First off I want to apologize for my performance over the weekend. It wasn't at its worst but it wasn't fair to the team to make you guys sweat every spare I attempted at such a big event. I promise I tried as hard as I could during competition but my preparation cost us.
So what is our practice schedule going to be for the next couple of weeks? I plan on practicing a lot but I don't normally do it at normal times. Do we have any planned mandatory practices and if so what should we work on from here?
We found the chink in our armor and its the breakdown. We have to figure out a way to keep up when they are fried. If its not equipment its lane play. Normally loft works but for some reason in Chatt it made it hook earlier. How do we figure out those things quicker and communicate? i don't know these answers but we need to figure them out.
Also when we practice, can we keep the ladies out? I have a feeling they could care less if we reach our goal of becoming national champions.
-- Edited by Luckbox on Tuesday 15th of March 2011 03:52:27 AM
I like the afternoon practices. There really arent many girls at these practices. I know they might not fit around everyones schedule but its alot better than practicing late at night with the girls. It would be nice to see more patterns out but i undersatnd its hard because you cant have a ton programmed into the machine at once. In all honesty since we have the nationals team already decided. I dont see a need for 6a.m.s... call me a bitch or whatever but i really dont see how its helping. I understand 6a.ms before sectionals because it shows who really wants to be there and who doesnt. maybe if we had more time to practice at them then it would be nice but its hard considering dolph's schedule and ours as far as classes. As far as sectionals went. I felt we bowled well on the fresh and made some pretty good shots on the transition. We might of fell a little behind on the transition but lesson learned.. As far as the burn it was different.. I felt that we made just as good of shots as webber and morehead did on the burn and we made it look hard. Webber and morehead were just playing em super tight at the pocket. they both carried their hits. Whenever we do that we cant get anything through the pins no matter the speed or hand position. I understand we are gunna have to make it work in the future if we stay with brunswick but i really cant figure anything out.
I know this is a guys only thread, but I cant help to not comment on your post... Dean, I'm offended that you think us girls could care less if you guys win a national championship or not.. We absolutely want you guys to win everything you bowl... Why do you think we come and cheer you on when we can?? If anything, it's the opposite way around.. We feel that you guys could care less about us winning anything for that matter. We want both teams being successful.. End of story... And Dolph, please keep 6 ams... Dan, you might not feel that the practices are helpful, but I find that they are. All the girls that have gone agree that they're actually very good practices and I personally like them better than our Thursday night practices.. If the guys don't want to do them anymore, Dolph will you please keep them for the few girls that do want to go?? I'm not a morning person in any way, shape, or form, but will gladly get up for your 6am practices... The only way we're going to win a national championship is to keep doing drills and practice more and more and your 6ams, I feel, are a great extra practice to have. And being a Senior, I want to get a ring more than anything and go out with a bang.. The only way that's going to happen is if we all commit more time to practicing, and cutting out 6ams would be silly in my opinion. But then again, I'm just a girl, so half of you probably don't even care about my opinion, but I'm throwing it out there anyways.
Second, I think we should all post what we thought about this weekend to give everyone else on the team a better understanding of where everyone stands and what we all saw.
I thought we made a lot of good shots, missed a lot of easy spares, were unclutch when it came to dinner attempts, and got robbed... a lot. When it came to the burn, it seemed like the ball would either roll out or not even try to get into a roll, causing us to be 100% perfect with every shot and even then it would or leave a 9 or an 8 pin.
I know that I am personally going to work on changing angles for my spares so Randy doesn't **** a brick every time I throw at a 3-6-10 and keeping my hand position consistent.
Maybe for A.M. practices, if we continue to do them, we could have a burnt shot out so we can practice getting the ball to finish on the burn or work with surfaces/hand positions. Don't know exactly what to, but those are some suggestions we could maybe try. Other than that, we really need to keep communication open. I'm not going to be hurt if someone tells me my look sucks as long as they try to give me some help on how to improve it. Since we ARE a team and everything from here on out is baker, if one person is doing bad, the whole team suffers. I think we need to not hold anything back when it comes to helping each other, but the person struggling also needs to know how to take criticism and know we're just doing it to help. That's about all I got.
I have to say that I am always cheering you boys on...always. Also i know that there are girls on the team who really do want you guys to be successful and win everything you can. on the otherhand... I hate hearing the girls complain that the boys dont care because some of them DO come watch us and we never give em credit. The girls team is not any better at supporting the boys team than they are of us. SO please lets not say either of us cares more than the other, most of the time the boys are too tired to watch us and us girls generally dont go and watch because they bowl so much earlier than we do.
6am are brutal but they are helpful, we applied a drill randy made us run through on thursday this weekend. I dont see why girls wouldnt be welcome to practice when its not like there are a lot of us...
JP dont be offended. Dean didnt post this to start anything.
jenny... like you said, this was supposed to be a guys thread. I've heard things come from the girls team that makes it sound like you're better than us. Yeah, congrats on winning tournaments this season. You guys weren't ranked number 1 for no reason, but still it comes down to one tournament. I know I am for one just looking out for the guys team. If you guys win, more power to ya. Also, nobody cares if your a senior. Every single one of us wants to win a National Championship all the way down to the last person on the roster.
If you feel we should keep 6a.m. practices, then we'll keep 'em. I'm gonna keep showin up and practicing, I just dont feel like we have enough time for a legit practice. I liked 'em last year because we had a little more time. That's all I'm really trying to say. I don't care if we do or don't have 6a.m. practices. If you girls really thought it was good practice, then why didn't all the girls on the a team show up? Also if you wanna keep 'em, you could do them on M/W/F. That way, we are out of each others way. But then again, I'm just a sophmore, so you might not care about my opinion, but I'm throwin' it out there anyways.
I really thought we had a good thing goin with dean, mine, and setchell's post about sectionals... thus why it was sup pose to be a guys only thread
Not really sure where Dean was going with the whole girl thing but as far as everything else goes I think our communication was pretty good this weekend but the way we played the lanes through the transition was wrong, as well as the burn. Mostly with the fact that we were all playing different parts or the lane.....The way I look at it is that for a team that is competing at sectionals, nationals, and any other team for that matter it is important to try to get everyone on the same page. Every where we decided to play on the lane DID work but if we have two guys playing the track, two guys inside of it and a guy on the gutter, we now have three different transitions to worry about and we have less shots traveling down those parts of the lane to figure it out. We are all good enough bowlers to adjust to play different parts of the lane so why not use that and figure out the best part of the lane to play and all do it. I think we fiddled around with the track too long and when we got into the burn we need to communicate more as a team to get the ball to the 1-3 more often..whether that be a ball change, release change, angle change, or whatever.... I know we all have talking about figuring out layouts to get out B stuff down lane and still finish but I don't think that is the only problem we have with equipment, I think it would be beneficial to have some coordination as far as all of the equipment we are going to bring.....does anyone else feel like it may be a good idea to have some sort of meeting a week or two before nationals to talk about what we want to bring so that way we can all play off of each other a little better.....All in all I felt we threw the ball well for the most part, spares were off but that damn 8 pin had it out for us too.lol
Not really sure where Dean was going with the whole girl thing, but as far as everything else goes I think our communication was pretty good this weekend but the way we played the lanes through the transition was wrong, as well as the burn. Mostly with the fact that we were all playing different parts or the lane.....The way I look at it is that for a team that is competing at sectionals, nationals, and any other team for that matter it is important to try to get everyone on the same page. Every where we decided to play on the lane DID work but if we have two guys playing the track, two guys inside of it and a guy on the gutter, we now have three different transitions to worry about and we have less shots traveling down those parts of the lane to figure it out. We are all good enough bowlers to adjust to play different parts of the lane so why not use that and figure out the best part of the lane to play and all do it.
I think we fiddled around with the track too long and when we got into the burn we need to communicate more as a team to get the ball to the 1-3 more often.....whether that be a ball change, release change, angle change, or whatever.
I know we all have been talking about figuring out layouts to get out B stuff down lane and still finish but I don't think that is the only problem we have with equipment, I think it would be beneficial to have some coordination as far as all of the equipment we are going to bring. Does anyone else feel like it may be a good idea to have some sort of meeting a week or two before nationals? To talk about what we want to bring so that way we can all play off of each other a little better.
All in all I felt we threw the ball well for the most part, spares were off but that damn 8 pin had it out for us too.lol
Sad that ever since the program started the men and the women have had issues. It's not uncommon for there to be tension between students. Our bowling team is a tightly compacted community. We see each other a lot over the course of a bowling season. It's only natural to have personality conflicts.
The problem I have is when you generalize the problem completely on gender. So, every guy and every girl at LU hate each other? Highly doubtful. Deal with individual issues and try not to make it a team-against-team controversy. ________________________ That being said, we usually quit the 6:00ams after sectionals. I like throwing "win no six-am practices" as a motivation, but I was planning on reevaluating the practice schedule after sectionals anyway. I would suggest that we not have any mandatory practices until at least Thursday. I think most are a little burnt out.
When we start back, I would like to do something in the afternoon with the men, and I would like to do it everyday. Frankly, I like short, intense practices. I always thought the 6am-ers went fast. I like that. Lets keep the same model and find a time everyone can agree on. If you can't do it in the afternoons, we can do it at 1:00am. Remember, I got the keys.
Jenny, if you can get all the girls together, I'll be glad to keep doing 6:00am-ers. However, I would only do it most of the team would come. Don't have to do twice a week. Just pick one day a week that fits everyone.
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"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."
Furthermore: I thought we bowled okay as a team. We missed 11 singles, and in all honesty that's pretty good. The goal of 5 was by a team that won a national title. Most of the teams I've coached have had a guy that was having an off day. We had three guys miss 8 singles, that isn't a lot, but its the difference between 3rd or having a shot to win. Matchplay singles are even more important. It seems many games are decided by less than 10, a miss single cost the game. We were a team that fell two games short of TV. Not a lot of margin for error on that level.
On bowling on the burn, my observations were that we used loft too much, but with good reason. The loft was working on Saturday. Sunday, the heads hooked more and we went threw our transition in the last set of first round where the day before it was the second set of the afternoon round. We were going well, actually in the lead with 9 games to go, and then the lanes burnt up so much the loft just hook on impacted. This is my problem with loft.
I am a follower of the immortal John Jowdy. He was in part one of the creators of the modern day release. I paraphrase what John said, but basically, less is more at the point of release. You see a lot of him in Norm Duke, Pete Weber (two he worked closely with) and much with Chris Barnes. His disciples have a quiet hand at the point of release. They derive their revs from power wrist positions, hand relaxed but under the ball with an armswing free enough to create the velocity to produce the power. John wasn't against loft per se, but loft takes the exact opposite than what John teaches; grab, force, and hitting up on the ball. No matter how smooth you try to be lofting the ball, you have to change that flat, smooth release plain at the bottom of your swing to get the ball in the air.
The problem much of the team had was once they had to back down and try to get the ball to hook in the back part of the lanes, we couldn't. Our speed was too hard and our rev count was to low (loft takes revolutions away, even though the ball hooks earlier), to make a deeper adjustment. Now if you ask that if we had made the adjustment and went deeper and softer with mellower equipment, would that have worked? My answer is I don't know. The big B doesn't read well that deep and we've had a problem all year on the burn.
But we had a chance the last set and we just couldn't make good enough shots to give us a chance. Remember if go into the losers bracket on the Saturday at Nationals, we will be bowling on some burnt up lanes. We need to come up with another strategy besides lofting the lane.
Dolph
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"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."
Just my $0.02, but I've always found that working my way up to 2000/4000 before polishing never really rolled well. Always skated way too far and never really gave me a good read. I always go with 500 grit then straight to polish, and that has always given me a good roll. Maybe something to keep in mind?
I would like to clarify that I have NO problem with the girls team. In fact I went and watched them bowl as much as I could. I drove to other centers multiple times to watch them after we were done. When my gf was bowling against you girls I was on the LU side pulling for my school. It doesn't bother me that you don't want to watch us...its always so early.
I feel like our practices should only consist of the 8 bowlers on our nationals team. We are the only ones representing the guys team from here on out and I want to focus on us, not the girls, or the guys that will be on it in the future. Its not to be rude or exclusionary, but to get us in to the best possible team mode we can. As of now we are not bowling any more individual games.
I thought lane play was fine. It is ingrained in us that loft will get ball down lane. Every so often it doesn't and I got caught up in that but thats why its a sectional and basically a practice. Obviously we have learned from that and will be a better team next time. I usually like to play the lanes a little bit different from everyone else based on what i have worked on over the years and the vision i see of the lane in my head. I have become a much better all around "College" bowler this year by following my instincts and not doing what everyone else has been doing. Just give me time and I will make the right adjustment or pull myself if my shot making isn't there. I was more frustrated with my performance over the weekend then you guys could imagine.
I like the sound of everyday practices in the afternoon. I like to practice around 2 that way my schedule is clear for the remainder of the evening. I think that is when we have the opportunity to be most productive too. I can't stress enough how miserable 6 am's are. If they are voluntary I will never show up for one again.
I agree with Dean about the 6am practices. Everyone just seems dead tired and that we're there because we have to be, not because we want to be, but if we want to switch times, we're gonna have to figure out which times work with the whole team. I know I go from 9:30-2:15 T/TR and 2:00-2:50 M/W/F, so anytime after 3 would work for me.
Got to love the drama of the bowling team. I'll just leave it at that so that I don't start anything else.
We made a lot of good shots this weekend and we made some bad ones. No one is perfect it happens. What I have noticed is that sometimes we think too much. We tend to get ahead of ourselves about the next shot while we are looking at a spare. I saw a lot of the times when we would just grab our spare ball and rush up to the line and that caused our aim to be off. Like Brad said on Sunday, take as much time on a spare that you do on a strike. Spares make a big difference in the game, trust me I shoot a lot of them ;).
I would like to apologize to the team for my failure to come in a shoot spares in some games. I will practice that a lot before nationals so that I have no problems with that again. In saying that, I would like to have a spares practice at some point as well. I know it isn't the greatest and kinda repetitive but it needs to be done every so often so that we get more confident with our spares.
As to Dean's suggestion to no 6 ams I am right there with him. Like lemons said, it just doesn't work with the schedules we have. Bowling for less than an hour just didn't seem to do it for me. It was good don't get me wrong, but I feel like we can have a better practice in the afternoons. I could practice at 2 on mwf but tr I have class then.
I felt this weekend we had great communication as a team. After shots we would talk to each other telling what we saw and how much we moved. It worked well until the lanes got so burned that the ball would read in our back swing. I like the idea of the 8 of us bowling at practices so that we can learn eachothers tendencies better and no how to communicate better. Each person is different and you can't say the same thing to each individual.
As for bowling on the burn lanes at nationals, I don't plan on losing any matches...
Okay so maybe 2:00 or 3:00 for all. Give me an idea of who can bowl at: 2:00 3:00 4:00 or 5:00
Yes, we could do a 5-6:00 practice on certain days. Maybe a 2 or 2:30 practice one day, a 4-5:00 the next. Make a M-W-F, and T-T schedule.
Dean and Jordan, quit apologizing, I've seen you both worse. As a team, we performed well. For a while, we were leading the hottest team in the country, and the #1 team in the country. For the most part, we did a good job of communicating, did a fair job of reading and avoid meltdown games, and made good shots when we needed it except at the end.
I am totally convinced; We are close!
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"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."
I have class on tuesday and thursdays from 8:00 am till 3:45 pm so needless to say I don't want to bowl on those days more than I already do, but literally any other day will work for me, as well as time.
I am glad everyone is on the same page with the 8 of us working together. Anybody got an extra polyester laying around? I'll trade you a used seismic ball for used spare ball
BTW, Phil ask Ron Bragg for some ideas. His response;
Hi Phil,
First off, congrats on making it to the finals!
I was in Dallas at that sectional and we saw the same drops in scores across the board on the second shift both days. I don't think this was specific only to you, I hope you saw the same thing.
That being said, I would recommend the following for those bowlers that saw what you described, you need to understand that scoring will get tougher during the day when they do the lanes the way they are doing them....
Slingshots with 4 inch pins above the fingers and xholes down 2 inches on the VAL. Or, Anaconda, pin 5 inches from PAP and shine them up a little with no xholes.
Either way, if you hit up on any bowling ball when the lanes get that way, you will not like the reaction, you have to get it off your hand clean and "soft" from what I saw.
Hope this helps,
Ron
Just a little sarcasm in the bold print
__________________
"It's not who we are underneath, but what we do that defines us."
