Cornerstone Newsletter, March 2009

June Davis — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 12:38:38 GMT

The Cornerstone

The Foundation Newsletter

Volume 12, Issue 3 March 2009

"The crisis is upon us, friends. Our sport is in trouble. Many of you, that love the game as we do, will look at the crisis like a friend who is in trouble and needs our help. We must not shrink from the task before us, we should welcome it. It is 'our' generation that has been called to the challenge. If not now, when? If not us, who?"

The Foundation

“One World, One Game”

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Letter from the Editor

Stop Whining; Go Practice!

I always get a little chuckle when I’m bowling and I hear people complain about their scores. It really amuses me when people start griping about why they can’t score…especially when I see how many spares they miss.

Let’s all be honest; we all have moments that are frustrating when we bowl. I know I find it difficult to stay positive when I hit the pocket and I don’t carry. It becomes even more frustrating when I start watching other people around me (which speaks volumes as to why you should concentrate on your game and not on everyone else!). I personally hate it when I can’t seem to catch a break. But, if I can’t make my spares, then I really have nothing to complain about. After all, that’s my own fault. You can’t control how the pins fall (whether or not you make a good shot); you can only control how you release the ball so you’d better be able to make those spares.

But it truly is comical when people complain about why their scores are so low. Really, it’s all excuses: “The lane condition;” “I don’t match up;” “I was using the wrong ball;” the excuses can go on an on. My question is does anyone seem to take ownership in their game and just say “I made a bad shot;” “I missed my spares;” “It was me.” I listen to people a lot and I always hear the same things; no one ever seems to be responsible to themselves.

Bowling, like any other sport, requires practice for improvement. There are very few people that can bowl three games per week and maintain a high average; especially on a sport shot. If you want to score better, take some initiative and ownership in your game and go practice. Your game is certain to improve with a little extra practice…which may even make bowling a little more fun for you when you see some higher scores.

Kegel to Offer On-Site Coaching for Elite Teams Around the World

Kegel Training Center Coaches Available for Youth and Coach Development as Well

Lake Wales, Florida - The Kegel Training Center has announced the introduction of new products and services designed to support elite teams and the coaches of these teams. These products and services include targeted assistance to bowling federations around the world as well as college and high school teams in the United States.

As part of this initiative, the world-class coaching staff of the Training Center will be available to travel on-site, anywhere in the world, to train bowlers and coaches as well as develop customized programs such as team training programs, youth development programs, coach development programs and pro shop operations. They will also be available to assist with team tournament preparation, long-term bowler development, clinics, etc.

On-site training would include the use of portable C.A.T.S. and in-depth video analysis. The Kegel Training Center coaching staff are the world leaders in the evaluation of the physical game with video analysis and the interpretation of Computer Aided Tracking System (C.A.T.S.) data in regard to ball motion. Collectively, the three coaches have more than 100 years of elite coaching experience. On an annual basis, each coach analyzes more than 1000 hours of bowler video as well as layout hundreds of bowling balls for elite players for specific tournament conditions.

Warren and Stoughton, both USBC Gold-Level coaches, have extensive experience supporting professional bowlers on both the PBA and PWBA tours. Del and Randy were touring players on the PBA Tour and have worked extensively in coaching, bowling ball design and elite player development.

Slowinski has in-depth experience in both elite coach and youth development. Slowinski joined the Kegel Training Center after two years working as the Director of Coaching for the National Sports Council of Malaysia. Joe is a contributing writer for Bowling This Month.

All three coaches have been recognized many times as a Bowlers Journal International Top 100 coach. And, the Training Center staff currently coaches the Webber International University team, one of the top collegiate programs in the United States, in only it's first year of existence.

For those interested in learning more about these services, contact the Kegel Training Center. Brent Sims, Kegel Training Center Coordinator; brent.sims@kegel.net

PBA stars Malott, O'Neill added to 2009 Team USA roster

By: Lucas Wiseman; USBC Communications

A pair of the most dominating players on the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour - Wes Malott of Pflugerville, Texas, and Bill O'Neill of Levittown, Pa., - have been added to the 2009 Team USA roster.

Malott and O'Neill join an elite group of bowlers on Team USA who will represent the United States in international competition throughout the year. Both were selected because of their solid play so far this season on the PBA Tour.

"Certainly Wes and Bill have had very solid performances so far this season," Team USA head coach Jeri Edwards said. "When you combine that with the fact that they have bowled well the last couple years, it was really a joy to be able to add these two great players to the team for 2009."

Malott, 32, currently leads the PBA's Player of the Year points race with 58 points after 12 events. He has made seven championship round appearances this season, winning twice, finishing second once, third three times and fourth once.

"Now that I've been selected, I'm definitely looking forward to it," said Malott, who has five PBA titles and over $600,000 in career earnings. "I'm very excited to be able to represent my country. It's the chance of a lifetime, and that's the way I'm looking at it."

Although O'Neill, 27, is still seeking his first PBA title, he has appeared in the championship round five times this season, taking second place twice. He also has seven top 10 finishes this season.

"I didn't realize they were actually going to add players to the team, so to get that call was very surprising and a huge honor," said O'Neill, a three-time collegiate bowler of the year at Saginaw Valley State. "The group of guys that they have selected to be on Team USA is just incredible and for them to select me to be a part of that group feels pretty special."

The additions of Malott and O'Neill were made by a committee comprised of representatives from the United States Bowling Congress and the Professional Bowlers Association. The same committee was responsible for selecting five male and five female players to join Team USA in October.

"When the selection committee made those picks, they did so with the understanding that if other players excelled during the first half of the PBA Tour or PBA Women's Series season, they would be able to make additional selections," said David Garber, High Performance Director for USBC. "Wes and Bill have without a doubt proven they belong on Team USA."

Malott and O'Neill's selections bring the total number of men on the Team USA 2009 roster to 12. They join fellow exempt players Walter Ray Williams Jr., Tommy Jones, Chris Barnes, Rhino Page, Patrick Allen and Nathan Bohr along with amateurs Cassidy Schaub, David Haynes, John Szczerbinski and Tim Pfeifer.

Six of the 12 players on the men's team will travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico, this September to compete in the 2009 Pan American Bowling Confederation Championships. Six Team USA women will also compete in the event.

RESTORING THE GOLD STANDARD TO THE USBC AWARDS PROGRAM

What is bowling's ultimate achievement?

We don’t know for sure, but we imagine Norm Duke came pretty darn close this past year with his back-to-back-to-back victories in three PBA majors. That has to be “the ultimate” achievement in at least one critical regard, seeing as how it was never done before.

What brings the question to mind, of course, is bowling’s latest certified 900 series. This one was authored on Dec. 22 by Baltimore’s Rich Jerome Jr. It is bowling’s ultimate scoring trio in that it can’t be topped.

Yet it has been done before, hasn't it?

In fact, Jerome’s was the 12th 900 in 11 years. In the more than 100 years of certified bowling history that preceded that, no one had been able to wrest an imprimatur from any of bowling’s governing bodies for stringing three 300 games in a single series.

The closest anybody came was in 1939 when Allie Brandt felled 886 sticks in a Lockport, N.Y., league. That three-game record stood for almost half a century, and the trio was primarily responsible for Brandt’s election to ABC’s Hall of Fame in 1960.

Brandt’s signature series was finally beaten by Glenn Allison in 1982, though the then ABC never saw fit to give Allison anything other than the shaft.

In 1989 came Tom Jordan’s 899. Then the floodgates opened. Last we checked, Brandt’s score wasn’t even in USBC’s top 100.

Obviously, something had changed to make huge bowling scores obscenely plentiful. The general culprit is labelled “the environment.” And no, that doesn’t mean someone left the air conditioner on overnight.

Rather, the oil pattern was such that the lane conditions were conducive to someone hitting the pocket — and carrying — at an unusually high rate.

On the other hand, to paraphrase the late, great Andy Varipapa, “None of bowling’s biggest scores were shot without some kind of help.”

Not that Jerome’s feat was easy. Just try throwing 36 straight strikes sometime, regardless of the conditions.

In fact, maybe Jerome should get a special medal for exposing the real culprit, the USBC standards which made his impossible feat possible.

In a way, the situation might be comparable to the talk today about moral equivalency, and how that has contributed to a general erosion in societal standards. Well, one problem about any of these high scores is what might be called, for argument’s sake, performance equivalency.

You see, when a league bowler shoots a big score and USBC certifies it, “purists” go crazy when someone invokes the equivalency argument because of the USBC imprimatur to claim that the performance is equivalent to the best of those of bowling greats like Walter Ray Williams Jr. or Pete Weber, et al.

Most know you can’t compare the two because there is a recreational-type shot — a.k.a. “house conditions” — and then there are the more demanding Tour standards.

Looked at another way, the “house shot” can present the same type of challenge as would playing in a ballpark with short outfield fences, against a pitching staff imported from the Bad News Bears.

Yet USBC certifies such performances as legitimate.

To circumvent that mixed message, USBC needs to seriously revamp its options. How so?

Well, it’s already moving toward making major modifications to its awards program. Good idea. Those opting for recreational or “pretend” conditions could get a certificate instead of a ring.

As for those leagues which opted to compete on the more demanding Sport or PBA Experience conditions, reward them for choosing reality. USBC could keep the awards program in place, a judicious choice.

Since scoring would be brought back to reality on those real conditions, USBC could even afford to go back to the gold standard for its major honor awards.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: From time-to-time we use articles in our Newsletters that we feel are of interest from other sources that we feel are important for our readers to know about. We totally agree with this one, regarding the USBC Awards Program. This article appeared in the February 2009 Issue of Bowlers Journal International. It was used with permission from Executive Editor, Jim Dressel.

To further editorialize this on this excellent article, Jim focused on the Awards Program and how it has decayed over the years due to the “environment”, mainly pointing out that oiling patterns was perhaps the culprit. We would like to add that the influx of bowling ball technology has also played a huge part in this scoring fest. The fact is that throughout the years, high scores have always been a threat to the integrity of our Sport. Lanemen have always sought to create high scores with various ways of lane conditioning. Even though there are less avid bowlers today then there were in 1980 (about 6 million), it appears that the quality of these players must be better because of the scores. (NOT.)

Baltimore's Rich Jerome Jr. rolls 900 series

By: Mark Miller; USBC Communications

Baltimore's Rich Jerome Jr. became the 12th bowler to roll an approved 900 series Dec. 22. The 29-year-old right-hander had three consecutive 300 games in the Monday Night Mixed League at Brunswick Perry Hall Lanes in Baltimore.

He was the first bowler in two years with 36 consecutive strikes in the same series. The last 900 was rolled Dec. 23, 2006 by P.J. Giesfeldt in Milwaukee.

"I started realizing I might have a shot at it in the seventh frame of the last game," said Jerome, now in his 11th year on the lanes. "It seemed from then on that people started standing around my lanes but I tried to watch the pins. I also tried watching the football game on TV to take my mind off it.

"After I finished, I looked around and it seemed like everyone there was on the settee area with me. It was very exciting."

Jerome had 10 previous 300 games and five earlier 800 series. Two of his perfect games came as part of his previous career-high 857 series Nov. 3 in the Drug Trade League, also at Perry Hall. The Drug Trade is USBC's oldest certified league dating back to the 1896-97 season.

Previous 900 shooters are: Jeremy Sonnenfeld, Lincoln, Neb., Feb. 2, 1997; Tony Roventini, Milwaukee, Nov. 9, 1998; Vince Wood, Moreno Valley, Calif., Sept. 29, 1999; Robby Portalatin, Jackson, Mich., Dec. 28, 2000; James Hylton, Salem, Ore., May 2, 2001; Jeff Campbell II, New Castle, Pa., June 12, 2004; Darin Pomije, New Prague, Minn., Dec. 9, 2004; Robert Mushtare, Fort Drum, N.Y., Dec. 5, 2005 and Feb. 19, 2006; Lonnie Billiter Jr., Fairfield, Ohio, Feb. 13, 2006; Mark Wukoman, Greenfield, Wis., April 22, 2006; and Giesfeldt.

PBA Names Kegel as “Official Training Center”

Deal Includes Computer Aided Tracking System to be featured at PBA Majors

The Kegel Training Center has been named as the Official Training Facility of the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA). As part of this relationship, the Kegel Training Center will provide the Computer Aided Tracking System (C.A.T.S.) along with a support technician for all three PBA major championships including the H&R Block Tournament of Champions, the United States Bowling Congress Masters Championship and the 66th Lumber Liquidators U.S. Open, plus the GEICO Plastic Ball Championship and the Go RVing Match Play Championship.

With C.A.T.S. being utilized, viewers will be given unprecedented access to data including shot-by-shot information on each players' ball speed, launch angle, target accuracy at multiple points on the lane, entry angle and rev rate. C.A.T.S. includes a graphic display of each ball path to illustrate accuracy and lane play for the complete game. "The C.A.T.S., information will help viewers appreciate how good these players are at throwing a bowling ball," said Kegel Vice President Del Warren.

"The partnership between the PBA and Kegel will be a great treat for the fans," said PBA Vice President and COO Tom Clark. "The C.A.T.S. System will further educate the viewer and bring them much closer to the action."

As the world leader in bowling education, the Kegel Training Center has trained more than 10,000 bowlers from around the world including 50 National Teams and more than 500 elite professionals from Asia, Europe and the Americas. "Educating and coaching the bowler on the differences between the game and the sport of bowling has always been a key area of focus for the Kegel Training Center," Warren added. "Our entire coaching staff is proud to be part of helping the PBA make the sport of bowling better for all." Our Staff includes Randy Stoughton (Gold Level), Joe Slowinski (Silver Level) and Brent Sims (Silver Level). In addition, Warren was one of the very first Gold Certified coaches along with being a PBA National Champion and Touring Pro.

"I am honored that the PBA has chosen the Kegel Training Center to be the Official Training Center of the PBA," said Kegel President John Davis. "I also appreciate that the PBA recognizes Kegel’s past, present and future contribution to support the true sport of bowling."

About the Kegel Training Center

The Kegel Training Center in Lake Wales, Fl. (just south of Orlando), is the world's most unique training facility with 12 bowling lanes - each featuring C.A.T.S. - and video analysis with cameras from three different perspectives. The Training Center has the flattest lane surfaces in the world, which contains a scientifically-designed system of chains more than two miles long beneath the floor of the facility which allows for the adjustment of each of the lanes topography to be adjusted every 12 inches.

Stoughton's name added to short list of USBC Gold level coaches

Randy Stoughton recently became just the 32nd coach to earn United States Bowling Congress Gold level certification.

Stoughton, 54, who currently holds a staff position at the Kegel Training Center in Lake Wales, Fla., has been operating at the sport's highest levels for the past 30 years, working as sales manager for Ebonite International, tour representative for the PBA and PWBA tours, PBA Player Services Director and expert ball driller.

It is estimated that Stoughton has drilled in excess of 100,000 bowling balls, many of them for top-level professional bowlers such as Jason Couch, Mike Edwards, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard and Kim Terrell-Kearney. Stoughton's expertise in this field has led to the widespread popularity of his pro shop course, which has been attended by elite bowling entities from around the world.

Stoughton's ascension to USBC Gold status further solidifies his position as one of the sport's most knowledgeable minds, a place USBC representatives feel he richly deserves.

"USBC Coaching is proud to welcome Randy as our newest Gold level certified coach," said David Garber, High Performance Director of USBC Team USA, Coaching & International Training Center. "Randy has a great history of skills as a past PBA player, tour representative, ball driller and elite coach. All of these items make him a very unique coach that will help bring more credibility to the USBC Coaching Program."

For Stoughton, Gold certification represents proof that all of the hard work and dedication he has shown to the sport throughout his coaching career - which began in 1972 when he gave his first lesson at the age of 18 - had paid off.

"Achieving Gold-level certification is a validation of my expertise and continued passion for learning skills to promote and develop the sport of bowling," said Stoughton.

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Membership Report

We have members in all 50 states,
and the District of Columbia

We have members in 49 countries, including the United States:

Argentina Australia Bahrain Belgium Brazil Canada China Columbia Costa Rica Denmark Ecuador Egypt Finland France Germany Great Britain Greece Guam Guatemala Ireland Israel Italy Japan Korea Latvia Malaysia Mexico The Netherlands N. Ireland Netherlands Antilles
New Zealand Panama Philippines Puerto Rico Peru Qatar Scotland Singapore Slovenia South Africa Spain Sweden Switzerland Thailand Turkey U.A.E. Ukraine Venezuela

Corporate Sponsors

The problems that exist in our Sport are “industry-wide” problems that must be addressed by the entire Industry. The Foundation does all that they can to help, but we can NOT do it alone.

The Foundation has well over 1000-Members who have joined-in to assist. Some Members (Founding and Charter) have paid to show their support. Some Members (Associates) have just lent their “voice”. ALL of the members are important.

Even though The Foundation has NOT actively solicited bowling-related companies for help, some realize the importance of our “Mission” and have come forward with donations. We recognize the following companies for their loyalty and support to bowling.

KEGEL

KAT Travel

I.B.P.S.I.A.

EBN Services

Storm Bowling

Classic Products

Bobs’ Business, Inc.

Vincennes University

BowlersParadise.com

Virtualtournaments.com

Wichita State University

David Driscoll & Associates

International Bowling Industry Magazine

Stars and Strikes Bowling Newsmagazine

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Cornerstone Newsletter, March 2009