These Guys Are Good

Perception vs. Reality
Remember the PGA marketing campaign; These guys are good? Everyone understands that PGA golfers are better than the scratch guys on the public links. Is there really a misconception that your association's top bowlers are just as good as PBA bowlers? ESPN and USBC seem to think that the general public thinks so. There may be some truth to that, but the PBA television audience is smarter than that. When I practice at Redstone Lanes and string 5 or 6 strikes in a row during lunch rush, I draw a crowd and a few compliments. I have to explain that the pros on television would average 250-260 at Redstone. If you ask your 220-230 average league bowler, they have a healthy respect for professionals and know it would be tough to compete against them on easy or hard conditions.

Ultimate Scoring
At the PBA Ultimate Scoring Championship, 4 of the 64 exempt players averaged over 240. Over two thirds of the field averaged over 220. What? That sounds like a Bowlers Advantage scratch tournament at Plamor on a house shot. According to bowl.com:

Typical league oil patterns usually are 38 to 42 feet in length and feature ratios in the 8-to-1 or 12-to-1 range. That means the oil pattern used during the Ultimate Scoring Championship, while easy by PBA standards, was approximately twice as difficult as most league oil patterns.

The PBA Ultimate Scoring patter featured a an oil ratio of 6-to-1 at 22 feet and 4-to-1 at 40 feet. Since PBA experience (and most Sport patterns) feature 3-to-1 ratios, the Ultimate Scoring pattern was still twice as easy as the typical PBA tournament pattern. The article shows the lane graphs of Ultimate Scoring pattern and the Chameleon pattern.

Who can read these things?
Can someone who understands how to read lane pattern graphs explain how this works? These graphs are posted at the USBC Open. At the last few Open Championships, I did not play where I thought I would after I "read" the lane graph. Also, opinions would be welcome about how the Kegel Challenge Series patterns compare to the PBA Ultimate Scoring pattern. The ratio for both series of patterns are the same at 3-to-1. Kegel describes the Challenge series as an intermediate set of patterns; harder than house shots, but easier than sport patterns.

The Rise (and Fall) of Senior Bowling

Largest Leagues
Senior bowling, especially in Huntsville, has the largest league in town. Bowling on Monday afternoon, it takes 32 lanes at Pin Palace. At the exact same time, 4 more teams are bowling down Memorial Parkway at Parkway Lanes. The only travel league in town is a senior league. Why does senior leagues flourish when all other leagues struggle for bowlers? You are left with your more serious bowlers. Senior bowlers have probably been bowling for 30-40 years. These are not the people who picked it up in their 30's and quit when the kids' activities started taking over. Senior leagues seem to be the perfect combination of competition and camaraderie. Pot luck luncheons on holidays with spirited roll-offs for league championships. My parents bowl in a large senior league at Imperial Lanes in Memphis on Friday afternoon. Any week-end trip to Huntsville to visit their son or grandchildren will not begin until league session is over.

Too Many Divisions
Does this excitement translate to senior tournaments? This depends on how you define a senior tournament. If you consider your association or state championship one tournament, it is probably defined a success. However, I define these tournaments as 8-9 small tournaments. That is because senior tournaments are done by age division. This is fine if you have the participation in each division. However, I'm seeing bowlers get prize money they were the only person in their age division bowling, or they beat the other guy. You can have a pretty good squad, but competing against only 3 people. This is the same issue I have with youth tournaments that use too many divisions for too few bowlers. This works well, probably, in the state tournament, but each association should look at their participation and rearrange the grouping; senior (55-59) and super-senior (60 plus) for example.

Divisions defined by age bring up qualification issues. What is a senior? USBC sanctioned tournaments define it at 55. The Senior All Star Bowling Association, a very popular senior scratch tour, defines eligibility at 50.

Anxious to Compete?
As I approach my mid-40's, I'm not in a hurry to bowl in SASBA events. My friends who were around 49 were rushing the calendar to compete. I think we all think we are still young, while 'those guys' are old and we dominate the competition. I am not thinking that way. I seem to remember that while I age, everyone else does too. The same people I am competing with now will be the same people I will compete against when I become a 'senior.' However, I feel pretty good about my age now. I exercise regularly; running and lifting weights. The fitness element may be a bigger variable with senior tournaments than regular open competition.

Old School vs. New School
I would exclude the young guns of today when I become senior eligible, but does it matter? Look at the top averages in the state. The majority of the better bowlers in Alabama are over 40. We bowled when 540 was a great league night. The only people who shot 700 were at least 190 average bowlers. Today, a 190-200 average bowler can have an 800 night. That 'old school' mindset is still with the middle age bowlers who started back in the 1970's and 1980's. I admit, those mental habits are falling away as I want an honor score with every league session.

The Potential Fall of Senior Bowling
As I mentioned, the large senior pool is around because of the large league base that existed in the 70's and 80's. However, look around. You can get an open lane most any night in most bowling centers. The number and size of leagues is dwindling. There will be less bowlers to be senior bowlers. This bow wave will move to the future. There may be large senior leagues because of the camaraderie. Unlike the regular league night, senior bowlers will come together to have the super league. It is too much fun with old friends and new friends.

Also, there is hardly any coverage of senior professional bowling. The senior PBA tour was a summer fixture. They also had their gimmicks. Watch this senior PBA telecast from ESPN. It features one of my favorite senior pros from the 90's, Gene Stus. He was recently elected to the USBC Hall of Fame. Notice all the fancy promotional things; outside, gold pins, The Villages.




South Alabama bowlers remember Avery Leblanc. I met him also when he was a Brunswick center manager at Bartlett Lanes in Tennessee. His style will never get old. Here is a 1997 match between him and Earl Anthony.


For the North Alabama bowlers, Huntsville's Jimmy Certain in a 1990 Senior PBA match against Dick Webber.


As far as now, I will be patient. I am in no rush to bowl in this somewhat exclusive club.

Best Bowling Center in Alabama?

The November 2008 issue of Bowlers Journal International lists one Alabama bowling center among the "95 Bowling Centers you must visit before you die." Granted, the article states the list is completely arbitrary. It does include old, new, domestic, international, mom-and-pop, and multi-million dollar palaces.


Listed at number 86 is Birmingham's Lightning Strikes. Bowlers Journal states:

Bowling is the star attraction, with 40 lanes, but the center's Billy Club gets plenty of traffic, too. Little wonder: It's packed with billiard tables, Golden Tee golf machines, plastic-tip dart lanes and six monitors for viewing sporting and other events.

I believe Lightning Strikes has the most space of any of the McCorvey's Pro Shop locations also. I have been to this facility but have never bowled there. The 2009 Alabama state tournament will be there, so many from across the state will see what all the press is about.

Wherefore art thou women's bowling?

Top Women's Leagues
I was asked for help promoting a competitive women's league in Huntsville, the Pepsi Ladies Peterson Point. It is a 3 bowler 10 team league. In today's declining interest in league bowling, this seems to be a rather good size league. I honestly did not know what to do to help. Should I have posted a "Join our League" blurb on the front page of AlabamaBowling.Com? Would it have helped? Of all the fancy web statistical packages, I don't think I am smart enough to discern the gender of my visitors. One reason for starting this blog was to help promote different causes such as league promotion as tournaments are regularly posted on the web site. Are there other competitive women's leagues, scratch or handicap, in the state? Are they on the decline? There are at least 10 women in the state who carry a league average of 210 or more. Do they regularly compete against each other in the same leagues? Do other women try to measure their skills and want to better their games by competing against these top bowlers?

Social or Competition
It is obvious that mixed leagues are the backbone of league bowling. Most of these are purely a night out with the spouse to join friends for a good time. There is nothing wrong with that. Women joined the ABC for the 'open' competition to join their husbands and boyfriends when going to the city, state, or other sanctioned tournaments. Some women wanted to do more than watch; they wanted to participate. It is my opinion that many women's associations were forced to merge because of rapidly declining membership. Once the men's associations became 'open' associations, some women joined them and did not join the women's association. Anecdotal evidence from Google searching has led me to believe that women association membership declined at a larger percentage than ABC associations. This still does not explain why women only leagues are not forming. With fewer women bowlers, I can understand fewer women-only leagues. In the big 4 associations, I would understand if only 1 or 2 competitive women-only leagues existed. In the case of open classic money leagues, most bowlers gravitate together to the league, no matter which bowling center. In the 80's bowling centers would get big sponsors to their leagues to pull these bowlers to their center. So, thank you Pepsi (or Buffalo Rock, the Huntsville distributer) for supporting women bowling.

Not the WNBA
Women's professional bowling, as an organization, is gone. Most people I know enjoyed watching it live or on TV. The WNBA has horrid television ratings but continues to thrive. The NBA is working very hard to keep it alive. Continued sponsorship like that never materialized for the LPBT or PWBA. I'm sure everyone enjoys watching the guys throw the big sweeping hook on television. Top women bowlers are just as balanced, throw more revolutions than I do, and as accurate as men. Carolyn Dorin-Ballard is not as exciting to watch as Michelle Feldman, but she is one of the top women bowlers in this country. Let me stop these comments before they are posted, I think Walter Ray is not that exciting to watch either. That does not diminish their superior skill.

So, the pool of competitive women bowlers is shrinking. To satisfy that quest for competition, these women must come together locally for leagues and tournaments, regionally and nationally for tournaments. AlabamaBowling.Com is the web home for three regional women's tournaments; DixieBelles, Women's Southeastern, and Ladies East Coast Classic. One of the best scratch tournaments in the region is the TNBA Bill Rhodman Southern Division. The women's division usually has about 70 entries.

Does scoring affect tournament bowling?

Is 230 the new 200?
According the the Alabama USBC All State teams, the 10th highest average in the state was 232.51. In 2007/2008, there were 6 Huntsville bowlers and 7 Birmingham bowlers over 230. The All State teams include 4 Montgomery area bowlers. While I saw no 230 averages in Mobile, I do know at least four would be among this group if they bowled in PlamorVestaviaBama the typical north or central Alabama super league house. I also know of good tournament bowlers who do not bowl in the 'super' houses that are not 230 league average bowlers.

Practice, we don't need stinkin' practice!
I admit, I don't practice as much as I should. I say this every time I am driving home after missing a cut or failing to cash. You have a lot of time to think about your failed strategy, shot selection, ball reaction, poor mechanics, etc while driving 10, 20, 100, 200 miles home from a tournament.

Why? I'm not sure I know how to have a good practice regimen anymore. Practice to me is mostly keeping loose and repeating shots. I don't shoot corner pins for 30 minutes, or try shooting strikes on every arrow. For me, it is a resource issue; time and money. It is too expensive to practice. I can bowl two-three leagues and a tournament every 3-4 week-ends, which keeps me loose and repeating shots. I don't visit the bowling center to practice for $2.25 a line. I would rather pay the $20/week league fee knowing I am getting a chunk of that back, while bowling in competition and pressure situations.

Where are the tournament bowlers?
Alabama seems to be a bowling state. Moving to Huntsville from Memphis in 1986, I couldn't believe the number of bowling centers this 'small' town had. Monarch, Plamor, and Parkway were all within visual distance of each other. So, why aren't there more tournament bowlers? I have been to scratch tournaments in Birmingham where I counted more Huntsville bowlers than local bowlers. I rarely see any Montgomery area bowlers unless it is the state tournament. I'm not sure if there are any major scratch tournaments in Montgomery. Is it safe to be a once-a-week 220 average league bowler and not suffer the embarrasment of a poor showing at a tournament? Yes, we all have gone through that. However, I want to suffer the pride and accolades of a victory or great showing.

Scoring is relative
I have been in sweepers where I shot 700 for 3 games and was barely in the top 20. I was also in a RealBowlers.com tournament where I was one of only 8 bowlers who were plus (averaged more than 200). I felt more proud of the top 8 finish with 201 average than averaging 233 and missing the cut. With tournaments, it is not the pinfall, it is the placement. PBA Experience leagues are picking up momentum. Not enough, where we see successful fall leagues. However, sport condition tournaments during fall/winter are here.

Why are you not out there?