heeroyuu

Mark down today's date, 21102007, the day I got in ntu's ivp bowling squad. It's a bright and sunny sunday, which is exactly what I am feeling right now, bright and sunny. I just got home from my ntu ivp bowling selection which is held at Bukit Batok CSC. This is a 2 days selection which is held yesterday and today. Below is the scores I got from these 2 days of competition.

Saturday
Game 1 - 140
Game 2 - 137
Game 3 - 144
Game 4 - 188
Game 5 - 178
Game 6 - 168

Sunday
Game 1 - 178
Game 2 - 200
Game 3 - 182
Game 4 - 208
Game 5 - 158
Game 6 - 184

Take note that there is a lane change after every 3 games. As you can see, my sat's first 3 games are really poor. I was not in the best of form and bowled a total of only 421 pinfalls for 3 games! That is an average of 140 per game. I did not know what had happened. I just kept missing head pin after head pin. My spares were also haywire. The most memorable thing of these 3 poor games was that during my first game, my opening 4 frames were all 8 pins with splits! That is all I can remember.

Some of you might say this is because I do not bowl practice throw. But let me justify that bowling practice throw is not my style. Each of us has our own unique style of bowling. Mine is that I don't do practice throw. Why, you may wonder. Isn't doing practice throw a kind of warm up and so call finding the line and getting use to the lane conditions? Well, it's just not my cup of tea. Basically, if I do practice throw, my games will go down the drain literally.

Well, if you know me, and know how I bowl, I do not focus on a board to bowl my strikes. I bowl through feel. This means that I will usually stand at my default position and bowl. From the first 2 frames, I will roughly know where I can get my strikes. If that position does not work, for example if 1 pin keeps standing when I hit my pockets, I will shift my default standing position to another one which will work. Thus, I will need to adjust accordingly throughout my games.

And to prove that I do not need practice throws, check out my first game on sunday which I got 178. I did not do the practice throw, yet I am able to get a score higher than my average. (will get to it later ) So friends and fellow team mates, when I do not do my practice throw, it is not because I am too confident of myself or that I want to slack. It is just not me.

The next point I want to point out is that for the next 3 games after the lane change on sat, i bowled a total of 534 pinfalls which average out to be 178 pinfalls per game. These 3 games were better because the lanes suit my playing condition and I got into the mood once my strikes came. I was able to compose myself a little and get on with it. Thus overall on sat, I bowled an average of 159.2, which is way below my normal average score. I was lying in the 25 - 27th position and I knew I blew my chance to become ntu's ivp bowler again. I was pretty upset and angry with myself for bowling such low score, but I know the battle is not lost as there are still sunday's games to play for. I said a silent prayer to God.

Well, today is sunday and of course I would love to sleep late. Who doesn't? I was nearly late as I could not force myself to wake up. Luckily I have my always trusted handphone acting as my alarm clock. It's constant ringing still echos my mind. My handphone might have wake me up, but it is the "wake up the bloody idea" frame of mind and a focus and determined inner me that tells me that I have unfinished business to attend to.

So I went toilet to finish my business -_-"

Ok, enough of silly jokes. Back to how my games went today. Comparing to my yesterday's shit score, I bowled a total of 1110 pinfalls for 6 games which is exactly 185 average today. Wow, that's a 180 degree change, from yesterday's shitty me to a striking machine today. Even Jolin Cai Yi Ling has only kan wo 72 bian, I have 180 du zhuan bian. lol.

Ok, not exactly striking machine like the best overall bowler in ntu, ru xun. He's very good, consistent, powerful, got style and ever so exciting to watch. And he is a spinner too. Well, he proved a point I always wanted to prove. Spinners are just as good as hook ball bowlers if not better. Anyone would be proud to have him in their team. But I heard that he is doing his last semenster this year, thus he will not be able to join future competitions and help ntu bowling. ru xun, I just wish you all the best in ur future and I am glad that there is someone like you who I can get inspired from.

Anyway, back to myself, I strike a lot today. Very interestingly, I get lots of strikes per game which pulls my score up. Of course I was focus, but point to take note is that focusing is indeed an important aspect in bowling but it's not a sure win thingy. It does not mean that you focus, you strike. But not focusing frame per frame of course will be undesirable and will have shitty results. ( see sat score above )

I am glad that I have done well today, I have already given myself a pat on my back for a job well done. ( of course I am going back to sleep after writing this ) My total pinfall for these 2 days is a total of 2065 pinfalls and my average is 172.1

I am in 13th position and I got into the ivp squad as the top 14 bowlers are selected. I was just in by a thread. I have a lot of people I would like to mention and give thanks to. For those whose name is not mentioned here, I thank you as well.

My girlfriend zhaoxin for her encouragements and her efforts to calm me down after my sat's shitty games and badly affected mood. Bi, I know you want to come down and support me, but do know that deep in my heart, I already have the greatest support from you, YOU :)

I will like to thank whye heng for asking me to do my best and give my best shot and also give me some pointers outside a bowling game. Thanks man.

I will like to thank uncle adam ( coach ) for constantly reminding me that I am bowling too hard which makes my pins all fly away like fir's song "fly away" and thus no pin reaction at all. I will continue to change and improve my throws and maybe I will throw softly in future.

I will like to thank yao hui, alvin, raymond, ru xun, kevin, david, kai xing, wei jian, jason, kenn, eugene, bernard, the rest of the guys who I know and the girls playing at my lanes. Thanks for ur encouragements and your high fives and your hand shakes and your cheers. For without them, I think my games will be quite dull and I may have no mood to bowl and I will never get into the team. So I salute you all, my friends.

Lastly, I would like to thank God for it is he who single handedly got me into the team. It is he who push me to my limits and help me to excel, it is him who calms me down whenever I open a frame. He cheers me on whenever I got a split and put on a sulking face. He claps for me whenever I strike. It is he who gave me a 2,8 sleeper ( spinner's nightmare ) in my last game last frame which I opened. I just laugh to myself and look up. I know he is smiling and looking down as well. God, I thank you for blessing me with my wish to become ntu's ivp bowler. I hope that you can bless all the people I mentioned above and bless my school's bowling club to achieve great things ( maybe trash nus ) in future. Finally, God, bless the person reading this blog of mine. I love you God, thank you.

All right, I think I wrote all that I want to say in this entry of mine. Before I go, I would like tell a story which is quite related to my experience in this ivp selection. Do bear with me a while longer. I will try to make it short.Hee.

There was once two magicians, David and Justin. David is a beginner in magic while Justin is a famous known around the world magician. Both of them joined a magic competition and both of them got to the finals of that competition. David through shear luck pull through all the stunts and got the judges nod while Justin of course through his experience skills won the heart of the judges.

Their final stunt is to do a coin roll ( for more details on coin roll, search coin roll at yahoo.com )
In simple terms, it is to let a coin roll on your hand back and fore repeatedly. This is of course not a problem for Justin as he had performed this trick countless time before. However, for David, it is the most difficult thing he ever does. Well, when the judges told them to do it, Justin did the trick with flair, repeatedly tossing and rolling the coin on his hand 20 times before dropping. David on the other hand, managed to roll only 2 times before dropping.

The judges note down their scores and told them that they will have to come back one month later to perform the same trick for a second time. This is what Justin and David were heard saying.

Justin : "No matter how long you want me to wait, my skills will never drop, I will always be as good as I am now."

David : "Oh boy, I can go back and practice hard on this trick to that I can do better one month from now."

One month gone by quickly. Large crowds had gathered at the place where this final showdown between Justin and David is going to take place. The judges told the both of them to get ready and without a moment of doubt, Justin starts rolling his coin along his hand with as much flair as before and he again rolled a total of 20 times before the coin falls off. He is so full of confidence of himself that he told David to give up and not to lose face in front of so many people.

David ignored him, step up on stage when he was told to and start performing his trick. He slowly and carefully rolled a total of 12 times back and fore before the coin falls off. "Well, I lost" he told himself, but he knew that he had done his best and so was not disappointed.

When the judges finally announced the winner, guess who won? David! Justin was so shocked that he questioned the judges why he lost when he rolled a total of 40 times while David only managed to do 14 times.

This is what the judge said. " We are not looking for the one who has the most number of rolls. We are looking for the person who has the greatest improvement over the period of a month. Justin, you did 20 rolls first time and 20 rolls second time. So your improvement is clearly 0. David did 2 rolls the first time and 12 rolls the second time, so he has an improvement of 10 rolls, therefore David is declared the winner."

What is the morale of the story and why is this story similar to mine? Well, from my score, you can see that I have improved quite a bit from sat's score to sun's score. Doesn't that make me a winner already? The thing is that by giving me a chance, I will continue to improve and do well in future.

ALL I NEED IS A CHANCE AND I GOT IT TODAY.

Till then, may you grab hold of your chance when you have it.