When starting the tournament out, it seems like a fairly obvious choice. The ball you are most comfortable with. From there, you can determine if you need to ball up or down depending on how practice is going. So, lets say you get yourself lined up in practice and now the lights turn on. Do you still feel lined up? Sometimes that line changes pretty quickly based on who you are bowling with and what balls they are throwing. Now you need to either make a parallel move or a ball change, depending on the reaction you are seeing. I, for the longest time wouldn't change balls until I felt like I couldn't move any further left and I couldn't throw it any harder while still being accurate. Put myself in lots of bad situations and very hard shots to make. Now, I am learning my equipment more and understanding what my ball does on every throw vs the throws that go bad and then trying to make the appropriate ball change or a move with my body. Moving with your body typically means making parallel moves with your feet and eyes. By making parallel moves, we mean evenly moving your feet and mark. So, if you are lined up and all of the sudden you start to leave a corner pin. Try and fix it by moving a single board with your feet and a single board with your eyes in the same direction. Lots of newer bowlers make abstract moves because it makes sense based on what you are trying to accomplish. An abstract move is moving only your feet or only your eyes or moving them both but with different amounts. This will completely change your angle and will probably demand a ball change. For me now, I am trying to determine the ball change or movement with my feet/eyes before it is needed and creates a bigger problem, like a 4,6,7! I'm watching how my ball is going through the balls to help me figure out what is going on down the lane. If my ball is driving hard through the pins, I may be in too heavy of a ball or I need to open up my angle a little more. Either way, I need to find a way to conserve that energy a tad more. Not too much though, because I don't want to see the ball deflecting in the pocket either. Check this video out below on ball motion: Understanding the balls motion on the lane will be key to keeping your splits low and scores high! Also, practicing spares, but that is for another time.