Life in the fast lane
Pack up your bowling bag and head to the alley
One Tuesday night, John Imming wanted to show a military friend who'd never been to KU a good time. He didn't want to take him to the bars.
the movies or spend lots of money. As they sat and thought of things to do, Imming had an idea." I knew a bowling alley had $9.90 bowling on Tuesdays," says the Topeka Junior. "So we just went." The next week, Imming invited more friends to join and the week after that as well. By summer, Imming and as many as 25 friends met every Tuesday for $9.90 bowling. He's bowled every week for the past year.
Imming isn't alone in his passion for bowling. The sport is gaining popularity in high schools and colleges throughout the United States. Tom Blasco, pro bowler, coach and instructor in Florida, cites a study that says there are 7 million games bowled
daily, 69 million bowlers and a $10 billion economic impact in the United States alone. Bowling is making its way in the world as a great recreational sport, and it's time college students took notice.
Rolling a ball to knock down a few pins
PLACES TO BOWL
Royal Crest Bowling Lanes
933 Iowa,
785.842.1234
$5-$8 per game
hardly seems timeless, but bowling is actually one of the oldest sports in history. In the 1930s a British anthropologist discovered
JayBowl
Kansas Union,
785.864.3545
$2.25 per game
Free Cosmic Bowling
every Friday and
Saturday night from
11:00 pm to 1:00 am
a collection of objects in a child's grave in Egypt that appeared to be used for a crude form of bowling, said Jerry Baltz, executive director of the international Bowling Museum. If he's correct, then bowling traces its ancestry to 3200 B.C. in Germany, bowling began in 300 A.D. German peasants carried a kegel (a type of club) for protection. In many churches, a parishioner would set up a kegel to represent a heathen. He rolled a stone and if he successfully knocked over the kegel, the heathen was free of sin. Eventually, when bowling made its way to the
United States in the late 1800s, a wooden bowl replaced the stone, and multiple pins replaced the kegel.
As the object of satire In movies like Kingpin and The Big Lebowski, bowling has had a tough time justifying itself as a legitimate sport.
"Bowlers don't produce a lot of sweat, do the 100-yard dash or dead-lift 500 pounds," Blasco says. "People don't really understand what it takes to become a player at a highly proficient level." While KU does boast an impressive bowling team, you don't have to be a pro to enjoy the sport. Zach Stephens, Leavenworth sophomore, says the best part about bowling is that it's recreational and competitive. "I can bowl with my friends, relax and goof around, or I can go with my brother and have fierce competition, betting and trash-talking," he says.
Besides fun and trash-talk, bowling has many social, physical and mental benefits. According to Blasco, healthy, conditioned bowlers can withstand greater amounts of stress, boost energy storage and delay the onset of fatigue.
Bowling also constitutes a workout. It can burn up to 300 calories an hour.
"Bowling allows a chance to firm and tone muscles, helping to stay trim and slim," Blasco says.
For some KU students, the best part about bowling is the social aspect.Jason Vaughan, Olathe freshman,says he likes bowling because you meet all kinds of people in bowling alleys and if you aren't into partying, it's fun on the weekend.
A night at the bowling alley is a win-win situation — it's cheap, it keeps you active and, if nothing else, it's fun.
THE ANATOMY OF A STRIKE
If all the factors of speed, axis tilt, axis rotation and proper entry angle predicated upon each style of bowler a perfect strike would happen something like this:
The ball would approach the 1-3 pocket at approximately six degrees, 60 feet away and upon impact with the 1 and 3 pins, the pins in the front row would domino into each other, meaning the 1 pin would hit the 2 pin and the 2 pin would hit the 4 pin and the 4 pin would hit the 7 pin, while the 3 pin hits the 6 pin and the 6 pin hits the 10 pin. The ball as it travels through the pocket area would hit the 5 pin, the 5 pin would take out the 8 pin and the ball would take out the 9 pin. On the perfect strike the ball only contacts four pins - the 1,3,5 and 9.
-Tom Blasco, pro bowler
MEMBERS OF KU'S BOWLING TEAM TELL STUDENTS WHY THEY SHOULD TRY BOWLING
"Anyone can do it recreationally, and it's something you can do for the rest of your life; if you take it serious enough, you can make good money bowling amateur tournaments."
Sarah Roenfeldt Lawrence senior, women's bowling team representative
"As the nation's largest participatory sport, bowling allows everybody to compete on equal ground.It also provides an environment conducive to friendly competition and socialization."
— Zach Taylor, Silver City N.M. junior, men's bowling team representative
"It allows them to do something that is non-alcoholic (at least if they bowl at the Jaybowl."
— Whitney Waters, Jerseyville, IL
freshman, bowling instructor
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