wchester
Bowling Tragic
USBC to review System of Bowling
6/22/2005
"The credibility of power is lost, and the game is hurt because of it."
- Marshall Holman
In the 1970s and 80s, Marshall Holman was a special bowler; he was a special athlete. The most electric performer of his day and the most consistently dominant pro bowler of the 1980s, Holman won 22 career Professional Bowlers Association titles in his Hall-of-Fame career.
Holman will be mostly remembered for the way he changed the game and inspired legions of youth bowlers through his evolved approach to the sport. Although he weighed just 140 pounds, Holman combined power and accuracy to such a healthy degree that he surged to the front of pro tournaments by hundreds of pins. At centers throughout the country, bowlers spent hour after hour practicing Holman's brilliant release. Holman was a star.
Larry Lichstein, the storied ball driller who spent decades on the PBA Tour, described Holman's unique talent in the November 1976 edition of Bowlers Journal magazine: "(Holman's) leverage and his strong lift allow him to create a devastating roll on his ball: he'll blow a 5-pin out of the rack harder than almost anybody."
Within that description rests a concern in the development and future of bowling as a viable sport. Does anyone in competitive bowling really concern themselves with the 5-pin anymore? No.
That's a major reason why Holman quit bowling competitively in the 1990s. His Olympian skill to "blow the 5-pin out of the rack" had been cheapened by the modern game, in particular the invention of resin and particle bowling balls with exotic core designs. The new balls, drilled with expert touches, were made compatible with increasingly forgiving lane conditions. Suddenly, hooking power had more to do with technology than the bowler. According to Holman, his skill of applying manmade power to the ball is now meaningless.
After all, today everybody gets the 5-pin out. Angles into the pocket have been redefined by an increased friction between lanes and balls that feature dynamic imbalances in modern bowling, resulting in amateur, youth and senior bowlers breaking scoring records at a blistering pace.
"The credibility of power is lost, and the game is hurt because of it," Holman says. "The balls I used during the '70s and '80s would be like golfers today using hickory shafts. Now, less is more. The less you do to the ball, the harder it hits."
That equation doesn't make sense to Holman.
"When Mark Roth was dominant in the 1970s, he took advantage of power," Holman says. "It seemed at the time that was the logical way it should be. If you could be accurate, control speed and be powerful, why wouldn't you be rewarded?"
Holman, a former ESPN broadcaster who now owns an income tax company and has no current financial ties to bowling, explains the problem with today's game in his eyes: "The balls have taken the players and squished them together," Holman says. "The ball has given all realms of releases hitting power."
Holman knows the number of league bowlers in the United States has dwindled in the past 20 years.
"The 'less is more' system doesn't work," Holman says. "At least part of the reason for people quitting bowling has to be the lack of needing to work at something to be good at it. Part of the problem has to be ease of scoring nowadays."
Today, Holman bowls one league night a week in his hometown of Medford, Ore. He says he never practices, misses 30 percent of league nights due to conflicting commitments and averages, "around 230." That's higher than any average Holman registered on the PBA Tour in his prime.
"I should be around 205 now," says Holman, who is dismayed by his belief that choosing the right equipment has become the most important aspect of the modern game.
The United States Bowling Congress, formed in January 2005, is concerned with the degree of influence technology is having over player skill as the primary factor for success in bowling today at all levels.
As the national governing body of the sport, USBC's pledge is to uphold its responsibility of maintaining the highest standards for credibility and integrity for bowling. Other sports' national governing bodies (such as USA Track and Field, United States Tennis Association, United States Golf Association, USA Hockey, etc.) make a similar promise to promote and develop their sports' growth; to provide vision and leadership.
Like most sports, bowling's equipment and playing fields have evolved for decades as technology has improved. Different eras are defined by their distinct environments. From wood to synthetic lanes, from rubber to plastic to urethane balls, from oiling the lanes with a spray gun to utilizing $20,000 lane machines. Scores have shot up at an alarming rate and the qualities necessary to succeed in the game have been clouded like never before in the history of the game.
However, not until the late '80s with the limited distance lane dressing rule was there a disproportionate rise in scoring. Then, in the early '90s, with the advent of exotic core designs in balls and reactive resin bowling balls followed by the invention of particle balls in the late '90s, the pins didn't have a chance. The pins appear incapable of resisting the power generated by those balls on current typical lane conditions. Scores have shot up at an alarming rate and the qualities necessary to succeed in the game have been clouded like never before in the history of the game.
Other sports have struggled with lassoing in the power of technology. In golf, for example, a current debate rages over the flying distance of the golf ball and the power of the modern titanium driver. Golf, though, has been fortunate that scoring has not been as disproportionately affected. Still, classic golf courses are being lengthened, and at especially the pro level, strategies such as altering pin placements are being used to demand more precision and all-around games from players who possess power provided by technology.
In tennis, bigger, lighter rackets have allowed serve speeds to skyrocket. Also, power is generated from the baseline like never before, so past greats such as John McEnroe question the loss of finesse and necessity to come to the net as a detriment to tennis' health.
In baseball, long-held records for home-run hitting were obliterated in the past two decades when performance enhancing drugs found their way into the game. Statistics are important to the fabric of baseball, and Major League Baseball has promised to do something about that problem.
By addressing the issue of credibility in bowling, USBC is sending a strong message: Through ongoing research and conviction, it will not allow technology to continue progressing to the point where it overwhelms player skill. A ball should not be the most important factor for success. Whether or not bowling can restore skill as the predominant attribute to score remains to be seen. But with stricter USBC guidelines, diligence and the entire industry working together, the unprecedented scenario we have witnessed over the past two decades will not progress and never happen again.
USBC's goal is not to simply lower scores. It wishes to better define the "stars" of the sport, and to maintain and grow a more endearing, challenging game.
As lessons from bowling's past and other sports' defining stages of growth attest, it's having stars like Marshall Holman or Tiger Woods or Babe Ruth or Mia Hamm or Serena Williams that are critical. Stars are inspirational.
In bowling, the line separating the stars from the masses has been blurred due to modern technology and therefore needs redefinition. As a result, the USBC Equipment Specifications team is studying all segments of the System of Bowling that impact the ability of the outside world to identify stars.
The System of Bowling includes the lanes, oil patterns, pins and bowling balls. All opportunities for change in these areas will happen only after open discussions with all those that may be affected in the industry. But make no mistake, there will be change.
Unlike the USGA, which in recent years deemed golf acceptable from a skill vs. technology standpoint and from that point pledged a continued monitoring of technological advancements, USBC has not made that declaration.
Instead, USBC has identified the qualities of bowling that make it a lifelong sport with the ability to form deep emotional bonds. In protecting the future of the game as national governing body, USBC intends to bring them all back into the equation.
Over the past 20 years, bowling's credibility has been compromised, indeed damaged, due to a failure to control different technological advancements. This is of no particular fault of bowling center proprietors, bowling ball manufacturers or bowlers. They were playing by the rules before them.
6/22/2005
- Marshall Holman
In the 1970s and 80s, Marshall Holman was a special bowler; he was a special athlete. The most electric performer of his day and the most consistently dominant pro bowler of the 1980s, Holman won 22 career Professional Bowlers Association titles in his Hall-of-Fame career.
Holman will be mostly remembered for the way he changed the game and inspired legions of youth bowlers through his evolved approach to the sport. Although he weighed just 140 pounds, Holman combined power and accuracy to such a healthy degree that he surged to the front of pro tournaments by hundreds of pins. At centers throughout the country, bowlers spent hour after hour practicing Holman's brilliant release. Holman was a star.
Larry Lichstein, the storied ball driller who spent decades on the PBA Tour, described Holman's unique talent in the November 1976 edition of Bowlers Journal magazine: "(Holman's) leverage and his strong lift allow him to create a devastating roll on his ball: he'll blow a 5-pin out of the rack harder than almost anybody."
Within that description rests a concern in the development and future of bowling as a viable sport. Does anyone in competitive bowling really concern themselves with the 5-pin anymore? No.
That's a major reason why Holman quit bowling competitively in the 1990s. His Olympian skill to "blow the 5-pin out of the rack" had been cheapened by the modern game, in particular the invention of resin and particle bowling balls with exotic core designs. The new balls, drilled with expert touches, were made compatible with increasingly forgiving lane conditions. Suddenly, hooking power had more to do with technology than the bowler. According to Holman, his skill of applying manmade power to the ball is now meaningless.
After all, today everybody gets the 5-pin out. Angles into the pocket have been redefined by an increased friction between lanes and balls that feature dynamic imbalances in modern bowling, resulting in amateur, youth and senior bowlers breaking scoring records at a blistering pace.
"The credibility of power is lost, and the game is hurt because of it," Holman says. "The balls I used during the '70s and '80s would be like golfers today using hickory shafts. Now, less is more. The less you do to the ball, the harder it hits."
That equation doesn't make sense to Holman.
"When Mark Roth was dominant in the 1970s, he took advantage of power," Holman says. "It seemed at the time that was the logical way it should be. If you could be accurate, control speed and be powerful, why wouldn't you be rewarded?"
Holman, a former ESPN broadcaster who now owns an income tax company and has no current financial ties to bowling, explains the problem with today's game in his eyes: "The balls have taken the players and squished them together," Holman says. "The ball has given all realms of releases hitting power."
Holman knows the number of league bowlers in the United States has dwindled in the past 20 years.
"The 'less is more' system doesn't work," Holman says. "At least part of the reason for people quitting bowling has to be the lack of needing to work at something to be good at it. Part of the problem has to be ease of scoring nowadays."
Today, Holman bowls one league night a week in his hometown of Medford, Ore. He says he never practices, misses 30 percent of league nights due to conflicting commitments and averages, "around 230." That's higher than any average Holman registered on the PBA Tour in his prime.
"I should be around 205 now," says Holman, who is dismayed by his belief that choosing the right equipment has become the most important aspect of the modern game.
The United States Bowling Congress, formed in January 2005, is concerned with the degree of influence technology is having over player skill as the primary factor for success in bowling today at all levels.
As the national governing body of the sport, USBC's pledge is to uphold its responsibility of maintaining the highest standards for credibility and integrity for bowling. Other sports' national governing bodies (such as USA Track and Field, United States Tennis Association, United States Golf Association, USA Hockey, etc.) make a similar promise to promote and develop their sports' growth; to provide vision and leadership.
Like most sports, bowling's equipment and playing fields have evolved for decades as technology has improved. Different eras are defined by their distinct environments. From wood to synthetic lanes, from rubber to plastic to urethane balls, from oiling the lanes with a spray gun to utilizing $20,000 lane machines. Scores have shot up at an alarming rate and the qualities necessary to succeed in the game have been clouded like never before in the history of the game.
However, not until the late '80s with the limited distance lane dressing rule was there a disproportionate rise in scoring. Then, in the early '90s, with the advent of exotic core designs in balls and reactive resin bowling balls followed by the invention of particle balls in the late '90s, the pins didn't have a chance. The pins appear incapable of resisting the power generated by those balls on current typical lane conditions. Scores have shot up at an alarming rate and the qualities necessary to succeed in the game have been clouded like never before in the history of the game.
Other sports have struggled with lassoing in the power of technology. In golf, for example, a current debate rages over the flying distance of the golf ball and the power of the modern titanium driver. Golf, though, has been fortunate that scoring has not been as disproportionately affected. Still, classic golf courses are being lengthened, and at especially the pro level, strategies such as altering pin placements are being used to demand more precision and all-around games from players who possess power provided by technology.
In tennis, bigger, lighter rackets have allowed serve speeds to skyrocket. Also, power is generated from the baseline like never before, so past greats such as John McEnroe question the loss of finesse and necessity to come to the net as a detriment to tennis' health.
In baseball, long-held records for home-run hitting were obliterated in the past two decades when performance enhancing drugs found their way into the game. Statistics are important to the fabric of baseball, and Major League Baseball has promised to do something about that problem.
By addressing the issue of credibility in bowling, USBC is sending a strong message: Through ongoing research and conviction, it will not allow technology to continue progressing to the point where it overwhelms player skill. A ball should not be the most important factor for success. Whether or not bowling can restore skill as the predominant attribute to score remains to be seen. But with stricter USBC guidelines, diligence and the entire industry working together, the unprecedented scenario we have witnessed over the past two decades will not progress and never happen again.
USBC's goal is not to simply lower scores. It wishes to better define the "stars" of the sport, and to maintain and grow a more endearing, challenging game.
As lessons from bowling's past and other sports' defining stages of growth attest, it's having stars like Marshall Holman or Tiger Woods or Babe Ruth or Mia Hamm or Serena Williams that are critical. Stars are inspirational.
In bowling, the line separating the stars from the masses has been blurred due to modern technology and therefore needs redefinition. As a result, the USBC Equipment Specifications team is studying all segments of the System of Bowling that impact the ability of the outside world to identify stars.
The System of Bowling includes the lanes, oil patterns, pins and bowling balls. All opportunities for change in these areas will happen only after open discussions with all those that may be affected in the industry. But make no mistake, there will be change.
Unlike the USGA, which in recent years deemed golf acceptable from a skill vs. technology standpoint and from that point pledged a continued monitoring of technological advancements, USBC has not made that declaration.
Instead, USBC has identified the qualities of bowling that make it a lifelong sport with the ability to form deep emotional bonds. In protecting the future of the game as national governing body, USBC intends to bring them all back into the equation.
Over the past 20 years, bowling's credibility has been compromised, indeed damaged, due to a failure to control different technological advancements. This is of no particular fault of bowling center proprietors, bowling ball manufacturers or bowlers. They were playing by the rules before them.
