An archer must never blame a target for missing it (1 Viewer)

NauticalGent

NauticalGent

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I have used a similar quote: "A poor archer blames his arrow"

Thursday night is my bowling league night. I have been bowling for over 30 years, my average fluctuates from about 180 to 190 and I can be counted on to bowl at least one 200 game a night. This particular league, I am on the lower half of the men's ladder. Some of these guys have averages of 230. I have never seen so many high rollers in one house and for someone to bowl a perfect game (300) is common place.

Last night we were bowling the 3rd place team (we are 13th of 16 teams) and we had beaten them soundly the first two games. My counterpart started of the third game with 9 strikes in a row...all great pocket shots like you see on the PBA shows. The game was close and I managed to strike out in the 10th and final frame, putting us 57 pins ahead of them. He needed to bowl 2 strikes and then 8 pins (final score 298) to win. If the first 9 frames were any indicator, he should have been able to do this with ease...

He released his ball and I watched it hook perfectly into the pocket...leaving a 7-10 split! I tried not to be too happy about it but I am sure I smiled.

He proceeded to yell at the owner, telling him how crappy his house was, how he doesn't know WHY he bowls there, how we would burn the place down if he thought he could get away with it...etc.

I guess those front 9 strikes were simply luck since the lanes are so bad...
 
Card players understand this principle (or at least the good ones do). It is never about the cards you are dealt, it is the way you play them. In fact, tournament bridge players make it a point for people to play in such a way that half the field gets to play the same sets of cards. The accolades (and tournament ranking points) go to the folks who made the most with what they had.

There is also the construction contractor version of this, which I learned from my day and my father-in-law. It's a poor builder who blames his tools.
 
I always blame the equipment. Last weekend I wiffed a super easy pickleball shot I immediately looked at my paddle. I mean what else could I blame, surely there was a simple explanation like faulty equipment. My first thought was there has to be a hole in my paddle so I looked nope just me.😆
 
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When my knees still allowed me to play tennis, I would often look at my racket after an errant shot, but only to see if I had popped a string. (Not that I ever hit the ball THAT hard THAT often, but you never know...). With a good grip and some grip tape, bad shots were rarely the fault of the racket. Just me losing my grip.
 
The_Doc_Man said:
There is also the construction contractor version of this, which I learned from my day and my father-in-law.
Click to expand...
One of few posts I have ever seen where a son-in-law references his father-in-law (as having positively influenced him).
 
Yep, old "Roy" was a good guy and an honorable man. He was a U.S. Army veteran, a sergeant in 1944, and rode a "Higgins boat" (landing craft) to Omaha Beach in the third wave of the D-Day invasion. His unit stayed more to the south so he never got close to Berlin. He was present when the army liberated at least a couple of death camps. After an honorable discharge, he came home to be a carpentry contractor, and a pretty good one at that. Whenever he talked about the war afterwards, there was one of those "far away" looks in his eyes and a really grim expression of a distasteful memory. He admitted that he never understood how people could do such terrible things to other people. His oldest daughter (my dear wife) was brought up with an appreciation of honor and a strong sense of what was right. How she puts up with me is sometimes a mystery.
 
I read an article about bowling and the science and art of how the lanes were oiled (yes they are oiled). So in theory a bowler could put a partial blame on who ever maintains the lanes.
 
kevlray said:
I read an article about bowling and the science and art of how the lanes were oiled (yes they are oiled). So in theory a bowler could put a partial blame on who ever maintains the lanes.
Click to expand...
True enough, but only at first. A good bowler will make adjustments accordingly.

Not only are the lanes oiled, but there are different patterns! And add to that that on a typical league, you have 8 bowlers with different styles pushing that oil all over the lane. What worked on your first game will not work on your third.

There is a YouTube series called E.A.R.L.'s Journey to 900 (3 perfect games). The system could control the balls, RPM's, speed, point of entry and just about every aspect of a bowler's style. Keep in mind EARL was the only bowler on the lane. I do not remember how many tries it took to get his first 300, but in that game, EARL had to make FIVE adjustments due to changing lane conditions. The most strikes he could get without making an adjustment was FOUR.

To date, they are still trying to achieve the perfect series...the closest he has come is 815. In the entire history of bowling, only 34 bowers have ever bowled a 900 series.
 
The archer and target heading reminded me of the (tall) story of the FBI shooting trainer who was driving through a small town and notice barn after barn had one or multiple targets on the side with each one having a bullet hole in the dead center. He eventually stopped at one ranch and asked about who was the shooter.

The response was that it was Crazy Albert who was inclined to take pot shots at barns and having done so, painted a target around the hole.
 
One of the best fortunes from a fortune cookie was "To ensure accuracy, it is best to shoot first and then claim what is hit as the target"
 
That reminds of a line from the movie 'Cat Ballou'. Early in the movie they had hired a gunslinger that was so drunk that when he tried to hit a target on the side of the barn, he missed. Thus the phrase 'couldn't hit the broadside of a barn' was loosely referenced.
 
kevlray said:
That reminds of a line from the movie 'Cat Ballou'. Early in the movie they had hired a gunslinger that was so drunk that when he tried to hit a target on the side of the barn, he missed. Thus the phrase 'couldn't hit the broadside of a barn' was loosely referenced.
Click to expand...

Earned Lee Marvin his only Oscar (that I remember) for playing a dual role (Tim Strawn and Kid Sheleen). His comment on accepting the Oscar was that if he had known it would have this effect, he would have found the horse sooner. (In the movie, the horse was as drunk as he was.)

If you want to find an example of an "over the top" performance, some of his scenes where Kid Sheleen is particularly drunk and dunder-headed are real groaners. And, as I recall, at the time that movie was made, Jane Fonda really nicely filled in a pair of jeans.
 
Of course the outfit she wore in most of the movie would be considered very inapporiate for a woman to wear in that time period.
 
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