Bowling Site
	Clyde Higa BellaOnline's Bowling Editor

A Bowling Muse
I would like to introduce a person who deserves a lot of credit for giving me ideas for my articles - my brother Myron, who lives in Mesa, and he is one of my bowling muses. He is the epitome of many a bowler who quit within the last twenty-five years and is now coming back to the sport.

Basic Bowling Equipment Specs
You may be a casual, once-in-a-while bowler or you may be the certified league bowler, but the USBC is responsible for the equipment you are allowed to use in bowling. Let's go over some of the basics of equipment specifications for the sport of bowling.

Bowling Deserves Respect
Bowling has arguably become the largest participation sport in the world. However, when people talk about sports, you're more likely to hear about football, baseball, basketball, hockey, or soccer.

Bowling Equipment Has Changed a Lot
In reality, the sport of bowling has not changed at all. The basics and fundamentals of the game remain the same as 50 years (or more) ago and will continue far into the future. It is the equipment that has changed.

Bowling Future and the Female Bowler
Bowling is growing in popularity after a 20 year decline in participation and is poised for even greater growth because of the female bowler.

Bowling Newsletter and Forum
Today is May 7, 2007. I have just completed my graduation checklist and it is being reviewed by my trainers and mentors for completeness.

Choosing Your Team
What happened? They tried to spell the word as, "I-T-I-E-I-A-I-M-I." Too many individuals dominating and breaking up the team. It just doesn't work. This is one case where the "I's" don't have it.

Different Kinds Of Tournaments
They have become more of a social event for people to get together and compete in a comfortable atmosphere. It's a great way to meet new people and make friends. There are other events with different formats that will be just as much fun if they are offered at your favorite bowling place.

Dry Lane Conditions
I overheard some of the higher average bowlers talking about the dry lane conditions the other night (talk? actually, they were complaining and whining). My reaction was, "hey, if you guys think of yourselves as such good bowlers, why can't you adjust?"

Games Within A Game
During league play, you will see many teams compete within themselves by playing a version of poker. For every strike or spare, cards are drawn from a central deck and at the end of the game, the best poker hand wins.

Goal Setting
Okay, let's say that you're a 130 average bowler and want to raise your average by twenty or more pins to get at least to the 150's. Doing a self-analysis of your situation, you can see that if you make three to four more spares a game, you will achieve that objective.

I'ts All In Fun
One of the best lessons I've learned over the years is, "never take yourself too seriously." This is why I always try to joke and kid around when I'm bowling. Of course, there are some who will not loosen up; but, for the most part, I find that most people will respond positively.

If Things Go Wrong When Bowling
One of the things I advise people to do is to imagine everything that could go wrong when they are bowling in competition and write them down on a list. Then, over the course of several practice sessions, pretend that each of those "things-that-could-go-wrong," actually did.

Is Bowling A Sport?
There are as many opinions about whether bowling is a sport as there are people interested in it. There will be no end to the theorizing about whether it should be called the "sport of bowling."

Jargon For Beginners
We bowlers toss around terms that have become second-nature to us; but, which may not register with beginners. It's like talking ERA's, RBI's, and Batting Averages to someone who is not into baseball.

Keep It Simple
So your interest in the sport of bowling is now beyond the once-in-a-while, recreational past-time and you're ready to take your game to the next level.

Laughter Relieves Pressure
Wherever you are with a group of people, there are characters who will do "crazy" things to break up the tense situations. You often end up laughing hysterically because the moment suddenly turns humorous.

Les Casady - 99 Year Old Bowler
The highest average Les has ever carried was 195 and he threw his 300 game in Wichita, Kansas sometime in the 1970's. He doesn't remember his highest series because he, "doesn't keep track of those things." His ball was made of rubber and had two holes - a thumb hole and one for the middle finger

Make Sure You Check The Approaches
Some sticking accident injuries I have personally seen are broken ankle, broken arm, broken rib, and numerous bruises on various parts of the body. When a bowler falls on the lane, there is no predicting what part will hit first.

My Funny Quotes For Bowling
Well, they weren't corny enough for me so I had to make up some of my own so that I'd get the bowlers listening and groaning. More importantly, once they caught on that I was making some kind of a bad joke, they listened to the other general announcements that I was making.

Oil Patterns
Today's bowler must learn about bowling oil patterns if they want to increase their level of competitiveness.

Personal Bowling Safety
When you start thinking about safety and list some of the areas and things that could cause us personal injury, you begin to realize just how vulnerable we are when we're bowling

Play The Current Conditions
How many times have people come to you and said things like, "I practiced here last week and shot 250;" "During the practice, I was throwing nothing but strikes;" or "The last time I bowled here, I really scored well." Actually, how may times have you felt that way?

Practice More, Average More
The more times you're able to get on the lanes for practice sessions, however, the higher your average will be and the more times you will be on the alley bowling strikes.

Some Common Bowling Mistakes
"Rule #1 - Get a bowling coach, Rule #2 - After analyzing the common problem areas that bowlers have, refer to Rule #1." Here's some of the many tendencies I've seen over the years that prevent bowlers from getting better. Let's cover some common problem areas that are working against them

Team Lineups
One of the theories I learned back from my junior bowling days was how to set the most powerful lineup using the bowlers you have. Like any sports team, the head coach will study his pool of available talent and line them "just-so" in an attempt to optimize the scoring production.

The Foul Line Correction
Here's the gist of it: as the ball is released, the bowler senses that something doesn't feel right and makes an unconscious, automatic correction of his/her release to set the ball on the lane in the proper strike line

The PBA Oil Patterns
This article will do a quick review of the five PBA oil patterns. Even if you never bowl on them, at least you'll know their names.

What Is Lane Oil?
I actually started to write an article about bowling lane oil many months ago; but, I was looking for a solid definition and description. Guess what? I didn't find one. Believe me when I say that I tried. No definitive answers, I'm afraid.

Your Dominant Eye
Knowing your dominant eye may help you understand that in order to hit the 10 board, you, personally, have to actually aim for the 8 board. Do you know if your accuracy is being affected by this "dominant eye?"