Why do we love the game of Bowling? We hear about the decline of leagues, and yet bowling is the most participated sport in the US. What makes this game so fascinating and appealing to participate in? I would like to hit upon some of the positive and not so positive aspects of the game of bowling, giving my opinion and views as to where the game of bowling stands.

USBC has come out with this new implied honor score system where if you shoot 300, you get your one lifetime achievement award for that 300. Each one after that becomes an "'Atta Boy!" pat on the back. We have lost the value of the 300 game. Back in the ole days, we had maybe a handful of 300's throughout the nation. Hundreds upon hundreds of games bowled, and yet 300 was immensely hard to achieve. Today, we have hundreds of 300's in just one week. Basically, if no one shot a 300 tonight, we start the blame game of "the shot was different/hard tonight" and so forth. Why has 300 become easier than in the past? Well, lets take a look at all the variables that come into play. Back then it was wood lanes, today it is synthetic lanes. Back then it was hand-oil patterns, today we have the finest lane machines putting out a consistent pattern. Back then we had hard rubber bowling balls, today we have highly reactive bowling balls. I could go on further, but I will stick with these 3 areas as to why this helps all of us achieve higher scores/averages.

We still have a few wood houses left in the States, but why do we find bowling on wood tougher than synthetic? Wood lanes have a different topography from one lane to the next. Wood warps and slowly takes its shape as life goes on. Synthetic lanes hardly warp ever. So, as our ball is rolling down the lane, it is hitting peaks and valleys. Although it is hard to see with the naked eye, the topography is much more significant on wood compared to synthetic. Also, wood lanes tend to dry out a lot faster than synthetic because the wood lanes are absorbing oil along with our fancy reactive balls soaking that oil up as well. So, your moves must happen quicker on wood than synthetic. You may put out the same exact pattern on wood and synthetic, and I am willing to bet that throughout a year of bowling on the two, your average will be lower on Wood than Synthetic. Is the case all the time? No! Bowlers themselves can have a better/natural ball roll on wood than they would synthetic, and vice versa with bowlers on synthetic. This can be altered based upon the shot that is put out, as well.

Let's say we walk into a center today and we see the mechanic walking up and down the lanes with a lino duster and a spray bottle. What is your first thought that comes to your head? Probably something along the lines of, "This is going to be dumb," or "What kind of dump did I just walk into?" Yet, that is how the patterns were put on to the lanes back then. So imagine trying to put up scores on a pair of lanes where you have to rely on the mechanic himself being extremely consistent with a spray bottle and lino duster. Probably not going to be super easy, seeing that lane to lane is going to be different. Now we have fancy lane machines that can put out exactly 25.92mL of oil on to the lanes with an exact pattern shape. With that spray bottle, it could be 10mL, 20mL, 30mL depending on how much he sprayed. The total volume of oil is measured in milliliters and per board values are measured in microliters. So, in essence, we have a much more consistent playing field from day to day and lane to lane because of the lane machine. This is not to say that we can't program the machine to put out a tough pattern, but at the same time I can manually put oil anywhere I want on the lane with a spray bottle and lino duster.

The biggest change, in my opinion, are the bowling balls. We have gone from hard Rubber balls to Reactive Resin Atom Bombs. Hard Rubber may still be a part of today's game but we use them to make spares more than anything. With these Reactive bowling balls, it creates more back end, which also creates a bigger entry angle and that will create a greater chance of striking. With more strikes comes higher scores and higher averages. So, now that bowling balls have helped us throw more strikes, we now try to make the patterns tougher to counteract the balls. So lets say we put out an easy shot, like our typical easy score fest pattern(house pattern) that we tend to use in most leagues. I am willing to say that if you were to use a Manhattan Rubber bowling ball, your scores will be much lower than if you were to use today's highly reactive performing equipment. How can we keep the integrity of the game with these high scores being put up daily? If I were to take one of the better bowlers from 1930 into today's world of bowling, he/she would hear of all these honor scores being shot and laugh in disbelief. Averages are definitely inflated. It is not right to watch your pro bowlers get out-averaged by your everyday league/house bowler, and then try and explain the difference to why they out average the pros. You don't see your everyday league golfer shooting lower scores than a pro. Again, we have to get on a consistent and balanced playing field.

Don't take me the wrong way. I love shooting honor scores myself. It just does not have the same value as it used to. Sure, I want everyone to taste and feel the 300/800 honor score. But at the same time, I just think you have to earn it by working hard at the game. Not by buying the latest, greatest reactive bowling ball and bowling on the easiest pattern to assist you. How many proprietors do you know want to say, "Come to my bowling center because it is the hardest it the nation!" Never "Come here if you want honor scores and a great time" is what you will hear. What is a quick fix that we could do by still keeping everything we have currently? I watched a recent interview with Robert Smith(Which may be seen by clicking here) and one of his suggestions was to have USBC imply heavier pins for all centers to use. Sure some scores will still get put up but your chances of striking when hitting the pocket have just gone down due to the weight of the pins. Your flat 10 pin that had a messenger come across to hit it would not strike(Even though we all love watching that). It would lower averages across the nation. We need USBC to set standards that would make the game challenging and yet fair at the same time.

I have mentioned that bowling is the most participated sport in the nation. Why is that? They come to the center to have a good time and when Bobby shoots 137, he is not mad about it, because most open bowlers throw the ball the way 1920 bowlers use to. Hard and Straight! Curving the ball made no sense back then because for one, there was hardly any oil on the lane, thus any rotation makes the ball harder to control. Now, because we are throwing the ball straight, our entry angle into the pocket is by far smaller, so high scores will not be shot as often. Making a 200 game is much more significant. I am not trying to say that hooking the ball should not be allowed anymore. If I were to tell a 230 average bowler that he/she is only going to shoot 650 on the best night of the year, he would not be happy one bit. Again, we as bowlers need to find it within us to allow 200 to be par again. Instead, if we are not shooting at least 220, we are angry, frustrated, and so forth. I know if we take away these high performing bowling balls, all scores and averages will be much lower than what they are today. Lets face it, that will not happen. So we have to revert to the pins, something quick and easy that can be changed to make the game tougher. A lot of people will say, "Just make the shot tougher." Well, lets use the US Open, since that is the flattest pattern. This is not to bash or take away anything these bowlers achieved. Our hardest pattern still had a field average of 203.29 for those who made the cut. Our best bowlers back in the day barely averaged that on walled up conditions. Are the bowlers better today than what they were 50 plus years ago? Or is the Technology that we are using helping us that much more? Or maybe a combination of both?

The game of bowling today has a lot of catch 22 situations. If we take away all of the bowling balls we use today and go back to using a hard rubber ball, we take away business from Storm, Ebonite, and all the other bowling companies. If we do that, we lose our sponsors for 95% of the tournaments we bowl in. Nobody wants that to happen. I don't want to lose my job! We force a rule to have everyone bowl on the same tough pattern, we see a bigger decline in league participation because no one is shooting big scores as often. Face it, who wants to shoot 150 games when we should be able to shoot 230 plus. Another thing that is frustrating is the handicapping system we have in our game. For example, lets say I bowl in league on the US Open pattern and average 200. Now, I can take another bowler bowling on a "House"(Easy) Pattern and averages 225. Is he/she truly better at the game than I am based upon average? If I were to take USBC's chart for average adjustment, my 200 on the US Open is 214 on a House Pattern. Which in reality I average well over 220. Our system is basically a Scout's honor system. Do you really average 160 or are you just throwing off to get handicap in everything you bowl in? Hard to say, right? Basically, anything we try to correct/change in this game always will find a negative behind it. One thing that I believe could help make the game bring back some integrity is to make the pins a pound heavier. We can keep our technology and still find it slightly tougher to throw strikes.

I hope that our industry finds a solution to help boom bowling again. Right now, we are stuck in a rut, making it to where there is no reason to get good at the game. We can't compete with the Walter's and the Belmo's and yet we average too high to compete with the handicap. Where do we go? I am definitely for heavier pins in the game and I would like the honor scores to mean something again. Again, I am not trying to bash anyone or anything to say who is wrong and who is right. I am a bowler who loves to bowl. Am I good enough to compete with the pros? I am sure at times I could hold my own but, again, I am working on my game daily. I hope to find an answer, or at least an idea, to help bring the interest and integrity back to the game of bowling. I hope to turn an open bowler into a league player. I don't like seeing the bowling business close or fail at any given time. This is my point of view and I hope it sparks some interest to get better and want to be the best. I want to become the best to make the money like any other professional sport. Golf, Baseball, Football, and anything else, they don't make the big bucks until they reach the professional level. We need that to happen in our sport. Love the game and remember to Practice, Practice, Practice!

Steve Lemke Bowling.com SFA NCAA Coach