Today is Pepsi Qualifying at Diablo Lanes in Concord. We knew that the lanes would be difficult to handle coz it's been notoriously known for that and every pro hates that place. We made an effort to go try out the lanes on Friday to check it out and true enough, it was a horrible practice so, we kinda set our hearts out that we wouldn't expect too much today when Sam actually go play on it.
Match was at 3pm and we arrived at about 1.45pm and had time to go check-in and get our lane assignments. Sam was on lane #33/34. Guess what? She's the only girl in that pair of lanes with 7 boys surrounding her *raised eyebrows*. During warm-ups, one is only allowed 2 throws per lane. Not a very good start I would say coz knowing Sam, she takes a lot of practice throws to warm herself up. 2ndly, no coaching allowed. So, we told her to just go do her best and leave the rest to God.
During warm-ups, she had 2 strikes and she also practised 2 pin 10 spares. But when the game started, I guess it's nerves and she started twisting upon release causing the ball to go way Brooklyn. She missed many spares in that game coz she panicked and didn't realized that it's her twisting that's causing the ball to go awry. She thought it was the lane conditions that's dry. So, after every 3 frames or so, she will change her ball. When we saw her doing that, we knew she was in trouble coz obviously, she's not thinking and not looking at how the ball react. As a result, disastrous opener at 129 pinfalls. In the second game, same scenario except she's twisting less but the habit of wanting to control the ball kicked in so, that leaves her with lots of sparing that's undone and came in 159. Obviously, hope has ran out the door coz the qualifying cut off is 606 pinfalls with handicap. Even if she gets a 300 perfect game in her 3rd, she won't be able to cover (her handicap points was 126). In the 3rd, she bowled much better. Missed 2 spares and came in 188. After the game, she came running to me, hugged me and cried saying, "I've never bowled so badly." She was right, since coming here in July 2008 until now, her game has never reached below 160. So, I told her, it's ok, it's a bad day and she needs to look to the future and not look back at what's done and cannot be undone anymore. Driving home after the tournament was a quiet and grim affair as all of us are disappointed. Not so much in not getting into the state finals or having low scores but because she didn't learn from past mistakes. Well, it's back to the drawing board for Sam coming Friday and hoped that Ty will be able to fine tune her again to her bowling best. Good luck Sam...
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