Loading...A few months ago, Palmer Fallgren suggested an article idea: have a normal bowler keep a record of the questions, adjustments, feelings, and concerns they have during tournament competition. Unfortunately, BTM couldn’t find a normal bowler to do this, so we chose Palmer instead. Even in his tour days, no one ever accused Palmer Fallgren of being normal. What follows is his record of his ABC team event performance, which in places lets everyone know that the head coach of Team USA isn’t all that different from the rest of us.
Welcome to the ABC in Reno
Before we even boarded the plane to go to Reno, it was time to make our initial decision: what bowling balls do I take with me. In years past, I’ve experienced different lane conditions, but I listened to the grapevine, did my homework, and tried to understand what type of lane conditions we would be playing on in the Stadium this year.
I also talked to John Davis at The Foundation, an organization that is conducting research on lane conditions. He had made recommendations to the ABC to help with their request to try to have multiple angles to the pocket this year. This was an attempt to give all players and styles a shot.
Based on all of this, I chose six balls. Ball one was my Storm spare ball. You can’t win at the ABC without making spares. Ball two was a red Pulse, a low-flaring ball with surface. Then I had three animal balls: a Speed Zone, a Quantum, and a Boss. Last was my AMForce 1, a good ball for me because it’s low-flaring, and I kept that one a little shiny. This gave me two strike balls that I could go straight up with and three that I could use to turn the corner.
As I got ready to leave for Reno, I realized that I might just be able to get the old self going here, play outside the first arrow, and shoot a 2200. Did I say 2200? I think I meant 1900 because I haven’t been doing much bowling.
Anyway, moving ahead to tournament day. We don’t bowl until 10:30 at night. Fred Borden is my doubles partner. I also have the honor of bowling with Mike Hall, Rick Pittman, and ex-tour player Kent Wagner. We have a pretty good team. We’re going to have a team meeting tonight on strategy, how to bowl together as a team, since we haven’t bowled together before.
Before that even happens, I still have decisions to make about my equipment. The first thing I do is change all my grips. I want the feel of new grips. Then I go over to practice on Lane 81, the CATS lane, with Coach Borden. We were all trying to tune our game on the CATS lane. It was like a Team USA reunion for a while, with John Gaines, Chris Barnes, and Pat Healey all practicing there too.
I did some surface preparation as the final step. I’ve got the Boss, my in-between ball, my all-purpose ball, and I’ve got my Pulse with some surface on it, maybe three inches of track flare to four inches maximum. Then I have my Speed Zone that track flares a lot. So I’m pretty comfortable with my bowling balls, and my grip is feeling pretty good. I cut my finger a little bit trying to remove one of the grips with a scrive. I’ve gotta learn to use the right tools when I’m working on my bowling balls.
We didn’t bowl that much on the CATS lane, maybe a couple games, three at the most, but now we’re ready to go after ‘em on the 10:30 shift. My goal is to go up there and fill frames and try to watch the bowling before us to see how the players are developing our pair of lanes. We are bowling on 19 and 20 tonight, and I want to see where the 7:30 shift is blowing a hole in the condition, if they’re breaking them down parallel or if they’re playing outside or inside. Part of our strategy tonight is for all of us to try to get in the same area. Maybe not all of us, since four of us are righthanded, and Mike Hall is lefthanded.
So the four of us are going to try to use team strategy and play the same angle, fill frames early, and then try to open up the lane, get comfortable, and try to shoot some scores. If we can get the lanes opened up, we have a good chance. The scores of the team leaders are not all that high.
The teams ahead of us on 19 and 20 are two senior teams, eight righties and two lefties. The righties were playing second arrow, with a couple out to about eight. We still used our game plan to play outside five, since you only get one practice ball, and that doesn’t allow you to gauge the lanes.
10:30: Action
It’s now time to march out. I had my big green army duffle bag and I was going to carry that. At the last minute, I changed my mind. I took my three-ball bag instead (Speed Zone, Boss, and Pulse) and carried my spare ball. The Speed Zone needed a hole to get it legal. Oops.
We get a break on lane pairings. The team we are bowling with are all good players. Some are low rev players, like Harry Mickelson, Team USA player Ron Moore, and Kevin Dornberger, the only man who has shot five 2000s in the ABC Tournament. Todd Filter was their future star of the year. He revs it up pretty good.
When we went down to warm up, they were playing in. Most of us were playing out except for Hall, our leftie. He was playing in.
Showtime
We started out a little nervous. I started out with 10 in the pit, first ball, hit around 2 or 3, threw it pretty good. Second ball, I threw fairly good. It didn’t come up and left a 2 pin. We’re trying to decide which lane was tighter. Obviously, the left lane was tighter for everybody. The right lane hooked more, however, it was a lot more for some (3 or 4 boards), but to me, there was a half a board difference. In fact, I wasn’t standing any different at all. In my mind, I was just going to stroke it a little more on the left lane, and on the right lane, just make a good, normal shot.
I come up on the third frame. Ten in the pit again. In the fourth, I probably threw the best ball I threw all night. Ten in the pit again. I got ten in the pit every shot until the ninth frame. My focus was to stay nice and mellow, take a deep breath on the way there, and just go right up through it. I’m using my Speed Zone. The Speed Zone had a surface out of the box—factory shine. The pin position is at about four inches from the PAP with the CG 3-3/8, putting my mass bias—because this ball has mass bias considerations—on the strong line. Obviously, it’s a low RG, and with my 19 mph speed with about a 300 RPM rev rate, it was working real good outside.
I went up in the tenth frame on the left lane, and I threw the ball just as good as the rest of them. A 4-pin, which was an indication that the lane was breaking down.
I teach this all the time, but it was hard for me to really pull myself back and look at it as maybe my coach, sitting behind me, would see it. So in the tenth frame, I had a free ball. If I strike, I get 259, but it really doesn’t matter what I do on the last ball. I went back and got my red Pulse—surface 320. In this particular ball, the pin and the CG are about four inches from the PAP. Low track flare. This ball gets up into an earlier roll, so I play inside. I move in around 12 or 13 where some of the players on the other team have had some success. I think three of the five players were playing there by that time. Kevin Dornberger moved in there in the tenth frame and found a little shot. I threw my ball, it rolled a little bit too early, went through the nose, but I got a strike. I shot 259.
Game two: High hopes?
We’re going into the next game, and now I’m being the bowler. I’m really confused. I just shot 259, so how can I be confused? I’ve realized the shot I had has disappeared. The first ball in the tenth stood up five feet earlier from out there. To throw it again would put me in the nose. I also realized that if I move in a couple boards, I would get too much length and not enough back end because I am using a pretty straight angle to play outside.
Should I switch to a ball that goes longer? I’m thinking about going to the Boss and just playing the same line. I know that ball is going to go longer because I prepared the surface on this ball to go longer.
I’m telling my teammates I don’t know what to do. I think I’m going to go back outside. I threw the ball real good off my hand—the ball hooked through the nose and left a 6/7/10. I’m thinking, you tell everybody else you need to make a change, just do it. You shot 259. Don’t get in the trap of thinking, “Boy that’s the shot.” Get into playing the game right.
I almost made the 6/7/10. I caught the 6 pin just right, and it flew over there. It almost flew over the top of the 7, but went behind it. Nine out.
Frame two
What am I going to do? I go to the right lane and I out-thought myself. “Let’s switch balls,” but I didn’t. I stayed with the same ball and I moved my feet in two boards. Again, I made a real good shot. That ball hooked right through the nose again. A 6/10.
Now I have to move in, but how far do I move in? I was standing on about 9-1/2 with the center of my left foot. I move in to 24-1/2 with my left foot, again in the center of my foot, and now I’m looking 12 or 13.
The small adjustment
In the third frame, I throw the ball down there and leave a wall-shot 7 pin. I thought I made a good shot, but it was just a little bit too hard. A little too aggressive. I realized I gotta back everything down, relax, and stroke the ball through there because I got good length out of the ball. No problem. It just didn’t recover in time.
I went over to the right lane, which did hook a little more, so I moved in a half. I threw the ball down real good with a mellower motion up to the line. Great shot. Hits solid. Ten in the pit.
Now, back over to the left lane. I played it just a half a board difference, but about the same as the right lane, but again, with my motion just mellowed out a little. I dialed myself down about two or three percent, made a real good shot, ten in the pit again.
Now I’m getting comfortable. I made the move from shooting a good game, and now I’m lined up again. Right lane—ten in the pit. Same line. I got the ball a little bit to the right on the right lane, but it rolled back just perfect and just sucked the 10 pin right off the deck.
Now I’m loose. I know I’ve got a little room here. Not a lot of room. If I just make a good shot, I’ve got some room.
By that time, everybody is playing that angle. We’re really creating a hole. I went to the left lane and left a 10 pin. Just a little bit hard. My thumb hung up a little bit. My hand is getting a little puffy. I get a piece of tape out, cut another strip in half, and put it back in there, so it’s like taking about half a piece of tape out. Fine-tuning.
I went over to the right lane, ten in the pit. Go over to the left lane and…probably the bad shot of the night here. I’m trying to be mellow, but I quit at the bottom of the swing. I went up there to make a nice, mellow shot, but as I decelerated at the bottom, I quit on the ball. Speed was about the same, but I didn’t go through it. Fred Borden says, “Boy, you let up, you threw that one too slow.” It took me a couple minutes to realize that. I said, “Fred, I quit on it.”
Back on track
I bowled absolutely perfect from that frame on. I went over to the right lane—ten in the pit. In the ninth frame, ten in the pit. In the tenth frame, I threw three really good.
I’m not in real good bowling shape right now, but that’s only a mental thing, a feel thing. I shot 217. Lost a couple pins in count and I had that 6/7/10 in the first frame, but 217 all in all was good. I’m still in brackets. I only put myself in eight.
Game three
It’s the last game, the lanes are breaking a little bit. You gotta make a move to the left. Talking with the other teammates. I threw a ten in the pit on the first frame. I move in a half a board. It was pretty uneventful. The two lanes evened up, and my game was just throw strikes and make spares. 239! 715 series.
During the third game, I had a lot going on, on the mental side. I was always wanting to look at the score to see what I could bowl. I kept catching myself doing that, and I’d have to bring it back to one ball at a time. “Hey, Palmer, make a good shot and see what happens.” I had to get myself into that mode. We shot 3032, pretty good, but an 893 second game killed us. It was kinda fun just to go out and bowl good in the team event. However, tomorrow, I go into the singles and doubles. Just like normal players, I’m a little intimidated going down there. I want to do well, and I have all this apprehension.
I decide that I’m just going to go out there and try to play the lanes and make good ball decisions. I’m going to take that Speed Zone out again tomorrow. Singles and doubles go faster. The lanes don’t break down as much. On the other hand, the shot doesn’t appear like it would during a team event, so I have to be aware of that.
Still, I will be bringing my ball out with surface. I’m taking my Pulse and my Boss. I don’t know if I’m going to bring the spare ball out. I might do that just in case. Well, that’s tomorrow, so I’ll figure that out tonight.
