On Tuesdays a group of us that are trying to improve our skills without any pressure to actually win go to the same bowling alley that our league plays in two days later where it really counts if you do well or not.
I never really expect a great deal out of me or anyone else that attends these things but something rather amazing happened to me this past week and I wanted to showcase it here because I am quite proud of it.
This was one of those days where I was hitting the pocket (which is the point either between the 1 and 3 pin or the 1 and 2 pin) yet the pins were not falling down. All of the first 4 rolls could have been strikes and in my mind, I felt as though they deserved to be. They just weren't falling for me though.
I hate the early 1990's technology that they have on our screens so I am going to have to crudely draw on the image in order for people to know what TF I am talking about and how I am pleased with this result and think it is impressive.
Getting a spare is nothing particularly special, for someone that has been playing as long as I have been, almost every frame should be a spare but these first 4, or 3 of them anyway, were very special because after my first ball 3 of these frames had what is called a "split" left over afterwards. Splits are harder to knock over because the pins are not adjacent to one another and you have to not just hit the pins, but you have to hit them at a particular angle in order for the first pin you hit to bridge the gap to the other pin.
The first 2 were merely "baby splits" that aren't really all that difficult to a seasoned player.
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This is the 3 pin and the 10 pin and is something that I am likely to end up with if I hit the pocket in a roll down from 1-7 on the left. The way to knock this one down isn't simple, but it is not as hard as other splits. There are 2 ways to do it. Either you strike the 3 pin (the one closest to you) on the left of the pin and cause it to shoot into the 10. Even if it doesn't directly hit the 10 there is a really good chance that it will ricochet off the wall or back of the lane and cause the 10 to fall as well. Alternatively, you can strike the 3 pin on the right hand side with a lighter weight ball and this will cause the ball to redirect into the 10, knocking it over as well. Unlike other setups, one of the best ways to screw this one up is to hit the 3 head on thereby causing it to crash straight back and not hit the 10 at all.
But I managed to pick up both of these.
The next frame I got a spare with a single pin remaining - nothing really special about that
However, the frame I got in the 4th frame is the one I am most proud of.
This was what I consider to be a very difficult split of 4-10
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As you can see, these pins are substantially further apart and there is only one way that you can get this one to make both pins fall. You MUST hit the 4 pin on the left hand side at just the right angle so that it will fly into the 10 pin all the way across the lane. You run the gauntlet here because if you are a bit over-zealous on your angle, you miss the first pin entirely or end up in the gutter. If you hit it straight on or to the right of the pin, you have no chance outside of some random miracle pin-action of getting the 10 as well.
I hit the 4 just perfectly and it crashed into the 10 pin in an impressive manner.
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An overhead view gives you a better idea about how likely it is that you are going to miss this spare pickup. Even the professionals frequently miss this pickup because there is very little room for error on this shot. It's difficult to say how far these pins are from one another unless you are really good at math so I just let the internet answer it for me. These two pins are about 22 inches apart from one another or nearly 2 feet. Since the pin is circular, hitting it at any angle other than just the right place will result in a miss. There is no room for error here and this is why I am so happy with this result.
I was looking like I was going to be the spare-master for the day but unfortunately, and you can tell by the rest of this one game, that this was not the case at all. It was right around the time that I was getting a bit spare-arrogant or "spareogant" that I missed two relatively easy single-pin pickups in a row. I ended up finishing that game with near a 150, which I am happy with.
Since I am bowling in the championship, once again, on Thursday, I am hopeful that whatever form I had on Tuesday can somehow transcend to Thursday as well.
Now for another thing I saw in the arcade as I was leaving the lanes.
Anyone that went to college in USA already knows what the real purpose of this game is and I am sure it probably exists in bars in the USA as well. This is "beer pong" but at a children's arcade in Vietnam. This would probably be illegal in USA but that is just one thing that I love about Vietnam. Despite the fact that there are images of beverages that anyone can tell is a glass of beer on the game, nobody gets their panties in a wad over this being in a kid's arcade. I like how they even have the traditional frat-party Solo cups as well.
I hope your Tuesday went as well as mine did!