Coach’s Journal – Summer League, Week 2: Experimenting With a Purpose

Summer league has become my place to experiment.

I’m treating it less like “must score at all costs” and more like a testing ground to improve my lane play, adjustment-making, and confidence in diagnosing ball motion. If I can get better at solving problems in a low-pressure environment, hopefully those reps pay off later in tournaments and more meaningful competition.

Week 1 I averaged 222, although honestly it didn’t feel like I bowled that great. The house felt easier than where I normally bowl, so I tried not to read too much into the scores. My home center is difficult, and I know better than to suddenly assume I’ve unlocked something after a couple good weeks somewhere else.

This week was more interesting.

I intentionally brought two balls that I rarely use: my Troublemaker and my Revenant. I already knew going in that the Troublemaker is stronger than it probably “should” be for me, but I also knew the general shape and line I expected to play.

Game 1 went well. I shot 233 using the Troublemaker, but toward the end of the game I started noticing the carry disappear. The ball was starting to roll too early and deflect, leaving weak hits and even a 4-pin from poor continuation. To me, that was a sign the ball was burning up and losing energy before getting through the pins.

At that point, I had a decision to make.

I could either stay with the Troublemaker and manipulate it more—adding hand, changing shape, maybe lofting later—or I could switch to something cleaner and see if I could retain more energy. Since summer league is my experiment league, I decided to try the Revenant.

The challenge: I already knew the Revenant was going to require a completely different zone.

At first, it looked like the wrong choice. I tried a couple different areas of the lane and got almost no motion. After about three shots, I was close to abandoning the idea and going back to the Troublemaker. But instead of immediately giving up, I decided to test one more theory:

What if I intentionally found more friction?

I moved into a much more friction-heavy zone—standing around 25 and throwing closer to 10.

And suddenly, there was motion.

But then I discovered the real issue: the lanes were not playing the same.

The left lane barely hooked and quickly stopped responding to what worked. The right lane hooked significantly more and required me to continue moving left almost shot after shot.

Game 2 turned into my “learning game.” I shot around 173, but honestly, I was gathering information more than scoring. I was trying to understand the lane pair, the ball reaction, and whether the Revenant was usable that night.

By game 3, I made a more targeted adjustment: Troublemaker on the left lane, Revenant on the right lane.

On the left, I gave the Troublemaker more hand to help it continue through the pins. On the right, the Revenant still made sense because of the stronger friction response.

The funny part is game 3 didn’t even feel good.

I didn’t feel like I was striking much, and the reaction still wasn’t perfect, but I stayed clean, made my spares, and ended up shooting 223 anyway.

That might actually be one of the biggest takeaways.

Sometimes you can bowl “bad” and still score well.

A couple years ago, a weird pair and a frustrating experimental game might have spiraled into forcing shots, chasing reaction, and losing composure. Instead, I felt like I stayed relatively calm, made reasonable decisions, and kept diagnosing what I was seeing.

I’m noticing that my lane play is improving. I think that comes from repetition—league after league, shot after shot, constantly asking:

What did I just see?

Sometimes the answer is simple:

“Good shot. Repeat.”

Other times it’s:

“Something changed—why?”

The biggest lesson from tonight:

Experimenting is good, but random bowling is not experimenting.

Experimenting only helps if there is a reason behind it.

Have a hypothesis. Test something specific. Gather information. Make the next adjustment based on what happened.

Changing balls, moving zones, adding hand, lofting—those aren’t random fixes. They should all answer a question.

Tonight reminded me that it’s okay to experiment and even bowl poorly for stretches if the process is intentional. A 173 game isn’t necessarily failure if it teaches me something useful for the future.

And maybe the best sign of progress is this:

It feels like my floor is getting higher.

Even on a night that felt messy, I still found a way to shoot 223 in game 3, stay clean, and make decisions with purpose.