This weeks report comes to you from Taylor Lanes in Taylor, Mi ( just outside of Detroit ). My luck in this bowling center has been mixed, either good or very bad. I’ve had two of my worst tournaments as a professional in this building, but I’ve also had some success when the World Championships used to be at this center. This is also the first regular stop on the Denny’s PBA Tour and the first week in two years that I don’t have to bowl the PTQ. I’m certainly not bowling on my favorite pattern this week, but I’m going into the week with an open mind. Anything can happen !!!

Monday, October 30th

I spent most of the afternoon doing some lessons at home. It’s nice to be able to spend an off day at the bowl working with my regular students. I try to give them the opportunity to come out and work/practice while I’m home, that way they don’t have to go long periods of time between lessons. I had about a dozen lessons scheduled for the day and I got done working right around 6:00. I ran by my house, picked up a few things and hit the road. I always like to get to the Tour Stop on Tuesdays, so I can practice for a while and get comfortable with the center ( even if I’ve been there before ). I had about a 6 ½ hour drive, plus I lost an hour due to the time change, so I got to the hotel at about 1:30 am. I got checked in, unloaded my stuff and then crashed. I was totally exhausted after the drive and since I don’t have anything firm scheduled for tomorrow I plan on sleeping in.

Tuesday, October 31st

Just like I planned, I slept in today. I was still pretty tired from the drive so I slept until around 9:00 or so. I got up, got some work done online then headed to the bowl around noon or so. I had lunch with CJ, then unloaded my equipment. The lane man actually put the pattern out today ( which was a total shock to all of us ). There were about 20-25 of us practicing today, so that gave us an extra practice session to be able to see how the pattern would break down. I used a Trifecta, T-Struck Pearl, T-Struck and a Domination. I practiced for a couple of hours, then put my equipment away. I headed over to the mall to get a haircut and to do a little shopping. After that I headed back to the hotel to relax for a while. Sean Rash and I are rooming together, so when he got into town I headed back to the bowl for a while, then hooked up with Sean and Derek Sapp for dinner at Hooter’s. Of course with it being Halloween, the scenery was slightly above average !!! After dinner we headed back to the hotel for the night. We watched “The Terminal” starring Tom Hanks and my official opinion is : thumbs up. Tom Hanks is an incredible actor that never ceases to amaze me. This may be one of his best performances !

Wednesday, November 1st

Well today we got up around 8:00 or so then headed over to the bowl to watch Derek bowl. We hung around for the first couple of games of the PTQ, then headed over to the Detroit Airport Marriott for the mandatory player meeting. This was the big meeting to begin the season. The PBA management covered many topics, including : finances, sponsors, rule changes, etc…. We also took player head shots and a group photo. The meeting was productive, informative and enlightening. The meeting was supposed to be over at 3:00 pm, but ran late. We had to hustle to get back to the bowl for the 4:00 practice session, and made it just in time. Not that its that bid of a deal, but on this pattern I might have needed the entire 90 minutes. I pretty much used the same balls that I used yesterday and practiced for about an hour or so. I spent some time watching some of the other guys, then headed back to the hotel to change. After Sean came back, we met up with Derek and Schlem, then headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. After dinner we came back to the hotel to just chill out and watch TV. Luckily he’s a fan of Law & Order : SVU so we’ve been watching that all night. For some reason we’re both pretty much tired and out of it, so it will probably be an early night. Thursdays are always long days, so taking it easy on Wednesdays are usually a good idea

Thursday, November 2nd

Well today’s report wont be very detailed. When we come to Taylor, they remove all of the tables in order to fit the bleachers in the aisles. That means all we have are some scattered chairs to sit in. There really wasn’t any place for me to write my notes, so I’m just going to give you a report about the pattern, equipment and what I saw out there today.

Round 1: ( cross – Robert Smith, Ryan Shafer, Kelly Kulick )
Game 1 ( 200 ) – I started playing out going pretty firm up 6-7 with a Trifecta and had a pretty good look. It was coming off the back of the pattern a little too strong, but it was better than anything else I had in the building. Shafer was using a Dark Thunder and a Spitfire and Robert was using a Screaming Banshee. Ryan bowled great all day while Robert and I struggled with breakpoint control. I was going along pretty good, riding a 4-bagger into the 8th before I went 4-9 then 4-10. I left a solid 8 in the 10th to turn a solid 220-230 game into 200.

Game 2 ( 151 ) – Total disaster !!! 4 splits and 1 strike doesn’t equal much of a score. I tried to chase the pattern left, even going to a Domination but my ball was going sideways at the end of the pattern and I was clueless.

Game 3 ( 246 ) – I moved back right with my Trifecta. This pair was extremely tight and I left three or four 2-pins. I finally squared up more with a Thunderstruck Pearl with a low hole and ended up throwing the back 6 or 7.

Game 4 ( 218 ) – I have no idea how I pulled 218 out of this game. The approaches on this pair ( 1 & 2 ) were as bad as any that I’ve seen. We just flat out stopped on this pair. As a matter of fact, Rob hurt his hip and went to the doctor between rounds to get a cortisone shot. Somehow I was able to anticipate the stop and bowl a decent game

Game 5 ( 214 ) – I was finally able to start moving left and I went to a Thunderstruck Solid. Again, the slightest mistake was a number with a circle around it. For the last two weeks I’ve paid maximum penalty for every mistake

Game 6 ( 219 ) – This was a pretty heartbreaking game. I had a very good look on this pair, but couldn’t get more than a double. I was clean this game, but I rang three or four 10-pins and had a couple of solid 9’s.

Game 7 ( 259 ) – This pair probably had the most friction down lane that we had seen to this point. I was able to move a little further left and just wheel it to the gutter. I started with a ring 10, then struck to the 8th. I left another ring 10, then struck in the 9th before yet another ring 10 in the 10th took all the wind out of my sails. I finished the block at +107 and only 26 pins out of 32nd. All in all I didn’t bowl that badly, but I was in the need of some breaks for the night block

Schlem and I decided not to drill anything for the night round, but I did grab my Spitfire and my Dark Thunder off of the truck. My game plan was to duplicate what Ryan was doing early. We grabbed some lunch in the Player Lounge ( the bowl catered Pizza and Lasagna in for us ) and played a few games of Golden Tee.

Thursday, November 2nd

Round 2:
Game 1 ( 197 ) – I tried to start with the Dark Thunder, but the gutter didn’t hook as much as it did this morning. I tried to start with my Spitfire, but it was too much. I ended up using my T-Struck Pearl and ended up bailing 197 out of Game 1.

Game 2 ( 206 ) – Another clean game with one double to show for my work. The T-Struck Pearl looked pretty good, just not the best entry angle.

Game 3 ( 213 ) – This game contained my only missed spare of the 14 games. I missed a 9-pin that I hit, but didn’t knock it over. I went to the T-Struck Solid in the middle of the game, but this pair still didn’t want to hook much down lane. I finished with the last four to bail this game out.

Game 4 ( 212 ) – I actually started this game with the front 4, but a 2-4-8-10 stopped the momentum real quick. I didn’t recover from the split and didn’t double again. I had switched to the Spitfire during this game and that enabled me to move left a little more, but I just couldn’t get the ball to go through the pins the right way.

Game 5 ( 219 ) – Similar story to Game 4. I started with the front four, but this time I left a blower 7-10 in the 5th. I doubled in the 6th and 7th, but I rang a couple of 10-pins after that.

Game 6 ( 211 )  - Two more splits during this game kept me from picking up any ground on the cut number. It just seemed like every time I made a mistake I would leave a 3-4-6-7 or a 2-8-10. Mix in a couple of ring 10’s each game and that pretty much summed up my day

Game 7 ( 202 ) – I started spare, split, split, then went back to the Thunderstruck Solid. I think I went triple, ring 10, strike, ring 10 before I struck out in the 10th for a whopping 202. That finished the block off at +60, putting me at +167 for the day.

 I fell from 39th to 55th during the night block. I feel like I bowled twice as well tonight as I did this morning, but as you can tell the scores didn’t reflect it. I left eleven splits in the morning block and seven in the evening block. When the cut number average is over 220, giving 30 pins a game away isn’t a good idea. I talked to Schlem for a while after the block, and he saw a few things for us to work on. My upper body tilt has gotten a little out of whack, and my head is tipping a little too far forward. I plan on practicing for a while tomorrow to work on that as well as some other things. As discouraged as I am about how I’ve bowled the first two weeks, I’m still optimistic about things to come. My decision making this week was better than last week and I’ve been able to keep my emotions in check, which is a key for me. It seems like when I’m struggling, the smallest things tend to bother me which just makes things worse. This is something that I’ve been working very hard on and I think its paying off. Like I’ve said before, this is by far my worst pattern to match up on, but I’m going to keep working as hard as I can and I will figure this pattern out sooner or later !

Friday November 3rd

Today is one of those kinds of days that I dread. With my tournament over for the week, I basically just have to keep myself occupied for the next few days until we leave for Buffalo. I was scheduled for 2 pro-ams on Saturday, but I did a favor for Chad Kloss and took his pro-am so he could head to Cedar Rapids, Ia to bowl the Midwest Regional. So now my Saturday is pretty much full. Sean made the round of 32 this week, so he got up and headed to the bowl fairly early. I spent most of my morning answering e-mails and catching up on some other work on the computer. I watched the movie “Traffic” starring, well, everybody. It came out a few years ago and I never watched it. I’m sorry I waited this long because it was an excellent movie. It certainly kept me on my toes for the entire 2 plus hours. After the movie was over I headed up to the bowl and watched the end of the first round of matches. The bowling center had prepared lunch for us again today, so I sat in the lounge with CJ and had some lunch. As soon as the round of 32 was over, we were allowed to practice for a while. I hopped on a pair with Pat Healey and practiced for a couple of hours. Schlem and I worked on a variety of things, mainly hip and shoulder angles. We’re trying to fix some issues that I have on closing my shoulders down to soon. That creates problems with me getting the elbow out and getting around the ball. This is something that has been a problem for years. It’s been getting better since January, but it certainly isn’t where I would like it to be yet. There were also some footwork “bugs” that we are trying to work out. After the 2 hours of practice I was already starting to feel better with what how I’m throwing it. I’ll have 2 days of practice next week to work and get ready for the next Tournament. After I got done practicing, I headed out to get the oil changed in my truck and then went back to the room to change clothes and chill out for a while. With absolutely nothing on TV, I headed back to the bowl and played Golden Tee in the lounge with Schlem for a couple of hours. Finally around 9:30 or so, CJ and I headed over to Hooter’s to grab a late dinner ( since we ate lunch at 2:00 ) and then headed back to the room for the night. Luckily for me, there is a few episodes of Law & Order : SVU on tonight so I’m just going to watch some TV and then get some sleep.