Is Bowling a Sport?

For the lack of consideration, people who do not bowl or participate in the game of bowling really do not understand bowlers like ourselves. It really makes me hot under the collar when people look at you and snarl up their upper lip and say, " Oh, you bowl, hmm. "

It is like a little dirty secret that comes off, as bowling is not a wholesome game and not family oriented. Most people only imagine overweight fat guys, with big bellies, a beer in one hand and a cigar in the other, and oh yeah, they throw a heavy object at10 little defenseless pins once in a while. They always use bad language and you say that bowling is a sport??? Get outta here!

That is the mentality of most sports writers who do not understand bowling or much less the mechanics of the game. " Bowling is not a sport!!!??? It is an activity that you enjoy. " So What!!!??!!! Where do they get these ideas that bowling is a non active game that most certainly is not a sport and shouldn’t even be in the paper or on television.

For those people that do not think that bowling is a sport, I challenge them to bowl three games and call me in the morning. While they are hurting in spots and muscles they didn’t know that they had, I may ask them if they are " out of condition? " Certainly a well-rounded athlete could handle the weight and mechanics of such a simple game.

A couple of months ago a sports writer told me that bowling was not news worthy and the public wanted to hear about baseball, tennis, football and of course gymnastics. Now, I love to watch football with the best of them, but my idea of good coverage of sports is to cover ALL sports, whether they like them or not.

How do they know just what the public wants to read, especially when they ignore petitions to put bowling back into the sport column and they simply ignore it. I guess that means that all bowlers are inferior sports, ooops…. Not sports but weekend casual activity people.

The question is, how to we fix this? That is a good question. As we all know, bowling has been on the decline in the past several years and there are less and less people bowling in sanctioned leagues, not to say that they are bowling in leagues that do not want to go through the respective ABC or WIBC to do the paper work and to pay the fees. I know that there are several leagues in the Decatur area that do bowl non-sanctioned.

As for me, I live, breathe and think bowling 99.9% of the time. I grew up bowling the AJBC and that started my bowling career out on the right foot. I worked many, many hours everyday preparing myself to bowl in competition and to simply be the best that I could possibly do. That hard work has paid off for me and I am happy with my life and my bowling accomplishments.

The hardest thing for me to imagine is where would I be without bowling in my life? Hard to say. Bowling has been the fiber that I needed in my diet and it has complimented my life in so many ways.

Life is what you make out of it and if bowling is in your life, it will be a fun one! Please stop and think. Our youth is our future, so we want to make sure that things are right for them in every way possible. That is what I am trying to do in the State YABA. Think about it!

Do your future YABA bowlers of the State Of Alabama have a house to bowl in for next year’s state tournament? Most importantly, why doesn’t the City Of Birmingham want these young athletes in one of their houses for their State Tournament?

The answer…they can make more on cosmic bowling and bowling parties. So, what it has come down to is a money issue and our youth bowlers are suffering. A mind is a terrible thing to waste, so let’s put these youth bowlers in our bowling houses and not on the streets.

See you on the lanes!