My dad shot a 300 in 1973 (a week before Christmas at that), and he was only one of three people to do that in that year from all of 8 bowling centers in the association (and no telling how many league bowlers). At that time, he was on the Sheriff's department and a big write up in the local paper was made for him. The headline: "Deputy Picks Pocket". Still have that one in the scrapbook.

I'm confused as to why you think that 1.14 % of the sanctioned bowlers should excel and be at the very top of the field, and that's bad. I get the impression from you that 1.14% is too high?

We've hashed out the fact that sports of all kinds have changed. The playing level has been elevated in nearly all sports. Why is bowling no different?

Erin

Everything can be equal by adjusting the condition. The bowling balls won't change back to how they were. The only way to fight the high averages is to put out a tough shot. I bowl at a house that used to be a very easy house. They got tired of all the 300's being shot and changed the pattern during the summer. Instantly the house became one of the tougher houses on the island. During the summer they oiled from gutter to gutter with flat oil through the heads. They tapered the oil out to 5 past the heads into a chrismas tree pattern. All of the averages dropped. The high rollers were made into mere mortals.

It doesn't matter what you do to the ball. Put out a tough pattern and averages will drop. I get so tired of hearing people complain about the balls making it easier for new bowlers to bowl well without being accurate. There are tougher shots out there. Find them. If you

On someone mentioning Parker Bohn III, you picked the wrong bowler. He has been proven to be the most accurate bowler on tour as far as hitting their target, same rev rate, same speed. He would be great in any era. Parker and Weber would bowl well on anything. The bowlers who have been helped the most by reactive resin are Walter Ray and Norm Duke. They just took advantage of the situation handed to them. As should you. If you are accurate and can make the ball spin as it is hitting the pocket, and drive the ball through the 5 pin, the pins will fly.


Technology has invaded all sports. Players adjust. People adjust. Players have increased the level of competition in all sports. Athletes get better all the time. I pissed off many people at my job by taking up golf and playing pretty well the first time I went out. They all attributed my early success to being an athlete. Not to hard work. People run faster, they jump higher, they are much stronger. Adapt or you will be left behind. I choose to adapt and not complain about something that will not change. And if it changes, I will change with it.

I still think outside forces had as much to do with losing league bowlers as anything. I bowled in a league in my late teens for a few years. I put bowling at the bottom of my to do list. I just loved to play basketball, football, tennis, baseball, softball, you name it. It is only recently that I fell in love with bowling. It was still behind basketball until my body was so sore from playing that I feared getting hurt real bad. Actually, golf is catching up fast. For many years I had the mentality that non athletes bowled and played golf. I yearned for more athletic endeavors. Only when my body began to fail me, did I look for other types of sports like bowling and golf.

Other sports really became more popular around that time, picking up more participants. Computers were invented. Video games were invented. If the youth of today are growing up playing other sports and activities, something has to suffer. For goodness sakes, I just found out today that they have Madden video game tournaments. Are you kidding me?

Now tell me again about walking to school for 5 miles, in 20 degree weather, in the snow, uphill, both ways, with no shoes on.............

I'm glad to know that in some centers here bowling a 300 deserves a round of applause. Clap! Clap! Clap! You just won yourself 300 free games.

Do you think that by using rubber balls today will make bowling increase its popularity and draw more people? I don't think so. I think it's the opposite. As many already said, don't blame the decline of bowling in producing new balls. If you want lower averages and increase the difficulty of bowling, then simply increase the difficulty of the lane pattern.

It's not that 1.14% of bowlers excel, it's what excelling means. I don't think that it should mean averaging over 220. What's wrong with only 1.14% of people averaging over 200 instead of 220? The problem is that easy conditions have set peoples expectations on higher scores.

The game can change, technology can change, but as Smooth Stroker said, the conditions should change along with it. If we go back to the golf analogy, I'm pretty sure that all this new technology isn't lowering golf scores to the extent that bowling scores have gone up. With bowling, instead of adjusting the shot to keep it challenging, most propritors tried to figure out how to make the scores as high as possible.

If 200 were par in bowling, you'd see about %1 of bowlers averaging 200. In golf %6 of men and %1 of wormen say they regularly break 80, and par is usually 72.

Right now I'd say that par is 220 and I really think that's to high.

Smooth Stroker mentioned golf so I will run with that a little. Do you think that some of the more marginal golfers in the 50's, 60's and 70's would've been more competition to Arnold Palmer and Jack Nickalaus had they been afforded the technology that today's golfes have in their hands? Yes. Clubs an balls today have shortened golf courses tremendously. It was unheard of going for a 550 yard par 5 in two shots 30 to 40 years ago, but today it's entirely possible with the clubs and balls out on the market.

You know what brings scores up in golf? The conditions of the course (rain, wind, hardness of greens, thickness of rough, etc.). Look a the US Open as an example. Only once has a US Open winner shot double digit under par since 1946, and it was Tiger Woods in 2000 at Pebble Beach. His nearest competitor was 15 strokes back at +3. There have only been 16 players to win with a score better than -4. Everyone in the field is using the best technology can offer them during those tournaments, so the key is shotmaking and course management. In other words, it's not totally the equipment. The player has to make the best shots with the equipment he/she has in their hands.

The same applies to bolwing. If you lay out a shot that affords you 5 boards of area, scores should and will be high. I know when I shot my 800 I had 5 boards to shoot at, but in the same vein, I also had to make shots within that 5 board area. I had to be consistent with my speed and my trajectory to the pocket, else I wouldn't carry. When the shot's tighter, say, 2 boards, then the margin of error diminishes. You have to be consistent with your trajectory and speed within a smaller area. This smaller area will weed out a lot of bowlers and the most accurate will be left standing with the best scores most of the time.

There's always a way to "beat back" technology. In bowling, it's oil patterns. Flat shots or low ratio crowns/tapers with an out of bounds area will demand more accuracy. In golf, making the greens harder and letting the rough grow will put a premium on accuracy.

Today's balls might help you carry an extra strike or two that rubber and plastic balls couldn't have done, but it is still up to the bowler to make the shots. The best bowlers are the one that takes the most advantage of what the lanes have to offer on that particular day. As the old Pro Shop saying goes: "There are no magical balls, just magical bowlers".

But now the courses are longer and have been modified in ways to keep the game difficult in spite of the technology improvements. Have you seen what they do with the tee boxes on older courses for the pros? They make them drastically longer if they want to keep the pros comming back. Or for an example of what they do around here, Oak Hill has very small greens and narrow fairways, and they grow the rough out to make it a severe penalty for missing. They've put the tee boxes as far back as they possibly can with the real estate they have too. Some aren't even close to what the members play. But even without that, the course is still tough because of the tough conditions.

They didn't widen the fairways to make it more forgoving to the longer clubs, and put all the pins in locations that the ball would funnel to.

I'm in the South Bay/Greater L.A. area...Bellflower is about 5 min east of Long Beach, about 20 min SE of Los Angeles. I get around to plenty of bowling alleys. I bowl in L.A., Orange and Riverside Counties. I have no problem with getting out to a tournament if it's something I want to bowl in.

I've bowled out in the Valley a couple of times at Santa Clarita Lanes and Canoga Park Bowl...I don't know how close those are to you. But because I bowl ABT and ABTA, I get around to a lot of different houses. Right now, I'm doing my league bowling at Keystone Lanes in Norwalk, Midtown Lanes in L.A., and Southwest Bowl in L.A.

That's exactly my point, Lefty. Technology was offset by changing the conditions the players face. Bowling shouldn't be any different. If people are so offended by the high scores, then make it to where there isn't a funnel to the pocket.

If courses were never changed to combat technology, we might've seen pros shooting in the low 50's. That's like playing a video game. What fun is that after awhile?

Ok, thats close enough to me, Canoga is about 5 miles from me (no scratch leagues) & Santa Clarita is around 15-20 miles from me that scratch league requires 205+ to be on the left side of the sheet.
On 1/7 at 10am we are having a scratch 6 game tournament at Matador Bowl in Northridge, Cheetah Pattern 35', if you're interested let me know.

Joe