World Series of Bowling Recap - Part 2

Qualifying day for Scorpion started like any other. I bowled the 7 games of qualifying, bowled poorly. So I bowled through lunch, bowled the 2nd set of 7, and wasn’t close to making the cut. I made Bill & Jason wait for me as I practiced for an hour afterwards. I knew practicing would certainly help but I would also have to drill as many balls as I could.

I was having a very hard time controlling my ball reaction during these events. As well as the new Ebonite equipment looked while I was at home, the tour conditions are a whole different animal. I would have to experiment with different drillings and surface to see what worked well for me. Although I didn't finish as the leader, at one point I was leading the tour in balls drilled. I finished the month with somewhere around 20. After all my experimentation I realized what I needed were symmetric core balls (Black Vibe, Raw Hammer Acid, Lane Breaker, Bash) as well as extremely weak pins (5 1/2-6 inches from my axis). The symmetric balls along with the drillings tamed down my reaction and created something that was smoother at the break point and more predictable. With the lanes being as difficult as they were my strategy was to have equipment that would control the pocket. The lanes were not allowing the players to create any type of great ball reaction.

Ok so enough technical jargon.

The shark championship was the last event before the World Championship. I felt like I had made a lot of progress during the numerous practice sessions and I have had some success on Shark in the past. The first block started off well and I was able to get off to a lead on the cut number. The 2nd block was a grind but I was able to start the block with six 200 games and not stress about making the match play.

I took on Robert Smith first in the morning. Robert bowled very well but was not able to put me away when he had the chance. I was able to hang around long enough and as the lanes got extremely dry my reaction got good as his faded. I pulled out the match in seven after being down 3-1.

Tommy Jones was my next match up. I have had some problems against Tommy the last few times and he is always a very tough match. He didn’t put up a fight the first game but came back with 750 for the next 3 and I found myself down 3-1 again. Lucky for me the lanes went through transition and the scoring pace slowed down a little. As we started lofting the left gutter his reaction started to diminish. I bowled a couple good games to win games 5 & 6. Game 7 was almost a disaster when I started split, spare, split. I didn’t like my chances staring at 34 in the 3rd. With my back against the wall I threw some great shots and managed a 5-bagger. I finished with 223 and it was enough to get it done. It was a huge win for me.

After two matches like that my confidence was really at a high. I was matched up against my good friend Chris Loschetter in the round of 8. I felt very good going into the match and was able to come out to a quick 3-0 lead. My reaction started to fade as his got better, and if there is one thing I have learned is that a match is never over until you win four games. I never let up and I was fortunate that he went through transition in game 6. I was able to close out the match in 6 games and advance to my first show of the new season.

It was such a relief to bounce back after the stretch of bad tournaments. All the hours of practice and drilling really paid off and things came together all at the right time.

The final tournament of the World Series was the World Championship. I took the confidence from the Shark into this event and bowled well in qualifying. I was short of receiving a bye and it ended up costing me. I was matched up with Sweden’s Martin Larsen. Martin is very accomplished and one of Europe’s best. He bowled very well and I never really felt comfortable in the match. I had the lanes very different and I wasn’t able to make the speed adjustments from lane to lane. I lost the match in 5, but I still had the Shark finals to look forward to.

It felt like an eternity to wait for the finals of the Shark to tape. We were the last show on Sunday night and everything was running about 2 hours behind schedule. I tried to relax during the day and not use too much energy. I felt fresh when the show started around 9pm. I don’t want to give away too much about the television finals but I will say that it was an entertaining show. I got to sport my new jerseys for the 09-10 season. Full Tilt Poker and Ebonite are my marquee sponsors and I hope to make them proud. Make sure you check it out the ESPN Finals on December 6^th at 1pm Eastern.

Thanks for reading and check back for more updates soon!

World Series of Bowling Recap - Part 1

My original goal when starting this blog was to update it after every single event of the World Series of Bowling (WSOB). Unfortunately, when you have only 1 day away from the bowling center every other week, the last thing you want to do is write about bowling. Especially when it is going as poorly as the WSOB was going for me. It was important to get away, if only for a day, to clear my head and get my mind right before the next tournament. Six events in a matter of 25 days doesn't leave much time for reflection. Once a tournament was finished there was nothing to do but look forward to the next oil pattern. I am home now and have had plenty of time, including an 11-hour drive home, to reflect about my month in Detroit.

The first event held at Thunderbowl Lanes was the Cheetah Championship. A revolutionary event where there would be no "Made for TV" finals. The event played out like any other single elimination match play event but instead the best 4 out of 7 format remained all the way to the title match. The event was filmed from ball 1 on a series of hand-held and mounted cameras. The event will play out with more of a reality show feel and try to show the event in a whole new light. I personally can not wait to see the finished product of this event. If done properly, I believe this could be the future production of our events. This event airs on November 8th at 1pm on ESPN.

Personally, I bowled well in the Cheetah Championship. I was able to play near the gutter the entire qualifying. I have been working hard on my straight game and it felt good to use it and bowl well. I was lucky to advance in my match against Jeffery Roche in the Round of 32, but I wasn't as lucky in the round of 16. Brian Voss had 4 games over 270 and added a 266 just for good measure. I was holding my own with him early but he made it very difficult to keep up. I learned a lot from the match but It would feel like an eternity before I could use any of it.

The next couple weeks were some of the most trying times I have had since the beginning of my career with the PBA. When things start to go bad it can be a very slippery slope. Many questions were going through my head. Is it me? Is it the equipment? What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do differently? How can I think about winning when I can't even make the cut?

How bad was it? 46th, 58th, & 51st in the Viper, Chameleon, & Scorpion respectively. I really had no chance of making the cut in any off the tournaments going into the last couple games. In fact after a +27 block in the morning of the Viper, I had 5 consecutive blocks under par. Needless to say I realized I needed to get to work if I was going to turn it around.

Check back soon for Part 2 and how the final two events went down.

Thanks for reading!