Another bad week of summer bowling

 

1. Andrew,

   We have been on a league for the last 2 years that is handicapped at 100% of 200!  Makes for some interresting nights.  This gives the less skilled bowlers a real chance to win something and not just feel like they are donating money to the better bowling teams.  Our team had averages of 180, 150, 140, and 120.  We did fairly well (finished 3rd) against some very strong teams.  Winning team was 4 bowlers carrying averages of around 140, second place team was structured like ours. 

   Yes, you give away a lot of pins at the start, but the point of the night out is to have fun.  If I was doing this for money or trophys, I would not be here doing this. 

   Can’t give you any help on the balls, I am using a Nighthawk I borrowed from a cousin about 4 years ago.

   Good luck.

   Posted by Punkins       07/31/2008  at  01:32 AM  



2. Don’t give up on 90% hdcp yet! Keep in mind that this is only 9 weeks of a short summer league. In a regular league of 30 weeks or more, there would still be a long way to go, a lot of time for the partying beginners to run out of luck. Short leagues are obviously more of a crap shoot. And, hey! Think of how frustrated the 225 average guys are!

   (I don’t know of any handicap system that favors the middling-fair bowlers over both the rank beginners and the semi-pros.)

   As for ball recommendations, sorry, I have no idea. There are so many balls out there now, with a dozen new ones every month, it seems, that I gave up paying attention years ago. I just go the pro shop and explain what I want in terms of aggressiveness and shape of track. I like to have two balls, about the same total hooking power, but one which “rolls up” and another which goes longer and flips. I have found that if I’m hitting the pocket with one but not getting good carry, I can just switch to the other ball and it will usually carry a lot better.

   It sounds like your conditions are on the long and heavy oil side, so I would go as aggressive as you can get, whatever that is.

   Posted by KGrupa       07/31/2008  at  11:33 AM  



3. Oh, one other thing: I would dispute your opinion on how easy it is for weak bowlers to bowl 60 pins over their average. I’ve been reviewing the stats on awards given out in our association this past season. We have about 175 men and 175 women bowlers in our small association. We had 57 get a 75 POA game patch - 42 men and 15 women. Three of those awards were for a game less than 200. 5 bowlers did it twice - 4 men and 1 woman. 7 men got a 100 POA game award, no women. And from our 75 youth bowlers, with averages ranging down to 30 (and only 4 who were over 140), we had just 2 with a 75 POA game.

   I conclude that it’s more likely for a bowler who is used to getting spares and occasional strikes to string a few strikes together in a game with maybe one open frame, than for a bowler who usually gets one mark per game to get 8 marks in a game.

   Believe me, I know how frustrating it is to see an opponent with a 125 average toss off a 172 game. It seems to happen all the time. But it’s like taking a bad beat at poker - you remember those, but forget all the times your pocket aces held up to win.

   Posted by KGrupa       07/31/2008  at  12:05 PM  



4. Since I’m not a bowler, can I just weigh in here?  This whole thing (along with golf handicaps) is just a double-first-cousin to Affirmative Action garbage - let the low achievers be admitted to college - maybe they’ll acquire brains and motivation like POOF!

   And if “the point is just to have fun”, why in hell do you keep score? And why is it important for less-skilled bowlers to both have fun AND win prizes?

   Jes’ askin’

   Posted by shbeans       07/31/2008  at  12:17 PM  



5. Having bowled only a handful of times as a kid I never realized bowling has a geek quotient.

   Posted by pete_nd       07/31/2008  at  01:21 PM  



6. Shbeans: Those are excellent questions, and I am pleased to take a whack at answering them.

   Yes, it does look a lot like affirmative action garbage. But it’s not. The point here is recreational competition for the masses, not sorting out the 1% best from the 99% rest. There are venues for scratch competition, for those few who want it. In any competition that takes place on a recurring basis, whether a weekly league or a monthly or annual tournament, the competition will not be successful in the long term without a large pool of “willing losers” - people who will continue to donate their entry-fee money even after it’s clear that they are getting back less than they put in. That is, the willing losers must see value in competing that makes up for the out-of-pocket losses. I’ve seen a number of regular (scratch) bowling tournaments survive for several years, only to dry up and die because the losers stopped coming.

   My personal opinion is that the handicap system of a bowling league ought to leave the better bowlers with an advantage, but to reduce that advantage to the point where the weaker bowlers believe they have a chance to compete - a chance to beat the big boys, occasionally. Not an “equal” chance. I have put in a lot of work to become a very good bowler - I deserve to have an advantage over the weak bowler. But no 120 average bowler would ever pay league fees to bowl scratch against me, and others like me, every week. If I want to bowl in a large league, with different opponents every week, I have to accept the realities of a handicap system, without which the 180-and-under bowlers won’t show up.
   And it’s a lot more fun finishing first in a 16-team league of 5-man teams, than in a 6-team league of 3-man teams.

   As for why do we keep score, that’s easy. I have long been accused of taking my bowling way too seriously. And I have long answered that charge with this line: “I’m here to have fun. I just have more fun when I win.”

   Posted by KGrupa       07/31/2008  at  01:23 PM  



7. KG hits it in one! It’s fun competition, just like summer softball leagues. And I like to win. Or at least not lose because of my own screw ups.

   And it’s some kind of physical activity that just about everyone can do. Plus you can drink beer while doing it, and that’s perfectly acceptable behavior!

   And a 16 team $20/wk league will likely have a first place cash prize of about $4000. Which doesn’t hurt. At all. Plus Strike Ball, One-on-Ones, Kegler Cash, 3-way pots, strike poker, bowler’s pyramid ... you can make quite a lot of money on the side too.

   Posted by Drew458       07/31/2008  at  04:52 PM  

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