Dear Diary – Part 2

Last month, I provided a glimpse at what I did and thought prior to and during the team event of the ABC National Tournament. With the exception of a couple frames, I made good choices and good adjustments and shot a score well above what I believed possible for me, given how little I had been bowling.

As you might imagine, I was pumped up since I was out of the box with a 700-plus series in a tournament where the scores were not all that high. Since the doubles and singles were the next day, and characteristically lanes do not break down as much on those squads, I had dreams of a top 10 finish in all events.

What follows this month is a description of the thought processes that went into my final six games. Does my path lead to glory or will it be a tale of unrealized potential? This is what we all face going into the second day of a tournament after bowling well the first day. How do I keep it going?

Mind set

My doubles partner is Fred Borden—The Coach. Although most bowlers today recognize Fred as just a coach, in his more competitive earlier years, he was quite a bowler himself, doubling often with now-senior PBA player Allie Clarke with much success, and as a singles bowler the holder of a 300 game shot in an ABC tournament a few years ago. He can play and he wants to win.

I was really looking forward to going down there to bowl with Fred. I was still on a high from the day before. I didn’t believe that I could shoot two more 715s. If it happened, that would be great. If I scored better, that would be great too. The odds were, though, that I would shoot less than in the team event, and if that happened, I would be dissatisfied, but what I wasn’t going to be dissatisfied with was my effort.

I was going to go down there and give it my best shot, go through the process. The night before, I was using a medium rotation shot, something in the 40 to 45-degree range with a medium wrist. If it takes more rotation, I have the ability to do that.  If it takes less, that’s what I will use. I think it is important that I don’t go out on the lanes today with any preconceived ideas based on yesterday. Of course, I will start out where I found the shot the day before, but I can’t allow myself to live in the past so that I make moves too slow. It may be the same tournament and it may be the same condition, but these will be different lanes and the condition may set up and break down differently. I can’t be hardheaded.

Competition

Even though I knew where I would start, I had no idea how the lanes would be today. As I mentioned above, lane conditions develop differently even though we are in the same center and the same type of lane machine is running the same pattern. I really don’t know what to expect, but I did make one change. I didn’t bring my spare ball out this time. Instead, I added the AMForce 1 to my arsenal. This is a ball that has less track flare and I have it shined. Along with it, I have my Pulse, which is dull, with not very much track flare. I kept the Speed Zone since I bowled good with it ...