need some advice other than high score on how to run an bowling tryout for highschool

If you're trying to get teams together, score is a big factor, but you have to take into consideration chemistry, personal character, and coachability. Any team sport needs these 3 factors to be successful be it bowling, football, baseball or water polo. And, there too, a bowler's score that day might not always be indicative of their true potential, so you need to run your tryouts over a couple of days or more for a real indication of who's who. And at that same time, you can watch their character and see who's coachable.

Bowling is similar to golf in that you have individuals trying to post a good team score. If you throw a bad ball, a better spare-maker cannot come in an relieve you. If you miss your target, you can't have someone else recover for you. It's just you and the lanes. So while it is a team effort, it's still a group of individuals with a common goal. And because it's individualized, there is no need to be a "cohesive unit" like baseball, basketball or football, but it still needs to be a unit that will work together and repsect each other.

Good luck!

I remember my High school tryouts. The Coach started with an explanation that Bowling is a game of averages. We didn't have any one bowler that bowled 210 every game, but we had bowlers who averaged 210. So, in his mind, a 1 day tryout was not sufficient. We had 3 tryout days. Scores were accumulated over the 3 days for the final selection. We had 7 selected for a 5 man team. Everyone was guaranteed 1 game to bowl. The lowest 2 bowlers were replaced by the subs in the last game, or sooner if needed.

After the selection, we bowled a couple more times, while he was setting the starters and the line up. That was important to him, and 5 days of scores gave him an idea of who were the better bowlers. Certain bowlers could not follow others. That is where I learned that I cannot follow a faster bowler without picking up speed myself. I follow a slower bowler to this day. I have the same chance of srtiking out in the tenth, bowling second as I do as the anchor bowler. He routinely had our best spare shooter bowl last. There was a very high probabliity of a mark in the tenth from him. He would not lose a game because of an open. And, a spare, high count would generally be equal to or better than our opponent.

I kind of have a similar dilemma,
I have been asked to coach a high school team. Now I have no experience in coaching a bowling team, running a practice, tryouts etc.,heck I havent even been to a high school match, but this particular group is being very persistant. Although I feel I have something to offer, and can help, being so green as a coach, I think I may be a detriment to the kids.
Time is running out, this team has no coach, and I am being asked to "please strongly consider" this challenge. What to do...? I would rather be an assistant, but that option is not there.

Eraser, my bowling coach wasn't a bowler...period. His high game was a 228 which he bowled with us one day in practice. The kids he coached (including myself) had that score for high games before we hit 8th grade grade for the most part. His strong suit was player management. He knew how to get the most out of his bowlers and was able to push the right buttons. He was a great motivator and knew how to calm someone down if they had a bad game. Tell you how to bowl? Forget it. Tell you if you were too fast or too slow? He could do that. Man, he was sharp.

He currently holds the record for most coaching wins for Varsity Girls and Boys bowling in New York State with 680. That record was amassed over a 30 year span and he took, up until I graduated in 1992, 2 girls' teams to the State Championship and one boy's team (the one I bowled on) to states and the team I bowled on took home the championship in 1992.

So it's not all about knowing how to coach these kids as most of them, by the time they reach high school, should be pretty decent bowlers who probably have pretty fair-sized egos. If you need a coach and you don't feel you're qualified, enlist one. There has to be at least one person in your area with coaching credentials who wouldn't mind sharing time creating a great bowling program. I know I would love to start one here but there isn't enough interest. So, for now, I handle the "upper-tier" kids we have and coach them to prepare them for tournaments and when we take our program to the state tournament in May.

Being a coach isn't about having all the answers or having the most knowledge. It's about caring and wanting the kids under your supervision to suceed, not only as athletes, but as people as well.

I don't think its the coaching, fundamentals, that concern me , its the rules, structure, of the way high school leagues operate.I don't have a clue. I do have a friend that I can bounce some things off of, he has coached in the past but has commitments and can't devote alot of time now. I want the kids to succeed, and don't want them to be penalized because the "dumb coach "screwed something up. I guess the only way to learn is to jump in with both feet and have at it.

Talk to the league's directors and see what they say. Don't blindly run into this situation. Every state has their own rules, but you might be able to bounce some questions off of me as it wasn't all that long since I was in high school bowling and I might be able to answer some questions.

Thanks Brian,
I'll keep that in mind. I need to investigate this a little further before I decide. I think I have about 3 weeks.

My USBC Doubles partner is a HS Bowling Coach. He gets a lot of satisfaction working with the kids. I think the kids benefit too.

Good luck.

Too bad there aren't HS bowling teams in every state, be they clubs or varsity lettering sports. I know for some schools, proximity to other schools and bowling centers is a problem, but at least in the higher populated areas, you would think there might be something.

I played football and baseball in high school, but, to me, they never stacked up to bowling. Maybe it was because our bowling teams were winners without prejudice from parents and boosters while the baseball and football teams were conference doormats because of meddling from parents and boosters and the shamelss promotions of the more "popular kids". Plus, the bowling teams were "intimate", in that the team sizes were small. Hey, we didn't all get along off the lanes, but on them, there wasn't a tighter group.