This could be paired with my letter to USBC regarding the type of bowler it's creating, and something I may have overlooked, the effect house shots have on CHANGING bowlers.  Last night we bowled some good friends, guys I've gone to Nationals with for the better part of the last decade.  A decade ago, people used to practice, people used to bowl 3 or 4 leagues a week.  Now, it doesn't take any practice to shoot 700, it's just looked at as something to avoid wasting time on.  One of my friends on the other team is 60ish, been bowling since the plastic and rubber era, before telescorers and lane machines, actually used to be a pinsetter in his younger days I believe.  Well, we are all higher level bowlers, and we can destroy a shot rather quickly just by ourselves, let alone having both our teams on the same pair, but as it would go, the shot actually held up better last night than it normally does when we bowl each other. 

Anyway, the guy in question has had several 300s and 800s, and despite some of those coming in this high scoring era, he's a guy that has bowled well, has known HOW to bowl, has known how to adjust, has had a solid mental game.  Well he had a rough game his first one, had all 3 in the 10th for 170.  Gets into the second game, clearly confused, pitches one out to 5, it doesn't come back, starts getting tight and completely yanks one, never gets right of 20, picks off the 3 on the left.  After that, he starts drinking faster (he usually has a 2 drink start before he gets there).  By frame 5 of the second game, he's completely lost and just gives up.  Next frame he gets up, starts just flipping the ball out there and turning around.  Frame after that, he trips and takes a couple steps out onto the lane, naturally tracking all the oil on his shoes back through the middle of the approach.  Takes a ball off the rack, brings it back to his bag, opens the bag, raises the ball as high above his head as he can, and slams it into his bag, after which he throws things at his back and kicks his bag.  This is all after knocking a trash can over for the first time of the night on his way back to his bag.  He finishes that game with a 115 to have 285 going in. 

Next game he actually starts with 3 consecutive marks, following which he again falls apart.  The trash can would get knocked over twice more, once emptying completely and needing a floor mat to cover the ice and water spillage right in the middle of one pathway from the seating area to the approaches, he would rev the ball up and throw it super slow, or dump it straight into the gutter, and at the end of the game he even would walk to the 2nd row of dots on the approach, put the ball down, and kick it at the pins.  So after having 55 or 56 in the 3rd frame, he finishes with a 112 for a 397 series. 

After this, he quietly packs his things up, after screaming and cussing about how he's never bowling again, shakes everyone's hands, apologizes, and says they'll never see him inside a bowling alley again, and walks out.  This team was in 2nd place in the league, and we swept them, mostly because of him, but also partly because most of their team doesn't practice and really don't concentrate, because in bowling today, you really don't have to any more unless you find yourself in one of these situations.  A decade ago, we would have had a tight, strategic match, instead of the blowout it ended up being. 

I was going to finish up with a few deeper points, but I really don't want to name drop, and I'll just leave it at saying that there were a couple nationally and professionally successful guys bowling last night with us on that guys team, and they just bowl for fun now, but they don't practice, though they can still turn it back on if they decide to, they're too good and experienced to forget it all.  Just hard to watch the sport falling apart one guy at a time. 

If you think modern technology makes the game too easy, bowl with plastic or urethane. Is that going to put you at a disadvantage compared to the guys using the modern stuff, probably. But you didn't say you wanted to be at an advantage. You said you wanted things to be tougher. Bowling with pancake cored plastics or older urethanes will give you what you want, an environment that demands that you hit pretty close to your mark in order to get to the pocket and carry. Here's a suggestion for all those who think things are too easy in league - which I agree with by the way - When you're at your next league meeting, stand up and suggest that your league agree to use more challenging patterns next season. Chances are you'll be able to hear crickets chirping while waiting for someone to second the motion. The fact is that bowlers are hypocritical.

I agree with this, but if you were to start using plastic or urethane, how many 'sandbagger' comments would you hear?   

And you're right, whenever mention of tougher patterns is brought up, it never goes very far.  Most bowlers do NOT want tougher patterns (aka lower scores/averages) - that is why it is so difficult to get sport leagues going.  For those who live in areas with more than one center, bowl in the tougher houses if possible and if those still exist. 

Why they have quit is up for conjecture but the fact that 192 or 386 lane beds have closed in the last 25 years in this city alone tells the story that the number of games of bowling is down significantly.

And the numbers are really worse for sanctioned than Russell stated. The men alone had over 4 million members and women were like 3.7, combine with junior programs there were probably 8.5 million sanctioned members (1981 was the peak I believe) and today all combined I doubt if there is 2 million.

And many of those dropping bowled more than 1 league.

Quote from: Russell on March 08, 2013, 07:44:32 PM

Quote from: Long Gone Daddy on March 08, 2013, 07:12:41 PM

Why?  Because they can score at will?  No.  They are leaving because there ain't enough time in their days and money in their wallets to continue to bowl in three or four leagues a week.  How many bowlers have supposedly left but now they are bowling in unsanctioned leagues?  How does one track them?  It's all hearsay and conjecture, and IMO, total fantasy.   

I am going to say that a drop from 4.8MM (1980) to 1.5MM (today) while the population of the US has doubled is probably hard to attribute to unsanctioned leagues.  I am not saying that's the only problem, as I think the biggest problem is how we work as a society now.  We don't work regular schedules as much as we used to, and manufacturing jobs are pretty much gone.  Most people work until 6 or 6:30 and don't feel like bowling until 11pm.

Very good point about the work schedules.  Now, couple that with the virtual elimination of the late league.  Nobody wants to start bowling a 9 pm anymore.  Use to be "prime time".  Now its a waste land.  You know why we lost houses in the Detroit area?  The value of the land.  The bowling centers near industrial areas are fine, the land isn't worth much commercially.  Ah, but the centers that are located near shopping areas?  Gone.  The money was too good for the owners to turn down.  One is a Barnes and Nobel.  Another is a strip mall, yet another is a retail store.   

Those are all pretty good points.  I do have to say bowling is a pretty expensive sport.  But when I said quitting, I wasn't necessarily meaning quitting bowling completely, I meant quitting sanctioned leagues, and leagues are really the very foundation of the sport.  If USBC loses money from sanctioning, it hurts bowling as a whole.  There are plenty of unsanctioned leagues and tournaments in some areas to get your fix without having to mess with the USBC.  Our PBA league during the summer isn't sanctioned, that way they don't have to tape the lanes to make sure they're sport compliant, plus they don't figure anyone is going to shoot anything that qualifies for an award anyway.  Does anyone care?  No, it saves them the sport upgrade, and it saves someone some extra work.  Now I wish it was sanctioned, because the USBC needs the support.  Tex suggested a tiered system for league play in the letter to the USBC thread, what do you think of that? 

I suggested the tiered idea when I worked for USBC. I thought something where if you bowled Sport, you were eligible for the Sport awards package. If you bowled in leagues that had oil ratios between 3-1 and 8-1, you were eligible for a different award package, and if you went 9-1 or higher, you were eligible for yet another one. Classify one as Sport, one as competitive, and one as recreational. If you choose to certify as recreational, you get lifetime awards only, meaning a ring for your first 300 and 800 only. After that, you can print out certificates or something like that if you want an award. Sadly, to govern it, you're going to have to rely on the centers to be honest. If you make them tape the lanes every week to prove it, nobody will want to do it. They think it's too much time, money, and effort. That's one of the big reasons why certified Sport leagues don't fly. Most proprietors hate having to go through the trouble of taking and sending in tapes. Now, without tapes, you know damn well some leagues would claim to be bowling on harder stuff than they really are, which sucks. Then again, there are centers out there right now claiming to be Sport when they really only run and tape a dummy pair. It's deplorable, but if they want to cheat the system, they will. In the end, you can't worry about that. If you want people to join Sport leagues and other competitive leagues, you have to make it as cheap and easy as possible for them to do it. It won't work any other way; we've already seen that.

Yup, and because of that, the sport is doomed.  But again, it's much harder to go back than prevent it in the first place.  It got out of hand, won't ever be the same again. 

Well, since you couldn't resist mentioning me and calling my attention to it (hilarious, if you hadn't said anything I wouldn't even have noticed it), I'll say when you aren't hating on a significant part of our society you can put some rational thoughts together.  Who knew?

Nothing personal I just noticed you drilling the guy who started this thread and figured you'd do the same to me or whoever else had an opinion other than yours. However, your last post proved me wrong and included some valid and intelligent points. Sorry for jumping the gun.

And he was back this week.  Forgot my "welcome back" banner.