Bowling

I was inexplicably pissy last night at bowling and my first game didn't help my mood at all.

I bowled 156 223 242 for a 621 series.

That first game killed me. I kept getting nasty splits and chopping spares. It was painful.

There are two kinds of bowlers: strokers and crankers. Go ahead, laugh. It's funny, I know it is. Hang with me here and it'll get even funnier. I'm a stroker. I can hear the hysterical laughter all the way over here.

Crankers have a lot of rotation on their ball and it tends to hook a lot and hard. These are the guys that have pins flying everywhere and can often get really ugly strikes.

Strokers have less rotation on their ball and it tends to be a more graceful arc. Sometimes they have a lot of snap on a dry back end but usually their ball does a smooth arc.

Jimmy & Trey are definitely crankers.

Steve and I and definitely strokers.

Last night I decided these lanes required cranking and did my best to comply. I threw the ball as hard as I could up the middle with as much rotation as I could muster. The results were pretty impressive: 242 for my last game.

Even Jimmy commented that he could tell I was trying to throw it hard with a lot of rotation like he does. Hey, if it works why fight it.

If all else fails I'll probably do it again. You only have so many options when it comes to bowling and when your usual arsenal isn't getting you anywhere it's time to go look outside the box. I would never have thought I was capable of that style of bowling but I pulled it off.

The same can be said of poker. You have to learn to exploit the table conditions whatever they may be.