If You're Not Relaxed And Having Fun, You Are Doing It WRONG!!!

 

Who do you think this looks like?

So if you are not already aware, I started substitute bowling of the senior leagues on Mondays and Thursdays just to get out of the house while Maureen is in Cleveland.  I'd like to share a story from this past week.  Thursday, one of the ladies on my team, Peggy, who is a 118 average bowler, 102 handicap in this league, sits down beside me and says in exasperation; "Marvin is telling me to do this, and Lynn is saying I should do something else, my head is so jumbled up right now I can't see straight!"  And you know me, always ready with my own two cents worth shared some sage advice from legendary Texas football coach Darrell Royal. When asked about his strategy for college football games, Coach Royal frequently said, “You dance with the one who brung ya.”  I also emphasized that we were there for recreation and "if you're not relaxed and having fun, you are doing it wrong!"  Of course, the next time she got up she threw the perfect strike.  Peggy came back and told me "I didn't have a thing in my mind, I just threw the ball."  I suggested she not dwell on the strike and on her next turn, just relax and "throw the ball" again.  Another strike!  As she walked back to our table, our teammates were pointing out her consecutive strikes and encouraging her with; "you have a chance at a turkey!" When she sat down beside me I just reminded her to ignore everyone and "dance with the one who brung ya."  And guess what?  Peggy got her third strike in a row and her turkey.  I then told Peggy that human nature was such that we probably couldn't NOT (please forgive the double negative) starting thinking about our potential score and that fourth strike in a row but that she should try.  I think she ended up with a split on that next ball, but had a final score of 144. And again, I'm always ready with some bit of advice (I would refer you to last week's blog offering), solicited or not.  My opening message today, please feel free to ignore any advice I might offer, because the truth of the matter is I'm must one missed 10 pin away from finishing second to any one of you.   So you should just “dance with the one who brung ya.”  

Handicaps:  The Great Equalizer

Some of you have mentioned how much work you think I put into "managing the informal league" and publishing my blog.  I actually enjoy writing and this is a convenient outlet; I'm having fun.  The one item that is actually more labor intensive is tracking and summarizing our team competitions.  However I think I've found a workaround.  

The bowling alley provides a summary screen.  And if I just input the handicaps, the summary screen will give us our team results. Problem solved.  It looks today as if Team Belt made a clean sweep of Team Saul.  But not so fast.  As the bullet title suggests; "Handicaps are the great equalizer!"  Using the handicaps earned as of the end of todays session, Team Saul had the "Clean Sweep", actually taking all four games.  The total handicap for Team Saul was 338 pins compared to Team Belt's 236 pins.  If you add those numbers to each of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd games, each game total goes to Team Saul with the final tally; Team Saul, 2444 NET Total Pins vs Team Belt, 2382 NET Total Pins.  Cary's comment early about choosing teams to have a handicap advantage (teams were actually chosen randomly) turned out to be prophetic.  So congrats Team Saul!

Individually, one of our bowlers reached for the sky today, while a couple of us came back to earth.  Todd's 190 first game led the way to a triple top finish for the day in average, gross and NET pins.  And although Tom and I had averages and gross scores that would have been good enough for 2nd and 3rd overall, our last two weeks crippled us with low handicaps dropping us to the bottom two NET performers today.  Maurice's three games over 120 and Bo's strong performance resulted in 2nd and 3rd place NET scores respectively.

This Week's Individual Results
						Total Pins
First		Last		Average		Gross		Net
Todd		Eveland		168		505		664
Maurice		Snyder		123		370		637
Bo		Dee		122		365		608
Mike		Raynor		107		321		600
Cary		Saul		125		374		599
Scott		Reed		82		245		599
Tom		Belt		144		433		583
Rick		Brooks		164		492		570

And, although I didn't manage to match my average for the day, I bowled well enough to keep the top spot for our informal league.  Todd's strong performance keeps him solidly locked in 2nd place overall with Tom following closely in 3rd place.  

The Accidental Bowling League Group Standings
				Current
First		Last		Average		Handicap
Rick		Brooks		174		26
Todd		Eveland		158		42
Tom		Belt		150		50
Cary		Saul		125		75
Bo		Dee		119		81
Doug		Kurtis		117		83
Maurice		Snyder		111		89
Mike		Raynor		107		93
Scott		Reed		82		118

We now have 8 bowlers with handicaps, I have my workaround for the team competitions, and my random team draw seems to be working fine.  So beginning next week, our team season begins in earnest.  So until next week, be safe and we hope to see you then!

If You Hook The Ball You Should Carry A Plastic/Polyester Spare Ball!

(If you throw a straight ball, you can ignore the entire introductory paragraph.)

Several of our bowlers have improved noticeably from our regular weekly outings.  But there are still 10, 20, or even 30 pins of improvement out there right in the 10 pin corner.  I'm going to get on my soapbox for just a minute.  When anyone asks, and often when they don't, I preach; consistency requires that you do the same things the same way every time.  You put your left toe on the same spot, choose a consistent target board, and make your best effort to make the same arm/hand motion on each throw.  Then, just watch what the ball do what it will.  And if you have to adjust your starting position or aim point to consistently strike, at least you have a more reliable routine to gage those adjustments.  The exception to that rule are the 6, 9, and 10, and any combination of those three pins.  The initial aim point for many of us is so far right to begin with, that in order to allow for the hook we are rolling directly at the gutter or are guessing at an alternate aim point.  And even if we move over "enough", the dryer lane conditions we live with has a tendency to hook the ball away from those corner pins anyway.  That requires that you alter your hand position and/or arm motion in an effort to "straighten" the ball path or at least minimize the hook.  Now we are making different/arbitrary hand/arm motions based on guesses and losing that "consistency".  A plastic/polyester spare ball will allow you to use the same exact arm and hand motion and still greatly restrict or even eliminate the hook.  It will most likely require a separate starting board and aim point, but once you have that worked out, the 6, 9, and 10 pins will no longer be a mystery.  All that will be required is that you hit your mark.  120s will be come 150+, and those 160-180s will be flirting with 200+ scores in no time.  So that's enough of that...

Last week I focused a bit on changes in handicap due in large part to the change in how we will calculate them this season.  However, I also pointed out how the impact our personal improvement will also have a meaningful impact in our informal competitions.  We still don't have new numbers for the whole gang but here is how things look so far.

2024/2025 Average Changes
				Averages
First		Last		2024		2025		Diff:
Rick		Brooks		160		177		17
Todd		Eveland		136		153		17
Doug		Kurtis		102		117		15
		Dude		131		139		8
Tom		Belt		148		152		4
Maurice		Snyder		105		105		0
Cary		Saul		128		125		-3
Bo		Dee		126		117		-9

Note; Dude is the bellwether. His average increase indicates an overall increase in the group's averages.

Last week's observation about our high scores for the new season and the resulting hits on our handicaps turned out to be a bit prophetic.  Tom and I both managed to post 200 games again today, but overall those games were only good enough to result in NET 2nd and 3rd place finishes for the week.  Todd takes top honors with his 638 NET pins for the day, followed by me with 623 and Tom with 602 NET pins.

This Week's Individual Results
						Total Pins
First		Last		Average		Gross		Net
Todd		Eveland		160		479		638
Rick		Brooks		183		548		623
Tom		Belt		153		458		602
Bo		Dee		117		351		600
Doug		Kurtis		115		344		590

And last, we have our overall group standings for the new 2025 season:

The Accidental Bowling League Group Standings
				Current
First		Last		Average		Handicap
Rick		Brooks		177		23
Todd		Eveland		153		47
Tom		Belt		152		48
Cary		Saul		125		76
Doug		Kurtis		117		83
Bo		Dee		117		83
Maurice		Snyder		105		95

Not much change from last week but there is some consistent evidence that we have improved as a group.

And, because I've been known to "beat the dead horse" on occasion, here is an article on spare balls with some recommendations at the bottom of the article.  Improve Your Bowling With A Spare Ball!

Note:  The Slingin' Wood Pro Shop in Sky Lanes has a number of the Storm Ice spare balls in stock, ready to customize just for you!

Stay warm and safe, and hope to see you next week!

R-

It Appears I May Have Spoken Too Soon!

First, I'd like to congratulate Tom on his 214 personal best second game game today. As it turns out, today was a little about personal improvement for a few of our bowlers.

I explained last week about our modified format where we are all getting 100% of the difference between our averages and the standard score of 200 pins. What that should mean is that all of our handicaps are going up. Maurice is the perfect example. Last season, his average was 105 and his handicap was 85 (90% of 200-105=95*.90=85 (rounded to the nearest whole number)). So far this season, Maurice's average is 105, but his handicap is 10 pins higher at 95 (100% of 200-105=95*1=95). So if your handicap has gone up between 5 and 10 pins you are on track to do as well this season as last.

But hold on...

We've had a few scores last week and this week that may prove to be outliers, or may be indicators of some significant improvement. In order for handicaps to stay the same or end up less than last seasons, the bowler would have to bowl well enough to cover the built-in increase and then some. A couple of examples:

• Tom's 148 average from last year would have seen his handicap increase six points from 46 to 52. But his 214 game today and 166 average for this week robbed him of 4 of those points and as of now he will be going into team play with a 48 handicap.
• Last season Doug, aka DOG, aka Bam-Bam, rolled 27 games with us, almost half of which were under 100 pins. His overall 102 average would have translated into a 98 handicap this season. However, since we began anew, Doug has yet to roll a game under 104 and he only has two efforts under 118. His current average of 118 pins leaves him with a handicap of 82, -16 pins he might have had.

2024/2025 Handicap Changes
				Handicap
First		Last		2024*		2025		Diff:
Doug		Kurtis		98		82		-16
Rick		Brooks		40		25		-15
Todd		Eveland		64		53		-11
		Dude		69		64		-5
Tom		Belt		52		48		-4
Maurice		Snyder		95		95		0
Cary		Saul		73		76		3
*If last year had used the same 100% difference handicap formula

This week my new bowling balls came through for me. My 233 first game was my personal best Accidental Bowlers' League score, and ties my sixth best score ever. And my 189 average for the set was good for this week's top honors. Tom's personal best 214 and 166 average took second place, and Cary with a 132 average for the day rounding out the top three.

This Week's Individual Results
						Total Pins
First		Last		Average		Gross		Net
Rick		Brooks		189		566
Tom		Belt		166		498
Cary		Saul		132		396
Doug		Kurtis		120		359
Maurice		Snyder		101		304

Alluding to my title for this week's posting, I suggested that not much has changed since last season. This week's great play had a significant impact on the season's standings largely due to the minimal number of games posted so far in the new year. So with our higher averages and lower handicaps, once team play begins, some of us are going to struggle to help our teams score the big "W"!

The Accidental Bowling League Group Standings
				Current
First		Last		Average		Handicap
Rick		Brooks		175		25
Tom		Belt		152		48
Todd		Eveland		147		53
Cary		Saul		125		76
Doug		Kurtis		118		82
Maurice		Snyder		105		95

NOTE:  Since only half our bowlers have had an opportunity to establish this season's average/handicap, we may go another couple weeks before we try to start team play.