Sawbones – Sorry I disagree. A flinger who can’t hit a 5-board area does not deserve to shoot a 300 just as much as a bowler who can hit his spot every time. Not in my book anyway.

These following observations are on the normal house conditions not PBA type conditions.

The big difference in the eras is what you generally had to earn your scores in the past. While there has always been the rare gifted bowler but most everyone had to put in their dues to achieve success and they had to continue to put in their dues to stay there. The top bowlers had to practice, had to bowl tournaments, had to bowl pot games in order to hone their skills.

In the past you seldom saw a 200 average bowler who didn’t look like a bowler when he was throwing the ball. You could spot them when you walked into the house. You seldom saw a bowler who could average 200 in a house and not be able to shoot 500 on another condition, but you see that all the time today. Averages were transportable from house to house but not today.  

In the past the game held a delicate balance of power, finesse, and accuracy. Today the game is mostly about power. Higher ball speeds, higher friction balls, higher revolution releases and higher friction lane surfaces.  

If this sounds like a bitter old man who can’t keep up any more it is not. My all time league high average jumped this year by 10 pins to 234. My travel league average was raised 5 pins.

This is from a beat up old guy who hasn’t thrown a practice game in two years due to injuries. I don’t throw the ball nearly as well as I did 10 years ago but I average a lot more. I couldn’t average 190 if I were put back on 1970’s conditions.  

Does it seem like a funeral parlor? Well yes it does to me because I see what I use to think was a grand sport dieing. There can be pockets of growth but the numbers don’t lie and the USBC/ABC/WIBC numbers decline every year at a 7 to 10 percent clip.

I’m about done on this site as well as it has gone away from serious bowling discussion to topics of how many Brooklyn strikes do you throw. I see meaty topics get little response and fluff get hundreds. This just illustrates how bowlers themselves have trivialized the sport.  

As many of you know, I have been struggling with the exceptance of what this game has become. This year I did an experient that ruined my outlook on this game. I simply moved left, increased my rev rate, drilled up balls to match the condition and I was averaging 240 after 6 weeks and quit entirely. The previous year, I broke my bowling thumb in novemeber and never missed a week... I have to redrill all my equipement so that I could hold the ball for three games and I took lots of pain pills and still averaged in the 220's.

Perhaps I am an old man, with my best bowling years behind me and I simply want to have my cake and eat it to by desiring this game have integrity that the skills I developed are the primary factors. I guess only years from now looking back to this time will I know.

But I will tell you this, I love the competition and friendships that competition creates. The respect that the "good" bowlers had for each other developed over competitions is all gone. By that I mean, most bowlers in a tournament have a decent chance to win today despite there skills or experience. If a bowler matches up for 3-4-5 games in todays conditions its anyones game. There is not much respect when bowlers of clearly lessor skills who happen to have the correct ball in there hand consistantly win... when different bowlers win who do this in most events. For the bowlers of the skills to repeat, it is a joke and for the ones that win they think it is a joke to. The difference is between these jokes is that for the "skilled" its like why bother trying to beat our heads against the wall, and for the winner he is praising his new equipement and laughing that he just bought it and it gave him area and carry.

This is why I cant find a reason to bowl again. I used to love this sport (in the 80's) as I was honing some skill. Now, all i have to do, is drill up equipment, rev it up, move my feet left on THS and close my eyes... and using 5+ boards at my break point and hitting solidly in the pocket shot and shot. Sometimes I carry, sometimes I dont. And I take my turn at winning brackets and pots. If someone else has a better carry night or creats more area, its there night. It comes down to the bowling gods favoring people every night. And I simply cannot accept that.

Why bother bowling under those circumstances?


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All valid points.  I think the biggest problem is the loss of respect in todays game.  We have people on this board scoffing at Rev-Os average and the amount of honor scores he's thrown this year.  

The game isn't supposed obe this easy.  I wonder when a team will shoot 1500 team game.  Probably isn't too far off.  Where do we draw the line on equipment and scoring conditions.

What I can't understand is the higher average bowlers, who only represent about 1% of the bowling populations is the ones clamoring for a slow down in the scoring pace.  The majority of the rest of the bowlers wouldn't know if they were bowling on a harder pattern or not.  Ther're still only going to throw 3-4 good shot a game anyhow.

Without the prestige, the only reason to show up each week is to soacilize with friends.  We can meet in the bar a lot cheaper and not be distracted by bowling.


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~~~SrK - Have balls, will travel

Spending the kids inheritance one tournament at a time.