Last night was one of those nights when no matter what I did I couldn't find the pocket after the first six frames.

First six frames, I drilled the pocket and get one strike, leave a 4-pin once, a 7-pin once, a 9-pin once, and the 10-pin twice.  Then things really started getting funky...I couldn't get the ball in the pocket.  If I did, it was very, very light.

From the 7th frame of the first game on, I leave the 1-2-4-10 SIX times and the 2-4-10 TWICE.  I bet I haven't had those leaves two times all season.  In the 10th frame of the second game, I left the 2-4-10 on the first ball, got lucky and bounced either the 2 or the 4 out of the pit to take out the 10.  On my third ball, in the 10th, I almost left the 5-7-10 had it not been for a straggler on the pin deck that barely knocked the 5-pin over.  In between all this mess, I manage only five strikes...two were fairly solid in the pocket, one light mixer, one I pulled through the nose (how I didn't split on that one is beyond me), and a very badly pulled Brooklyn.  Other than that, the rest of the leaves were corner pins and/or taps (8s or 9s).

Anyway, I ended up shooting under 500 for the first time in over a year.  I was totally lost.  I changed speed, I changed lines, I changed balls and nothing worked...if it did, it was never for more than a frame or two...ball reaction was all over the place.  My release didn't feel any different than normal, nor did my tempo.  

No one else scored very well except for two guys on the other team...one a plastic ball, straight shooter who averages in the 150s (shot over 500) and a young "high rev" style bowler who shot 650-ish thanks to a 267 in the last game.  One guy on my team shot a little over 500 but still below his average as was everyone else on the two teams.  Looking around at the other scores on other lanes, no one else seemed to be bowling bad as a group the way our two teams did...all the scores seemed to be around their average or higher.

As for the lane conditions, the oil and pattern did not seem any different than what we've been bowling on the last few weeks...medium oil, medium length.

Can anybody give me any clue as to what might have been going on or what I was experiencing (other than a terrible night)?   I checked my scoring records after bowling last night and found that 3 of my 4 lowest series have been on this pair this season, not counting last night.  I've haven't been this frustrated or lost in a long time...I even accused my GF of getting out her VooDoo doll and cursing me. LOL  Any thoughts???
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That which doesn't kill you will only make you stronger, that which doesn't make you stronger is a waste of time!

This is one of the hard to know without being there.

Sounds like the pattern was either a little longer than normal or the back ends were not stripped as clean as normal. Since you have had problems before on this pair it might be something with the lane surface.

The washouts and 2-10 combos combines with the near 5-7-10 tells me you were constantly coming up light and maybe getting deflection on the pin deck.

If it was a case that when you squared up that if you pulled it the ball it went high but if you missed out you hit light or didn’t get to the pocket then the pattern was too long for your style and ball. You need to get deeper and not swing the ball much past the pocket or go with a more aggressive ball, slow down your speed and try and hook the ball as much as possible.  

You could have also been stuck in a tube shot where outside the track area was OB unless you had a lot of hand to bank it back.