I have not written in a few weeks as I've been busy. I had an up and down month of December.

Tuesday December 9- was inconsistent in shooting a 3 game 671 - left 6 frames open.

Wednesday December 10 - a series of peaks and valley with 3 decent games and one season low game of 144 for a season low 4-game 791. First time all year I shot a series less than 800 for a 4-game series.

Tuesday December 16 - started slow and had strong finish with 256 to finish with 649.

Wednesday Deccember 17 - Didn't bowl bad. Just didn't get the pin carry in shooting a still-below average 4-game 825.

Tuesday December 23 - I wanted to enter the Christmas break on a high note. In years past, I've always entered the Christmas break on a down note and this year was starting to be more of the same.

So I went in relaxed and focused.

Right off the bat, I got hot. Shot 233, 278, 268 for a 779. I was that close to an 800. The frame that would be most responsible for me missing the 800 would be the 3rd frame in game 1. I got two strikes and left a solid 10-pin in frame 3. I missed it and then ran off 4 more strikes in a row.

If that solid 10 pin was a strike, that would have been my 800 right there.

But I was very happy to shoot a career high series and it was also the second time this year that I had two games over 265 in the same series.

My first 800 is getting closer. I can smell it.

I now average 217 in both leagues and now am on a break for the holidays. I don't bowl again til January 7.

Happy Holidays.

I had a good week this week.

Tuesday, I started off bad and had a 151 game. I realized that I was not hitting the line hard and that I was not being aggressive in my delivery.

So I made the adjustment to be more aggressive. The result?

Game 2: 8 strikes in a row followed by a high ball in frame 9 that left the 4 pin. I covered it and went Strike-Spare in 10th frame for a 269.

Game 3: 9 strikes in a row followed by another high ball and left a 6-10 which I covered. I was a bit pissed and threw a half assed ball that left a 3-6-10 for a 275 game.

Two opportunities at a 300 in back to back games. Back to back 300's has been done only twice in my local association and I could have been the third. If I didn't have that bad first game, who knows, I could have had an 800. Final series:695

Wednesday, I shot decent in games of 224, 247, 225, 193 for a 4-game 890 series. The first 3 games was a series of 697. So I was one open frame away in both series from shooting back to back 700's.

On Tuesday, the shot was awesome. I really didn't have to make any major adjustments other than to just throw more aggressively. I basically shot the same line all 3 games using my Thunderstruck.

But on Wednesday, even though it was oiled the same, it still was different. I had a bit of a time trying to get the ball to hook into the pocket. Even though I was as aggressive as the night before, the ball just didn't hit the pocket hard as it did the night before. I was lucky to come away with the 224, 247, and 225 games. I moved one board to the right to start game 2..it worked for a while, but it broke down again in game 4 and I only had 75 in an open 5th frame. Finally, I brought out the Terminator and moved back to the left and threw it outside as it had oil on the inside.

I made the run to come back from the 75 in the 5th frame to finish with the 193 game. I should have started with the Terminator in the first place.

But all in all, it was a good week and could have been a great week if I didn't make the mistakes that I did.

I also took over the lead for the average title on the Wednesday league. Before last night, I think I was like 25 pins behind the leader with a 221 average. But the leader had a bad day with a 775 series and with my 890 series, that put me in the lead by slightly over 100 pins with 16 weeks to go in the season. 16 weeks. 64 games. 221 average. Plenty of bowling to do yet, but I still feel good about my chances to win my first ever average title. I just gotta stay consistent and not get into a slump.

We don't bowl on my Wednesday league for two weeks. We didn't bowl last Wednesday and we don't bowl tomorrow due to the guys on the league deer hunting as it's an afternoon league.

But I did sub tonight for the Tuesday 5 man league. After last week's debacle, I just decided to go out and have fun.

Well, I shot a clean 237 (no-tapped it), a 223 with one open and then had problems with my Thunderstruck as well as my spare shooting (left 4 opens) before making a ball change to the Terminator for the 10th frame to strike it out for a 162 game. I should have changed balls sooner.

The team won all three games and we as a team all shot well, shooting over 1000 scratch in each game, which is a good accomplishment as the low average guy carried a 185 average. So shooting a 1000 scratch meant everyone had to bowl over their average.

We dominated the first two games, but game 3 was close due to my 4 open frames. But we caught a break as I led off the 10th frame with those 3 strikes and the other team's lead off bowler missed a single pin for the open frame and just like that, we made up 21 pins right there. The game remained close and our anchor bowler doubled in the 10th and their anchor bowler didn't double, allowing us to escape with a close victory and a series sweep. I'll take a team victory over a bad game any day. Me striking out that 10th frame was key to the sweep.

Next Wednesday (Dec 3rd), I'm back on the regular Wednesday league. Looking forward to going back to that league again.

How many of you bowl on both a 3 man league and a 5 man league? Ok, ladies, I'll rephrase that - a 3 person league and a 5 person league.

Well, I bowl regularly on a 3 man league on Wednesdays and I'm a 6th man on a 5 man league on Tuesdays. Right now, I'm filling in for a guy working 2nd shift for about a month on Tuesdays in the 5 man league.

I discovered quite a few differences in both leagues even though the bowling center and the shot are both the same.

On my Wednesday 3-man league, I'm having a career year with a 221 average and 3 700's in just 7 weeks of bowling so far as I stated in my previous post.

But on the Tuesday 5 man league, I'm bowling horrible. I've only done it for 4 weeks so far, and already I had a pair of 570 something series to go with a couple low 600 series for an average of about 203 or so. Big difference when compared to my Wednesday average.

Here are my thoughts on why there's such a big difference in both leagues even though the shot's the same.

1. The 3 man has a faster pace. I can keep my rhythm and not miss a beat. But in a 5 man, I sometimes have to wait a bit before my next turn especially if there's an issue with the pin set that we have to wait for. So I guess that can break up my rhythm.
2. With a 3 man league, there's only 6 bowlers to a pair of lanes, so the oil conditions won't change much. But in a 5 man league, there's 10 bowlers to a pair, which increases the chance of lane conditions changing dramatically.
3. Also in my 3 man league, I'm bowling anchor. I've always bowled anchor for about the last 4-5 seasons. But in the 5 man league, I'm the lead off bowler, so I guess that had something to do with it as well - bowling in a different position.

When I look back on what I wrote, I think the mental aspect comes into play too. Maybe I was trying too hard on the Tuesday 5 man league to try and match my success on the 3 man league.

With that in mind, I guess I just have to relax and just bowl and see what happens next week.

What are your thoughts, everyone, on this subject? Please feel free to comment. I want to hear from you.

I forgot about Bowlspace until I got a friend request from someone I don't know. Of course I rejected it. I don't take friends request from people I don't know.

Anyways, I might as well talk about how I'm doing.

I still have my Storm Thunderstruck, the Lanemaster Terminator and a spareball. I think 3 balls are all I need at the moment. Thinking about getting something less aggressive than the Terminator, but more than the Thunderstruck down the road, but i'm ok with what I have.

Due to my early morning job, I'm bowling in a 3 man league on Wednesday afternoons. It's not a scratch league, but all the bowlers on this league are very competitive that handicaps are very low in this league, which is what I like. Trying to make up a 100+ handicap deficit is a bitch sometimes especially when we shoot the lights out, beat the other team bad by 99 pins scratch and still lose by that 1 pin of handicap.

I don't have to worry about this handicap difference in this league.

This 3 man league bowl 4 games each week instead of the standard 3 games. Because of this, the league is only 24 weeks long, which I like. I think a 32 week season is just too damn long.

Well, after 7 weeks of bowling, I'm having a career year with my high 4 game series a 948 and the low 4 game series an 819. I'm averaging a 221.

For honor roll purposes, we also keep track of how we do in the first 3 games of the 4 game series. My best 3 game series of the year is a 743, which was shot just this week. I shot 265, 256, 222 for that 743 and added a 200 game for the 4 game 943 series. I threw the ball good in that 222 game, but just didn't get the pin carry for it. Guess I was thinking 800 and I should have not thought about it.

That's my goal this year - get an 800 series. I know I can do it. I just need to stay focused and just bowl.

Last year, I had five 700 series over three leagues all of last year. This year, I already have three 700 series in just seven weeks in one league and I plan on racking up more 700's by years end. I also hope to get a 4 game 1000 series, which might be a tad easier to get than the 3 game 800 series, but still very difficult to do. No one in my league has one yet and there was only one 1000 series last year.

I'm also the coach of the local High School bowling team. We start practice next week and this year's teams won't be as good as the ones we had two years ago when the boys' team steamrolled their way to state.

But in contrast in years past when we would have had only 1 or 2 practices before our first meet, we will have 5 practices before our first meet, so that will help us some. We have two senior boys on the team that's expected to dominate in the UPBC along with 3 sophomore boys that could be good - if they can listen to the coaches and be properly motivated to bowl good.

The girls team lost 4 girls to graduation last year, so they are a big question mark. My daughter, who's a junior, will be the leader on this team and a pair of sophomores have improved over the summer and fall leagues and I think they will help pick up the slack and help this team out. The rest of the team is a big question mark as I know nothing about the new freshmen that we have coming in.

I'll start posting on a regular basis. Stay tuned.