What is Bowling Missing??

gs300

Hi Everyone,

Well to cut a long story shory i am a member of the Irish Tenpin Bowling Assioation (ITBA) and i am part of a sub committee. and we are in the process of making big plans for 2013.

2013 is the 50th year of Bowling in Ireland.

So the Question i am asking is what Are we missing in relation to what you think of the sport?
What would you like to see from the sport?
How we can improve?

Bascally what can we do to get more involved?

Any comments or questions are accepted and i will do my best to get you you the best and quickest answer.

Cheers in advance

bowlingforsoup

Advertisement-most people dont know its a sport in the first place! Advertise tournaments to the public use radio,local papers etc. Look at the Irish open, Im sure you have seen the looks on random peoples faces when they walk in and see guys hitting 250's, there amazed by it yet they just stumbled on it by accident, advertising the tournaments could bring in more interest.

Lower costs-bowling centres charge stupid amounts for an hour of bowling, do what ALSAA does and put up discount offers on websites like pigsback.com/grabone.ie etc. That way outsiders would at least come into the centres because they can afford it.

Have bowling centre staff inform families. When a family comes up to bowl they always have to go back over to the counter with their shoes-very simply say did you have a good time? 90% of the time the answer will be yes, then say oh you should bring your kids up on saturday morining theres a kids club etc. I guarantee you 1 in every 3 or 4 families would come back with the kids to try it out.

Get the junior clubs actually working alongside the ITBA rather than trying to work as a totally independant organisation-have them organise for 1 or 2 really good players to come out and bowl with the kids every couple of weeks, bring along medals they won at national and international events, give them tips and encourage them to get better and stick to the sport, give them people to actually look up to. Most of the players in kids clubs never play even 1 national event, having better links with the ITBA and the junior clubs could change this. There are clubs running that dont even promote the tournaments, the players in the clubs have to miss their club league match just to play in one of them, thats not exactly encouraging them to keep it up.

Public support for any sport comes with success, and to be fair we dont have that. We have a couple of players that have proven they can perform on an international stage, but that isnt enough. We need a team that can go away to championships and not just hope to get into the top half of the field. In fairness, this has majorly improved in the juniors in terms of EYC performances over the last couple of years which is a great step for Irish bowling but that needs to be developed across every single section before it will make a major impact on the interest in the sport. The only way that can be done is through hard practice on difficult patterns rather than house shots. Generally when a team is picked theres a big rush for practice with 6 weeks to go until the tournament, that needs to change it needs to be practicing all year round. Look at other sports, do athletes only start training after they make the olympic teams? No, they train for years before they get close to the team.

You also need to look at it from a publicity point of view. The European Mens Championships are on right now, is there an Irish team at it? NO! How is that supposed to work in the favour of promoting bowling as a sport when the ITBA didnt even send a team to the 2nd biggest tournament in the world for Irish players? And to make matters worse, by not sending a team we automatically miss out on the next world championships. Look at the position that leaves Irish bowlers in, what if somebody is genuinely interested in hearing about Irish bowling and they ask where do we stand in terms of European teams, "well we didnt go to the competition"....ok well where do we stand in terms of world teams "well we didnt go to the competition"..there not exactly going to take it seriously are they? I guarantee had emails been sent out to Irish bowlers, using the list of rankings and sending them to the players at the top first offering them a place to represent Ireland at the Europeans the ITBA would have been able to put a team together! It was done for the triple crown in Scotland last year theres no reason it couldnt have been done again. Fair enough it wouldnt have been our strongest team but having some sort of team there is better than having no team there, and if anything it will give other players expereince, once they feel what its like to play in that kind of event they will work harder to get there again.

Long term it needs to come from the grass roots levels, getting more kids interested. Within 3 or 4 years you will see the standards increase in all junior levels with participants and scores increasing, and hopefully they will stay with the sport when they come out of juniors, which is where we loose allot of players. Maybe if they saw teams going to tournaments every single year they might be more encouraged to keep playing.

This is of course just my opinion and I dont expect you to be able to just go and do all of this yourself, but I do think making these changes could only lead to increasing the popularity, awareness and participation in bowling in Ireland.

gs300

Hi BowlingforSoup,

Thank you for your comments and alto of the issue’s you have mentioned above are correct.

I do want you to know that we are working on a lot of what you have said and we are making progress.

We have set out a strategic plan of action going forward and we have taken alto of time and effort from the ITBA and sub committee's to come up with a plan that will make the sport more attractive to the public but to make sure that the plan is achievable.
I will be going to the ITBA with any feedback or ideas i will get from here as long as it productive and for the good the sport.
I will keep this section updated with and all events that will be going on as soon as the final dates are set for the 2013


Thanks

PS Welcome to Boards:)

the groutch

I can only speak for my local centre (Leisureplex Stillorgan), but all the leagues bar Monday night are struggling to hold onto numbers.

Is it that people can't afford it anymore? Maybe, although prices havent increased for 3-4 years now.

But I think it's more likely the length of leagues. People just don't seem to want to commit to 30+ weeks a year. There needs to be a move towards 2 or 3 shorter leagues a year imo.

Irish bowling in general could also benefit from more handicap competitions, to try be more inclusive to those in the 150-180 average bracket.

gs300

Hi,

Yes there has been a big decline in the number of people will to join the leagues and i get your point on it being too long.
I think one of the main reasons of the longer leagues is to make it worthwhile for the players in relation to the prize fund.

The shorter the league the smaller the prize funds the less of an interest it will be for the bowler.

The whole area around the inclusion or more handicap competitions is a big bone of contention in all areas of the sport.

It is very hard to get Scratch bowlers to enter a handicap competition given some of the handicap's that players have so it makes it hard for the centre to promote this kind of tournament and get the numbers. The big issue is the difference in the handicap systems in a couple of the main centres.

We are in the process of trying to come up with new ways to get a more level playing field for everyone in all competitions.

Work is being done to try and promote this kind of competition and try to get people involved and in this way try to get people to play more hopefully look into coaching and develop their skills this way increasing their opportunity in comps without handicap.

the groutch

gs300 wrote: »

I think one of the main reasons of the longer leagues is to make it worthwhile for the players in relation to the prize fund.

yeah, that seems to stem from the lack of sponsorship.
with our league the centre puts up €400, but that all goes to the individual prizes.

bbability

I want to try and start a league in the Drogheda area in early 2013. Problem is I'm not sure if it will be welcomed in any of the bowling centres.
I have plenty of experience running leagues and competitions but I also worked in the bowling alley at the time and lanes were prepared and conditioned for league bowling. A lot of the newly opened centres simpy don't have the in house experience on how to prepare lanes etc for league bowling. The machine is simply sent down the lane on auto pilot.

I think it would be a great idea to run a one day meeting at ITBA HQ for people like myself to meet up and knock some ideas together. Leagues are the core of many of us here getting hooked to the game. I wouldnt mind a pointer or two and a bit of help from the ITBA to get a league going in my area. It seems though the centres are not pushed and this is where the ITBA need to step up to the plate

bingo92

This is my opinion.

I've been involved with bowling for more years than I want to remember but over the last 5 or so yrs I've noticed that a number of jnr bowlers & coaches who have developed an attitude which is not good for the bowling community. There have been a small fortune spent bringing over professional coaches to coach here but only a few in the know hear about it or are invited to go. We don't seem to have moved with the times. Bowlers are into sandbagging now than ever. All you have to do is go watch any league & you can pick out the sandbaggers.
This is my opinion.

bbability

Sandbagging has been a problem since the dawn of time. Also the culture of the 'clique' mentality was always there but my opinion was to rise above it.

I'm still waiting on the ITBA to get in touch by the way. I contacted one of the local bowling alleys and they do not open until 6pm weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday.

r3nu4l

Bowling is missing good PR. The sport needs an ambassador and it needs a competition with a very decent prize fund that will get people talking.

How that can be achieved is of course the challenge!

In the US the PBA runs a league where all of the teams are owned by big name sports stars and celebrities including NFL linebackers. It gains attention. Of course, the ITBA does not have the resources of the PBA but the ideas they use can be used on a smaller scale in Ireland.

bbability

Also discussing with some old bowling mates this weeks VAT seems to be an issue attracting new people to the sport. It's nearly €20 to bowl in a league in Stillorgan. It's averaging €15-€20 in most centres in Dublin.
If you are a member in Alsaa it's €11.50 to €15 depending on league.

Bowling needs to get rid of the politics and get back to the roots!