As a coach, the new PBA Experience Leagues and "sport shot" leagues are creating quite the headache for me and my bowlers. Some of the patterns are truly suited to more aggressive balls and harsher angles, more speed, etc. Unless the bowlers wish to invest in an arsenal, there are shots that they truly cannot perform and score on. Not every bowler has the availability of different shots at their local house to practice on, so when they do see these conditions at tournaments they are lost (much like I feel at the Nationals!) I only have three balls (can't afford more), and if they don't match up, no matter how well I throw them, I'm toast!
How do I convince the younger bowlers that it is worth their time, effort and money to chase the exotica of bowling conditions? A true PBA Experience League would have the availability of many different balls to choose from, chosen by manufacturers to match up on those conditions, and have coaches and techs available to guide you thru how to defeat it. By using their regular equipment, my younger bowlers have quickly learned to blame the lanes when a well thrown ball doesn't react how they are used to it reacting.
Someone please convince me that we haven't chosen a path that will reduce the ranks of younger bowlers further by frustrating them beyond all reason. I love this sport, and I want our youth to enjoy it as much as I have for over 40 years, but I'm afraid the days are quickly becoming numbered
Beaconcoach,
I came to the same conclusion after my first PBA ex. league, I'm not going to invest in a new equipment so I'll never do another PBAex league. I am finding that most tournements now (at least team event) are using the true sport condition shot. My equipment works on these patterns I just have to find the correct line. It would great if someone somewhere would actually put down this shot for a league or practice this summer but don't hold your breath.
As far as the younger bowlers, encourage them to bowl in as many tournements as they can afford because that is the only place to learn the shot.
Matt T
Matt, I have to question your logic that you have equipment that works on a sport shot bu not on th PBA patterns. Depending on the sport shot pattern, the PBA patterns may be easier, so I really don't understnd this statement. I use the same equipment for leagues, local scratch tournaments (many on non-house shot patterns), PBA Regionals, as well as the USBC Nationals. I can always find a line that will allow me to get to the pocke consistently. Whether I score well or not is my fault and not the lanes o the ball. There is always a line to the packet, whether I find it or not is not the ball's fault, it is mine. It may be that you are not palying the patterns correctly. Thet don't all play the same, I tend to do better on and Shark and Cheetah, OK on Chameleon and have to really work at it on Scorpion and Viper. I admit that I ahve some balls that I use mainly on the PBA patterns, but I can also use them on the house shot, so I think it is fair to say that everything I have canbe successfully used on any pattern.
As for your statment of the "true sport shot", there is no single sport shot. Any pattern that follows the USBC requirements can be a sport short. Within those rwquirements, a sport shot can be very scorable, or next to impossible. I all depends out what is put on the lanes.
As for youth bowlers, I would agree that some may be intimidated by the PBA paterns, but the only way to ge better on them is to bowl on them.
cbg,
To me, the true sport pattern is similar to the national pattern or the PBA championship pattern. Lots of oil mostly flat and gutter to gutter. In the pba ex league the short oil always caused me problems. My least hooking ball tossed way out usally had nothing left on it at the pocket leaving ten pins. I will agree with you alot was my fault as well, trying to learn 5 pattens when you see each of them every 5 weeks. In the end I felt that doing the PBA ex league wasn't helping my game as much as practice at various houses and conditions.
I had a discussion with another coach last evening, and I think we agree that while a tougher shot (National shot, sport shot, etc.) may be something that is good for the "sport", the vast majority of bowlers aren't going to take the time (or be interested) in relearning the game. For most PBA ex leagues I've seen, the instruction in minimal ( i.e. shark pattern, play deep). I think the USBC is going to have to spend a lot more time and money explaining to the younger bowlers what that means, how to line up the shot, explain that your game will go in the tank until you get that shot down, and try not to get frustrated when a new pattern screws you up all over again. The frustration level for the younger bowlers is immense, and I have followed some of my bowlers to tournaments where sport shot, modified sport shot, national shot, etc. was supposedly laid down, but due to lane conditions (age, type) and weather (hot, cold, humid), played nothing like what the poor kids were expecting. What I see happening very soon is that there will be a few thousand or so young bowlers across the country who spend hours on the lanes, learning and excelling at these shots, while the rest of the kids lose interest and go away. I would hate for that to happen. On a local level I already see that happening. We have scholarship tournaments on sports shots, open to every youth bowler in our area, and we see the same 24 kids over and over, because the other kids know they haven't a snowball's chance. I love high school bowling and college bowling, but that is a very limited pool of kids. Lastly, since most people will never see a PBA ex shot in league or tournament play, why is there such a push to get people to bowl on these conditions?
Mike
Mike,
i see your point about the same kids showing up for tournaments. But that also has to say something about the kids who come out once and call it quits. They are the next generation of house bowlers. They will bowl on the big wall, but that's it.
You are correct, there needs to be instruction with these leagues and patterns. You also need qualified people to be doing this. That is the next problem. Getting people who know and understand these patterns is limited. Hack, getting the house to actually put out a good pattern is hard enough. We can't shy the kids away from this though. If we are going to turn the sport around, it needs to start with the kids. They don't have a lifetime of easy lanes ground into their little heads yet like their parents.
I tend to agree with Mike on the fact, that the PBAex. patterns are not what the kids face when bowling in sport shot tournaments. The house where my son bowls is offering a PBAex. summer league for the kids. I am interested in how this is going to go over. As stated most junior leagues are bowled on a walled shot, stand left, throw right, and watch it come back. I will see how the kids react to that on the Shark, when the first 5 balls go into the gutter. They will now learn the meaning of, up the boards. I just hope they stay with it and learn, and not get frustrated with, I am sure will be lower scores at first, and quit. We will see
I really appreciate all of the comments from everyone on this issue. Do you think it would serve our youth bowlers better to come up with just one standard sports shot (USBC National shot maybe)? I think most of the amateur bowlers would agree that it is the most difficult shot most of us will face in competition. To give people more opportunties to bowl on it leagues could be run that feature nothing but that shot, with the payoff being a trip to the Nationals (it seems to me that Wisconsin may already have leagues like this, so it's not an original idea). I believe a majority of us like to bowl for the bucks, and it would be a great way to get prepared and actually have a chance to score and maybe win a little bit of cash. For the youth if the individual state and high school tournaments were mandated to be on the sports shot, it would give them more of a reason to learn it and give the proprietors more of a reason to put the shot out to practice on. My son is bowling the PBA ex with his friends and I can already hear the frustration in his comments. With each shot down for 3 weeks, if he is able to figure one out by the 3rd week, it will be gone and never seen again.
I think that part of the frustration in the PBAX leagues comes from changing the patterns every 3 weeks so you bowl on all 5 during the summer. My house did that last summer for an Adult/Youth PBAX league and a lot of the kids (amd some of the adults) got so frustrated that they just quit. This summer there will be two PBAX leagues, one youth and one adult, but we are only using 2 of the patterns - Shark (8 weeks) and Chameleon (7 weeks). This way, everyone can get a little more experience and comfortable with the pattern before having to learn a new one.
That is a very good compromise. Please let me know how that works out for you!
I am finding that with high school bowling, the players/team who are doing best are often those who are from the region who is hosting the event. There has been mention of using some form of 'sport' conditioning for post season events (sectional, regional, etc.) to eliminate "home lane" advantage. This brings up a few questions.
#1 - Will their be an unfair advantage to teams whose home center is willing to put out a sport shot for them to practice on compared to those teams whose home center is less accomodating. In our region of Indiana, the bowling centers are covering a large part of the cost of running high school competitions. To ask them to put out a special shot for the high schoolers to bowl on, (just to have them strip it off and re-oil before the evening leagues come in) might be asking too much.
#2 - With youth bowling so dramatically down in many areas, we are often recruiting "non-bowling' friends of our athletes to help fill out our line-ups. These new bowlers (particularly, if they are from disadvantaged backrounds) are not going to drop the hundreds of dollars in equipment necessary to be successful on sport shots. In many instances, were are teaching them fundamentals they have never been introduced to - they are a long way away from being 'sport' bowlers.
#3 - How do we convince proprietors to put out more challenging shots for the youth from the very beginning, so that as our youth progress in the game their entrance into events with "elite-player" lane conditioning patterns will not be so frustrating. We are setting our children up for failure as long as we allow them to 'learn' the game on the conditions frequently put out in most centers..
I have said this before in a number of other forums over the past few years. ALL SANCTIONED YOUTH LEAGUES AND EVENTS MUST BE BOWLED ON CONDITIONS THAT ARE NO MORE THAN A 4:1 RATIO. (This is similar to the 'moderately challenging' set of conditions that Kegel has introduce recently). If we challenge them early, let them recognize the skills needed to succeed at an early age, give them the 'tools' necessary to succeed (knowledge, experience, and confidence - not just equipment), the challenges they face as thet get older will not seem so frustatingly insurmountable.
Doug,
I agree with you in regards to making the high school sectionals, etc. sport shots. I'm from Northern Indiana, and we do bowl at 6 different houses during our regular season, so the bowlers get to see several types of shots as each center's "house" shot is different from the others. #1 - Oh my yes, if one of the houses decides to put out a sports shot for practice while the others do not, you have given a definite advantage to those teams. And yes, I can't see many centers wanting to throw that shot out there and then having to re-oil. There are very few teams in our area who actually raise enough money to fully pay for the program. #2 - When I first started coaching we had only 3 boys, we ended up recruiting 2 other "non-bowlers" just to make a full roster half way thru the season. While we have made great strides (we regularly have 15 league bowlers try out for the boys), for the girls roster we are still recruiting non-bowlers, and I agree, there is no way to expect them to jump in and throw down the money and spend the inordinate amount of time necessary to master the sport shot. #3 - It will never happen. The proprietors want happy bowlers, the parents want their kids to enjoy themselves, and throwing down shots that the majority of children won't understand is frankly stupid and useless. There are not enough coaches available to teach the shots to all of the kids, and the ones who fall thru the cracks will get frustrated and leave. It is bad enough on the so-called easy shot we have now, what will it be like when it is even tougher?
I think you may be on to something, a 4:1 ratio would definitely give the bowlers a challenge, but still retain some scoreability for the non-elite bowlers. Are you currently coaching any high school teams in the Lafayette area? What is the general consensus in your area about putting out a sport shot for the high school post-season tournament?
Mike Taylor
South Bend Clay High School Girls Coach
Bronze Level USBC Coach
2007 Indiana Youth Coach of the Year
From discussions we had at the beginning of the 07-08 season, most of the coaches in the conference are leaning in the direction of post-season 'sport-type' conditioning. Especially, those coaches in our area whose sponsoring centers have strong youth programs, which give them a solid base of youth bowlers to draw from. These teams have, over the years, consistently advanced into post-season play.
To answer your question; besides assisting with Purdue's Intercollegiate program, I have been the coach of the West Lafayette Harrison Raiders Boy's team (part of the Wabash Valley conference) for about 7 years.
I don't believe that putting out tougher lanes conditions (particualarly at the youth level, where they cannot earn any awards from USBC anyway) will create significant backlash if the conditions are change gradually over a period of time. Think of it this way - the inexperienced bowler can't tell the difference between challenging and 'house' conditions and the higher average bowler will (for the most part) relish the challenge. Soft lane conditions really only cater to the the mid-range bowlers who don't want to make a real committment to the game or are satisfied with 'buying their game in a box."
If changes to the perception of the game are to be made, it must start with the youth bowlers. In the current edition of "Bowler's Journal" there is a brochure/insert from the Kegel company introducing their lane condition system. The have 4 types in each of three categories. I don't have the brochure with me - I don't remember all the names. Basically the categories are "House", "Challenge" and "Sport".
Kegel is the official lane maintenance provider for the Intercollegiate Bowling Championships. I think we bowled on "The HIghway To Hell" pattern for the sectional qualifiers. (A pattern which really opened up in the afternoon blocks - scores got pretty big) I think the IBC National's (in which Purdue men finished 3rd and the women 5th) was bowled on the "Broadway" pattern
Your comments about the tougher lane conditions are well-taken. I do have one girl on my team who is bowling a PBAex league this summer, and she has really bought into the challenge. She showed great improvement during the high school season, and has become a very good student of the game. With her mindset I think the experience will be an asset to her. I have other bowlers who, sad to say, would probably get frustrated and start to doubt their abilities, and end up losing their enthusiasm for the sport.
I know that we expect the youth bowlers to lead the charge, but I doubt that will happen unless the adults embrace it as well. If the adult bowlers don't show any interest in changing or learning about the sports shot, why will the kids? As a high school coach, you know how difficult it is to get good, qualified coaches to help with high school and Saturday youth leagues. How are we going to get sports shot trained coaches, when we can't get enough coaches now? I believe in our Saturday youth league this year, with almost 300 kids, we had maybe 5 Level I or above coaches and a handful of parents. I'm sure none of the coaches were certified (is there such a thing?) on sports conditions. In the high school ranks, I believe we have 3 Bronze level coaches, maybe 2 Level II coaches, and the rest are parents or bowlers who are interested (out of 12 boys teams and 10 girls teams).
I did follow the results from the IBC on the Internet. Ryan Stankiewicz and TJ Schmidt both came from our conference, and I believe bowled for Purdue this year (I have a daughter there as well, but she hasn't bowled while she was in college). Congratulations to both the mens and women's teams, you had a phenomenal season!
I just got my BJI this week. I'll take a look at the Kegel insert, that sounds very interesting!
Thanks again Doug. You have definitely got my wheels turning and thinking about the possibilities for the sports shot.
