Journal - ABT Recap - 1–9–2022
This wasn’t my best bowling at an ABT Denver event, but I feel like it was my best performance. I’ve gotten second before, but it was because I failed my finals match after earning the #1 seed in qualifying. This time, I clawed my way through the stepladder finals to earn the second place finish.
Leagues had been going well that week, so the day started out hopeful, especially being the first ABT of the new year. Since it was at Highland Park Lanes in Greeley, CO, it started a hour later than the ones in Denver, which was great for me, an extra hour of sleep and a bit of a shorter drive made for a relaxed morning.
Qualifying didn’t feel great, actually I never felt particularly lined up the whole day, but I was able to put together a really good game here and there that kept me in the running, the rest was just fairly average bowling. I struggled getting to the pocket, but what I did do was get most of my spares. I started out between first and second arrow, from practice I felt this was my best option. I need to work on this part of my game more as I don’t feel like I get enough time to loosen up and figure out the lanes. It will come as I gain more experience but i really need to work on it. I don’t feel like I had a bad shot, but like I said, it didn’t feel particularly lined up and there was very little room for error. I ended up +96 for qualifying and the cut was in the +60s.
The semifinals is where it got to be a real nail biter. I knew my scores from the qualifying wouldn’t cut it, so decided to try something different and moved in to play a little deeper, between the second and third arrows. It started off with a really good 235, granted there were more Brooklyn strikes in there than I would like to admit. I stayed clean through the 4th frame of the second game and then I struggled, missed an easy single pin spare, missed a split or two, and just had a hard time striking, ending up with a 180. Game three I still struggled to strike but kept it clean by getting my spares for a 195. The only reason I was able to hold on this game, was an extremely lucky break in the 9th frame: picking up the 8–10 split by bouncing the 8pin out of the pit, into the sweeper, and having it roll over to take out the 10pin. Because of this I was the cut and #5 seed for the finals.
The finals was more of the same, I started third arrow, and moved left a couple times over the course of the next four games. I know it probably wasn’t the best line possible, I wasn’t striking a lot, but it kept me out of trouble and again I cleaned up most my make-able spares. Nerves were definitely a factor, though not as bad as they’ve been in the past. I grind my way past the first three opponents because they were not making spares, of course it’s hard when you leave two or more splits per game. In the final match I was just seriously out-bowled and there wasn’t much I could do about it, he was definitely hot that day. I would of needed a far better look than I had to even think about beating him. I still felt good about how I did and what I achieved.
Still a lot more to work on and get done. I’m really looking forward to seeing what I can achieve this year and getting some more lessons in, fine tune my game even more. I feel like I’m on the verge of understanding what I need from my swing and how to get it there. I may not get it down the next lesson or the one after that, but I will get there.
