And that's kind of where I'm coming from . . if people don't want to get super technical, I'm not going to push them, that's where I can help. It's clutter out of your head too if you're just worried about throwing the ball good instead of trying to figure out board moves and thinking about what dual angle layouts you have on your balls back in the bag . . but some people operate that way. Not everybody is the same, so making everyone be technically proficient isn't going to be right for everyone. Concepts are what matter.
I used to feel bad about not knowing alot of the technical stuff, until I found out that some of the biggest names on the tour have zero idea either and they don't care.
I think it was in a Walter Ray Williams interview where someone asked him about his drilling and stuff and he said he had zero idea. He wasn't getting paid to do that, he was getting paid to knock down pins.
Now I've learned enough to know what kind of reaction I want to see and I'm learning that not everything is for every bowler. I can talk to a pro shop guy and explain what I want to do with it, and then let him do his thing. Out of 4 balls currently in use I've been happpy with 3 of them and the 4th has nothing to do with the drilling ( it just doesn't fit my game very well)
Very very true here. and I'll admit that in the early to mid-90s, I got totally lost when ball layouts went to talking about pin placement, CG, etc., when I could easily tell the pro shop operator if I wanted leverage weight, side weight, etc., and how much.
After that, I pretty much lost track of what goes into it, though I'm starting to understand a bit more of it now, especially when it comes to PAP, pin to PAP, and dual layout. But not so much after that.
However, I should have included this, because increasingly it's become that way. Seems like almost every shop has an operator that's on someone's staff, or that's at least being sponsored by someone, or has a good connection.
Yes, but not in the current article you have posted. That's why I was thinking of a supplemental article that would be a good followup on this.. or maybe a separate conversation altogether, because (I assume) the premise of
*this* article was to help the bowler deal with their confusion about ball selection. Adding in more confusion defeats the purpose of the article!
Obviously if you've got an operator that's on staff with somebody, he's going to push that equipment even if he is still fulfilling his responsibility to the customer to sell them what they need. One small caveat is that for quite a few guys, it's not necessarily to represent that brand, it's because it looks really good on your resume, and because it appeals to a group of bowlers.
That's some of the problem we have nowadays, and myself, personally. For example: I have gone through my share of pro shops, and while I've always had a good choice with ball selection, sometimes the fit of the ball while great, wasn't 'perfect'. I found that place that did that; both great balls to choose from, and the right fit. So it all came down to building rapport with that shop, especially since the owner of that shop is in the USBC Hall of Fame, and has won some huge tournaments over their career..
Then the proprietor switches brands, and now is a rep for a company whose products really don't fit well. That makes me feel like the odd one out, because I use equipment from a company/companies they no longer represent. That causes water to get murky as they would be ordering products from their "old" company to satisfy their paying customer. And that doesn't even go to mention of if there was bad blood between them that caused them to switch.
See how nasty that could be?
In the end, that could cause me to seek out a new pro shop, killing the rapport I was building, and hoping that the new shop could replicate that perfect fit I had. In the end, this is sorta why I prefer some standalone shops, or places where the owner isn't on staff with a company, or (wishing well here) a shop could have staff reps from more than one company working at it (e.g., one person is a rep for EBI, another person working there a rep for AMF/900 Global, etc.), or have someone who is a rep for more than one company (e.g., the owner is on staff at Storm/Roto and EBI).. mutually inclusive, not mutually exclusive.
Again, if wishes were fishes... Now you have me rambling!
BL.
