I honestly believe that the more games in the tournament, the more the women should get a start. Any female can beat any male over 1 game. However, over 10 games, the odds go slightly to male. Over 20, and I'd be betting on the male to clean up.
Many could argue that strength is not necessary in bowling. That's absolute rubbish. Use no strength and try to throw a hook ball, without a wristguard. Go on... Can ya do it? Without keeping the wrist in a firm position, at least at the release, it's basically impossible. Your wrist will bend back with the weight of the ball as it starts to fall and takes control in the downswing. So, once you start to use muscle, the advantage to males begins to take place. Don't forget the strength required at the foul line, to stay balanced and getting yourself in a strong position to enable maximum leverage with as little arm strength as nessacary. Males, due to their naturally stronger bodies, also have better endurance, both for strength and muscle repetition. Put the same bowlers, one male and one female on the exact same training program in any sport and 80%-90% of the time, the male will be performing slighty better. And we all know in bowling, that one light mix can add an extra 21-40 pins on your game, depending on if you make the spare or not.
However, many could argue that it's an open event. An open scratch event for that matter. Which is true... kind of. It does become a handicap event of some description once the 5-8 pins a game is awarded. But when it has been scientifically proven that males compete at a higher level then women in almost every sport (in fact, to the best of my knowledge there is only one world record in any sport that is held by a woman. Deep sea breath holding or something like that. It's the only one.). Then giving women a 5-8 pin start, not even a spare a game, really isn't that much. Especially when in some sports the difference in performance is up to 10%. Maybe we shouldn't be complaining about a 20 pin headstart.
Some people have raised that their are some truly awesome female bowlers in this country and that they shouldn't get a start. That's completely true. There are some absolutly incredibly talented female bowlers in Australia. However, I challenge you to put any where near as much effort, practice and training into your game as Cara, Max, Carol, Sue and AMP have. These women got the level that they did because they put the effort in. They deserve every accolade they get for the amount of time and energy that they devoted to their game, and others for that matter. But the fact remains, that if males put the same amount of training in, they would probably come out on top, especially over the 15 games Matchplay that used to be so common in Australian Tournaments.
Basically, I don't mind giving females an extra 5-8 pins a game. But, honestly, I would love to see them with a complete Super Six event series of their own. But there is only one way that this can happen. With the full on support from the female bowling community. The SA Cup has both a Female and Male division. If this is successful, then why can't some more major's try the female and male division's? That would truly end this argument once and for all.
Later Da Cowman!
