...well Dale, you can always eat the plain donut or if you kinda' want to keep your game pure you can throw a plastic ball with a pancake weightblock. (that's what i've gone back to)
Unfortunately, there's no way to turn back the hands of time. You have to blame the governing body of the sport also for not reigning in the out of control equipment used during sanctioned competition. Lane conditions come to mind also. You can't control one without controlling the other. It has to be hand in hand with balls and lane conditions to make it a real sport again. It's been out of control for over 25yrs already.
Randy, as a lefthander you know full well bowling has never been a 'pure sport' and never will be. Bowling, like golf, is not the kind of sport that belongs in the Olympics. Walter Ray can be far more proud of his many world championships in horse shoes than of his many champinships in bowling mainly because he knows his championships had nothing to do with lane conditions or equipment in horse shoes and cannot say that of bowling.
You can't 'shim' the air in horse shoes but lanesmen can can 'shim' the lanes in bowling to help yuh or hurt yuh and teams in the USBC nationals can even 'shim' them without lanesmen help. Nope, there is no denying there are some very good athletes in bowling but bowling is far from being a pure sport, never will be and if bowling ever gets into Olympics it will not be because as a sport they deserve it.
I doubt if anyone will even come up with a lane condition fair for everyone, a tournament bowling ball for everyone to use that is fair for everyone.
Don Gates
Don:
I guess "pure" was a bad choice of a word. You're correct that it's never been "fair" from left to right. That's impossible to achieve. Even putting a plastic ball in your hand with today's typical league conditions doesn't make much difference (if you're accurate).
Once a week for me this year and every other Sat couples league. I'm using my "borrowed #14 lb house ball" conventional grip from a house I bowled at last year. The place I'm bowling now is old, old wood. 5 weeks in now and 229 avg. Ridiculous...
...hmmmmm, i guess Dale jenkins doesn't want to talk about it other than to put his displeasure of the state of todays game on youtube.
Unfortunately, there's probably not much of a diehard bowling audience on there.
p.s.
I absolutely got stomped tonight by my opponent during league. He shot 733 with his Morich Leverage something or other that he couldn't miss with from a 12 board area while I had a paltry 686 with my 14 lb Super Solar Lime Green Ebonite house ball. I carry a couple more 7 pins at the right time and he's toast.........lol
Randy, if the lane dresser chose to do so you could have had a hard time rolling a 500 series and/or your opponent could have had a hard time rolling a 500 series.
I totally agree ABC/WIBC dropped the ball beginning with the approval of urethane surfaces and while they are now trying to pick it up have a most difficult time of it. How are you supposed to deal with exotic weight blocks that produce flare while remaining within the present top weight/side weight tolerances? How do you deal with 'hook in a box' when the balls remain within the present hardness requirements? How do you deal with legal lane blocking when there still is no really good marriage of lane conditioner to lane surface that can do away with the creation of invisible sand traps, water, deep rough that moves around? How do you deal with whatever is done favoring the left or right side bowlers as play continues? Do you know of any 'building of the shims' taking place at the national tournament by lefties?
If todays lane dresser (usually the proprietor) chose to lay down the "500 series shot" there's a good chance of him being out of business in fairly short order because todays bowlers aren't real keen about shooting 500 series' with $200+ bowling balls.
If some system of regulating present and future equipment (balls) is going to happen I think it will take just as long to close Pandoras Box as it took to get in the state we are today. Millions of bowlers are not going to give up their equipment that easily. Legal blocking has been around for as long as I can remember ,even before the 3 unit rule. (I know it wasn't legal then but it still occured) Todays balls create all those invisible traps (rapidly I might add) especially when everyone is usually playing a different line with a different coverstock.
From left to right I wouldn't have the faintest idea on how to make it fair. I've been in situations where the righties could break down the shot and I was locked out for the day on the left and vice versa.
No, I don't specifically know of any all lefty teams that try to create a nice wall for themselves. When we bowled in Albuquerque last year there were 4 lefties on the pair. We all played around the same line but never really had a serious gameplan of attack. It worked out okay as you know. S/D was another story.
atk10pnr, You have better coaching material but still have a poor coaching environment for junior bowlers that has not changed much in the last 50 years. You have a far better laminate surface with helpful markings for setting up break points you can easily watch but still do not have a good marriage of lane surface and lane conditioner to deal with invisible carry down. You have far better knowledge of how to set up bowling balls to do various things on various lane conditions but with it introduced affordability for arsenals and lessened respect for bowling as a sport where champions on tv now often credit their ball drillers and bowling balls for their success rather than their personal abilities earning respect from those watching. At one time if a woman averaged 200, had a 700 series, 300, 299, 298 her name was listed in the WIBC magazine and bowling a 300 game was good for an article. The ABC magazine listed 300 bowlers that took up a few pages and 800 shooters that took up column(s) not pages. You have men and women bowling far more award scores and holding much higher averages but have little respect or recognition for them because they are too numerous and those bowlers rolling award scores are not doing so in classic leagues but in handicap leagues competing with lesser skilled bowlers because the availability of meaningful competition for scratch bowlers has disappeared.
prunenow: atk10pnr, You have better coaching material but still have a poor coaching environment for junior bowlers that has not changed much in the last 50 years. You have a far better laminate surface with helpful markings for setting up break points you can easily watch but still do not have a good marriage of lane surface and lane conditioner to deal with invisible carry down. You have far better knowledge of how to set up bowling balls to do various things on various lane conditions but with it introduced affordability for arsenals and lessened respect for bowling as a sport where champions on tv now often credit their ball drillers and bowling balls for their success rather than their personal abilities earning respect from those watching. At one time if a woman averaged 200, had a 700 series, 300, 299, 298 her name was listed in the WIBC magazine and bowling a 300 game was good for an article. The ABC magazine listed 300 bowlers that took up a few pages and 800 shooters that took up column(s) not pages. You have men and women bowling far more award scores and holding much higher averages but have little respect or recognition for them because they are too numerous and those bowlers rolling award scores are not doing so in classic leagues but in handicap leagues competing with lesser skilled bowlers because the availability of meaningful competition for scratch bowlers has disappeared. Don Gates
Did you read the ball motion study, it was very interesting, and a little scary. To me it was scary because first, I understood it, and second, USBC spent a huge sum of money to conclude that, surface roughness, core dynamics, and oil absorption, are the three major influences on ball direction. Well I am shocked at those findings, sarcasm meter pegged. Like we as bowlers did not know that already.
My well informed, and very knowledgeable friend from Wisconsin, made an interesting comment in another thread, when a bowler was asking about buying a new ball. Randy said he does not look to buy new equipment right away, first he will tinker with ball surface to get a different reaction. I bet he would have contributed that info for free to USBC. How about the Hot Shot Teams, that bowl the Nationals. I think they would also offer to the USBC, that dull porous balls absorb oil faster, and can groove a lane very quickly, thus having a great effect on ball path, no great revelation there. How about RG, I think Sir Issac Newton's laws of motion, prove that this is also a major factor in ball path, after all the basic laws of physics, have not changed all that much.
Don the game has evolved, technology has taken over. The majority of bowlers want high scores, and the ball companies, and the centers are giving it to them. How do you stop it, your guess it as good as mine. As Randy said, it will take a long time, unfortunately, IMO bowling does not have a long time to solve it's problems. It was a overnight change that brought us here, however it will be a slow painful process to get the respectabilty, and scoring integrity back.
The only way to reign in the bowling balls that are out there now is to slowly phase them out. I think that would take about 5 -7 yrs to accomplish. The balls now are soft enough that they're not much for the longevity department. While thats happening the ball companies could design new balls with tamer weight blocks, lower RG, and less porous coverstocks. The USBC could also get away from the outdated 3 unit rule during this time by slowly implementing a higher volume of conditioner outside of 10 board while taking away some of the inside flood. They could also (by their own study) even up the minimum grit levels of new ball coverstock surface. (I believe 500 is too low for any real change)
If this was done I think in 5 -7 yrs you could have a much flatter standard pattern by 2013-2015 and tamer equipment that would be in surely almost all bowlers bags. You just can't drop a bomb overnight, it's easier to slowly brainwash the masses because they're more apt to accept gradual change that they can adapt to. This game could be something great again for future generations. This isn't rocket science too acheive, it just needs to be implemented from USBC and proprietors have to accept it. This is where the BPAA needs to be in tune completely with USBC.
....I won't hold my breath
...p.s.
I keep reading this whole marriage of lane conditioner to lane statement. I believe this could only be accomplished with a non oiled technology. I don't see that happening either as someone surely would have come up with that by now. I also think a shot that never changes would be boring.
...just my opinion
Doom/Randy, Just pointing out some changes that may or may not have been good, bad, necessary, over a period of many years. My perfect world would not be yours or Randy's or many others with contrasting views of what direction bowling should take tomorrow and beyond.
My perfect world is a blend of what I think should never have gone away, what I think should have gone away but has not and what I think would be good for the future of bowling.
In the never should have gone away column I would include local tv shows, classic bowling leagues, team, doubles singles local qualifiers to determone state and national champions 9sponsored and conducted by BPAA and other for profits); lacquer on wood lanes (all sorts of lane conditions provided that broke down without creating invisible sand traps) until a comparable marriage to lane surface was invented and proven to be good for the game; pins, balls, kick backs, etal testing that lived up to its claims about being approved only if they did not affect the game beyond certain admissable parameters as a sample.
In the should have gone away but has not I would include the lousy top to bottom system we have that was created with bias and bigotry that may not exist today but seems to be in place so long that many cannot give it up; the us against them that still exists to some extent between bowling centers, men, women and youth officers; the lousy Saturday morning junior program that has not changed much for several generations though it has a continuing record of poor retention, poor season to season skill level improvements, inability to attract in any great numbers; the inability at local levels to support national programs, corporate sponsors, professional bowling; the not so good that has gone from there down the hill to a very poor system of selection process for our adult and junior national teams as a sample.
What I would like to see that is new would only be possible if there was a new top to bottom system that includes bowling centers, other for profits, men, women and youth bowler reps at national, regional and local levels meeting, planning, and implementing program of mutual value with those best able and most likely to profit the most paying the bills and those who love the game volunteering their services. There are lots of things I and many others could put on their want list but without it why bother.
RJN825: ...p.s. I keep reading this whole marriage of lane conditioner to lane statement. I believe this could only be accomplished with a non oiled technology. I don't see that happening either as someone surely would have come up with that by now. I also think a shot that never changes would be boring. ...just my opinion
As Randy stated a non oil technology would be great, but I also agree, it would be boring.
...please remember that we are all just throwing our ideas and thoughts agains't the wall to see if any of it could possibly "stick".
Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't lacquer partly done away with because of the liability as a potential fire hazard thus hiking insurance rates for bowling alley owners? Wasn't that part of the issue?
