MY VIEWS DO NOT REFLEX THE VIEWS OF BUDDIESPROSHOP.COM

I think that the rule changes with have very little effect on the game in the long run.  Companies will figure out quick how to get around it.  I think it is like telling golfer that they hit the ball to far, so they can only hit irons now.  It is not the bowling companies fault, it is the fact that a once a week bowler can walk in a house and shot 800's and 300's without having to practice because the lanes are so walled up.

I bowl on a sport pattern league and the shot changes every 4th week.  It is a very tough condition but the high average for the league is 198.  No one complains about the tough lane conditions, because they know that making good shots is the only way to score on those conditions.  

I think the USBC would be better off addressing the lane dressing patterns that 99.9% of house shots. With the technology in today's $25,000.00 lane machines, the possible lane conditions are just about endless.

I would also like to know what is the reasoning for the USBC proposed changes and how they think this will help the sport of bowling.  I could talk about this for days, but I will just leave it at that.
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Thanks
Bill
BuddiesProShop.com
"The Place All Bowlers Shop"

Lanes have been walled for years.  Bowling used to be a game of creating the right axis tilt, ball speed, accuracy, and entry angle.  Hitting the pocket has always been easy, but hitting it in the proper manner to carry was how a bowler was judged and how his/her scores were figured.

The fact is, there are many ways to skin a cat.  Regardless of what has caused the outrageous scoring conditions, we now need to pick a way or several ways to fix the problem.  If we propose too many solutions and let them all come to fruition, then we have just confused everybody again.

When listening to Mo Pinel's opinions, we must also realize which perspective he is coming from.  The new proposals from USBC go directly against everything that Mo preaches from drilling monster weight holes to drilling assymetrical cores off label.  Of course he is going to speak out against such proposals even if they are good for the sport in the long run.  Mo is one of the people who has been finding ways to push things to the limit while still staying within the governing bodies' specifications, so all of the work and teachings that he has done in the past several years is suddenly being thrown out the window.  

The basic truth here is that the most fair thing would be to give everybody the exact same ball with the same exact drill pattern and keep everything on that bowling ball the same for each person.  When we can do that, then we are just about as close as we can be to making bowling a fair sport.  Cut down friction and then we can make it even more fair because then we are not able to dry out certain parts of the lane to create advantages for certain people.  

As long as we can move oil and as long as the bowling ball is a huge variable, the sport will have some level of unfairness.  Our goal at this point should be to make the sport as fair as possible which in my opinion would be to strongly tighten restrictions to bowling balls and also to lower the oil ratio, or actually INTRODUCE an oil ratio to sanctioned bowling.  Making these changes will make a lot of bowlers, bowling center proprietors, and many others in the industry very unhappy.  

But I say let the centers drop their sanctions...let the league bowlers whine until their league does drop their sanctions...let some of the ball manufacturers whine...and we'll see that the people who truly care about the sport will be the ones remaining and we can rebuild the "sport" with this group of people.  It is time for people to stop being so selfish and to sacrafice a little now for a better tomorrow.  Otherwise things will just continue to collapse until there is no hope for tomorrow.
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Brian
MichiganBowling.com
http://www.MichiganBowling.com

Famous Last Words of a Pot Bowler--"Ok, but this is my last game!"

Brian, you and No Fear both make good points.  I'd like to see bowling return to what it was 20 years ago, even though I've only been bowling for the last 5.  I hate resin, I hate wall shots, and I hate these no-talent hacks that luck out honor scores every year.  I'd like to see the skill return.  Former touring pro, and owner of one of the first televised PBA 300 games (in the championship match, no less) Bob Benoit, lives here in town, and bowls in one of the leagues I do.  I can't remember the last time he's thrown a new ball, and he rarely throws resin.  He'll bring out a Ninja or an X-Zone every now and then, but over half the season he used a White Dot, and shot 720 just about every week.  Everybody else, myself included, keep buying new balls to keep up with the scoring pace.  I could average over 200 with plastic, and frequently have, but I can't keep up with the guys in between because of resin and walled up shots.  210's aren't going to win you many games in a scratch league where most of them average well over 220.  Are most of them 220+ average bowlers?  No, but resin + wall = scores.  Bob should be the best, or very close to the top, skill-wise in that league.  

However, people like scoring.  The high numbers make it fun, not the shotmaking, like it used to be.  I'd rather hit the same board over and over again than strike over and over again.  Other people don't care, and can't even see it.  There's a lady that I bowled with for most of the season this last year that averages 210, and can't for her life figure out why she left that 10 pin, or why she had a washout.  Low revs, forward roll, naturally she's gonna hit weak every now and again.  I can tell at the arrows if it has a chance, or what it'll leave if it doesn't strike, and she won't see what happens until the ball hits the pins.  Either she catches too much oil, has the wrong angle, hits the right target at the arrows, but missed it at the line and will miss it at the breakpoint, doesn't quite hit it, misses her angle of rotation, etc.  She can't see those little basic mistakes that cause the leaves she gets, and then whines about it.  I can't say anything, naturally, because she's twice my age and has been bowling 5 times longer than I have, so of course I CAN'T know what I'm talking about.  These kinds of people aren't satisfied with their scores NOW, so what's going to happen when everything is taken back to how it used to be?  Yes, people will begin to quit.  However, there will still be open bowling that the houses make a KILLING off of, and the true bowlers will stick around.  Handicap will always be handicap too, so just because you now average 180 instead of 200, 90% of 220 will get you the same score if you bowl your average.
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Hey, I am NOT Michael Jackson.  I like little GIRLS, not little boys . .

Rock on kitty.

No Fear,

I am not proposing that bowling centers lose bowlers, I am simply saying that why do bowlers need to be sanctioned these days when the sport is a joke?  Let's take Bowling Center A and say that everything happens as you say it will, and the center drops the sanctions for all of their leagues.  Would their center necessarily lose all of those bowlers?  Probably not, in my opinion.  Only the USBC would be losing bowlers.

I suppose that could be up for debate, but I wanted to make my point that I am not proposing that we make these changes even if bowlers are going to quit the game in droves.  That would be foolish.

What I think would make the most sense here is if we could somehow introduce perhaps 3 sanctioning levels.  The recreational level would be for what seems to be the vast majority of bowlers out there who want to shoot high scores every night with basically no limitations other than what is already in place.  A 2nd level could be called a competitive sanction which would include some of the things they are talking about doing now.  Perhaps limit the oil ratios to 5-1 or less along with the weight hole and center of gravity restrictions that they are talking about.  The 3rd sanction is already in place and would be called Sport Bowling.  

Doing this should keep everybody happy and the USBC would not lose any more bowlers than they are already losing, and in the long run they may even gain bowlers.  

Another proposal might include having 3 different lane condition sanctions and 3 different ball restriction sanctions.  Then you could mix and match the variables.  Make a sport sanctioned league (2-1 oil ratio) and use the high ball restriction sanction (which might include strong restrictions on coverstock tampering, rg and rg differential, off label drilling, etc.), or use a sport sanctioned league with the low ball restriction sanction (let all the high tech stuff in).  You get the idea.

This other idea above may be too complex, but it might be worth trying to see how things go.  Maybe try to get people to accept these different sanctions for 2-3 years, and then if things aren't working out, we can go back to the first idea or modify the plan a bit.  It seems that we are so worried about trying things here.  Once the bowlers know that the USBC is genuinely trying to make things better for all, I should think that the bowlers would be open to many new ideas and trials.  

Honesty from both sides would go a long way in helping these matters be resolved...oh yeah, and unselfishness wouldn't hurt either!!!
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Brian
MichiganBowling.com
http://www.MichiganBowling.com

Famous Last Words of a Pot Bowler--"Ok, but this is my last game!"