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.

1/30/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: We are in our 20th week in, and still holding onto 5th place with 42.5 wins and 33.5 loss record. This week we'll be put to the test yet, again, going against the 3rd place team. They have the 2nd highest game scratch of 851 (SCRATCH!!!). All of their bowlers can easily hit 200's while we still have a hard time getting anywhere close to that number. Will we be able to go toe-to-toe against them? Or will we choke?

Summary: 4-0. Not bad...not bad at all. As a team, I am proud of the way we bowled today. Even though there's quite a bit of improvement to strive for, a win is a win.

June Wei (Avg: 106)
Scores: 122, 125, 100
Overall Grade: B
Review: I honestly would give June a higher grade, but since she scored a 100 in the 3rd game, that's totally unacceptable especially how she was able to score in the 120's for both games 1 and 2. June definitely got her spares when needed and might I add, strikes, too. She's starting to get the hang of where to throw the ball and add spin to have the ball hook (just barely) to the pocket. Impressive first two games..., but as for the 3rd game, she took her eyes of the prize. Jiyoon needs to start understanding where to stand depending on what pins she needs to hit in order to get those spares. She could have gotten a higher score if it wasn't for her missing her spares.

Russ Overton (Avg: 158)
Scores: 181, 212, 164
Overall Grade: A "freak'n" +
Review: Anytime you score 200 or more you deserve an A+, but...anytime you score 200 and help get a sweep, you dam better believe you're going to get not just good grades, but awesome grades. Russ flipped on the switch this week. Considering on how dead he looked when he first arrived, I would never have guessed Russ was going to bowl this well. Russ sure did redeem himself this week from the poor utter performance of last week's dreadful tie. Russ was able to focus and stay consistent all throughout the 3 games. Still is having slight trouble of the 10pin spares, but other than that, thumbs up. The star is back.

Henry Wei (Avg: 155)
Scores: 196, 163, 179
Overall Grade: A
Review: If Russ got an A+ then I for sure got an A. I didn't score high numbers as Russ, but I was close and consistent all throughout the match. I was able to capitalize on getting strikes when the opponent would miss their spares. This helped a lot on either keeping/holding the lead or helping us come back and win the games. I missed some really easy spares, which hurt my scores, but it did not cost the team any wins. The opponent was able to get in my head, but giving me tips, but overall I was able to overcome it and bowl the way I wanna bowl. Glad to see myself being able to average above 160; getting closer to the goal.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 168)
Scores: 134, 147, 232 (last 2x week)
Scores: 134, 141, 223 (last week)
Scores: 167, 132, 135 (this week
Overall Grade: B-
Review: I won't lie, I wish I had last weeks scores than this weeks, which is why I kept the scores from 2 weeks ago and last weeks to show how Roum flipped his scores. None of this weeks scores were able to hit his average. NOT GOOD!!! Roum really needs to focus and start remembering his basics. Two things Roum really needs to do: 1. STOP dropping the ball and of course 2. STOP doubting himself. Confidence is key here and it'll go a long way once Roum regains his mojo. The team needs Roum's invisible swag otherwise we won't have any chance of winning games and he'll be wasting his time at Vegas. Originally I wanted to give Roum a C, but because I'm in a good mood and he did help close the 3rd game off I gave him a B- instead. And yes I am in a good mood. Still pissed on how Lakers though. <-- *shaking head* You can wipe that smile off your face, Russ.

Team's Overall Performance: A

Good job team. I mean, really, GOOD JOB!! This is for reals reals. I'm not joking, I am really happy that we beat a really good team today. If you did not notice, they really tried hard to catch up. But...don't think this sweep is something we can easily do, again, to a team like them. We bowled a total of 879, 845 and 791 to their 695, 838 and 762. On average our scratch total is 587, guess what theirs is. 718; on average. My goodness, gracious. If you haven't noticed it by now, our handicap is what helped our bee-hinds during this match. We need to do a better job on holding leads meaning we gotta increase the lead so that the opponent won't have a chance on coming back. And we need to do a better job on getting our average scratch total to at least 650. It's really not that hard. If Russ, Roum and Henry can average 180 (easily) that'll make it 540 and all you need left is a average score of 110 from June just to get it at 110.

Post Notes: So far the only plans I have for Vegas is practicing on Friday evening after dinner or something so we can get a feel for the lanes. And, Rio buffet. June also mentioned she would love to go to Hash House for either breakfast or lunch. I'm suggesting breakfast because the lines get CRAZY long if you don't get there early enough. So the quicker we get there, the less time you'll have to wait. Please visit the website if you never have been there or no idea what Hash House is http://www.hashhouseagogo.com/. Also, please post up comments if there are any other suggestions or comments you would like to say. Thanks.

1/23/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: We are in our 19th week in, and surprisingly still placed 5th with 40.5 wins and 31.5 loss record. Going up against a good team whose bowlers can reach the upper echelon of 200's. Can we pull off the win?

Summary: After the game, I took a great deal of time to review and analyze our performance and still I'm not sure exactly what to say other than we did not perform the way we should be up to this point in the season. We won two and we loss two. That right there speaks for itself on how today's games went.

June Wei (Avg: 106)

Scores: 117, 100, 132
Overall Grade: B-
Review: A major improvement over last week's scores. I can not begin to tell you how proud I am to witness June starting to show effort on spinning the ball or more like throwing the ball along the correct arrows. Still though it goes without me saying how little the spin is applied to the ball when she releases it. Really needs to work on not being afraid to flick the ball. Experiment is key when practicing. Other than the 2nd game, good job and hopefully she'll be able to hit at least 120 on a consistent basis by the end of February.

Russ Overton (Avg: 158)
Scores: 188, 116, 141
Overall Grade: B?
Review: I'm having the hardest time giving Russ his grade and still I'm not sure, which is why I gave a question mark at the end (talk about being confused this week). I did Russ's review last hoping I would have a final grade by the time I got his review, but for some reason it's too difficult for me with Russ being sick and all. Great first game, hit his mark, bowled fabulous, got his strikes and hit his spares with exception to some easy ones that helped him get a score of 188. Then...the drop off happened and a big one, too; like Angel's Falls drop off. From 188 to 116, that right there is 72 points and comparing it to his average, that's a minus 46 points. *shaking head* Third game was a little bit better, but it took Russ til the 4th/5th frame to really start turning it up, again. I understand he's still little bit under the weather, but can't miss those easy spares down the line. I wouldn't say focus was his problem today, the lanes were a little bit different as each game went on, and Russ did some experimentation during those games so judging from all of that the best thing Russ can work on for next week is adaptation.

Henry Wei (Avg: 153)
Scores: 216, 162, 155
Overall Grade: B+
Review: For someone who did not feel it today, I think overall I deserve an A, but...because how competitive I am and how last weeks performance was uber (German/Deutsche) krap, I gave myself a B+ instead. Had a marvelous score of 216; can't complain. But I wasn't able to keep it up and eventually lost my strike lane. Please do take notice on me mentioning strike lane and not the lane completely. I did get my spares when I had to and eventually came back strong towards the end of the 2nd and 3rd game (minus the gutter frame at the end). Still though no excuse on several of the other frames I muffed up on. Still need to work on staying focused and not letting other things bother me.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 168)
Scores: 134, 147, 232 (last week)
Scores: 134, 141, 223 (this week)
Overall Grade: Roum's Choice
Review: Is it me or does this look really familiar to you? In fact, last week's performance was better than this week. Yes I will give Roum lots of credit of helping us staying in the game against the opponent and allowing us to even get the chance to win the 3rd game (we did). BUT, what happened in the first two games leaves me clueless and pretty much speechless. It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Strikes Back, which leads me to allow Roum to grade himself so he can get a good visibility on how similar the scores are from last week and this week. Anyways, Roum really really and I mean REALLY needs to work on finding his lanes quick. I'm tempted to allow him to use most of the practice time so that way he can start feeling the lanes. It's all in the head!!! Haha, thats what she said.

Team's Overall Performance: B

In a big way, I can't complain with a 2-2. Obviously getting a 3-1 would be far more enjoyable than a 2-2, but it's still way better than getting 1-3 or the God-awful sweep. Everyone is to be blamed for the 2 wins and 2 loss, we all have a hand in it. Sorry guys, no star this week. I want to bring up something really important. Our opponent's total scratch scores were 525, 536, 545 and 553. June's were 349, Russ 445, Henry 553 and Roum 498. As you can see, our opponent is very consistent and yes they do know how to bowl and they have far more experience than we do, but the way I look at it is if we wanna do any damage coming sweeps then we need to be more like our opponent and find our consistency. I'm not asking for scratch totals like our opponents, I'm asking for better like 600. Just kidding. I actually decided to give each of you total scratch goals so it will give you some indication on what to aim for. June 450. Russ 550. Henry 550. Roum 600 cause you know you can. I think this sounds very reasonable and hopefully when we're at Vegas bowling, we'll be the team that blows everyone away even that dreadful Team 6 (you know who I'm talking about).

Post Notes: I want to say thanks everyone for getting the rooms on time at South Point. I'm starting to plan out what we can do at Vegas. So far I have practice bowling on Friday evening so we can get a feel for the lanes. AND, a dam good buffet; don't ask (it pains me explaining it every single time). If you have any suggestions on where to go and what o do, please post them on comments and we can all talk about it. Thanks.

1/16/2013

"OLD SCHOOL" Team Review

Preview: We are in our 18th week in, and placed 3rd with 39.5 wins and 28.5 loss record. I'm totally ecstatic to find out that we have a good chance to get 1st with 12 weeks (matches) remaining. This puts us in a good position to really take the lead as we're 4 games behind 1st place. With us coming in with a good victory last week, can we keep it up and have a streak of 2 wins at the end of the day?

Summary: To answer the question above, "HELL NO!!" (our streak ends at 1 game *sad face*) Let's put it this way, imagine your going up against a team who is basically dead last, down by 31 pins and your star player is out for this game. What does this entail? Simple..., two players need to bowl above average and we'll have a good shot on winning the games. Which two? Not going to say. Easy said than done? Hell yes! But no excuses. Can it be done? Hell *Beeping* yes! But o wells cause we f-ed up; simply put. The scores speak for themselves.

June Wei (Avg: 106)
Scores: 105, 118, 73
Overall Grade: C-
Review: Based on June's scores last week, this week can be summarized as hideous. First two games were decent, but that last game, it was like she just completely gave up and wanted to go home. In the beginning, June was applying spin to the ball; not a whole lot, but it was noticeable. There were a couple instances when the ball got stuck on her thumb. June admitted that she does want to dry her hands because she's afraid it'll slip out too easily. For everyone out there who is reading this, it's exactly what you want when drying your hands so that the bowling ball does not get stuck not only your hands, but also, your fingers therefore preventing severe (not dire) injuries. Trust. June really needs to start working on flicking the ball right when she releases it. It does not have to be a strong flick, but a flick that can spin the ball when applied.


Russ Overton (Avg: 158)
Scores: Absent
Overall Grade: Does not apply
Review: Just because Russ was absent does not mean I'm not going to write a review. Just kidding. Take a break, Russ, you deserve it. Just be glad your "In-Laws" were not in town. =P


Henry Wei (Avg: 153)
Scores: 185, 172, 112
Overall Grade: C+
Review: Started off great. First two games were quite consistent. Did what I wanted to work on; found the lanes quick. How ironic when I find the lanes, I eventually lose them, which the third game score shows on how poorly I played. We'll focus more on the last game for obvious reasons. In the last game, I could not hit the spares. Kept getting numerous splits; four, I believe (don't hold me to it). Instead of going back to basics and leveling my already frustrated head, I kept getting more and more aggressive and threw the ball far to the right, which helped me get some gutters. Not only did I destroy the team's chances on catching up, but as the team lead, I was not able to keep it cool and under control forcing me to throw with pride and not throwing for the team. I don't know if I just got tired, or the lack of focus, but there's just no excuse to losing the lanes when you found it in the first place. Disappointed in myself as the captain.

Roum Evangelista (Avg: 168)

Scores: 134, 147, 232
Overall Grade: C-
Review: Kobe "Bean" Bryant. Today reminded of Kobe when he plays really krappy in the first 3 quarters and then all of a sudden turns it up in the fourth, but by then it's too late and there's no hope of winning the game even with the heroics of Kobe nailing down shots like no other. So that's pretty much what happened. First two games were an average of 140.5. By the tenth frame of the second game, Roum decided to find his lanes (Kobe's strokes) and get his turkey (gobble gobble). In the third game, Roum started to get his strikes (Kobe knocking down his shots), 6 in a row in fact; this lead to him getting a whopping score of 232. I wouldn't be surprised if he got the mystery number based off of that score. Anyways, it took Roum nearly 1.9 games to find his lanes and be consistent. Tenth frame to be precise. Tenth. Let's think that one over and hopefully the next game we'll improve on that. Oh, and one more thing, STOP DROPPING THE BALL. You're ruining the rev on the ball and how you want the ball to react. Here's a good find on dropping balls: http://www.bowl4fun.com/ron/tip39.htm. Read it (you too, June).


Team's Overall Performance: C
Some of you might think I'm being too harsh in my review. Well, originally I was a whole lot more rigid; for instance, I was going to give Roum a D+, but to give him credit for the amazing 3rd game that he had, I gave him a C- instead. I was going to give all of us D's because let's face it, we bowled as if there was something stuck in our behinds. Sure I bowled 3 pins above my average, but all of that doesn't mean anything if we don't win or at least, be close to winning. Unacceptable. I'm sorry to say all of this, but it is what it is, and it helped me shed some light on, on how much we depend on Russ's scores. This should not be the case whatsoever. This week we were down 31 pins, but it's not like it was the end of the world. If each player bowled ten pins above their avg, we would have had a great shot at winning all 4 games. But based Russ's scores as of recent, if anything, we should make Russ our anchor, but I have full and complete faith that Roum will turn it around and he'll be the bowler that we all know he can be. I also strongly believe June will be able to spin the ball the way we want her to (more like envision). And, rest assured, I feel good about our chances on winning this dam league. So let's go and stay consistent and we'll be fine.

Post Notes: In case if you haven't noticed, Roum bowled 9 strikes in a row (previous record (officially) is 6 consecutive strikes). Take the turkey he bowled at the end of the 2nd game and add that to the 6 strikes in a row he bowled in the 3rd and there you have it, 9 consecutive strikes (unofficially). But who cares?! Congratulations Roum!!

Next week we will be going against the O'Hagans. We need to be careful, just because they have far less HC than we do doesn't translate to us not finding our lanes quick and staying consistent. If we do that, I see either a sweep or a 3-1 victory.

Update*: I almost forgot to mention about the hotel fees. I was told that South Point Casino is offering a room sale for $85 a night plus tax, which comes out to a total of $190.40 PER room. That makes it $95 per person for 2 rooms. Not bad for Vegas, but Jiyoon is asking for something cheaper. Mr Vegas (Roum) is there any other place you would know around South Point that we can go for; otherwise we have til Friday noon to purchase these rooms with this deal. So we need to make a decision no later than Thursday (evening). The quicker we decide on this, the better. Please comment below to give your inputs, thanks.