To six pack, and joe cool, you're absolutely right . . but the problem is that the USBC get to that. Back 30 years ago, it was just tough for everyone period, that was the nature of the game, but because people were used to shooting 160s and 170s, that's just how it went. Yes, to change everything now and take a step back would definitely make people quit . . but according to the numbers, 7.3 million people have already quit in the last 15 years. What else could you attribute that to? At some point you have to rip off the bandaid, at some point you have to take a step back to take a step forward, and like I said before, who would you really be losing here? The people that would be gone at the first sign of trouble anyway. And I'm not necessarily saying they should make it super tough again, but how do you return the integrity?
You can't "return the integrity" because everyone's definition of integrity is different. There are far more bowlers that are either okay with everything the way it is or don't care enough either way and just want to show up and bowl. The ball companies are fine with things the way they are. BPAA seems okay with things the way they are. Who do you think is going to carry enough clout to actually bring about change?
Your solution seems to be who cares if we lose x number of people because we're going to lose people anyway, but at least we'll please the "core" bowlers - the people you're interested in keeping, correct?. I want to make sure I understand what you're saying.
In essence, yes, you're following what I'm saying, and you make several good points. I don't necessarily like it, but you're correct, and I understand very well what you're saying. What I would call integrity is making it more difficult so that "perfect games" aren't so common, and return averages to a respectable number. It's super deflating, depressing, and occasionally insulting to see that all the work, effort, knowledge, and skill that I've put in and developed for myself is at least at the league level worthless. Now, when we go to tournaments out of town (specifically sport shot tournaments), I still have success, but that's a very infrequent occasion (tournaments). Putting in effort, practicing, buying equipment, etc., is really pretty needless, because you're either going to carry or you're not, hitting the pocket when you have 10 boards worth of area is not a challenge in my opinion. You're either subject to a carry contest in a higher average league, or handicap run wild in a regular league.
The bowlers who are currently in the sport are the new generation of people who crave instant gratification with the least amount of effort possible. There are more true competitive bowlers who have either died or left the sport out of the 7.3 million than there are casual bowlers, I'd wager to guess. The ball companies are ok, because the majority of the general public subscribes to the false idea that it has to do more with the equipment than the bowler, and is only echoed by watching the pros on tv, at least to those who don't really get the concept. So rather than practice, people will think they just need a different ball. The BPAA is in panic mode. They are losing people in record numbers and are focused on keeping the people they have, not getting new bowlers or old bowlers back. You are absolutely correct, people with my opinions are the minority, and the minority will not affect change.
My solution is not a good one, it's a lesser of two evils (like many of our recent presidential elections). Bowling will continue to lose people, and it's not about pleasing people, it's about retaining the people needed to rebuild this sport. It's going to eventually get down to the casual bowlers, and once the next recession hits, or another economical plunge happens, the casual bowlers will dump bowling instantly, while the hardcore bowlers will do that only as a last resort. You don't have to average 230 to be hardcore or competitive, and I'm not saying that we should dump all the casual bowlers or that they aren't important, because they are, everyone is important, but it's just like anything else. If a company has to lay people off, who would you rather lay off? The experienced hard workers, or the guys just there collecting a paycheck?
What I'm REALLY saying, is that bowling is not far from completely hitting rock bottom. Casual bowlers have easy success and get bored fast, I've seen a lot quit, because it's not fun to shoot 230 and feel like you figured something out to turn around and shoot 160 because in all reality, they aren't any better than that. I've seen a lot of high level bowlers quit because it's become a carry contest, and why try to be good when somebody else with no clue can occasionally shoot big numbers too? 10 or 15 years ago, skill got you somewhere, skill meant you scored better, skill meant you won more, now it means nothing, either because of over aggressive handicap or walled up shots. There's zero education, there's zero coaching ESPECIALLY for adults, because there's no coaches walking around adult leagues like there is in most youth leagues. Also as I've said before, once people taste a little success, they think that qualifies them to "teach" other people. Then you get people with bad information passing that bad information on, and when someone comes in the shop and says "well, a friend of mine told me that drilling a ball pin down was bad because he had this one ball that was pin down and he didn't like it," we are instantly handcuffed. Because if we tell them their 150 average friend is wrong, it's an insult to them and their friend, so we either lose a customer or are pigeonholed into a small range of drilling options for them. That customer will then pick out a ball and pick out a layout without a clue in their head what they're doing, and we are instantly in a catch 22. If they don't do well with the ball, we get blamed. "Well I paid 200 bucks for this ball, it should work."
The majority of the bowlers out there are unskilled, ignorant, prideful, and stubborn. The higher the scores get, the more handcuffed I get as a pro shop operator, the more resistant they get to coaching, and the more volatile they become. When things don't work out, it's not their fault, it's something else, and eventually they quit. I've had a front row seat for years, have dealt with these people for years, and have seen center after center in our town close, while late leagues and pot bowling and tournament participation disappears, and it's all tied to score inflation. We had an annual tournament here in town that was recently axed because of lack of participation. Reason? The winner of the tournament for the last 7 consecutive years averaged no less than 256 for 9 games, the CASH line for a tournament that typically had a couple hundred entrants was never any lower than a 230 average, and handicap was 90% of 220. Balls get better, oil patterns get easier, scores go up, participation goes down, simple equation.
But at the end of the day, you're right. Bowling will continue to decline though, as these problems are exacerbated by the actions of the majority in control. Any attempt to "save it," (as has been proved by Hammer's ill fated, and ultimately unsuccessful attempt) will need to be a drastic, hard and fast fix, and IF an attempt were to be seriously made, this is my opinion on how it would have to be done.
Hammer's brand manager Jeff Ussery actually started the pro shop I've worked in, he used to be my "pro shop guy." He had a sit down a while back with the guy that owns the shop currently (they bowled together for KU), and discussed a few things. The owner of my shop doesn't bowl anymore, my shop manager doesn't bowl anymore, and half the employees of the rest of our 6 total shops don't bowl anymore (I wouldn't be bowling this year if my wife hadn't talked me into it, for that matter). These are all high level, successful bowlers. Reason? Scoring pace. The group of true competitive bowlers is getting smaller and smaller, and when the only option is to deal with a complete lack of attention to your situation or quit, it's logically smarter to just cut your losses and walk away from a losing battle.
So my real issue here is that the entire industry is turning its back on its "core" bowlers, or the ones who care the most and have been here, even through the fall of the sport, in favor of the casual bowler, most of whom are only bowling because it's cold outside . . Sorry for the rant/rambling, I'm just trying to make my opinions or position as clear as possible. I suppose that honestly I'm a little burnt by the complete indifference of the industry to the very people who have most consistently supported them for the last several decades. It's not that I want all bowlers and everyone to be competitive or forced to bowl on soul crushingly difficult shots, I just want the opportunity to be able to, and because of the group they've chosen to cater to, it's not possible. We had to fight and fight and fight to even get a PBA league during the summer, and I don't really like being inside all summer, or bowling year 'round, but it's what I have to do to support it, or that will disappear too. My options are either bowl on a house shot in a handicap league, or bowl in the one single scratch league in town, that also happens to be on a house shot, where the highest speed and rev rate dominates, and the difference between a win and a loss is more often than not who gets screwed by the stone 9 or ring 10.
