Lefty I think you made a great point (essentially the same one I saw made on the PBA board today), but I think you also have to build a new base of bowlers that aren't just Youth.

In all honestly, if you give the right coaching to a THS bowler, they will likely embrace PBAX and to that effect harder lane conditions/tournaments. If the high average THS bowlers don't want to come, so what? Let them have their fun, because eventually their opportunities will dry up and they will have no choice but to switch. And by then, they will be way behind the power curve.

I don't think most bowlers have a clue what is going on with their footwork, timing, armswing, release, etc. who bowl in a normal league. Not knowing this things will cause your PBA "experience" to be incredibly frustrating. And it will cause many to simply walk back to THS or quit altogether.

Obviously what bowling has now is not working, and hasn't worked for 20 years. This might be our last chance to get it right.

joerevs, you make 2 good points. I am a believer that the success of PBA leagues goes hand and hand with coaching on those lanes. This will make the experience much more enjoyable and challenging, rather than just throwing bowlers on slick lanes.

And, most bowlers have inconsistent foot work, timing, armswing, and release that the can get away with on a house shot. The PBA shots magnify those deficiencies to the point of frustration, sorry to say.

The coaching issue is what I've been saying for years. If you just put a bunch of 150 to 200 average bowlers on a sport shot or PBA shot they can more then likely get more frustrated then challenged.

Erin

I disagree. I think bowling is working. What's not working is league bowling. Less people want to commit to a league and the house makes more off cosmic and open play. Toss in a governing body (USBC) that continually cuts back memberhsip benefits (awards) and services (lane dressing certification) and I don't see how league play is going to last under the USBC. I can see local private clubs forming and having their own leagues, but I'm afraid USBC is on a fine line. And I don't think Sport/PBA leagues are going to fix it.

Erin

If leagues are dying then the USBC is also dying. I feel that the only way to save the USBC and competitive bowling is to do away with sanctioned house leagues. The USBC needs to scale everything back to a grass roots scale and start all over by making all sanctioned leagues sport compliant whether that be PBA or not should be up to the league or center.

The problem is that the powers that be are only interested in their cushy high paying corporate jobs and could care less about bowling. I am not sure how much the USBC board of directors get paid, but it is probably more than most of us and a lot more than they should be getting paid for just letting things go to pot.

But if they never bowled on a house shot to average 150 or 180, they're not going to get frustrated because their expectations haven't already been unreasonably set.

You have to wonder what the future of league bowling, and for that matter, PBAX is going to be. A new Brunswick house opened last November, near here, and they have NO Sanctioned leagues. Yet, as a Corp policy, they will be a sanctioned house for tournaments. They rent lanes by the hour, and have all the cosmic gimmicks and side attractions, like laser tag, game room, and bumper cars. It's a party place, not a bowling alley. Outside, they also have batting cages and mini golf. But, they do have 44 brand new lanes.

It's a state of the art bowling alley with no leagues.

Leagues are being directed to the privately owned houses, built 30+ years ago, that cannot convert to the gimmicks because of lack of space and lack of finances.

Why should the USBC allow sanctioned tournaments in a house with NO sanctioned leagues? This is a flat out snub that shouldn't be tolerated.

Dennis, I bet they probably don't oil the lanes there much at all and they are ruining those brand new lanes.

Where I live, the corporate places are run down and the privately owned places are state of the art and well maintained.

Then that means in our association that we, and USBC, would lose all sanctioning monies except 20 X $19. USBC cannot afford to lose that kind of money each year.

This is why I said that USBC is walking a fine line of existance right now. Not due to easy house shots and reactive balls, but because of poor management and service to its membership.

And also why I mentioned that private local bowling clubs with no use for USBC governing will start up. Leagues will probably form under those smaller local clubs. And the shot will be whatever the club and house decides to put out there.



AMEN!

I'll only add that by getting in bed with BPAA is only going to move further in that direction and away from bowlers services.

Erin

The local house leagues should be privately or locally sanctioned, or just not sanctioned at all. The USBC is a national sanctioning body, and shouldn't condone cheating. Bowling on walled up lanes is cheating, just because someone else is putting the easy shot down so all of our errant shots go in the pocket, doesn't make it any less cheating then if someone changed your score for you.

The USBC shouldn't stand for anything less then top level bowling on sport compliant conditions.