You have heard that question before, and you will hear it again and again.
The PBA official yearbook tells us that within a 42 game tournament, players will lift more than five tons, carrying it for a total of two miles while projecting the ball more than 700 times at an average speed of 17 mph at a target 60 feet away.
Dictionaries tell us that an athlete is one who contends for a prize. The word books also define an athlete as anyone trained or fit to contend in exercises requiring physical agility, stamina, and often strength.
The pro bowler fits. Though strength is helpful and even necessary at times, the type needed in pro bowling is not the brute strength so needed in the heavy contact sports.
In pro bowling, timing, coordination, and a delicate touch at times add up to a high degree of fitness to go along with measured force to score consistently. However, pro bowling takes rhythm, balance, and skilled muscular effort. The muscles must be supple and toned, always in shape, but not necessarily rock hard.
A pro bowler must be highly competitive. He pays to play, unlike baseball, football, basketball and other players who are paid to play. The bowler's pay is what he wins, and he cashes well only with superior performances.
Dedication is a must for any successful athlete. A pro bowler must spend long hours for many years perfectly maintaining and adjusting his skills. Too many times a pro bowler is classed with the average fun bowler.
That's akin to equating a touch football game at a picnic with the Super Bowl and a company softball game with the World Series.
A pro bowler rolls more games in a week than the average bowler rolls in a year. He probably spends more time in actual competition than any other sports performer. A pro bowler is firing away on the lanes more than seven hours a day. The total time involved, back and forth between squads, preparation (checking equipment and studying lane conditions) can more often than not add up to a 12 hour day.
There's no relaxing at any stage. Each and every roll of the ball counts since the total score takes in every game. There must be the utmost ability to concentrate under constant pressure, on TV, and in a sport where you're always in a crowd, yet always all alone.
Spectators are only a few feet away from the competing bowlers. You sit next to other bowlers, yet it's you against the conditions and the pins. No teammate to help, nobody to coach or instruct once you're on that approach. You roll your way out of trouble or wait until the next time.
Pro bowling has become a sophisticated and scientific sport. You must adjust practically every game to every lane. You must learn about equipment, lane surfaces, lane finishes, lane dressings, and other variables, each in themselves worthy of deep study and plenty of homework. The sport looks simple. It is simple to play, difficult to master, impossible to conquer. Each higher average plateau is a new challenge, tougher in every way, and the pro side is the highest peak.
There are millions upon millions of bowlers. Only a few thousand average really high while those good enough to make a living at the sport can be counted in the hundreds.
Is a pro bowler an athlete? If you rate physical contact and brute strength at the top of your list, the answer is an emphatic no. But if you add up the definite skills and knowledge, physical and mental, necessary to success, there is little doubt that a pro bowler must be ranked as an outstanding athlete.
Idle Bowling Thoughts
By Chuck Pezzano
Bowling World March 2013 Issue
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