Date: 19 Apr 2005 02:54:50
From: twobirds
Subject: the faster the better?
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I've been working on a little theory. The last topic about prebowling made
it come to mind. I had no idea what prebowling was, so I had to go read.
If I get this correctly, prebowling is bowling with your team sometime
before the league actually meets to bowl and your scores are official. So,
let's say your league is a first shift on Wednesday. You come in to the
center at noon on Tuesday when the place is empty and bowl then instead of
Wednesday evening. - Is that about the gist of it? If so, a ten pin
deficit (although unrealistic and certainly not part of the rules) may not
be entirely unfair.
OK. My theory. I have noticed that my highest games and highest series
have occurred during practice and during tournaments. In both cases, the
pace is much faster than my Thursday night league with 5 man teams and
pitchers of beer. I was blaming it on the beer, actually ;) But, then I
sipped on a 64 ounce root beer a couple of weeks and didn't really have any
better pin fall. I thought briefly that the lack of distractions during
practice were probably the difference, but then I had to consider the
tournaments. The tournaments had no less distractions and noise than my
regular league night. In fact, they were probably a little worse with
having to wait for tournament officials to do score corrections and etc.
So, I decided it was the pace. To test this theory, I looked at fellows who
participate in more than one league. I found an even 10 individuals who are
on 5 man teams, 4 man mixed teams, and 3 man teams. Eight of those ten
fellows have higher averages on their 4 man mixed than on their 5 man teams.
Ten out of ten of those fellows have higher averages on their 3 man teams
than on their 5 man teams. Only one fellow has a higher average on his 4
man mixed than on his 3 man team.
The only variable I can't find a way to rule out or account for is the
possibility that some of those fellows on the mixed teams might be bowling
better in the presence of women (showing off or succumbing to testosterone
induced competative nature for whatever psychological reason). - I was
able to rule out the lane conditions by talking to the lane man who says if
anything they might be on a slightly tougher shot on the Wednesday Night
Mixed due to the fact he sometimes skips stripping the lanes on Wednesday
morning. - The three man teams only fill about a third of the house on
Tuesday. The rest of the house is filled with a large 5 man team league.
So, I also don't think that noise and other distractions are any less at the
time they are bowling with their smaller teams than they are with their 5
man teams.
I'm nearly convinced that it is the faster pace that is beneficial. I
coached little league baseball for a number of years. I noticed a hundred
times that when my young pitchers could get into a rythm, they pitched
better. As they got older, I still thought they pitched better with a
faster pace, but some of them were extraordinary athletes and it was
difficult to tell as they reached their teens if they were affected by
delays.
I rather think that this could easily apply to bowling as well. Does anyone
else feel that they bowl better if they can bowl faster?
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