bored...I can spruce it up!

See next post in Junior Bowling.

REgards,

Luckylefty
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Open the door...see what's possible...and just walk right on through...that's how easy success feels..

Mr. Blanchard, I am aware of your bowling prowess and respect your position. However, we will have to agree to disagree on some points. My info on the number of JG members came indirectly from higher ups at USBC...not sure where yours came from. I don't know if the number is higher or lower but my note said I didn't believe it anyway.

Just for the record, I have been to the last three Nationals. As for the point about "experience" from the Nationals, while I agree it's a valuable experience from the standpoint of bowling in different houses with different conditions over several days with all the people watching, the "lane" experience of doing this once a year will not make a future Team USA member or a better bowler and you should know this.

The problem is that as you said, most of these kids bowl on this stuff once a year and don't have anywhere else to practice. This practice is critical as it not only prepares them for tournaments like this but gets them ready for bowling at the collegiate level and beyond. Those of us who have seen it know the conditions at JG the last few years have often been called tougher than those on regular college shots or even some of the PBA patterns. Clearly, the collegiate kids have a huge advantage from bowling on more similar conditions during the year.

With bowling on a general decline, you have less and less single proprietors/owners who care more about their customers wants and an increase of AMF, Brunswick and Bowl America who care more about Glow Bowling and Birthday parties which rake in money for them. Point is, they don't want to be bothered with putting out these other conditions for a few. Even most adult bowlers don't want to be bothered as they would rather average 220 on an easy house shot than to be challenged with how good they really are. It's like the difference between playing a golf course from the front tees or the back. So unless kids are able to find an avenue to bowl on these types of conditions more often, chances are they still don't have much of a chance.

One last point from me is that they do have wayyyyyyy to many donators...but they do need enough to add to the scholarship and to pay for the trips and equipment needed for the bowlers on team usa when they go to the different tournaments. Like sending a team of 5 and 2 coaches to Germany for a week probably costs like atleast 7500 bucks
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And Then...........

I left another 10 pin

J-Rad Lawrence

The comments from Blanchard are very good, and basically bring out the fact that much of JOG is a learning process, a process that one needs to partake in order to get better.  Perhaps this is also the flaw of the system, that there aren't enough difficult shots out there for bowlers to get experience on.  I know one of the higher finishers that over the summer bowled on a sport shot two or three times per week, in league and practice settings.  While very good, how can most compete with this when in certain areas there aren't such shots to be bowled on?  Even in JOG is a learning experience, without constant work and practice on similar shots there is no way that one can make a marked improvement from year to year.

The solution seems simple, to help facilitate the growth of sport shot leagues throughout the country.  There is a sad truth that many of these leagues don't work out.  The shots are too rare, and people like to score, so they opt for ths.  Many leagues start with interest and then by the next year the # of people that join are cut in half.  

I do believe that there are certain steps that can be put in place to help the sport as a whole.  In my junior league last year there were around 20 coaches, yet in my sport shot league there were none.  I believe that there could be a harmony between the two concepts.  One doesn't want to alienate the young bowlers, and a sport shot will not truly help a 140 average bowler, so there should be separate divisions in a league where one can compete on different shots.  Lets say one would bowl on an easy ths until age 10.  Then for the next division, the ths would be modified to have an out of bounds area, and this division would take one until age 15, and from then fourth there would be a sport shot that varies from week to week.  Special requests for moving up prior to attaining a certain age could be made.  In addition to these changes, there should be literature explaining the difference in shots so as not to make those that were bowling on a more difficult shot feel alienated.  This process is the ideal, and will provide the best bowling environment possible, but other smaller changes could come about, also.

Since the above proposal is difficult to carry out, I'll offer a couple other alternatives.  Make the ths, across the board more difficult.  It is very easy right now in most houses.  When bowling was at its high, the shots were more challenging, so I doubt that a change, if gradual, and explained would cause too much of an initial outcry, and over the long run it would certainly be better.  Make high school, and JOG qualifying events held on a sport shot.  This will give experience, and separate the cream of the crop.  High school tourneys are currently BS, and that’s not just frustration speaking from last year.  Those tourneys are based on three games, and in such a short format, on such an easy shot, anyone can do well.  Lengthen the format to at least 4, preferably 5 games and put it on a difficult shot.

Whatever the case, I will reiterate my previous point, their needs to be people that step up, and the USBC needs to pay attention to what bowlers want and need.

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four fried chickens and a coke[/size=4]

Let me say something, let me say something...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

This is also a valid point.  I have taken defeat at the hands of lesser bowlers, because of just that fact.  People with simpler games that throw the ball up the boards are more likely to have success on more difficult shots than bowlers that typically use less predictable lines.  I can move and throw the ball up the boards, and I actually like doing so, but on most ths, its simply not the shot, I can score better swinging the ball, and thus the strength of my game is hooking the ball to a degree.

This being said, I'd still rather bowl on such shots because accuracy, I feel, is the fundamental skill at the heart of bowling.  At one point it was basically all there was, now one needs more to their game, but it is still the basis of the game.  The other fundamentals, I feel are versatility, and strategy.  The game can take into account power, revs, and carry, but these valuse should not rise above those of the fundamentals as I have described them, if they are allowed to the game is not a game of skill, it is just physical prowess.  If these modern changes work in conjunction with accuracy, versatility, and strategy then the game is merely being kept fresh, and having new and interesting elements added to it.
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four fried chickens and a coke[/size=4]

Let me say something, let me say something...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I guess even if you win, you're not assured of bowling.  Chris got the raw deal on this one.

If there are age restrictions on tournaments then USBC should lower the age limit to include only those that are eligible to bowl. 21 is too high!!