3/20/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: Right in the middle of March, we are in our 27th week, and currently 3 games behind the 1st place team. This week we will be going against Team #2 (Shanangains w/handicap of 161) as they are coming off of a 1 win game from last week. The last time these two teams went against each other, we were able to pull off a win of 3-1. With the season near its end, can we pull off the win, again? After all, it's Joe Cantu's team.

Summary: 2-2. Ugly. Messy. But somehow not a loss.

Side Note: I'm afraid to say, but I somehow lost the score sheet. I strongly believed I had it with me, but I guess not. Since I do not have the sheet, the reviews will be a lot shorter than what they would have been. I, apologize for this mishap and will make sure something like this does not happen, again.

June Wei (Avg: 110)
Scores: 89, 100, 136
Overall Grade: C
Review: Would have been a D if it wasn't for her incredible run at the end of game 3. From what I remember, June kept on pulling the ball more towards the left. This caused her to miss numerous spares hence the low scores. Towards the end, she was able to realize to throw from the right so the ball will move towards the pocket. June will need to practice more and more ever since Joe Almighty was able to assist her with her throwing motion, but she will be gone with weekend further delaying her practice time. If I was June, I would try to go bowling at least once during the trip. Key word: go.

Russ Overton (Avg: 161)
Scores: 172, 134, 219
Overall Grade: B+
Review: There's a lot to say about Russ's game that could have made his scores much better than what they actually are. But...since I don't have that blasted sheet, I can not show without proof on which particular frames Russ should have spared (but didn't). Lucky break for Russ, I guess. Other than that, Russ performed rather well and got hot during the 3rd game. He helped keep us alive in the 3rd game with a whopping score of 219. In fact, he bested his season high with a 219, because of this I got no other choice but to give him the SOW.

Henry Wei (Avg: 158)
Scores: 203, 131, 167
Overall Grade: B-
Review: If I had to sum up my performance in one word, it would have to be "inconsistent". There's no excuse bowling a 203 in the 1st game and then a 131 in the 2nd. On top of that missing 5 frames in a row in the 3rd game totaling up a score of 40. But, the key word that needs to be mentioned is persistence. I did not give up at the end and was able to pull off a good comeback getting a total of 167 at the end of the 3rd game. Because of the score of 200 and overall bowling an avg score of 9 pins better than my avg, I decided to give myself a B- instead of a C+ even though I was incredibly inconsistent. I really need to work on getting the 3,6,10 spares. They doomed me all throughout the 2nd game, and we will practice this Saturday even if its only Roum and me.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 168)
Scores: 155, 166, 173
Overall Grade: B-
Review: Speaking of Roum, he did not do too well, but he didn't do too bad. Yes, the two first games he was not able to hit his avg, but he was able to bowl consistent, which we have not quite witnessed for awhile especially when Roum is having lots of trouble finding his lanes. Roum tried to follow the advice Joe gave him. We'll need to work more on this through practice. 10-pin spares also doomed Roum on getting higher scores. Roum needs to learn to give a little more rotation when he slows down the ball. He missed quite a bit of spares because of this reason alone. I'll definitely be looking forward to this Saturday when we do get to practice.

Team's Overall Performance: C

June did not show up at all this week when all eyes were on her to grab the SOW. I'm hoping some time off and some relaxation will help her get it back together this weekend. I'll admit I'm more than happy to get a 2-2 tie and not a 1-3 loss against a decent team in Team #2. We must give them credit where credit is definitely due because all throughout the match both Joe and Larry not only bowled consistently, but when they got on fire, it was really, really tough to put the fire out. And the only way to do that is to bowl strikes consistently, which for us was quite sporadic. I know Team #1 either got a 3-1 or 4-0 win; if that's the case then we'll be either behind by 7 games or 6 games. Either way, we will need to start getting sweeps if we want to get a shot at winning this league. We need to do better and I'm counting on everyone, myself included, to really pick it up and not digress. Start aiming for your goals. In about a month, we will be bowling at sweeps, time is not on our side.

Post Notes: Next week we will be on lanes 31-32 going against team 9 (no name). Their handicap is 200, which means we won't be hiding behind our handicap scores. We'll need to not only bowl well, but better than well. This team is no joke, and I'm sure they're going to come at us guns blazing. Out of the 4 players, 3 of their own can score at least 202, the 2nd highest is 226 and the other bowler's highest is 235. Get mentally ready for this one. From here on out, it's only going to get tougher both mentally and physically.

In case if you missed it, June will be out of town this weekend.

Practice is still on for Roum and me this Saturday.

Vegas trip schedule so far. The '?' are things I'm not sure what to do so please comment on suggestions.
Friday
12-4 PM: Leave from work, eat light lunch and head to Vegas *w00t w00t*
4-5 PM: Check-in and rest up
5-7 PM: Dinner
8-10 PM: Practice Bowling 3 games
10- PM/AM: Free to do whatevers but remember to take time to rest up as well. Roum and I will go ahead and visit Mandalay Bay to check out the Black Jack tournament times.

Saturday
9-10 AM: Wake up and get ready for brunch.
10-12 PM: Brunch at 10 so that way person like Russ can go take a nap or rest up before the sweeps.
12-3 PM: I'm going to take this time to spend it with June and Lily. Russ can go rest up if he wants and based on what time the Black Jack tourney is at we'll play it by ear.
3-7 PM: Sweeps (based on the timings we bowled in Laughlin, I'm going assuming we'll follow the same schedule otherwise these timing are subject to change)
7-10 PM: Rio Buffet (this is also including us waiting)
10- PM/AM: Fun/gambling

Sunday:
9-11 AM: Hash House (I highly recommend getting here as early as possible, gets packed REAL easily)
12 PM: Head back

3/13/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: Right in the middle of March, we are in our 26th week in, and we're 7 games behind the 1st place team. This week we will be going against Team #15 (w/handicap of 178) as they are coming off of a 1 win game from last week. With the season getting closer to the end, will we as a team be able to make noise and climb closer to first place or will we stumble and fail to reach the top? Moment of truth...

Summary: 4-0. Not only did we answer, we dominated that question.

June Wei (Avg: 110)
Scores: 117, 113, 102
Overall Grade: B
Review: Not to sound too picky, but this week is obviously a major down week for Jiyoon. Not one game did she even get close to 150. I'll give the fact two games she bowled above her avg, but let's face it, with those kind of scores, it won't make any noise at sweeps.

1. Hit a convincing strike on the 5th frame with spin. 7th frame, she guttered the first attempt by releasing crossbody, in other words, she let the ball go too late with her arm already crossing her body.
2. Again, on the 7th frame, she threw crossbody. 
3. 5th frame, June missed the 6-pin spare. That's a no-no right there. Barely got 100.

Based on what we can see the highlights of her missed attempts, June needs to stop letting the ball go too late. One piece of advice, the opponent gave me is to have her stop gripping the ball with her thumb, which is the sole reason why the ball is thrown too far towards the left. Another advice given is to have her thumb pointed up while gripping the ball, and the install finger tips. We'll take a look into this for this weekend.

Russ Overton (Avg: 160)
Scores: 178, 165, 217
Overall Grade: A+
Review: All in all, great game. Russ really got it going today when at first, I'll admit, the first game would have been his best game of the match. Instead, Russ rose to the occasion and even got a season high, 217. Well done, and let's hope we can continue to get at least 200 all throughout the match. Russ is in more than mid-season form, I would dare say he's ready for the sweeps. This is all based on what I have witnessed over the past two to three months.

1. 7th frame strike was pretty lucky.
2. Got a terrible split on the 2nd frame, which Russ did not convert.
3. First 4 frames were strikes; total of 7 strikes. Very impressive. No obvious miss.

Russ did great, nothing to be picky about. Although, this raises the level of expectations I will have for Russ when it comes to sweeps.

Henry Wei (Avg: 157)
Scores: 192, 201, 143
Overall Grade: A-
Review: The first two games definitely earns me the A, but I'll go ahead and admit that I slacked off at the end. I figured someone should in the team and give the opponent some sort of fighting chance so that we don't make them think all we want to do is armagaedonically (don't care if this is not a word but you get the picture) destroy them. Because I did not bowl my avg I gave myself a "-" instead of an A like Russ.

1. First 3 frames were strikes. 4th frame missed the 9,10 spare. 10th frame, missed the 7-pin spare.
2. Missed the 10-pin spare on the 1st frame. Hit 5 strikes in a row; two were lucky --> anytime I get a brooklyn-strike, it's out of luck. 
3. 3rd frame, missed the 10-pin spare. 6th frame, got a 7,10 split. Got another 4,7,6,10 split.

Definitely will need to work on my spares especially the 10-pin spares. Found my lanes and continually stick to the lanes even when the lane conditions were starting to wear down. Will look into getting a new ball this weekend.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 167)
Scores: 160, 182, 210
Overall Grade: A
Review: Some of you are wondering why the heck am I giving Roum an A and not an A+. Well, to be honest, I gave it some thought, and originally I was going to give Roum a strong A+. But, when I looked at the scores more carefully, it hit me that Roum bowled 7 pins below his avg on his 1st game. Yes, he was not given time to practice, but I want to note he did come in late. Well, there was quite a bit of traffic on his way back. But I can make the point he forgot his ball, which should not have happened in the first place. Also, Roum should not have had bowled below his avg. And to be consistent and fair with Russ all his games above his avg, I decided to give Roum an A.

1. Horrible 1st frame. Hit the 10-pin spare on the 8th frame. Lucky strike on the 9th. Converted a 1,2,7,10 spare on the 10th to help give us another shot to win it. Clutch.
2. 2nd frame, missed the 8,10 spare. 3rd frame missed the 10-pin spare. 4th frame missed the 3,6 spare. 6th frame, missed the 10-pin spare. Not good missing back to back, but back to back to back?
3. Nothing. Purposely missed the 10th frame. 

Awesome job. Bowled extremely well. After all, Roum helped us close all 3 games, starting with the toughest shot to convert a split on last frame of the 1st game. I'll gladly relinquish and hand over the closer status to Roum especially with sweeps coming up.

Team's Overall Performance: A-

Wow!! A sweep against a strong team in Team #15. I loved how they were complaining and clueless on how they were going to catch up and beat us. I've seen them bowl against other teams and trust me when I say I'm sure as hell they would have done the same thing to us if we were in their shoes. But, one of the opponent was right, this is the type of game we need to have if we want any chance on getting something back at sweeps. There are obviously things we need to work on. I feel that we will have a much better chance reaching first place with a convincing win such as today's. This game showcases us on how we can beat the stronger teams out there in the league. Beating two guys hitting above 200's is not an easy task. Today was probably the very first time we bowled as a team to win the games. Normally you would have someone go off and bowl crazy hot to help us win the games. For example, the 1st game, June helped us get closer by bowling consistent towards the end. Russ bowled consistent all throughout even with some bad breaks. I helped us stay in the game by bowling strikes and spares. Roum closed out the win. This right here is awesome teamwork and I hope we will keep doing this throughout the season and at sweeps. May the Bowl be with us...

Post Notes: Next week we will be on lanes 29-30 going against team 2 (Shanangains). This is Joe Cantu's team so might I note (Roum) that this is your time to shine. Their handicap is 161 to our 208. but this isn't an obvious win for us since we all know how well Joe can bowl and pretty much carry this team all by himself if he has to. This obviously gives us a 47 pin advantage so I highly suggest to not let this match slip even with a decent lead. Also, due to me not trusting any of Joe's scores, I'm not going to even look at what their scores were the previous week. All I know is, don't F-up, get the spares when asked and if we can bowl the same we did today minus June (sorry, but you really need to improve, all eyes on June next week) we'll be fine.

Russ told me that he will not be joining us for the bowling practice Joe's hosting at Yorba Linda on Mar 16th. Info for the Yorba Linda practice:
Location: Yorba Linda Bowl (18171 Imperial Hwy Yorba Linda, CA 92885). 
Date: Mar 16th
Time: 4:00 pm
Cost: $15 / 1.5 hrs (NOT including food)
Yelp rating: 2.5 stars but who cares since Joe will be there

Practice is still on, and Roum, June and I will be attending Joe's practice session on Saturday.

Vegas trip schedule so far. The '?' are things I'm not sure what to do so please comment on suggestions.
Friday
12-4 PM: Leave from work, eat light lunch and head to Vegas *w00t w00t*
4-5 PM: Check-in and rest up
5-7 PM: Dinner
8-10 PM: Practice Bowling 3 games
10- PM/AM: Free to do whatevers but remember to take time to rest up as well. Roum and I will go ahead and visit Mandalay Bay to check out the Black Jack tournament times.

Saturday
9-10 AM: Wake up and get ready for brunch.
10-12 PM: Brunch at 10 so that way person like Russ can go take a nap or rest up before the sweeps.
12-3 PM: I'm going to take this time to spend it with June and Lily. Russ can go rest up if he wants and based on what time the Black Jack tourney is at we'll play it by ear.
3-7 PM: Sweeps (based on the timings we bowled in Laughlin, I'm going assuming we'll follow the same schedule otherwise these timing are subject to change)
7-10 PM: Rio Buffet (this is also including us waiting)
10- PM/AM: Fun/gambling

Sunday:
9-11 AM: Hash House (I highly recommend getting here as early as possible, gets packed REAL easily)
12 PM: Head back

3/06/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: Welcome to the month of March as we are in our 25th week in, and we're now 8 games behind the 1st place team, but we're also in 3rd place. Team #6 (Bowlin' hard - 1st place team) is bowling stellar games by sweeping everyone in their path. This week we will be going against Team #10 (Something Wrong w/handicap of 217) as they are coming off of a 1 win game from last week. I'm sure they are not as determined to win these games since they are second to last in the league. We should be able to crush them...right??

Summary: 3-1. Not the kind of crush/domination we all want, but a win is still a win.

June Wei (Avg: 108)
Scores: 117, 138, 164
Overall Grade: A+
Review: First off, let's all give Jiyoon a round of applause bowling for bowling a new career high, 164. Yay!! Encore, encore!! Now let's get back to bee-ji-nae-suh. Jiyoon definitely bowled really well all throughout. She tends to position herself more towards the middle when she really needs to start from the very right and have the ball thrown towards the pocket. When she finally got it down, then you can definitely see the difference as she bowled a very good score of at least 150. As a matter of fact, I strongly think we'll be bowling this weekend even though we'll be without Roum so that Jiyoon can continue and get in the habit of bowling an avg of 150 (*crossing fingers*). The goal for her is to bowl at least to have one score of 180 at the sweeps and bowl a consistent avg of 150. If she can accomplish this, she should be able to blow everyone including both men and women away. Although, she will have to compete against the likes of Joe "Mr. 300" Jimenez, Mike "I'm gonna beat Joe" Diaz, and of course Joe "IfeelconfidentonbeatingtheseguyscuzI'mJoe" Cantu. Major respect to them because they all have potential in bowling 300's anytime, who knows...=P

Russ Overton (Avg: 160)
Scores: 188, 145, 156
Overall Grade: B+
Review: Not his best, but definitely not his worst. Bowled an avg of 163, and eventually lost his lane towards the end. Not a whole lot to say about Russ at this point in the season other than stop missing those spares. Funny thing is in the 1st game, Russ was able to find his lanes and got decent amount of strikes that lead him to score 188, but in both the 2nd and 3rd games, either he got robbed (even when hitting the pocket - DEAD-ON) with splits or missing the spares by I-I that much. Russ will need to bowl closer to 200 if he wants a chance to win something at the sweeps, but other than that good to see him back from the previous two weeks.

Henry Wei (Avg: 157)
Scores: 174, 154, 158
Overall Grade: B
Review: Definitely not the SOW, and played just plain ok. Missed a lot of strikes, missed a lot of spares, lot of coulda, woulda and shoulda but just didn't bowl the way I have been bowling the past couple of weeks. One can say I got over-confident and definitely too anxious (sorry Russ), but I feel like I just lost it somewhere in the middle of the 2nd game. Definitely need to continue to work on my 6,10 and 9,10 spares. I missed quite a bit and in fact went 1 for a good 6 or 7 chances on those spares. Imagine if I actually got them, but no such thing as what-ifs. If anything I deserve to have the worst score out of everyone in the team.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 167)
Scores: 152, 201, 180
Overall Grade: A+
Review: Other than the 1st game, I must say Roum did a bang of a job and he deserves the A+ without a doubt in my mind. I just feel bad on how we could not win the 2nd game for him as he finally got a score of at least 200 in like who knows how many weeks. But this is good news and I'm being very hopeful for Roum to continue this since he'll need to avg somewhere in the upper echelon of 230 if he wants a shot at winning something at sweeps. Roum will be MIA this weekend for practice, but I feel confident Roum will keep it up for next week's match. Also, congrats on getting the 9,10 and 10 pin spares, but I also did notice you missed some, too. No more Jekyll and Hyde right??

Team's Overall Performance: A-

Congrats team on getting a win. I want to add we lost to this team before (1-3), but this time we came back for a well-needed win. As for who is the SOW, and after careful consideration for both accounts, I have concluded it's a tie between June and Roum, after all, both deserves the prestigious award. June bowled a career high and showed us what she's capable of doing and she has the potential of reaching 200s periodically in the distant future. Also, June bowled well all throughout the games since she's prone to bowl terribly in the 3rd game. As for Roum's case, he was the most consistent in the team, bowled a 200 and was the only bowler to bowl at least a scratch total of 500 (Russ's was 489, mine was 486 and June's was 419). So based on all of that, I came to the decision of both June and Roum getting the SOW. Congrats to both of you for not only helping us win today's match, but proving to not only the team but also to yourselves that you can bowl well and better than others. Starting next week I will be keeping track of everyone's stats and going to do my best and helping us reach our goals. 

Post Notes: Next week we will be on lanes 25-26 going against team 15 (they don't have a name) or as I like to call them the Doyle family. Their handicaps are a decent 178 to our 208. This obviously gives us a 30 pin advantage so I highly suggest to not let this match slip. This team #15 can and most likely will bowl really well.  We need to bowl really well to beat this team because their scores from last week are759, 906 and 726, besides 906, I understand those scores are not going to really scare us, but they can still bowl at least in the 800s so please do not underestimate this team. Their best bowlers are the Doyle brothers (Jerry and Rod). I'll be honest, I do not like Rod. The guy gives the vibe of a jerk to me and every time he looks at us or at me, he's looking down on us. I don't know if he's racist or if he just doesn't like us or whatever, but I just wanna beat this guy and his team. Rod's highest scratch total is 259, but it's nothing compared to Jerry's 289. So as you can see we'll need to bowl really well if we want a chance.

Roum pointed out we'll need to start sweeping teams if we want a chance at the end to challenge the 1st place team. With a little luck I believe we will catch up to those guys and win this league.

Russ told me that he will not be joining us for the bowling practice Joe's hosting at Yorba Linda on Mar 16th. Info for the Yorba Linda practice:
Location: Yorba Linda Bowl (18171 Imperial Hwy Yorba Linda, CA 92885). 
Date: Mar 16th
Time: 4:00 pm
Cost: $15 / 1.5 hrs (NOT including food)
Yelp rating: 2.5 stars but who cares since Joe will be there

As I mentioned last week, this upcoming weekend, both Roum and Russ will be gone, but I'll make sure June and I get to practice.

Vegas trip schedule so far. The '?' are things I'm not sure what to do so please comment on suggestions.
Friday
12-4 PM: Leave from work, eat light lunch and head to Vegas *w00t w00t*
4-5 PM: Check-in and rest up
5-7 PM: Dinner
8-10 PM: Practice Bowling 3 games
10- PM/AM: Free to do whatevers but remember to take time to rest up as well. Roum and I will go ahead and visit Mandalay Bay to check out the Black Jack tournament times.

Saturday
9-10 AM: Wake up and get ready for brunch.
10-12 PM: Brunch at 10 so that way person like Russ can go take a nap or rest up before the sweeps.
12-3 PM: I'm going to take this time to spend it with June and Lily. Russ can go rest up if he wants and based on what time the Black Jack tourney is at we'll play it by ear.
3-7 PM: Sweeps (based on the timings we bowled in Laughlin, I'm going assuming we'll follow the same schedule otherwise these timing are subject to change)
7-10 PM: Rio Buffet (this is also including us waiting)
10- PM/AM: Fun/gambling

Sunday:
9-11 AM: Hash House (I highly recommend getting here as early as possible, gets packed REAL easily)
12 PM: Head back

2/27/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: We are in our 24th week in, and we're now 6 games behind the 1st place team. It's starting to become a close race as the season comes to a close (entering coming sweeps). This week we will be going against a daunting task of winning against team 18 (At The Huenta). With their lead off bowler being absent, we are still behind 1 pin based on our handicaps (their 208 to our 207). Last season when we went against them, we got swept. Will we find a way to solve our mistakes, and provide an answer?

Summary: 2-2. Not pretty...

June Wei (Avg: 109)
Scores: 88, 127, 102
Overall Grade: C
Review: I don't know what to say other than stating this week was a huge dropoff for June. Considering how June should be reaching to avg at least 150, getting a score of 88 is definitely not going to help the cause. I can not say how many times she would get a 9 on her first shot and then miss her spare. It's shocking to see her miss those spares that could have gotten her a higher score and I'm still appalled by it. Now, before I go on, I want to add that she did get her ball back today from a piss poor job of fixing a gash that happened two weeks ago. But...still, it does not give her the excuse of bowling poorly especially how she has been complaining on not having her ball, which caused her to have lower scores the previous week. Not acceptable and we will be practicing this Saturday or at some point this weekend.

Russ Overton (Avg: 161)
Scores: 126, 162, 156
Overall Grade: C-
Review: Truly a disappointing week. Last week, Russ was able to better his avg score once in the 2nd game with a score of 173; his other games, 11 pins below his avg and the other was 17 pins below avg so based on those two games, Russ had a total of 28 pins below his avg. This week, 40 pins below his avg. I, honestly, had a hard time deciding what grade to give Russ for this week's performance. We all know how well Russ can bowl. Russ has been bowling on the level of genius during the course of several weeks and starting last week, he has hit a huge slump. I took in account how he was able to get a 1 pin over avg on his 2nd game and how he has bowled throughout the season, which lead me to give him a score of C- and not a D. I'll go as far as saying, Russ was having a very hard time figuring out the lanes. I believe his hammer ball would have been great for him in this week's lane conditions, but still, there is no excuse for that especially how Russ should be able to figure it out (level-wise). Russ is not a pro, yes, I agree with that, but considering how much experience and knowledge Russ has, I have every bit of confidence he can figure the lanes out, at least by the 2nd game if anything. I'm not going to suggest what Russ could, should have done or even work on because Russ knows what he needs to do to get his scores back up. Better luck next week.

Henry Wei (Avg: 156)
Scores: 188, 190, 159
Overall Grade: B+
Review: Now, just by looking at my scores, I should without a doubt in most peoples' minds, deserve an A. The way I bowled today, was strong, I figure out the lanes, I hit numerous amount of strikes and not one game did I fall below my avg. However, there were spares I should of hit like the 9,10 spare and how much trouble I am having with the 3,6,10 spare. God awful!! I missed 3 that I remember real well that could have helped me get the 200 score I was looking for today; I'm sure there were more. Also, another thing I want to point out is how I could not hit a strike or even a spare on the 1st frame of each game. That alone right there could have boosted my score to at least 200. Need to really work on that, but other than that, I was the SOW this time around. Still though, not a happy-trooper.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 167)
Scores: 181, 170, 196 (last week)
Scores: 166, 137, 148 (this week)
Overall Grade: D+
Review: Deciding Roum's grade was the hardest for me and it really hurts for me to hand a D+, but I'm afraid it's necessary. Last week Roum bowled out of his mind and did what we all know he is capable of, but this week, the complete opposite. Not once did he hit his avg and he kept on missing his spares and couldn't answer back with strikes that he was able to do last week. If you ever watched Angels in the Outfield, starring Danny Glover, Tony Danza, Christopher Lloyd, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Mathew McConaughey even Adrien Brody? Yes, Adrien Brody. The Angels team in that movie were not only inconsistent, but also, incredibly horrible. They would get smashed and beaten on until one day a boy prayed for them to win the pennant. Right now, I'm praying for you to get back to the old Roum we all used to know and maybe by sweeps time, you'll bowl a 250 game or something. I really don't want Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde moments anymore, and just want to see Roum bowl Roum's game. Roum needs to get rid of that blue ball (Storm Prestige) and get another ball. Unless, he feels like he can work it in, I highly suggest to get a new ball like how I did and I really believe it'll work wonders for him and his game. Maybe, get a plastic ball so he can get those 9,10 and 10 spares down with ease. Just a suggestion...

Team's Overall Performance: C

As a team, we did not bowl well at all. Scores were 776, 823 and 772. Two scores in the 700's in not acceptable and if we even want a good chance to get the 1st place prize, we'll need to bowl at least 820 as a team; this way we'll be ready for upcoming sweeps. I know, it's a lot to ask for, but if we can get even close to that, I feel like we have a very good shot at winning something at sweeps. I'm hoping next week we'll bowl better collectively and I feel confident we will. I really wanted to beat these guys, but a 2-2 is a lot better than a loss and way better than getting swept. However, after the first game, they hardly tried to beat us and we were actually trying ourselves to beat this team. We need to do a better job on staying consistent and scoring better than what we scored today. I'm really hoping practice this weekend will do at least Roum and Jiyoon some good.

Post Notes: Next week we will be on lanes 33-34 going against team 10 (Something Wrong). They have 3 bowlers with one being vacant. Their handicaps are at a mountain size of 250, and while I'm not sure if they are sandbagging or not their avg are 134, 128 and 148. Their scores from last week were 808, 826 and 821; our scores were 782, 833 and 842. If we take scores from last week and compare them together, we beat them by 2 pins. 2. That right there is awfully close. So, I'm hoping we'll get it together and beat this team. Not an easy task.

Next weekend, both Roum and Russ will be gone. That does not help Roum since he will not have the opportunity to practice. So please be aware of that. Also, Joe Jimenez mentioned on Mar 16th, his Yorba Linda shop will be hosting a try-it bowling ball practice day at the Yorba Linda Bowl (18171 Imperial Hwy Yorba Linda, CA 92885). This place got a 2.5 stars on Yelp, but since it's Joe, I would definitely suggest ALL of us to go and get every bit of advice we can from the main man himself. From what I know, the times are 1pm, 2:30pm and 4pm. I'm planning for the 4pm session and if I heard correctly, it's $15 for 1.5 hrs of trial bowling. Please pencil this in your schedule, this will obviously a great opportunity to get some advice from Joe himself; but I'm also figuring he'll be busy that day.

Vegas trip schedule so far. The '?' are things I'm not sure what to do so please comment on suggestions.
Friday
12-4 PM: Leave from work, eat light lunch and head to Vegas *w00t w00t*
4-5 PM: Check-in and rest up
5-7 PM: Dinner
8-10 PM: Practice Bowling 3 games
10- PM/AM: Free to do whatevers but remember to take time to rest up as well

Saturday
9-10 AM: Light Breakfast
10-11 AM: ?I'm hearing sleep, but one thing I am considering is to skip breakfast and have a brunch at 10 so that way person like Russ can go take a nap or rest up before the sweeps.
11-1 PM: Lunch
1-3 PM: ?
3-7 PM: Sweeps (based on the timings we bowled in Laughlin, I'm going assuming we'll follow the same schedule otherwise these timing are subject to change)
7-10 PM: Rio Buffet (this is also including us waiting)
10- PM/AM: Fun

Sunday:
9-11 AM: Hash House (I highly recommend getting here as early as possible, gets packed REAL easily)
12 PM: Head back

2/20/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: We are in our 23rd week in, and we are in a close race for 1st, being at 4th place with 51.5 wins and 36.5 loss record. This week we will be going against the 9th place team (Team 12) who can potentially hit a 925 game if they hit their mark. This team is really hit or miss, either they bowl really well, which can be a sign of danger or they can really stink up the place. Ultimately, we just need to bowl well and consistent.

Summary: 4-0. Great sweep and what a job we did to not only keep us in the game, but as a team collectively backed each other up, which really helped us win some games.

June Wei (Avg: 108)
Scores: 106, 125, 115
Overall Grade: B-
Review: Not good but also not bad. Good to see June get out of her slump in the beginning and YES, she did not have her ball, which is why I did not give her a C and credited her on rising up to the challenge on using a house ball. BUT, this also shows that she does not use spin effectively enough on her own ball. While I would like her to apply more spin, seeing her throw the ball the way she has been is good enough for me going into sweeps. Needs to just work on staying consistent, hitting spares (especially when it's something she can get); goal: avg 150.

Russ Overton (Avg: 161)
Scores: 150, 173, 144
Overall Grade: B
Review: 16 pins below his total avg will not help you win the SOW award. Russ was on track to do some real damage by having a decent 1st game and a phenomenal 2nd game, but somehow he just lost it and was never able to recover; not to mention the sporadic play all throughout the match. Russ just needs to find his lanes and stick to it. Also, I noticed in the beginning he did find his mark; however, as the lane conditions started to ware down, Russ was not able to adjust accordingly. This is something he'll definitely need to work on, IF this becomes a lingering issue. But for now, I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt that this week was just an off week.

Henry Wei (Avg: 156)
Scores: 137, 157,179
Overall Grade: B
Review: Scratch total, both Russ and I have 473, but unlike Russ, I was not able to find my mark until the 3rd game. Granted I am using a new ball (Enter: Storm Natural Pearl a.k.a. "Belmo" --> Mr. Belmo to some of you out there) and how little practice I was able to get with it, which lead me to bowl a disgusting 1st game score of 137. After the 1st game, I was able to collect myself and hold it together by helping the team win the 2nd and 3rd games. One thing I will definitely be doing is practice, practice and of course, good ol' practice. I'll admit I was stubborn in the beginning of the match by now adjusting more towards the right side. The ball was hoping to throw down as far right as I can, hoping for a late strong hook to get me strikes. This obviously did not happen as I started to realize as the games went by that I had to release the ball more towards the right than the left as I have been doing with the other strike ball. Again, need more practice.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 167)
Scores: 181, 170, 196
Overall Grade: A+
Review: Ah! Dr. Jones, well done on getting the SOW. I can't say enough on how happy I am to see the old Roum back. *knock on wood* Still though, he has lots of trouble getting either the 9,10 pin spare or just the plain nemesis himself, the 10-pin spare. Need to start working on those as I strongly feel confident during the sweeps, Roum will face those and he'll need to be able to hit those in order for him to get an avg of 200. Overall, good job and thank you for getting it together. Continue to stay hot.

Team's Overall Performance: B+

Some of you may be wondering why a B+. After all, we did sweep our opponent, we bowled an impressive back-to-back games of at least 840, but the opponent was without their two star bowlers in Amazon and her husband, Danny. If they were bowling tonight, they could have easily beaten us, and we definitely can make the case they don't bowl high numbers all the time, but never say never. If I recall, we thought we had a good chance on beating Jim's Angels after the 1st game that we won, and look where that gotten us. We need to really stay consistent, adapt when needed, and really muster up the effort to help each other out. We'll get there, I'm sure of it.

Post Notes: Next week we will be on lanes 23-24 going against team 18 (At the Huenta). This is Albert Ramos's (Valerie Rivas) team whom we lost to before; I remember losing to them really well. I normally don't hold grudges, but that loss really stung and next week I want pay back. So please, bring more than an A+ effort, superior would be nice.

Vegas trip schedule so far. The '?' are things I'm not sure what to do so please comment on suggestions.
Friday
12-4 PM: Leave from work, eat light lunch and head to Vegas *w00t w00t*
4-5 PM: Check-in and rest up
5-7 PM: Dinner
8-10 PM: Practice Bowling 3 games
10- PM/AM: Free to do whatevers but remember to take time to rest up as well

Saturday
9-10 AM: Light Breakfast
10-11 AM: ?I'm hearing sleep, but one thing I am considering is to skip breakfast and have a brunch at 10 so that way person like Russ can go take a nap or rest up before the sweeps.
11-1 PM: Lunch
1-3 PM: ?
3-7 PM: Sweeps (based on the timings we bowled in Laughlin, I'm going assuming we'll follow the same schedule otherwise these timing are subject to change)
7-10 PM: Rio Buffet (this is also including us waiting)
10- PM/AM: Fun

Sunday:
9-11 AM: Hash House (I highly recommend getting here as early as possible, gets packed REAL easily)
12 PM: Head back

2/13/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: We are in our 22st week in, and I can finally announce us climbing up a grueling and hard-earned 4th place with 48.5 wins and 35.5 loss record. Instead of being behind 6 games, we are currently behind 7 games from 1st place (Bowlin' hard). This week we will be going against the 8th place team (It Don't Matter) whose team average is a whoppin 690 with a handicap of 110. 'It Don't Matter' is obviously not shy about keeping their handicaps low (no sandbaggers here), and they all can bowl in the upper echelon of 200's. The big question is "will we matter?"

Summary: 3-1.I must say after a devastating first game loss, we as a team came back and kicked some major *beep*. Very impressed by how Roum came back and decided to bowl really well all throughout the match. Also, I'm proud of the way we responded today by finishing strong.

June Wei (Avg: 108)
Scores: 141, 146, 101 (last week)
Scores: 114, 145, 101 (this week)
Overall Grade: B
Review: Considering how June has been bowling lately, she deserves a lot of the credit for not only helping us win games, but also, being able to improve along the way. Not so much this week though; minus the first game, her scores very identical (2nd and 3rd games). Two things we can take out from all of this: 1. We know she can bowl close to 150 (real close) and 2. June's 3rd games tend to take a huge dive. As far as technique goes, based on what I'm seeing June is throwing the best that she can. And whether it is 100% correct or wrong, it doesn't matter right now (meaning she still doesn't know how to spin the ball or apply a great amount of spin to notice hooking) since she's totally new to the bowling scene therefore we can't blame her on that. Instead, June is applying a reverse spin and we might need to get a new ball with reverse spin holes drilled into it. May or may not happen, but definitely something to consider in the upcoming off-season.

Russ Overton (Avg: 161)
Scores: 151, 183, 173
Overall Grade: Strong A
Review: Not SOW, but still deserves an A for a strong effort in a good win. Can't complain, but there are times when Russ really needs to work on getting spares. That's what really killed him throughout the entire match; who knows, he might have scored in the 200's in all 3 games. Nothing to really fix other than staying consistent and reaching an average of 180 so we can be ready for Vegas. O, congrats Russ on winning last weeks 3rd mystery number. Round of plause...

Henry Wei (Avg: 156)
Scores: 138, 177, 204
Overall Grade: A
Review: Some of you may or may not disagree with me giving myself an A instead of A+. The reason is because of my first game score being 138. I know that I bowled without my strike ball and how I borrowed Russ's 'Hook' ball (still thinking about getting it or not). Ultimately, that score did hurt us and because of how I was 28 pins off my avg, it helped us lose the 1st game. As for the 2nd and 3rd games, I was able to clean it up, hit my strikes and my spares and the rest is history. I really need to work on the 3,6,10 spares or even the 6,10 spares. They are really hurting me as I could have gotten a better score if not for missing those spares. Also, do note some of the strikes I was able to obtain were quite lucky. But as my dad told me growing up, "Son, in order for you to win, not only must you be skillful, but you also need to be lucky."

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 166)
Scores: 200, 173, 175
Overall Grade: A+
Review: I, personally, want to add that my total score beat Roum's total score (scratch + handicap) by one pin so I was on paper the better bowler. But let's face it, Roum deserves the A+ way more than I do. Welcome back Roum with a capital W. This is the Roum we have been expecting and waiting for. There were times when we noticed Roum being nervous, but he stayed calm, cool and very collect. These are the 3 C's we should all exemplify and engrave into our games. I can't be any more happier than to see Roum really being able to contribute and again, let's all give a nice, warm encore on Roum's very first A review and not just any A, A 'freakin' + SOW kind of A. Still though, work on your 6,10 and 10 spares. That's all. =)

Team's Overall Performance: A

It's no sweep, but it sure does feel like one. Again, congratulations on getting your first A review, Roum. June was the only bowler not getting an A. As a team, we, now, know we can hang with a really good team whose players not only had a very consistent bowler in Rich (scratch total: 635 = 202+189+244), but also, the luckiest bowler I have ever seen and if not the top then at least one of the luckiest in Sara. I swear, there were 1, 2,...4 strikes where she would NOT hit the pocket, like OFF, really OFF, and ALL the pins would collectively, decide to fall down. WTF is up with that!?!?! @#$*&^* No, seriously, what is up with that??? So not fair, but it's definitely going to be something we will have to deal with in the future and it's a great lesson for all of us to not underestimate the team and sit idle. Might I add Sara's HGS is 222 so luck is definitely a part of her skill (don't you just hate that?). Our 2nd game we bowled a nice score of 887, I want our goal to be 950 from now on (our HGH is 909). I believe it's reachable and let's just hope we do it during sweeps.

Post Notes: Next week we will be on lanes 39-40 going against team 12. In case if you don't remember who that is, just know that Amazon is part of that team. So get ready...*shrug* Sandbag alert!! This team's handicap is 186 compared to our 209 (not including this week). Each of their bowlers can reach at least 214 so that should tell you the type of team we will be facing next week.

Vegas trip schedule so far. The '?' are things I'm not sure what to do so please comment on suggestions.
Friday
12-4 PM: Leave from work, eat light lunch and head to Vegas *w00t w00t*
4-5 PM: Check-in and rest up
5-7 PM: Dinner
8-10 PM: Practice Bowling 3 games
10- PM/AM: Free to do whatevers but remember to take time to rest up as well

Saturday
9-10 AM: Light Breakfast
10-11 AM: ?
11-1 PM: Lunch
1-3 PM: ?
3-7 PM: Sweeps (based on the timings we bowled in Laughlin, I'm going assuming we'll follow the same schedule otherwise these timing are subject to change)
7-10 PM: Rio Buffet (this is also including us waiting)
10- PM/AM: Fun

Sunday:
9-11 AM: Hash House (I highly recommend getting here as early as possible, gets packed REAL easily)
12 PM: Head back

2/06/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: We are in our 21st week in, and somehow we are still in 5th place with 46.5 wins and 33.5 loss record.We're now exactly 6 games back from the current leader (minus today's scores, of course). Today's match is against an interesting group called "Rusty Rollers". One of their players was absent so they had a sub today with a handicap of 13. <-- That right there really helped us out because I believe if their own player (we won't name names now) was present today, we might have been swept. Who knows...

Summary: 2-2. One word: Phew...

June Wei (Avg: 107)
Scores: 141, 146, 101
Overall Grade: Solid A+
Review: Wow! Excluding the third game, the first two were quite impressive. I can definitely tell she's starting to get it, but at the same time, it's quite obvious June will not bowl a good third game due to tiredness. June is throwing the ball the way we're asking her to and there are moments when she's applying the spin. Also, June is starting to understand where to throw the ball, and I can't express enough the "how" part, too. On the other hand (yes, I know), June needs to start hitting the 7pin spare as well as the 10pin spare, but the one spare she really has trouble with is the 2,4,5 spare. Once, June has mastered this, she'll be a definite force to be reckoned with, coming sweeps. Good job and keep it going.

Russ Overton (Avg: 159)
Scores: 181, 212, 164 (last week)
Scores: 189, 166, 212 (this week)
Overall Grade: Strong A+
Review: Like what Russ said, if Jiyoon is the star then that would make Russ the star of the week. I hate to say it, but it's o' so true. I want to take a moment to compare last weeks score with this weeks. I don't really need to say much, as you can see, it's obviously identical. I can vouch for Russ that the lanes were inconsistent and it got tough as the games went on and trying to figure out the lanes. Because of that reason and that reason alone is what made Russ get the SOW (star of the week <-- gonna acronym it = laziness). I made a mistake on telling Russ after the game, "better scores than last week." What I meant to say is "better scores than two weeks ago" when he bowled a 116 for the 2nd game. Would you look at that! Roum bowled a 116 in his first game this week.

Henry Wei (Avg: 156)
Scores: 156, 134, 160
Overall Grade: B-
Review: I did not bowl well today. In the first game, I hit my average on the dot, but in the 2nd game, I just completely lost it. I'm still shocked on how I got a 134. I was not able to find my lanes and when I did hit the pocket I would get robbed, raped and murdered. At times I felt like it wasn't fair on how lucky the opponent was getting their strikes and how unlucky I was. Because of this it got to my head and for 2 and a half games, I was not able to: number 1. focus and number 2. bowl consistent. And what I mean by consistent is getting my spares when I should and must be. I did not even register a single strike in the 2nd game = shame, pure, fresh, right out of the box, new car smell, utter shame. By the time it got to the 6th frame of the 3rd game was when I was able to hit my strikes, and interestingly enough that helped propel us to get a whooping score of 839 to 715, which definitely helped us not only get the win for the 3rd game, but also, get us the win for the entire score. Still though, I really need to work on being able to not only find the lanes, but being versatile on bowling two different lane conditions.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 167)
Scores: 116, 178, 155
Overall Grade: B-
Review: I thought long and hard on what exact grade to give Roum. Trust me, I really wanted to give him a B for being able to bowl a 178 and a 155 at the end of the game to help close it out. Especially (I'm really stressing this adjective) on how he was able to correct himself throughout the match. I'm proud and hopeful you will be able to keep it up. However, the reason why I gave a minus after the B is the sole reason of inconsistency. Roum bowled really well during the practices we have on Saturdays; however, he is not able to carry that over to the matches. The first game really showed how much trouble he was having and how early Roum was mentally shocked. As an anchor, Roum needs to bowl Russ-type numbers if not better (it shrugs me saying that--Russ-type numbers). I really hate to say it, but we all know how well Roum can bowl. He knows how well he can bowl. We (including Roum) needs to help Roum get back his confidence and I'm sure he'll have a great chance to bowl everyone away when he does get it back. I'm sorry to do this, but Roum, if you don't start turning things around, I won't allow you to do your black jack tournament at sweeps. Sorry buddy.

Team's Overall Performance: A-

No thanks to both me and Roum, we only get a mere A-. Pretty darn sad if you ask me. But the highlights are Jiyoon getting closer to averaging 150 and Russ bowling his heart out. Right when I was accepting a 1-3 loss or even getting swept, we pulled off a great comeback. I'm extremely proud on how hard we fought back. Normally, we would get down on ourselves and bowl crummy the rest of the match, but we climbed out of the hole and not only did we get at least a win, but we tied it. This is the type of experience we'll definitely need moving on forward. O! and before I forget, Congrats to both Russ and June for winning the mystery number. Someone owes us tea tomorrow, Ru*cough*cough*.

Post Notes: I don't have the right to take black jack away from you, Roum, so I was just kidding about that. But, please, try your best to be the anchor we know you can be. I leave it up to you whether you wanna play black jack or not if you don't start bowling well. I know you can do it, and we all know you can. As for Vegas, so far we have, Friday night bowling practice, Saturday night Rio buffet and Sunday morning Hash House. That's all I'm gonna plan. The rest I will leave it up to you. I'm only making sure we are good on food as well as being ready to bowl on the day of sweeps. One thing I'm told to do is be with the fam throughout the day on Saturday including dinner and after Lily is put to sleep then I can go off and have fun (gambling). Please, comment if there is anything else you would like to do because I will be very sad if we don't take this time to plan and when we get to Vegas we end up not knowing what to do. Thanks again for any input you got. Word of the week: "badwords". Russ knows why.