Howard Stern Talks About Bowling

Howard Stern just spent 30 minutes talking about our sport and they brought up great points.



1) Howard Stern stated that all the lanes are the same

2) They also talked about what the top bowlers can earn

3) Artie Lange states there is no defense

4) Someone else brought up the fact that there is no weather (conditions)
Let's start with the Howard's claim. The truth is that lanes are different from house to house. There are many factors that make lanes different for bowlers. What the lane is made out of the biggest factor. Lanes used to made of wood, and are now mostly made with synthetic materials. And there are many different types of these synthetic materials. And still some lanes are made with both wood and synthetic materials.



Why do these materials make a difference?



The major difference is in the way oil moves down the lanes. Bowler's that throw a ball the hooks requires the ball to skid down the lane first on the oil that is there. Once the ball stops skidding it begins to hook, and if it hooks to early you will miss the 1-3 pocket. If it skids to far, you will also miss. It's these factors that bowler's need to conquer to be great.



This is probably the #1 reason that bowling will not be an Olympic sport. There will never be an ability for bowling to make the playing field level for left and right handed bowlers. If you have 10 right handed bowlers bowling and only 1 left handed bowler, the oil is going to move and change faster for the right handed bowlers. Every time a ball is thrown, the oil changes just a little bit. Have it happening 10 times as fast on the right than the left means that the right handed bowler will have to adjust more often, giving the left handed bowler the advantage.



It's these adjustments that make bowling so difficult at a competitive level. That's why the top bowlers make money, and the rest do not.



Todays top bowlers make $25,000-$50,000 per win. They can not currently make the same money as golfers such as Tiger Woods can make. Our sport just does not have the same following as it once had. It is sad because bowling had the first Million Dollar Athlete, Don Carter. Bowling used to be followed and watched as a TV must see. Now we are teased and made fun of because many of today's bowlers are not athletically built.



There are a few athletic looking bowlers, Sean Rash,Tommy Jones, Chris Barnes.



Next time I will talk about defense and conditions that cause changes to the lanes.