Earl Anthony. Walter Ray Williams Jr. Pete Weber. Mark Roth. Marshall Holman. Jason Belmonte.
Marion Ladewig. Doris Coburn. Cindy Coburn-Carroll. Tish Johnson. Liz Johnson. Kelly Kulick.
My guess is most of my readers do not know any of those names or what they are known for. All of them are professional bowlers that are true standouts in the sport, and there are many many more I could have listed.
Bowling is the sport that gets made fun of or is considered a joke. When people think of bowling, they don't think of it as a huge sport like football or hockey. Bowlers are ALWAYS underestimated. In fact, most people I talk to think it's a joke that I am on a partial scholarship for a NCAA Division I bowling team.
People think of bowling as just a leisurely activity or hobby that someone can take up. They don't think it takes particularly much skill to throw a ball down a lane and knock down ten pins. To be blunt, if you think that you are wrong.
To keep things basic, I will go into two categories that make our sport very unique.
The first is every bowler's favorite (just kidding) oil patterns. Oil is what goes on the lane to challenge the bowler. The amount of oil depends on how the ball will curve or stay straight. The more oil, the less the ball will hook and vice versa, the less oil the more the ball will hook. To give you a visual think of a field of grass. If the grass is very high and you roll a ball through it, it's not going to bounce or curve because there's grass in the way. But if the grass is very low and freshly cut, the ball roll wherever it wants because there is no grass stopping it. There are many different variations of this that can be spread across sixty feet of the lane.
Fun Fact: The amount of oil on one lane is about enough to fill a shot glass.
The second is for sure the bowler's favorite; the bowling ball. Just like any other sport there are many bowling ball companies and there are some that are better than others in the industry. Everyone wonders how a ball gets that beautiful hooking motion, and the answer is the core and shell that is inside and on the bowling ball. The types of inside and outside of a ball depends on what the ball will do. The most common are a reactive and plastic. The reactive outside is what make the ball hook. A plastic ball will roll straight.
Fun Fact: The bowling ball company Storm produces bowling balls that have a scent like orange chocolate, fruit punch, and a cider donut.
Bowling is a unique sport and it's not like any other. I used to be a softball player and a dancer, but I quit both because of bowling. Bowling is hard. I chose it because it's a challenge. Our playing field is invisible. We can either bowl as a team, a doubles or individually. Bowling is 90% mental game and just 10% physical game.
The mental game comes from knowing when you should move because of the oil or picking yourself back up after a bad game. It can also be just simply trusting your shot and believing in yourself.
My favorite thing about bowling is that in the beginning of a game someone could be losing by fifty pins, and in the end, that same person who was losing has won by ten pins. It is such a nail-biting sport. Every frame counts, every single swing and shot counts. A good shot does not mean you're going to get a strike, and sometimes it's just one shot that saves the day.
"One of the advantages bowling has over golf is that you seldom lose a bowling ball."- The Great Don Carter.
