Today I had this great idea to spend the entire day trying to run nines and catch them on tape.

I usually just practice running fives, and it's amazing how much tougher nines are. It's not even double, it's more like the difficulty increases exponentially with each added ball. I'm sure someone out there could come up with the formula.

Anyway, after hours and hours, and a lot of fives, and sixes and sevens and a couple eights, I finally got my first nine of the day at around 7:00PM.

Imagine my dismay when I realized that my tape had run out a long time earlier. I'd forgotten to check it for at least three hours.

I still think this is a good idea though. I'm forcing myself to stop and rerack after any miss. This is generating enormous pressure on me - pressure that I don't normally feel since I play by myself mostly.

That pressure, that specter of punishment hanging over any miss, is something that I really notice each year at the DCC. It forces me to change my game, and usually that change is for the worse.

In the past I've been able to simply ignore any pressure situations but what with my complete suckage at all non-Banks games I've found it harder to ignore. Perhaps my creating ever-increasing pressure on myself during my practice sessions I'll be more able to ride it out during those times when I find myself unable to ignore it.