argument essay

Is Bowling A Sport?

 

Is bowling a sport? Some people may not think it is. Why, is because they see it as just a hobby. Then there are some people that may not bowl well and automatically think it isn’t a sport. They will just think of it as something to do on your free time with friends. This is all true but I can explain why it is a sport.

Bowling is a sport because they have their own sets of rules. One rule is, you aren’t allowed to use your phone because it could be seen as a distraction. It may seem like a really dumb rule but it really isn’t. If you use your phone you aren’t focusing on your mental game. It’s been proven that people who use their phones while they bowl can get worse scores. Especially if you are bowling in a tournament, if you’re using your phone and you may be up to bowl and you are texting; you are slowing down the pace and you make the other bowlers fall behind. To some bowlers it’s very important to go at a steady pace.

Another rule is that you cannot take pictures. If somebody would be up on the lane about to bowl and he/she is about to release the ball; you take a picture with flash it could completely throw off your concentration and you could roll a bad shot. This is especially a no-no in the PBA (Professional Bowling Association) for that reason exactly. You can get thrown out of the bowling center if you do that. They take their tournaments seriously.

Some people may also think that its impossible to get injuries. Well I can tell you that is is possible. There have ctually been a total of 6 fatalities in the sport of bowling. They all have happened in the bowling alley as well. They either had conjestive heart failure, heartr attack and on one account someone had a stroke. These were all middleage adults. Between the ages of 25-46. Though one was in his mid 60’s when he had a heart attack. Though when youy think about it, the most common injuries in bowling have to do with your arm.

For kids the biggest type of injury is the finger. Why, is because whenever the kids bowl, they down have full control of their bodies so they could pull or jerk the wrong way and do something wacky to their fingers. For the typical injury diagnosis the biggest factgor that could injure a kid is fracture or dislocations because as youths and above our bones are much stronger than what kids are from 7 years and below. So its more common seeing a fracture or dislocation for kids bowlers. For their mechanics the most problems kids have with bowling is dropping their bowling ball. They don’t know how to quite control the bowling ball yet so its more common for them to drop their bowling balls.

 

For the youth age between 7-18 years old the most common body injury is the finger as well. As bowlers get older they are introduced into what is called the fingertip grip. Its weird to get use to so you could easily pull your finger out of socket if you don’t be careful. The type of injury diagnosis is a strrain/sprain. Its easy to do this if you arent bowling correctly. And the most common mechanical injuries they have are also droppingthe ball. Though they can be more experience than the kids it is also very common for it to happen if you just start out bowling.

For adults and seniors they both have just about the same statistics. For adults the highest body reigon injury is the trunk with 19.7% and the seniors it is also the trunk with 23.5%. when you bowl its really easy to pull a muscle in your trunk by just twisting the wrong way from your release. Lastly, For a mechanical injury or issues for adults it’s fell/slipped/tripped with 45.6% and with seniors is the same thing but with 72.4%. On certain bowling alleys can be more slick than others. Ive fallen many times because either I get my footing wrong or the bowing alley is slippery.

Though on a different topic there is an extensive ammount of coaching involved if you want to become a good bowler and persue farther into the game of bowling. Most people hire coaches to teach them on how to improve their game and what to do and what not to do. Though if you are lucky, you have family that are bowlers and they can just coach you for free. Even more rare you could end up teaching yourself and feed off of other bowlers and watch what they are doing to improve on what you saw. Just to make your outcome better.

It is common to see people of all ages to be coached no matter how old you are. There isnt a set age of people that can be coached like you would in like all of your major sports like baseball, football, basketball ect. In those spots its really hard to get like a really high level coach to teach a young group of kids on how to play the sport without paying a lot of money. With bowling, you can hire a coach with any level and not pay nearly as much as what you would do for the other sports. Some even do it for free just for the experience. Most coaches wouldn’t do that.

Another good reason why bowling coudld be called a sport because of the ammount of games you have to bowl depending on what type of bowling level you are in. In college and also the PBA (Professional Bowlers Association) atheletes could bowl about as many games as major leaguew baseball players do. Though it may not be as much work; but when you think about it, bowlers could bowl upwards of over 200 games or more depending on where they are placed and how they are bowling. Just imagine what that could do to your fingers, hands, arm, your body. It can be a very physical game in the long run if you are doing it right. Its been known that even the best bowlers can have a very physical beatdown with the ammount of games bowled.

 

When you think about it, in the PBA they have tournoments every week. So just think about the ammount of games sonmebody could bowl throughout the entire season. They could bowl hundereds upon hundereds a season. It can get really tough after a while. So I can tip my hat to the PBA because there are some very good bowlers that can battle through all of that and still become a champion at the end of the tournoments. It just amazes me the ammount of things they can do. So I hope this was able to convinve you enough to believe that bowling is truly a hardcore sport. People can compete and win and become famous and very victorious if they go through all of that and end up winning every Saturday or Sunday depending on the tournament.



WORK CITED:

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