I am wondering where bowling will develop in the future. Balls are becoming more and more aggressive, and lane proprietors have the financial pressure to lure social bowlers into their houses. Moonlight bowling and other entertainment measures will become more frequent - while serious sport on challenging and stable patterns might become a club house thing.
This is what I see in my home region: I am member of a bowling club, and we have a 10 lane house where prices are low and the lanes are DIFFICULT to play. But this is a real challenge! On the other side, large bowling houses which tend to the "social" end of the scale, get less and less atractive since they feature easy patterns, entertainment and, unfortunately, high prices which are not attractive for the regular bowler who does 10+ games a week.
I think many people do not get the challenge of the sport - adaption to different or changing lanes, knowlegde of equipment, proper technique ena execution.
When I see those self-claimed "heroes" in my entertainment house, boasting about their 200+ games with expensive balls which do the work for them, I must grin. It is... pathetic. I am sure that most of them would have problems getting a 130+ average if they were to play on a sports pattern, or even in a different house with slightly more difficult conditions. They even struggel when lanes start to break down. Is this GOOD bowling? I do not think so, but, hey, who am I to criticize...
Technical advancement has given us many options to conquer the lanes, and from what I know it is today much easier to make high scores through expensive equipment than through long-term training.
This is a shame. But I am not sure if it is ultimately "wrong", since it is the way it goes and a matter of competition on the bowling equipment market, the serach for the edge for which people will pay money. The shortest path is always the easiest... and in this case it is just a budget matter.
Maybe some regulations from "higher forces" are needed, but I think it is too late. A regulation of RG or RG Differentials on legal balls might help, but the transition time until older balls are gone from the market will be very long, and I suppose this lack will easily be made up with coverstock innovations. The fixation of a minimum on the D-scale was a necessary step against a pure material battle (when balls wre so soft that the got edges from lying around... buying a new one was always the best option, since those soft balls had so much traction and carry!).
I do not see SUCH a hard condition now. But I see much of split between sports bowling with some technical claim and pure social and entertainment bowling. I hope that this gap does not drift too far apart, and that bowling gets (more) recognition as a serious sport.
Huh, very subjective? Hope this was not too much. Thanks for considering to read this.
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DizzyFugu --- Reporting from Germany
"All that we see or seem, is but a dream within a dream..." - Edgar Allen Poe
