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.

Well, this Wednesday, the Lane Master Terminator arrives to the shop. I'll have it drilled up to be 80% aggressive and then practice for Saturday's scratch tournament.

Saturday, the tournament will be shot on a 50 foot house shot, so there is no way my Thunderstruck can do its job unless I play an outside line, perhaps outside the first arrow.

But the Terminator should be able to do well in this tournament. There are about 90 some entries, top 16 make the cut and the cut should be a 3-game 660-680. The cut was 700 once or twice in past tournaments.

Who here has thrown a Terminator and how do you like your ball? Any advice for me in throwing this ball? I'll be going into this tournament virtually cold because I'm getting this Wednesday and may be lucky to get in a practice session before Saturday.

Thanks to all that respond.

I had to remove the photos at the left about my interests. It made the page too wide and it seems Bowlspace has a glitch that prevents it from scrolling left to right like Myspace would.

I'll probably reduce those pics of my interests then repost them.

A friend asked me if I'm going to compete in our local association tournament this year after missing last year's with a torn ACL. I told him probably not. He asked me why.

I figure I would write about what I told him.

You see, our local association tournament allows re-entries on singles and doubles event as well the team event.

I understand the re-entries on the team event because many bowlers bowl with multiple teams, so as long as their teammates changes, that's fine with me.

What I don't like are re-entries in the doubles and singles event.

In the doubles event, you have the opportunity to cash multiple times by entering with a different partner each time. That's not right.

And in the singles event, while you can cash only once, you have several opportunities to move up positions on the leader board. That's not right either.

Case in point: Last year, some guy shot a 789 scratch series (he had no handicap) to lead the singles event after the first week of play. The association tournament usually has 8-10 shifts each year. So another guy bowled like 6-8 times and finally got an 800 scratch to win the event.

I was not happy when I heard about that. I realized re-entries bump up the prize fund. But to me, a local association tournament is about the prestige and glory of placing high among your fellow local bowlers, not about winning money. That's for state or nationals.

I don't think re-entries should be allowed in local association tournaments and I stand by my word on that.

However, I have a rare weekend off this weekend (coming up March 8-9) and I was asked to compete in the doubles and singles event by a friend of mine. Hmm...would'nt it be funny if I won the event bowling just once beating some poor sap who entered 8 times? It would, but I'm not all that good. My average last year was 209 and our handicap base is 215, so that only leaves me a 3 game handicap of 18. I would need to shoot 750-770 scratch just to have a shot. I would have to be mistake free.

Someone said to me, you don't need to win it. Just place and cash. Yeah, right, Many other guys re-enter many times. How many of the top scores were done on re-entries, I don't know.

I'll probably send a letter to the local association board and tell them my thoughts. But I doubt it'll do much difference. I've also thought about writing a letter to the local newspaper letters section where everyone can see it. Now that might get a response. I'll probably have some of my fellow bowlers get pissed at me. But I don't care.

I'll give it some thought if I should bowl our local association this weekend (coming up March 8th-9th). There are always spots open so I can walk in and sign up if I want to.

I'll post next week if I do this or not.

Stay tuned.