one or two others.  He started telling me right away that I needed to change my ball roll to be competitive out there.  Flat out.  That's what I had to do.  Not that he needed corroboration, because I believed him just from watching others who are successful, but Rich Weber, the MWPBA Regional Director has known me for nearly 30 years also, and he basically told me the same thing.  Get rid of the twist in the release, and get behind the ball.

I took their advice, and tried to stay more behind the ball.  It was anything but natural, and my hand was very sore at the end of practice sessions, but I thought I was getting somewhere.  However, watching someone else's ball roll down the lane, and watching your own, when you've never seen that roll off your hand before, are two different things--and I was very wrong about what I thought I saw.  I wasn't getting anywhere.  I just couldn't keep my hand behind the ball.  I felt like I was dropping it every time I tried to throw it that way.  Jeff wasn't satisfied with the roll, and basically sent me home to try to get the feel of it.  We had to get started on that roll before we could talk at all about how to play the conditions out there, and smart moves to make.

Along the way, another thought occurred to me, and it's something that didn't come up right away.  My pitches in my thumb hole were such that I could quickly release the ball, and be around the side of it.  I had been using them for years that way, and admittedly, they were pretty radical, albeit effective.  I'm a right-hander, and my thumb was pitched 1/2" left, and 3/4" away from the palm.  I always kept the thumb very sharp so that I didn't squeeze, but Jeff's theory was that with those pitches, I had to be squeezing, and that I couldn't hold on to the bal if I wasn't.  After discussing this with him (and others) we determined that the pitch in the thumb was making me drop the ball, and I probably wasn't going to get the roll I wanted on the ball without changing my grip.  So here we go again.

It took me a week or so, but I finally decided that if I was going to do this, I was going "all in."  I called Craig at Bowlers World Pro Shop at King Pin Lanes in Springfield, IL--Jeff's place--and made an appointment to drive the three hours.  I knew that, if I was going to invest in this big of a change, I wanted someone who would realize what I was doing and treat it exactly like that.  Craig remembered me from years ago as a kid when I was managing Strike 'N Spare East in his hometown, and commented on how things come "full circle."  He said "it's funny how the people I used to look up to when I was just a kid in this game are coming to me now for help later on."  Well, I explained what my objective was, and when he saw my current layout, he agreed with all of us (always helpful).  He started from scratch, and measured my hand just like I was a brand new guy coming into his shop to get a ball drilled for the first time.  He pulled out an old ball from the back room, and punched the holes into it, just to see if it would feel OK and come off my hand OK.  He radically changed the pitch in the thumb, and was worried that it would be too tight for me to clear the ball, or that I would hang just because I wasn't used to the new pitch.  Neither happened, partially because I was blessed with a pretty flexible thumb, and we found that would make this whole process a little easier than we expected it to be.  He said "OK, let's slug that one, and try a pitch even further than that one and see what happens.  I'm not even going to tell you what I am drilling this time--let's just see what happens."  He did, and we landed on something that seemed like it would work.  Now--remember that my old pitches were 1/2" left and 3/4 away?  The new thumb pitch that we decided on was 1/4" left and 1/8" under the palm.  We went 7/8" the other direction!  I wasn't going to drill anything new that day, specifically, but had four brand new Storm balls in my car, and we decided to drill the Pyro with that new grip to let me try something controllable to start off with.  I left excited to begin my learning experience.

That was all two months ago.  Since that time, I've been learning the new release, and I can't say it hasn't been without a little bit of a struggle.  Everything that I have now reads the midlane better, and thus, where I wasn't leaving splits before, now everytime I miss I go through the nose--and as it always does, it seems like I pay the maximum penalty every single time.  In my mind, I know it will still continue to get better, and it has pretty recently.  I've thrown some decent sets, and last Sunday, had a 300 with the new grip, using my new Agent.  That ball is going to be something else in my hand, I can already see that.

That brings me to today.  Deciding on what gets to make the trip to Chicago.  The PBA recently (in October) changed the rules on plugged equipment, and now you're allowed to use plugged balls in all phases of PBA competition as long as they meet USBC specs.  That increases my arsenal tremendously, since we did just change my grip.  I should also add that I made the change to SwitchGrips at the same time as all of this, which I'm really enjoying.  If you have a competent ball driller to go to, it's an awesome invention.

So, arsenal wise, here's what's going with me to Chicago:  Agent, Fire Diablo, The One, Vapor Zone, Double Agent, Vertigo, Pyro, Fired Up, Stinger Two-Piece, and my trusty Spare Storm.  All but the Agent, Fire Diablo, Double Agent, and Pyro are plugged.

I hope this wasn't too boring so far, but it really has been a work in progress.  Jeff is going to be in Chicago on Tuesday, and they have been putting out the pattern early for players to practice on.  He hasn't seen the new roll yet, but has been getting reports from me on how it is working and what I see.  I'm anxious to get his feedback and see where I need to go next.

By the way...both Jeff and Parker made the Round of 32 tonight, and could potentially bowl each other on the show in the first match if things go well for each.  What happens to my allegiences then?  Haven't had to face that yet, but I'm sure it will come.

Friday, November 17

Heavy day at the office, and I'm looking at another one on Monday, the day we leave for Chicago.  If I hadn't arranged to take off Tuesday and Wednesday a while ago, it would be a trick just getting time to go bowl this thing.

I watched the matches unfold this morning on the Live Scoring module of PBA.com, and I was thinking after a while that maybe the common bad luck factor for my two web subjects is me?  Both found themselves down 0-3 quickly, and Jeff had no luck pulling out Game 4 either.  Parker won that game, but traded high scoring games with Patrick Allen and was out of the tournament after 5 games himself.  This story can't be good, and I'm kind of dreading hearing it.

As if I wasn't busy enough, I took off for Columbia, MO right after work to go watch my daughter compete in the Missouri High School Cheerleading Championships.  It's a 3-hour drive, and I got some web work done in the hotel once I got there.

Saturday, November 18

Made the trip home from Columbia today, and started doing laundry and getting clothes prepared for the week in Chicago.  I am also doing a website for our local bowling association, who happens to be hosting the 2007 Missouri State USBC Open Championships.  It's our first effort at getting history up on the web, and it's fun to dive backwards and look at all of the old stuff.  If you want to take a look, it's at CapeBowlingAssociation.com.

Tonight will be used for getting more clothes ready, and going over my list to make sure I don't forget anything.  All the packing has to be done tomorrow, because we're leaving directly from my workplace when I get off on Monday.

Sunday, November 19

Today was spent getting ready for the trip.  I recorded the tour, and will watch it later.  I had many things to do around the house, and plans to make so that I can afford to be away from work for that long.  I'm getting a little anticipatory for Tuesday...I want to get out there and see how the new roll and the new equipment will read the lanes.  I don't for a second believe that I'm as prepared as some of the people will be to bowl up there, but I won't ever give up, and if I have a day that I'm capable of, I can make it into Thursday.  On Thanksgiving Week, who could ask for more?

It will be a long day tomorrow, so I don't know if I will have time to write anything until Tuesday.  I'll keep some thoughts in my head however, and tell you all about the trip up there.

By the way...if you have any comments on this or any of the articles on this site, please let us know via email or on the Site Forum.  We'd love to hear from you--and from the looks of the site traffic, there are quite a few of you out there!  Thanks for all of the support.

Tuesday, November 21

Well, as I predicted, we drove up last night, and it was quite a trip.  Two movies got us up there--the kid is into Grisham, so we watched "The Client" and "The Firm."  I also brought along "A Time To Kill," for the way home.  We got here last night around 11:30 PM, checked into the hotel, and we were in bed by 1:00 AM.

Breakfast at Panera Bread has become a tradition for us, on just three bowling trips.  That place is awesome.  The kid likes Asiago Cheese Bagels, and I am simple...I just like the Pecan Rolls.  It's enough to keep me going for the day and, although he's a growing boy, he handled that well enough until we got past practice this afternoon and went to the local Hooters with Jeff.

Well, I'm sure you're all wondering what happened on the pattern today.  Let me say they are hooking, and I was kind of surprised. It's difficult to describe, but the PBA patterns do more of whatever it is you might notice on regular patterns.  If they hook, they hook earlier.  If they slide, they slide more.  It just seems like there is an exacerbation of whatever goes on when you throw the ball on a national pattern.

Now, that doesn't mean that they aren't hittable.  The guys out here definitely know how to throw the ball to score...the difference between cashing and not sometimes is simply two shots in fourteen games of qualifying.  On top of trying to figure this out with my new roll and grip, Jeff adds in a couple more things that I'm supposed to do today--keep my shoulder steady and back, and use it as just a pivot.  Additionally, I'm basically not allowed to raise up at the line anymore.  Damnit.  It's what I do, and now I can't do it anymore.

What we looked for today was simply a plan on how to start tomorrow.  I have to look for a plan on how to attack the lanes, and my best looks came from the Agent, the Vapor Zone, the Fire Diablo, and the Pyro.  I will take that plan into the morning.  Today left me sore.  Remember, I'm 48.  That means, after tonights fabulous dinner at Hooters, it was hot tub time at the hotel.  It's the only thing that keeps me loose anymore, and it will be that in the morning too.  Tomorrow we need to be at the bowl by 8:50 AM, and it's 12:40 AM right now.  So, I'm outta here.  Wish me luck.

Oh, by the way...we had dinner at Hooters tonight.  Is that a surprise?

Wednesday, November 22

From what I hear, today was the highest scoring Tournament Qualifying Round, and I have a newfound respect for these guys who come out here and do this every week.  Not that I didn't respect them already, but bowling this thing was as grueling as ever, and I proved a number of things to myself.  One--I'm progressing with the new release and delivery, but bowling a PTQ is hard work, and probably not the place to learn.  Two--I have no instincts left that are worth anything.  They all have to be re-learned.  Three--My legs are TIRED!!!

I had a decent look in practice this morning, and it carried over into the first game.  I was able to play out with my Vapor Zone, although it wouldn't always make the corner.  Right before practice ended, we tried the Fire Diablo out there, and then again in around 8-9.  That worked the best, and I started out with the first six strikes.  However, so did half the field, from the way things looked.  I think sometimes people forget that, even though this is the PTQ, it is still full of professionals, and some of them are the top bowlers in their respective regions.  If there is a shot on the lanes, they are going to find it.  Anyways, I left a 4-pin in the 7th frame, and missed it.  I just dropped the spare ball, and it slid right past it.  I doubled in the 8th and 9th, and left two 2-pins in the 10th frame.  As it was, that turned out to be my best score of the day.

I won't bore you with the play-by-play of the other games, other than to say that early on, I made some good moves, good choices, and good ball changes.  Playing with the mechanics and ball rolls makes it very hard to be comfortable on the lanes, and if you're not comfortable, you can't compete against these guys.  I hung around 25th in the standings for a little while, and then steadily dropped as I left too many designs on the other end.  I just don't have the instincts that I used to.  I guess that they will come, after time passes and I practice this more.  That won't happen in the near future, however, since I'm having surgery next week that will put me out of the game until after the first of the year.  I'll start fresh then, and hit the practice hard.

So, here are the results of the PTQ:  Leading was Dave Beres, who you will remember battled Jeff down to the wire for the exemption in the PBA Midwest Region last year.  It all came down to the tournament at Scott Air Force Base last March.  Second place went to amateur Ryan Abel, and third to Chris Sand, who had the pleasure of joining Allen, Jeff, Schlem, and me last night for dinner at Hooters.  Fourth went to Jimmy Levendosky, fifth to Greg Thompson, Jr., sixth to Ronnie Russell, and the seventh and final spot to Carolyn Dorin-Ballard.  It took an average of 238.43 for seven games to obtain a spot in tomorrow's Round of 64.

I bowled with Chris Cundiff, an amateur that throws the ball really nice, and in fact, he cashed in today's event.  Had Ryan Abel not been in the house, he'd have won the amateur spot easily.  In addition, I crossed with Mike Mineman, Walt Schaub II, and Michael Fagan (not THAT Michael Fagan).

While I'm writing this, the exempt players are on the lanes for their practice session.  This morning's crowd was very good, considering it was just the PTQ.  I expect things tomorrow to be huge, and a lot of fun to watch.  We are staying the entire week, so of course we'll be bringing you live updates during the qualifying rounds and during the round robin match play this Friday.  If we can do it, I want to do frame by frame scoring for Jeff tomorrow.

Thursday, November 23--Thanksgiving Day in the Bowling Center