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From: bulko@ut-sally.UUCP (Bill Bulko)
Newsgroups: net.sport
Subject: bowling
Message-ID: <3908@ut-sally.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 3-Jan-86 01:31:04 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-sally.3908
Posted: Fri Jan  3 01:31:04 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 4-Jan-86 04:56:44 EST
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 40
Keywords: tenpins, equipment, bowling, PBA

[The postman hits!  --More-- ]
[You have new mail.          ]

Let's see if I can stimulate some discussion about bowling here.  (Al
Schwartz, are you still out there?)
     Recently a friend and I were having a discussion:  in some sports, it's
advisable for beginners to start out with "training-level" equipment until
they've mastered the sport [at that level], at which time they move on to
better equipment;  either (a) it's easier for them to learn that sport this
way, or (b) it's inadvisable to use higher-level equipment without experience.
An example of such a sport might be something like skiing or auto racing.
(I'm sure there are better examples, but none come to mind at the moment.)
In other sports, all players can use the same level of equipment, but it's
wasted on beginners since they can't use it effectively (much less tell the
difference).  An example of the latter might be tennis (a racquet is a
racquet to a beginner) or golf (beginners don't need a whole set of clubs if
they can't use them correctly).  For sports in the first group, a beginner
should never get the "best" equipment at the start, whereas in the second
group, it doesn't hurt.  In which category does bowling fall?
     It's always been my opinion that beginning bowlers should use a hard
rubber, conventionally drilled ball when they learn how to bowl since it's
the easiest to control and their scores will reflect how well they master the
basic delivery.  However, I've seen some coaches in this area who believe
that [non-child] beginners should start immediately with a fingertip ball of
somewhat softer material so that they learn to develop a hook from day one;
the apparent strategy is to discourage the development of bad habits.  Anyone
out there care to add to this discussion?
     Incidentally, does anyone out there have a list of the PBA's top ten
average leaders for 1985?  Our newspaper didn't include it in its year-end
report on the tour.

					Bill


_______________________________________________________________________________
	  "In the knowledge lies the power." -- Edward A. Feigenbaum
		       "Knowledge is good." -- Emil Faber
Bill Bulko					Department of Computer Sciences
The University of Texas         {ihnp4,harvard,gatech,ctvax,seismo}!sally!bulko
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