Life on the Road with Ritchie Allen
Hey everybody. How are ya? I am not bad. This week we bowled in Connecticut. Ive practcied here in years past, but only when it was wood. We bowled on a new surface this week, one which I have not seen before. It was good tho. I bowled well in qualifying. The first set I threw a Complete NV. The second set I threw a Black Widow. The second se hooked quite a bit more in the front part of the lane, hence a weaker strong ball. I qualified 17. I HAD The misfortune of bowling Mika. I was down 3-0 and he had just shot 800 at me with a 298 game. I dont give up to easily tho. I came right back at him with games of 258, 238 and 300. I had to double in the 10th of game 5 to force game 6. If I learned anything its that after you shoot 300 to force a game 7...take a few minutes to calm down. I still think I had a better reaction, but it was hard to come down off of shooting 300. I grabbed a few of the first shots the next game. I missed a spare and threw the last 8 strikes of the game but lost 268-248. It was fun, I learned quite a bit and above...Im having more fun than I have in a long time. Im still made about Columbus!
ritchie allen
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Sorry. I still dont want to talk about Columbus. Yes I bowled well, thank you, but it was tough to lose. I want to congradulate Kenny Simard on his first tv experience, he bowled awesome.
ritchie allen
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Well, I didnt win the world championship in Indy. I learned a lot tho. The lanes were tough, especially if you werent doing the right thing with the ball. One day I played a lot of loft, the next I tried not to use any. My spare shooting was good. My hand felt excellent. I think the grip overhaul is doing wonders for me. I had a chance or three to get to match play in Indy, bad shots due to getting used to the new grip hurt my cause more than anything. But that is what I learned. I see high scores on the horizon.....
ritchie allen
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So last time I wrote after I was in El Paso I was a little upset. Lacking confidence, and my equipment was not feeling good. Well, I missed the cut this week, but it was OK. The day before I bowled, I did a complete grip ovehaul. I bowled really well, except for the first game on the right lane. It was quite different from the left lane. I shot 165 and was in last, he scores were high. That was the last thing I needed. Well, I got back in gear. I was 15th after the first 7 games. +238. The 2nd block was a little different, I threw it bad everytime I would get something going. I just couldnt continue a string. I shot 80 something over with a low game of 192. Not bad, not good when the scores are this high. I think with one more tweak of my new grip I will be right back in the swing of things. Next week is a major. The World Championship. My confidence is higher than its been all year. My spare game is really sharp. I think I might win.
ritchie allen
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El Paso. Texas. What a weird place. It was a tough week. From a stiff back to not having very good ball reaction. I feel that I am in sort of a little slump. Vegas didnt go to well either. I need to do a couple of things to get back where I was a few months ago. I have a feeling it is my equipment more than anything. I knew I would reach this point. Im not on a staff, but I have access to everything. I am not sure what I like anymore. Next week I am not drilling any equipment. Lets see how that goes. I can imagine how some of you might read this and ask yourselves how having too much equipment can be a problem. Well dont ask me...I dont know!!
ritchie allen
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They were tough this week. I crossed with Pete Weber for the fist 15 games. He is great. I wore a moustache in honor of him for the first 2 and a half days while I bowled with him. Then I actually beat him for 15. I shaved the stache off for MatchPlay and had to bowl PDW the 1st game. He beat me. I bowled well the first block of MP. I was actually in 2nd for a while. Took the lead for a game here and there, but couldnt stay hot. The fresh lanes gave me some trouble the last day MP. I did not bowl very well. The result, a 2nd place start to a 12th place finish. I did bowl well this week, dont get me wrong. I just felt as tho I gave away a good opportunity. I bowl 2 tournaments this week. So I will keep you updated as much as possible.
ritchie allen
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I bowled the pro am today. 9am and noon. Had a good time. All highschoolers, Team Baker format. Neither team I bowled is going to make the Final 3 roll off. None the less, I had fun. Thats what it is really about. Ask my Mom, thats her only advice to me.
Ritchie Allen
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This week we were in Medford, Oregon. It was cold as usual. We bowled on Cheetah this week. Our shortest pattern, and overall one of our higher scoring. The scoring pace has slowed down somewhat the last couple of weeks. Thats good. I bowled okay this week. The spare game was strong. Got a new spareball. I got picked up by Motel 6 this week. The strike game felt good, my carry was not very good. I saw guys carry everything in the building. I felt like I was really close, just couldnt get the continuos strikes to get something going. I had 1 really bad game. I made 2 really bad ball changes. And 2 really untimely gutterballs. Not fun. Had I got a strike in the 10th frame game 7 or a spare of hi count I would have made the cut. Well, I got my mark in the 10th, but a 0/ is not good count. I struck on my fillball. I missed the cut by 7, and finished 33rd. I hate Cheetah pattern.
ritchie "gutterball" allen
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Hey everybody! I first want to say Happy New Year to you all. I also hope you keep those resolutions you made. Back to bowling. Last week we were at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno,Nv. The Stadium is one of the toughest buildings we bowl in. The left generally plays a little easier than the right. I was a little fortunate that our first tournament back was on my favorite pattern, Shark. The scores were the lowest they had been all year. So many guys were under. I hadnt seen that much red on the scoreboard since the US Open last year. A lot of the good bowlers rose to the top. I shot 33 under the first round...not very good. I was still pretty close to the matchplay number. I bowled my way right back into it. Plus 159 over the second block. Including one of the best 300 games I have ever bowled. I advanced to MP pretty easily. Qualified 10th. The Rd of 32 was the best of 7 format. I bowled Chad Kloss. I good bowler, hes from Wisconsin I believe. I wasnt much of a factor the first game as he shot 252 and I bowled a 204. I beat him 4 out of the next 5. He struggled with the transition of the lane, and as I really enjoy Shark pattern I knew a couple of tricks that he didnt seem to be able to recognize. He just played the lanes wrong. The Rd of 16 I was matched up against Doug Kent. Hes pretty good. He was giving the pattern the big slow wheel. And hes pretty goood at it. He was hooking it way more than anyone else. I was just yanking it up the oil line so I could stay firm with it. I made quite a few mistakes. I was down 0-3 quickly. I doubled in the 10th game 4 to stay alive. 289 to win game 5. Then I made a bad move of a good shot and it cost me early. Bad shot in the 9th. Doug Kent wins. I finished 11th I think. I looked at it as the 2nd straight tournament that I was one of the 10 best righties! Good bowling me, go do it again!
ritchie allen
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Whats up everybody? Well, Im sure everyone watched me shoot 168 or whatever it was on ESPN. How embarassing! It was a lot of fun getting there though. Cant wait for next time. Sure enough I got a head of myself the next week. I was 2nd after 4 games thanks to a 280 game. I unraveled from there. i missed a lot of spares. It was my fault. We will do better this week in Baltimore I have a feeling. The last 2 weeks have been fun. My best pattern(Shark) and my worst pattern(Cheetah). This week we bowl on Scorpion. Last time I made the rd of 16 on Scorpion. Im looking for no less this week as well. You know, I really dont do anything else out here on the road other than bowl and play video games. I do a lot of laundry, eating and sleeping. But other than bowling, Im not sure how many of you out there actually want to hear my scores from TigerWoods '08 do you?
Ritchie Allen
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Hey everyone. Its been a while but I am here. I just want to say thanks to everybody out there for the support everyone has shown for Chucks son. As for me well, it has been up and down so far this year. I had a pretty good showing at the Masters until Pete Weber knocked me out. I had to get used the oil volume out here the next week. It was Viper, 37 ft. It played like it was 45! I got fooled pretty good and ended up like 60th. I made a few changes with ball surface and hand position to accomodate for the oil from front to back. The next week was good, I made the Rd of 16. The next tournament I want to forget about. I was 2nd after the first Rd of 64 and ended up missing the cut. Not happy about that at all! As most of you know by now, I made the telecast for this week in Vernon Hills. I want you to tune in and check out how things go, you just never know what will happen!! It should only be a few days in between posts from here on out, I plan on writing about my experience tomorrow later this week. I wanted to write something now just to summarize what it has been like the first few weeks bowling. I plan on writing about a few other things. Stories from the road and what not,....so please frogive me for being a slacker!!
Ritchie Allen
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Im back. Sorry, its been a while. It should be a little more frequent from here on out. Its been an up and down season already. Im going to get into a little more detail about the tournaments starting later this week. I will be telling you about the balls Im throwing and what Im trying to accomplish on the patterns and surfaces we compete on. Right now with all the travel the only thing I am trying to do is form a regular schedule and making sure I have somewhere to stay everyweek. Right now I have formed a good one. I seem to be bowling 5 days a week and taking 2 off. It keeps me busy and practiced. I just need to figure out a way to take off on Saturdys and bowl on Sundays! See ya next week, and I have received over 275 emails from many of you across the country so far! Keep them coming, I will get to many of the questions soon and put them into my tips section.
Ritchie Allen
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Hey everybody, Im back. Sorry I took a while, Ive been preparing for the upcoming season the past few weeks. I had a good tune up this past weekend in the regional in Camp LeJuene. The lanes were the toughest I have seen in a while. I bowled well, I lost to the eventual champion for the 7th time over the last 10 tournaments or so. It does start getting old. Losing that is.
In my the last post I talked to you about Practice. Practice. And a little more practice. For those of you that feel you do enough of that but cant seem to get any better, here are 5 tips to shake up your practice routine and make you a little bit better, maybe even a lot.
1. Many pros dont keep score when we practice. We just practice our repititon, make it feel the same over and over. Score is overrated in practice. It doesnt matter how much you can score when they dont count. They key is to make it feel the same so when you do bowl in competition its easier to repeat shots, and you get the added bonus of forgetting about your score.
2. Practice at different houses. Just because you bowl good at your house, doesnt mean you will bowl good at another. Different surfaces, approaches and settings can throw your game off tremendously.
3. Try to practice at the bowling center right BEFORE they oil lanes. Thats when the lanes are at their worst! If you can bowl good when they are tough, you can bowl even better when the lanes are good.
4. Use all your equipment when you practice. Or at least the ones that dont feel as good. This way you can take them into your BowlingSolutions Proshop and get them adjustedto feel just like your favorite ball in your bag. Also, you get to see more of a difference in your equipment. Make sure you know exactly what every ball in your bag does. Some will even roll differently on different surfaces at different times. Its key to know your equipment.
5. Practice only what feels comfortable. As key as it is to know your equipment, its even more important to know yourself, your game, your comfort level and what you are capable of without going outside your natural physical game.
Those should help for a while. Ill be back as soon as Im eliminated from the Masters. (Hopefully you wont hear from until Monday after the show!) Until then, you know what to do! P-R-A-C-T-I-C-E!
Ritchie Allen <ritchiealle@bowlingsolutions.com>
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Hello there! My name is Ritchie Allen. As you may have seen on the homepage, I am now a Bowling Solutions staff member. I will be bringing you many articles here at Bowling Solutions.com on a varying number of topics. Tips, tricks, stories and helpful hints that I have learned from my time on tour this coming season. Many of you might know that I sat out the 06-07 season, after coming off my best season ever. Well I am back, and I have been doing a lot of bowling. Practice. Regionals. Pattern practice. Regionals. Majors patterns practice. Regionals. Practice at the regionals. Regionals. I even practiced when I wasn't practicing. I bought the Brunswick ProSource Bowling videogame for the Wii! So as a short little lesson and a quick tip, all I can say is.......PRACTICE! Email me here at BowlingSolutions.com with questions of what to practice on if your having troubles, or you can wait a week or two, comeback and see the new list I have set up for the things you need and want to know. I'm going to practice.....
9/26/2007 - We just got this set up for Ritchie. Keep checking back for updates. Ritchie will be filling you in on his daily activities as he is preparing for the 2007/2008 PBA Tour. Feel free to e-mail Ritchie @ ritchieallen@bowlingsolutions.com
Chuck & Deborah Gardner
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