Bowling's Olympic hopes that previously relied on the United States Bowling Congress are now in the hands of the World Tenpin Bowling Association
With more than nine million people competing in leagues and tournaments in the late 1970s, bowling was unquestionably the biggest participation sport in the United States and arguably in the world. Since then it has clearly lost such high status. Membership in the United States Bowling Congress now is below two million for the first time in 60 years. Meanwhile, there are more than 3.3 million competitive soccer participants and well above five million softball players in the U.S. alone.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (Sept. 4, 2012)
Bowling first had a close encounter with the Olympics in 1936 when an international tournament in Berlin, Germany, was conducted at the same time as the Olympics. But it was not an official part of those Games or any others until 1988 when it was an exhibition sport in Seoul, South Korea. Efforts to even get to that stage began in 1963 when bowling first applied to the International Olympic Committee to be considered a sport something that took until 1979 to achieve.
I have simply had enough. Bowlers get talked down to the members of the public. They are disrespected in mainstream media, and as an industry we have an obligation. We, the owners of bowling centers, tours, ball companies, shoe companies, grips companies and all the bowlers of the world have a responsibility to 'get bowlings back'. Why do I feel so strongly about this all of a sudden? Truth is, I have always felt this way, but recently this last straw broke my back.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (July 30, 2012)
To celebrate the start of another bowling season, National Bowling Day will be held on Saturday, Aug. 11 across America and anyone in the country can directly take part thanks to a free game of bowling. Valid at any participating bowling center, the free games are available by logging on to gobowling.com. Those who do so also will automatically entered into a drawing for a free ultra-fast 4G LTE iPad.
Eight coaches including three gold level coaches were on hand to work with bowlers
The 12th Annual Pro Image Bowling Camp finished up on July first in Rockaway, N.J. 25 students attended the camp at Rockaway Lanes There were eight coaches including three gold level coaches, which means that all campers had group
and individual time repeatedly with each coach, working on separate
elements of his or her game. As this was my twelfth year of coverage, I thought I'd come up with a new angle, that being to focus on the coaches themselves.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (July 3, 2012)
America's love affair with bowling and how changes in the country and the sport are related are the focus of a new book called Bowling: America's Greatest Game, slated to be available worldwide in late October. Authored by The Bowling Examiner, the 64-page paperback traces the sport from its ancient beginnings in Egypt to Europe and eventually to the United States during the 1800s when many people emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean bringing their popular game with them.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (June 27, 2012)
In conditions better suited for the beach than a bowling tournament, Kelly Kulick showed once again Wednesday night why she's among the world's best bowlers. The Union, N.J., right-hander found her way past the windy, dusty conditions of a Reno, Nev., night to capture the 2012 U.S. Women's Open and the $40,000 top prize. The event was conducted on four specially-installed lanes under the famous Reno Arch on Virginia Street in the city's downtown.
In our last Inside Line feature article, Breakdown and Carrydown - Then and Now, we discussed the reasons why breakdown and carrydown are different today. For this edition's feature article, we will add some data and visuals to support the previous article. The data was taken from the recently concluded European Bowling Tour Masters in Munich, Germany and it shows the same thing we often see in bowling tournaments today.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (June 7, 2012)
Professional Bowlers Association and United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame member Norm Duke (pictured) is the latest addition to the BowlSole organization. The 48-year-old Clermont, Fla., resident will serve as the company's celebrity spokesperson beginning with appearances June 27-28 in the BowlSole booth at International Bowl Expo in Reno, Nev. BowlSole is the world's first disposable pad that directly adheres to
virtually all types of street shoes and slides the same as regular
bowling shoes.
I have not really had a proper coach my entire bowling career. I had lost faith in coaches growing up because of how they wanted me to bowl, rather than helping by develop and hone my unique style and skill. I basically learned everything I know from listening to bowlers, asking questions and through my own experiences. By the time I was 24 I had traveled the world twice over, and I was killing at every event I bowled in. I felt things were easy for me during this part of my career.
We hear it all the time; "the heads are hooking", "carrydown is happening quickly today", "time to move again", "my ball's burning up – grab the fire extinguisher!" - ok maybe not the last one. But with the amount of oil needed in today's environment in order to protect the lane surface, and keep the modern ball from hooking into the gutter at the arrows, rapid and chaotic change is often the result. Even the best of players can be confused for a time during a block of games.
One of the world’s greatest news resources in bowling the industry is www.bowlingdigital.com. It’s a daily routine for me to visit and read about what’s going on in the world of our beloved game.
Its very existence proves how global bowling has become in the last 10 years. So many news stories, results, live streaming videos and pictures from the 4 corners of this world can be found right here. That’s why I was thrilled to have to the chance to write a monthly column for the site.
If you are going to become truly great at anything in your life, the thing you will do the most is fail.
The USBC Queens is a tournament where you better show up with the understanding that failure is part of the deal. It is a tournament where you watch someone on a nearby pair win a match with a 550 series while you lose with a 720, where you crush the field in qualifying only to be sent to the contender's bracket after the opening round of match play.
USBC Hall of Famer Dana Miller-Mackie won the first leg of the Senior Women’s Triple Crown Series Thursday at The Orleans in Las Vegas, Nev., defeating fellow Hall of Famer Robin Romeo, 216-200 for the 2012 National Golden Ladies Classic title. This is Miller-Mackie’s second National Golden Ladies Classic title and the win earned her a top prize of $2,000. In the Super Senior Division of the event, Janine Ditch edged out Connie Palmer with a total pinfall of 2,855 over Palmer’s 2,795.
The deletion of resurfacing requirement rule in 1964 created a huge asymmetric lane wear issue, which culminated with the PBA creating a lane maintenance division, and implementing their own lane surface policies for PBA Tour events. But today, with the large number of synthetic lanes, we have not only asymmetric wear issues, we found bowling lanes can also have severe asymmetric levelness issues. For Kegel and the LaneMapper project, our next challenge was to find a way to easily show the affects gravity had on a bowling ball on any one lane at any specific distance.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (Feb. 27, 2012)
No matter who won Sunday's title match in the 69th U.S. Open, history was going to be made. Fortunately for Pete Weber, it was him. Weber's strike on the day's final shot at Brunswick Zone-Carolier in North Brunswick, N.J., gave him a 215-214 victory over Mike Fagan of Grapevine, Texas. It marked the PBA and USBC Hall of Famer's fifth U.S. Open title surpassing his legendary father Dick and the recently-deceased Don Carter for the most in the history of the U.S.Open and its predecessor, the All-Star.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (Jan. 25, 2012)*
Mark Kelly, the commander of the final Space Shuttle mission and husband of retiring U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., will be the keynote speaker at the 2012 International Bowling Expo in Reno, Nev. Kelly, will speak the morning of June 27 at the Silver Legacy Resort. He recently retired from the NASA and from the Navy as a captain and is helping his wife recuperate after being shot in the head in an assassination attempt in January 2011.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (Jan. 7, 2012)
I only met Don Carter briefly a couple of times during my years with the American Bowling Congress and United States Bowling Congress but that was enough to know what he meant to the sport. One of the last true legends from bowling's peak of popularity of the 1950s and 60s, Carter died Thursday night at his Miami home. The 85-year-old had recently been released from the hospital after suffering from pneumonia complicated by emphysema. The sport will never be the same without him.
Republished courtesy of Examiner.com (Dec. 29, 2011)
After setting an attendance record in June and holding its finale at midfield of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the next Bowling's U.S. Women's Open will feature another elaborate venue. The stepladder finals of the 2012 event will be held outdoors for the first time on legendary Virginia Street in downtown Reno, Nev.
"I have no special gift - I am only passionately curious". Albert Einstein
Some refer to John Davis (pictured) as a genius in the field of lane maintenance and bowling. Davis however will tell you the same as Einstein; it was his fervent curiosity that led him to his inventions and a successful career in the bowling industry. His curiosity is even ingrained into his company's mission statement –
"we research the sport of bowling to find solutions, create products,
and provide systems to enhance the sport of bowling."
With more than nine million people competing in leagues and tournaments in the late 1970s, bowling was unquestionably the biggest participation sport in the United States and arguably in the world. Since then it has clearly lost such high status. Membership in the United States Bowling Congress now is below two million for the first time in 60 years. Meanwhile, there are more than 3.3 million competitive soccer participants and well above five million softball players in the U.S. alone.
Bowling first had a close encounter with the Olympics in 1936 when an international tournament in Berlin, Germany, was conducted at the same time as the Olympics. But it was not an official part of those Games or any others until 1988 when it was an exhibition sport in Seoul, South Korea. Efforts to even get to that stage began in 1963 when bowling first applied to the International Olympic Committee to be considered a sport something that took until 1979 to achieve.
I have simply had enough. Bowlers get talked down to the members of the public. They are disrespected in mainstream media, and as an industry we have an obligation. We, the owners of bowling centers, tours, ball companies, shoe companies, grips companies and all the bowlers of the world have a responsibility to 'get bowlings back'. Why do I feel so strongly about this all of a sudden? Truth is, I have always felt this way, but recently this last straw broke my back.
To celebrate the start of another bowling season, National Bowling Day will be held on Saturday, Aug. 11 across America and anyone in the country can directly take part thanks to a free game of bowling. Valid at any participating bowling center, the free games are available by logging on to gobowling.com. Those who do so also will automatically entered into a drawing for a free ultra-fast 4G LTE iPad.
The 12th Annual Pro Image Bowling Camp finished up on July first in Rockaway, N.J. 25 students attended the camp at Rockaway Lanes There were eight coaches including three gold level coaches, which means that all campers had group
and individual time repeatedly with each coach, working on separate
elements of his or her game. As this was my twelfth year of coverage, I thought I'd come up with a new angle, that being to focus on the coaches themselves. 
America's love affair with bowling and how changes in the country and the sport are related are the focus of a new book called Bowling: America's Greatest Game, slated to be available worldwide in late October. Authored by The Bowling Examiner, the 64-page paperback traces the sport from its ancient beginnings in Egypt to Europe and eventually to the United States during the 1800s when many people emigrated across the Atlantic Ocean bringing their popular game with them.
In conditions better suited for the beach than a bowling tournament, Kelly Kulick showed once again Wednesday night why she's among the world's best bowlers. The Union, N.J., right-hander found her way past the windy, dusty conditions of a Reno, Nev., night to capture the 2012 U.S. Women's Open and the $40,000 top prize. The event was conducted on four specially-installed lanes under the famous Reno Arch on Virginia Street in the city's downtown. 
In our last Inside Line feature article, Breakdown and Carrydown - Then and Now, we discussed the reasons why breakdown and carrydown are different today. For this edition's feature article, we will add some data and visuals to support the previous article. The data was taken from the recently concluded European Bowling Tour Masters in Munich, Germany and it shows the same thing we often see in bowling tournaments today.
Professional Bowlers Association and United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame member Norm Duke (pictured) is the latest addition to the BowlSole organization. The 48-year-old Clermont, Fla., resident will serve as the company's celebrity spokesperson beginning with appearances June 27-28 in the BowlSole booth at International Bowl Expo in Reno, Nev. BowlSole is the world's first disposable pad that directly adheres to
virtually all types of street shoes and slides the same as regular
bowling shoes. 
If you are going to become truly great at anything in your life, the thing you will do the most is fail.
The USBC Queens is a tournament where you better show up with the understanding that failure is part of the deal. It is a tournament where you watch someone on a nearby pair win a match with a 550 series while you lose with a 720, where you crush the field in qualifying only to be sent to the contender's bracket after the opening round of match play.
USBC Hall of Famer Dana Miller-Mackie won the first leg of the Senior Women’s Triple Crown Series Thursday at The Orleans in Las Vegas, Nev., defeating fellow Hall of Famer Robin Romeo, 216-200 for the 2012 National Golden Ladies Classic title. This is Miller-Mackie’s second National Golden Ladies Classic title and the win earned her a top prize of $2,000. In the Super Senior Division of the event, Janine Ditch edged out Connie Palmer with a total pinfall of 2,855 over Palmer’s 2,795.
The deletion of resurfacing requirement rule in 1964 created a huge asymmetric lane wear issue, which culminated with the PBA creating a lane maintenance division, and implementing their own lane surface policies for PBA Tour events. But today, with the large number of synthetic lanes, we have not only asymmetric wear issues, we found bowling lanes can also have severe asymmetric levelness issues. For Kegel and the LaneMapper project, our next challenge was to find a way to easily show the affects gravity had on a bowling ball on any one lane at any specific distance.
No matter who won Sunday's title match in the 69th U.S. Open, history was going to be made. Fortunately for Pete Weber, it was him. Weber's strike on the day's final shot at Brunswick Zone-Carolier in North Brunswick, N.J., gave him a 215-214 victory over Mike Fagan of Grapevine, Texas. It marked the PBA and USBC Hall of Famer's fifth U.S. Open title surpassing his legendary father Dick and the recently-deceased Don Carter for the most in the history of the U.S.Open and its predecessor, the All-Star.
Mark Kelly, the commander of the final Space Shuttle mission and husband of retiring U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., will be the keynote speaker at the 2012 International Bowling Expo in Reno, Nev. Kelly, will speak the morning of June 27 at the Silver Legacy Resort. He recently retired from the NASA and from the Navy as a captain and is helping his wife recuperate after being shot in the head in an assassination attempt in January 2011.
I only met Don Carter briefly a couple of times during my years with the American Bowling Congress and United States Bowling Congress but that was enough to know what he meant to the sport. One of the last true legends from bowling's peak of popularity of the 1950s and 60s, Carter died Thursday night at his Miami home. The 85-year-old had recently been released from the hospital after suffering from pneumonia complicated by emphysema. The sport will never be the same without him. 
After setting an attendance record in June and holding its finale at midfield of Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the next Bowling's U.S. Women's Open will feature another elaborate venue. The stepladder finals of the 2012 event will be held outdoors for the first time on legendary Virginia Street in downtown Reno, Nev.
"I have no special gift - I am only passionately curious". Albert Einstein 