My Pro Bowling Experience

The other night a friend of mine that I bowl with, who is a former USBC(United States Bowling Congress) Pro Bowler invited me to a sport bowling event. Now I am an established bowler. I carried a 191, and 203 average at 2 bowling centers last season, and am well respected in both of my leagues. Now I have heard of sport bowling, but for those of you that have not, I will explain.

Sport bowling is set up differently that a normal league night. Instead of a 5 or 4 man team, it's blind doubles. You don't know who your partner will be in other words. Also the lane conditions are set up exactly how the Pros' have their lanes set up.

 During my 10 minute practice, I thought that I would set up where I was comfortable throwing, then if it didn't break to the pocket like I wanted then I would continue to move inside. That worked until the game actually started. What happened was, I wore out my line during practice, and when the game started I got away with a strike because I threw the ball to hard and it didn't break. I really thought I would do well, then I ended up throwing a 156.

 After that game I really had a new found respect for the real pros. My high game that night was 210, which really isn't that bad, but considering how on target you had to be, it was a great game for me. It was really a lot of fun because it really showed me where my flaws were. It showed me that I have the power, and speed, but I lack the accuracy needed to go pro.

 As I bowled that night, and even after, I really wanted to concentrate on my accuracy. Bowling is kinda like pool, It's not about power it's about consistency. If you don't have that you don't have anything. It was really amazing to me how hard the lane conditions were. You could only be off by about a half a board, and if you were, you were gonna leave a split.

 There are a lot of good bowlers here in northwest Ohio, and I am respected as one of them. I can honestly say that if you think you can keep up with the pros because you shot a 700 series one night in league, try doing it on a pro lane, and then shot 800. That's what they do, dare I say "consistency"