I don't know if I am going to catch alot of flack here, but I would say the anwser is no.

Now my defention, I understand that they compete in a sport and are paid for it. I.E, professional athlete. However, very few bowlers I have seen resemble anything close to being an athlete of professional caliber.

When I think of professional athletes, I think of boxers, football players, olypimans, ultimate fighters, hell even ice skaters are definetly athletes. I think alot of the forum users would perfer bowlers be thought of as athletes, so that you can get off a long day of sitting on the coutch, lug yourself and your gut down to the bowling alley, drink a couple beers and consider yourself among the same levels of an athlete.

The physical fitness level of a pro bowler is generally low, I would assume, compared with the physical fitness of most other professional sports. I don't buy, well they bowl 20 games a day crap either. I think it is sad to say that this is considered a great marvel of anything. The only thing that would be sore on me from bowling 20 games in a day would be my thumb and or fingers, definetly, and that is from a lack of playing everyday and developing callouses.  

I think it really shows how far out of shape an average american is, when they are impressed that somebody could bowl 20, or even 40 games a day. Now I understand that the hand-eye coordinate of a top bowler is extermely high, and is far beyond the reach of normal people. So is that of a professional pool player.

I guess its a reflexion of what is considered an athlete. I tend to be more towards the orginal concept. An athlete should be athletic, which is a term, orginally used to describe the attributes of traditional athletes. When 90 year old Eythl bowls her 200 game, thats nice. I would like to see Eythl hit a baseball more then 50 feet.

Should bowlers be called professional competitors, which is a more fitting term, IMO. Any opinions?

I think that if professional golfers are to be considered athletes than so would bowlers. John Daly certainly doesn't look like an athlete but he can sure hit a golf ball. Look at the body shape of many offensive/defensive linemen in the NFL. Anyone remember the shape of Charles Barkley when he was a premier college basketball player? They didn't call him the round mound of rebound for nothing! And I've seen plenty of overweight boxers step into the ring. Oh, and Babe Ruth wasn't exactly trim and fit either.

So according to your logic there are a lot of sports that
don't have athetes?

At the pro level the touring pro bowl 30 to 50 games a week
in tournaments, not to mention practice.  Without leg strength
and leg endurance you aren't going to make it.

A bowlers legs would be comparable to a long distance runners legs.

Not all of the pros are atheletes, I'll give you that, because not
all of them compete in all of the events, but those that compete in the
majority of the events I would say are atheletes.

If you really want to go that far then baseball doesn't really have atheletes,
Track and field, etc.

All you need for baseball is hand eye coordination, and the ability to spint to first base.

Example:

I had a co worker that thinks like you, so I took him out to practice with me.
he is in much better shape than I was.  He rode bike, played racquetball, not to mention I out weighed him by about 75 pounds.  We go out, and bowl 10 fast paced games like I do when I goto practice sometimes.  Well he ounly made it to game 6 and the next couple of days he was walking with a limp, and he was in shape.

SO while I will agree with you to some point that not all bowlers are atheletes.
Some are.


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Eric T. Spivey, P.E.
 Visionary Test Staff Member

you just don't want to mess with those "olypimans" I'll tell ya' that right now!
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kendog
avoids spare shooting at all costs
just throw strikes