I made a similar post about patterns and nationals but in relation to the juniors a couple of years ago.
The basic gist was I felt as though the pattern laid down for the juniors for their nationals was too hard for the majority, especially considering the amount of younger juniors that attend nationals compared to when I was competing, sure they had young, young kids, but not very many, now there are plenty especially playing for state teams due to lack of numbers.
My suggestion is very similar to Craig's above and in essence along the line of Jase's above that. They should have various patterns for various levels of competition. At the end of the day, the seniors (generally, so don't get your pitchforks out just yet) tend to bowl on modified sports patterns that are (generally) easier than standard. Now why would they want to attend Nationals on a one fits all pattern and struggle their backside off (and I am not agreeing with Dockers because as far as I am concerned you are a shit stirrer with nothing better to do with your time), but they are used to bowling on higher averaging patterns and, being in the twilight of their bowling careers have done the hard yards, bowled on the crap and come out the other side, why subject them the tough stuff all over again.
Seniors are also part of the biggest bowling population in the country, why piss them off and make them not want to come back. And believe me I don't believe in bowing down to make a group happy just because they might spit the dummy, but at the end of the day, as Jase alluded to above, this is the group above all others that enjoy the travel, catching up with old bowling buddies and are there for the fun mixed with competition. You want them coming back and they have been around the block a million times, so have nothing to prove. Most seniors aren't deluded into thinking they are better than they actually are (maybe lol).
So back to the multiple pattern suggestion, my idea was to predominantly use it for championship events, have the patterns still based around sports based patterns or whatever you want really, but have at least two separate patterns, one for lower average players that still gets them to focus on playing a certain part of the lane but doesn't require the average bowler to cart 40 balls with them to cope. The next pattern to be the harder one for higher average players, ie the WTBA patterns we use etc. This can be adapted to say using the higher scoring pattern for seniors and the restricted teams tournament and using the WTBA pattern for Rachuig. Splitting the centre up in entries ie oiling X percentage with the easier pattern and the rest with the harder pattern on event days. Nothing is perfect obviously, but whilst we do need to consider how to increase entries, there still need to be a focus on improving players skill levels on tougher patterns, having a couple of patterns with a progression in mind, still funnels bowlers towards increasing their skill level to possibly obtaining the necessary skills to cope with overseas patterns. Let's face it, we have not sent a team overseas capable of coping with the patterns for a good many years.
The TBA also need to wise up as Jase alluded to in regards to the scheduling for nationals and events. No fault of Robbie's and I am nowhere near suggesting it because he has pulled out all stops to prepare for Nationals and hats off to him, but with Rachuig and the other team events taking up the majority of the centre, it doesn't allow for day time qualifying for Masters, so those that aren't involved in the team comps throughout the 3 weeks, have limited time to qualify for their respective Masters event. Yes there is plenty of things to do being a holiday spot, but for those with limited time off work, they aren't looking for the holiday/bowling experience. Take the last week as case in point, Sat, Sun, Mon are all open to bowling events, fair enough, Rachuig - Tue, Wed and Thurs with two squads each night after, one being a teams squad, so that is all you can do that particular night if you need to bowl a teams, then come back the next night and do your singles or doubles. Ideally what should happen when the Nationals are to be held in a centre without excess lanes during the day is to change the schedule slightly, move Rachuig to the Mon, Tues and Wed and allow for people to bowl events all day the Thurs and Fri morning. When qualifying for Masters is so important based on the format and previous amounts of prizemoney, and it just remains in the current format, it's like we have gone full circle having a non existent tournament product to creating something spectacular to heading back to a non existent part of the tournament again. The schedule and format just doesn't work.
Now if we really want to re hash old topics and what not, another point Jase made was that we also need to fix up National tournaments, and my personal opinion hasn't changed in the last few years since I suggested it way back when.
Tiered levels of tournaments, Gold, Silver and Bronze, and if we have to use the sport patterns, base them accordingly as per tier of tournament. Maximum of four majors for the year, all played on WTBA or PBA based patterns (gold level), whatever. 4-6 lower tournaments, still nationally spread, played on medium skill patterns (silver) and bronze based patterns, for events as per say tournament series played within each state that run a tournament series.
Again funnelling players skill levels towards obtaining the skills to play on OS patterns if they so wish. It allows for those not wanting to pay huge entry fees and play on tough patterns the opportunity to get into tournaments from league play by playing bronze level tournaments, then after time bowling these they may want to step up into a silver level tournament being played in their state and so on. Whilst we should really be catering for the majority, we also need to be pushing this majority to increase their skill level.
Nothing beats education and there is so much scope for things to happen.
