Solid and Steady

Making changes to your game is never easy, but sometimes you have to sacrifice the present for the future. I think that's basically what I saw tonight. My release change is coming along nicely, but it is still far from perfect, which leads to nights like this one.

Game 1

X 9/ X X 8/ X X 9- 9/ 9/8 - 202

This game was a 50-50 split of encouraging and frustrating. On the bright side, I LOVED the look that I had with my Brunswick Melee Cross, a ball that has been something of an enigma to me thus far. I was able to get the ball to offer me a nice blend of control and power here. After going Brooklyn the first two frames on terrible shots, I locked in and controlled the pocket quite well. I came up the back of the ball a bit too much in the fifth, which lead to a half-bucket (4-8), but I recovered nicely with a double and was feeling confident I could take it off the sheet for 258. Sadly, I left a flat 10 in the 8th (another up-the-back release), which I missed due to poor setup positioning. I tried to recover in the 9th, but I banged a solid 9-pin. A bit deflated, I counted 18 in the tenth to finish with a very lackluster 202.

Game 2

72 9/ 9/ X X 9/ X X 72 XXX - 202

Realizing that the Melee Cross has never been my go-to ball as I move deeper, I switched to the original Melee early on. After going 4-pin, 9-pin in the second and third, I managed a pair of doubles with only a 2-pin (another up-the-back release) breaking them up. So, as I stepped up in the 9th, I felt like I was in a good position to make a run at a high 230 game. I liked the ninth shot off my hand, but I must have gotten slow because the ball jumped much more than I had expected, leaving me a 4-6-7 and my second open of the game. Shaking that off, I flushed all three in the 10th to salvage yet another 202.

Game 3

8/ 9/ 9/ X 6/ X X X X 9/X - 227

Moving in even further meant going to the Melee Jab. I came in light on the first two shots and then left a 4-pin on a slightly-high ball in the third. I struck in the 4th before going through the nose for a 3-6-9-10 in the 5th. Thankfully, I covered that up and then locked in to the pocket, throwing the next four in a row before a shaky release led to a weak 10 on the first ball in the tenth. Learning from the setup mistake that caused me to miss the other 10-pin, I covered this one easily and struck on the fill to finish with a solid 227, which gave me 631 for the set.

Obviously, the scores are nothing to write home about, and I still have a lot of work to do to get this new release worked in. Still, I LOVE the way my ball reads the lane now that I am rolling it rather than throwing it. I can already see how much this improves my accuracy, and it allows me to make simpler moves throughout the set. With that in mind, I am definitely optimistic that some bigger numbers will show up as I get more and more comfortable with this change.