04/03/08
United States
At $349, that’s some serious bowling By Gary Herron
Republished courtesy of Rio Rancho Observer - Rio Rancho, NM, USA (April 3, 2008)
So, all you think there is to the sport of bowling is walking up to the foul line with your ball, throwing it down the lane at the pins, and then doing it again to knock down what's still standing for a spare for 10 frames.
As the late Johnny Carson might have said to his sidekick Ed McMahon on the "Tonight Show" several decades ago, "You are so wrong, rented shoes breath."
About four-dozen bowlers of all levels and from all over New Mexico showed up at Tenpins & More last weekend to get an insider's look at how intricate the sport really is — and maybe add a few pins to their averages along the way.
There were classroom sessions on the physical game, the lane and bowling balls, adjustments and the mental game, and practice plan. There also were four on-lane sessions with the Legends coaches, making for an intense weekend.
Tenpins partner Steve Mackie was pleased with the turnout and wished he could have stuck around to absorb even more knowledge about the sport he loves. Except he was due at the annual Pork & Brew.
"I'll be here (Sunday) after Pork & Brew and I plan to open my ears," Mackie said." You can never stop learning. This should be really good stuff for them. They'll get a lot of information and they'll just have to translate it into knocking pins down."
Apparently it did. Mackie said Monday morning that he'd already seen "marked improvement" in some of the bowlers' games. And they were worn out by the experience.
Attendees plunked down $349 to participate, taking in some 16 hours' worth of kegling,, and received a new bowling ball, too.
"This is big," he said.
Former U.S. Olympics bowling team coach Fred Borden (archive picture), good enough in his own right to have rolled a perfect game at an ABC championship event, is 66 years old and was as giddy as a school girl as he explained what was in store for the men and women gathering at the bowling center early Saturday.
"One of the things that we feel very strongly about as coaching, teaching, is 'How can people fall in love with the sport if they know nothing about it?'" he queried.
"We like to pass the gospel. We were lucky enough to learn a lot at the Olympic Training Center from bio-mechanists and sports psychologists, and so we bring that message to people in a nice, friendly manner," Borden said.
That entails, he said, showing "them the 13 major joints and how they move to the foul line and give them their timing and different releases.
"Our game is invisible," he explained. "You can't see the oil out on the lanes and you can't see the inside of the bowling ball and there's different masses in there and they roll differently, and the coefficient of friction and the cover stocks and all the sciences of the game … If you just look at the game from an outsider's standpoint, "Ah, it's a ball going down the lane.'
"But there's a lot going on with rotation and velocity and loft and adjustments and angles n and it's all based on physics and science," he continued. "Unless you're educated, you can't really appreciate our game, so we love the opportunity to pass some of that information on to people and help them with their game."
Borden, who started bowling at the age of 4, said, "My whole life has been bowling and I was lucky enough to be chosen as the head coach of the United States Olympic team (1988-2004)."
He'd still be a serious bowler, except a recent shoulder operation curtailed that.
"I love coaching. That's really my passion," he said.
"We have a Web site called MyBowlingCoach.com. We're now in 41 countries and we teach through the Web and we do clinics and we manufacture bowling balls."
Borden said anyone who thinks bowling isn't a strenuous sport is fooling himself or herself.
"We'll take any athlete n basketball, football n and say, 'Let's bowl a match.' Not for score.
"I'll have (Rio Rancho pro bowler) Mike Miller bowl some of the Phoenix Suns players n he'' run them into the ground," Borden predicted. "Their legs and their backs and they'll have blisters on their hands. I'll guarantee you he'd bowl for 24 hours without stopping. There's no way they can do that.
"So you've got to be a little more physical to play our game," he explained. "It's not speed-physical, it's not overly powerful physical, but you better have good timing and you'd better get the ball off your thumb nice and clean, and you better know how to get to the foul line and stay in balance, or you're going to hurt your body throwing a bowling ball."
The 47 attendees, Borden, said, "would all improve. Knowledge is the key. And I soon found that out, when I was traveling around the world, a lot of people with real good skills but no knowledge. They didn't know how to do it.
"So when we teach them proper timing, proper arm swing, proper physical positioning, the finishing position, the release, the follow-through and then how to read the lanes and move around, we get just phenomenal feedback from all over the world."
Borden said last weekend's initial Legends session may be the first of many.
"There are conversations about it," he said.
As the late Johnny Carson might have said to his sidekick Ed McMahon on the "Tonight Show" several decades ago, "You are so wrong, rented shoes breath."
About four-dozen bowlers of all levels and from all over New Mexico showed up at Tenpins & More last weekend to get an insider's look at how intricate the sport really is — and maybe add a few pins to their averages along the way.
There were classroom sessions on the physical game, the lane and bowling balls, adjustments and the mental game, and practice plan. There also were four on-lane sessions with the Legends coaches, making for an intense weekend.
Tenpins partner Steve Mackie was pleased with the turnout and wished he could have stuck around to absorb even more knowledge about the sport he loves. Except he was due at the annual Pork & Brew.
"I'll be here (Sunday) after Pork & Brew and I plan to open my ears," Mackie said." You can never stop learning. This should be really good stuff for them. They'll get a lot of information and they'll just have to translate it into knocking pins down."
Apparently it did. Mackie said Monday morning that he'd already seen "marked improvement" in some of the bowlers' games. And they were worn out by the experience.
Attendees plunked down $349 to participate, taking in some 16 hours' worth of kegling,, and received a new bowling ball, too.
"This is big," he said.
Former U.S. Olympics bowling team coach Fred Borden (archive picture), good enough in his own right to have rolled a perfect game at an ABC championship event, is 66 years old and was as giddy as a school girl as he explained what was in store for the men and women gathering at the bowling center early Saturday."One of the things that we feel very strongly about as coaching, teaching, is 'How can people fall in love with the sport if they know nothing about it?'" he queried.
"We like to pass the gospel. We were lucky enough to learn a lot at the Olympic Training Center from bio-mechanists and sports psychologists, and so we bring that message to people in a nice, friendly manner," Borden said.
That entails, he said, showing "them the 13 major joints and how they move to the foul line and give them their timing and different releases.
"Our game is invisible," he explained. "You can't see the oil out on the lanes and you can't see the inside of the bowling ball and there's different masses in there and they roll differently, and the coefficient of friction and the cover stocks and all the sciences of the game … If you just look at the game from an outsider's standpoint, "Ah, it's a ball going down the lane.'
"But there's a lot going on with rotation and velocity and loft and adjustments and angles n and it's all based on physics and science," he continued. "Unless you're educated, you can't really appreciate our game, so we love the opportunity to pass some of that information on to people and help them with their game."
Borden, who started bowling at the age of 4, said, "My whole life has been bowling and I was lucky enough to be chosen as the head coach of the United States Olympic team (1988-2004)."
He'd still be a serious bowler, except a recent shoulder operation curtailed that.
"I love coaching. That's really my passion," he said.
"We have a Web site called MyBowlingCoach.com. We're now in 41 countries and we teach through the Web and we do clinics and we manufacture bowling balls."
Borden said anyone who thinks bowling isn't a strenuous sport is fooling himself or herself.
"We'll take any athlete n basketball, football n and say, 'Let's bowl a match.' Not for score.
"I'll have (Rio Rancho pro bowler) Mike Miller bowl some of the Phoenix Suns players n he'' run them into the ground," Borden predicted. "Their legs and their backs and they'll have blisters on their hands. I'll guarantee you he'd bowl for 24 hours without stopping. There's no way they can do that.
"So you've got to be a little more physical to play our game," he explained. "It's not speed-physical, it's not overly powerful physical, but you better have good timing and you'd better get the ball off your thumb nice and clean, and you better know how to get to the foul line and stay in balance, or you're going to hurt your body throwing a bowling ball."
The 47 attendees, Borden, said, "would all improve. Knowledge is the key. And I soon found that out, when I was traveling around the world, a lot of people with real good skills but no knowledge. They didn't know how to do it.
"So when we teach them proper timing, proper arm swing, proper physical positioning, the finishing position, the release, the follow-through and then how to read the lanes and move around, we get just phenomenal feedback from all over the world."
Borden said last weekend's initial Legends session may be the first of many.
"There are conversations about it," he said.
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