After the team event did not go so good I tried to come in with a different mindset. I watched the team event prior to my doubles singles event to see what type of bowlers were on the lanes ahead of us and how they were playing the shot to see if I need to make a strategy change. Being left handed I shouldn’t see much difference from the team event to the doubles/singles portion. I watched the pair to find that there were three left hand bowlers on the pair ahead of me, and not one of them was playing the same. I was thinking, oh great this should be fun. I had a left hander throwing the ball straight up second arrow with no revs, one that played between 3-4^th arrow, and a two handed delivery lefty playing between the second and third arrow. Can you just imagine what the conditions will be when I get there? I checked into the locker room, waited my turn to go out, and headed out to the lanes. Just as I expected, anything outside of the 7 board was completely out of bounds, and between the 2^nd and 3^rd arrow was hooking in the heads. I saw my ball reaction and was not happy. I went through all the equipment I had to try and figure something out. After I did, I couldn’t carry. I had two times in games 1 and 2 that I was on a double and left an 8 pin, a 7 pin, not to mention the 7 pins that I left throughout all the games. I was burned. I couldn’t wait to move to my singles pair. When I moved to the singles pair, I moved left with the ball I started with in team event. I threw two bad shots at the start but finished strong with a 212.

Second game, here came the carry issues. I noticed that instead of the shot being the same after game 1, I already burned that spot out. I switched bowling balls, and ground out a 192.

Last game, had to make another ball change since I burned the spot out from the second game. I ended up leaving a couple 7 pins in between doubles again to finish out the tournament with a 198. My last shot in the tenth frame, I said to myself, just make you’re last shot of the tournament a good one. Not so. I missed the target left, and flagged the head pin for a 6 count on my fill ball.

When I was leaving the stadium I stopped and talked to Chip Aki, an Eagle holder, and told him the story, and he said, “Don’t you just love that, now you don’t get to throw a ball in this tournament until next year.” He said it best. Well that’s my story from this year’s USBC Nationals. All my practice, hard work, preparation for the event, and shot less then expected of me. It just goes to show you, you can teach all the things you need to do, practice them constantly, and in the end, you ultimately have to have great execution.