“Nobody beats Father Time....”
Truer words were never spoken.
Speak for yourself! I plan on living forever, or at least until I see my stocks split a good 25 times!
Youth will be served to a large extent. Experience counts as well.
I was able to hang pretty good until I hit my early 60's finally ailing joints have cost me so much ball speed I have lost a lot of my look and carry. But I still try to compete.
It seems conditions are easier and more consistent than ever. And while it wasn't the game I grew up with revs and ball speed are a very large component of how wide open the shot is. It pains me to see how many now can throw 5+ strikes in a row and then miss 2 single pin spares and then throw another bunch of strikes. But it is the league shot game today.
I have seen power players/2 handers that are accurate as well. They should have an advantage over someone who has minimal power and accurate.
I wish accuracy was a bigger part of the league game today but technology has changed that. It has helped my game over the years and now others have developed techniques to exploit it further.
Accuracy may not be a big part of some bowlers today, but that is to their detriment, not anyone else's. I prefer the accuracy game, and take it further; I prefer the repeatable accuracy game. If I pure two shots, then carry a mixer, then trip a 4-9, I'm not happy, because I didn't pure 3 shots. Something was off, so I'd get to work on what I did wrong. Yes, I'll take the score and be happy, but at some point, an adjustment would need to be made to get back to puring the shot again.
Screw what the others are doing; I'll run my own race and play accuracy, then let the others wonder why they're throwing crap and getting lucky shots or missing, to ask what I'm doing right compared to what they are doing wrong.
Funny, I've had similar thoughts lately but I'm still out there trying. I went to a scratch tournament Saturday and probably was the 3rd oldest in the field of 93 bowlers(I'm 57). The oil pattern was one I have never seen, nor the field I imagine (Kegel Titanium) so I thought that could be a neutralizer- it kind of was. But I started 165, and after the 6 game qualifying I ended up -40, well back pf the +70 cut line. So the shaky start doomed me. I was in 50th place or so, 22 cashed, 20 went to match play.
What I do notice is the speed and power of the younger guys. It's impressive. I was considered a cranker in the 80s, now I'd be a tweener I bet.
Nothing wrong with technology, but I guess there's the inevitable day where people like us have to consider not entering these types of tournaments ($100 entry here). I hate that- in my mind I think I can compete, hang with them, but I'm unable to generate that 18 mph speed with any type of accuracy- it's just not in the DNA I grew up with. So I'm more of a donor at this point than a casher....yikes.
So while I won't completely give up the ship yet, I am searching more for Senior events than I used to. It keeps you in the game and competing, maybe leading to some confidence down the road.
This is where I am glad I have two different styles of game to play, where I can still free wheel it like I have since I was 15, send it out and send the purest 10 back, but also can play down and in, and square up everything. The A game has and still is serving me well, but the B game will help to extend my time in the sport well into my senior years.
This is where we can look at WRW. For being as imperfectly perfect as he has been over the past 40 years, he's reinvented his game roughly every decade.
Stay behind the ball? Check. Come around the ball? Check. Fire it straight up 5? Check. 2 hands? Check. Each one of these has helped to extend his career far beyond what others could do, and make cuts if not shows.
While I'm not saying to forget everything you know, find another style to reinvent yourself and get back in the game, I am saying that it helps to be versatile enough so you aren't straining your joints and muscles so much trying to bowl like you did 30-40 years ago. Find what makes the bodywork easy on you and your game, and let the technology handle everything else.
BL.
