Hi 302efi
Wow, you are opening up a big can of worms with this one
Do you want my opinion? or the opinion of my alter ego, the manufacturing representative? Just kidding, I always give my honest opinion.
Let me start by saying that I truly believe that this has been a natural progression in all of athletics, and is not limited bowling. Advancements in technology can be seen in nearly every sport from fishing to golf to hockey to bowling etc.
I think the thing that makes bowling stand out above most of the other sports, is the advancement in multiple facets of the game. For example, in Baseball you can have better bats and better gloves, in Football you can have better pads and helmets, and in golf you can have better clubs and better golf balls. Bowling on the other hand has better bowling balls, better oils, more consistant oiling machines, better lane surfaces, better kick plates, easier lane patterns etc. All of these improvements are aimed at getting bowlers better scores.
To try and blame the huge increase in honor scores on one thing is impossible. Sure, the bowling balls are better, but how many of you have bowled any big tournaments where negative scores made the cut? How many 300's or 800's do you see in sport leagues? The right bowling balls can help, but it doesn't make the bowler.
On the other side, if you put out a reasonable shot, but made everyone bowl with polyester balls, the number of honor scores wouldn't be nearly as high either, so it can't be entirely the lane conditions.
If you keep this going, how many honor scores have you seen where the bowler didn't have any messengers? Go back 15-20 years, and the only people throwing messengers across the lane were the crankers. Now, with the live kick plates, even people with 3 revs on the ball can create messengers.
Unfortunately, the number of league bowlers has decreased tremendously over the past 20 years, and everyone involved in the industry is trying to maintain their market share. In order to do this, you must continuously work on new and better equipment, and hope that you have the next breakthrough product.
If I had to name the two most important factors behind the increase in honor scores, I personally would have to say it is the lane conditions and kick plates. I regularly bowl in several houses with very good bowlers, and over the past 2-3 years I have seen 10-15 300's and 4-5 800's during my leagues. Several of these were actually with older style urethane balls. This isn't too much higher than what it was 15 years ago. However, in that same time span, I know of quite a few bowling centers that have 20+ 300's per scratch league, and have the same caliber bowlers.
I can go on and on about this topic, but the only fair way to answer the question is that honor scores have risen because nearly all aspects of bowling have technological elements that effect the game, and these advancements in technology make good bowlers score much higher.
Jason Wonders
Visionary Bowling Products
