For those of you in Florida that plan on going to bowl the State Tournament in Lakeland be prepared for some changes. Kegel is controlling the lane pattern and it is not a typical house pattern. It is a 43 foot pattern from the info I received this past weekend, and it plays a little tough. I started out in doubles around 7-8 throwing a Roto Grip Riot at 1000 grit. This quickly started to go away and by the 3rd game of doubles I was left of 15 throwing a Dark Star drilled 75x4x35. Singles I had absolutely nothing, so I am just going to not even go into that. The next day at team the pattern was pretty close but I did have more room right, and the pattern did not change as fast, probably due to the different lane types. I was able to start around 12 with my exit point being about 7 and never really moved till game 3. I managed to shoot around 690 in team, but should have been much higher, I just wasn’t executing good shots. I am thrilled to see this change in the types of patterns they are using, this will help people that just bowl leagues understand how different situations are when you flatten a pattern out.
Category: Informative
After an impressive showing at the Don Johnson Eliminator last week Brian Kretzer once again makes the finals of the Go Rving Match play championship. This time to show the world he is not the one dimensional player that people have come to call him. Brian has always been known for throwing the big hook that he used to create a very strong amateur resume’. For the past 4 years Brian has been working on a straighter game. This is not an easy task, for his slower ball speed and higher axis rotation makes it hard for someone like himself to accomplish this.
Brian come out last week showing that he could use the “straight” game by walking the ladder to get to the title match only to lose his ball reaction and lose in the finals to Mike Scroggins. This proved to be a huge confidence builder however as he headed into the Match Play Championship. After beating Mitch Beasley, a couple of two handed bowlers in Jason Belmonte and Cassidy Schaub, Steve Harmen and 2006/2007 player of the year Doug Kent he moved into the final 3 game match against 13 time titlist Patrick Allen.
Since the bowlers were bowling on two different patterns, the 35 foot cheetah pattern on one lane, and the 45 four Shark Pattern on the other, this made the players show their versatility by having to play each lane completely different. Brain was playing around the first arrow on the cheetah pattern and around 5 arrow on the Shark Pattern. What was interesting is he was absolutely lined up on the cheetah pattern, which is the lane he had to go straight on, and the Shark pattern were he was able to use his “A” game he seemed to struggle on. After being up 7 after game 1, Brian really locked himself in to shoot 241 to Allen’s 167 to put Brian up by 81. Patrick tried to make a run by throwing a 3-bagger in game 3 but after a solid 7 Brian went on to shoot 192 to Allen’s 185.
This title end a 9 year streak for Brian with out a title. Brian has proved that is a winner and is now a versatile player on the PBA Tour. Congrats Brian I am sure there are more to come for you.
Some may think that the bowling shoe is just simply about look, style and comfort, however there is much more to it than just what the shoe looks like. First you need to decide what type of you it is you need. There are universal bowling shoes (that are for both right-handed and left-handed bowlers), and there are right-handed/left-handed specific shoes. The key difference between the two shoes is that the universal shoes have slide pads on both the right and left shoe, where as the right-handed/left-handed specific shoe only have a slide pad on the shoe you slide on. On the right-handed/left-handed specific shoe, the non slide shoe usually has a rubber bottom; this rubber bottom helps the bowler get a better power step so they do not lose traction. If you have chosen to go with the universal shoe your next decision is simply style and comfort now, however if you chose the right-handed/left-handed your search has just began. The next decision is to decide if the shoe you want has interchangeable soles or not. The benefit of the interchangeable soles is not only can you buy replacement pads for them so they last longer but if you bowl in multiple houses and the approaches are different at each house, you are now able to put a different sole on your shoe that will allow you to slide more or less. Most shoes also have interchangeable heels as well, that provide the same benefit. After this decision has been made, now you can choose on the basis of looks, style and comfort.