How technology has made helped young bowlers.
Finishing fourth in the top twelve qualifiers in last week’s sectional bowling tournament, Versailles now turns its attention to details…and next week’s tougher challenge in the district tournament at Beavercreek.
Versailles, OH – Versailles bowling coach Tyler Phlipot was up and out of the house at 5 am Friday morning…on his way to work.
And that’s complex because his official title as bowling coach belies his day duties as an associate at the Bowler Store, on Kley Road, in Versailles, one of the country’s top online retail sources for bowling equipment.
Bowlerstore.com, of Versailles, is the presenting sponsor of high school bowling on Press Pros Magazine.com.
But on this day his first duty is to assemble his Versailles bowling team for practice at the new ‘techno smart’ training lanes at the Bowlerstore.com facility. Hours before the local bowling alley (McBo’s) opens, Phlipot is making sure that no time is lost as he prepares his team for the coming week’s Division II OHSAA district bowling qualifying tournament in Beavercreek.
Versailles’ Sam Albers rolled a 230 during OHSAA sectional tournament competition last week at Capri Lanes.
Last week the Versailles boys team finished fourth out of the top twelve to qualify in the sectional tournament at Capri Lanes, in Kettering, with Sam Albers rolling a 230 game, the second highest among MAC bowlers to Fort Recovery’s Reece Lefevre (254). And bowling being what it is, fourth place is no guarantee for how you might finish at the next round.
“All it takes is a fraction of an inch,” says Phlipot, holding his thumb and forefinger slightly apart. “You hit your spot and you get a strike. You miss by a fraction and you could get a split.”
And sometimes you can miss by more than a fraction and still get a strike. Like any other sport…it’s good to be good, but you’ve got to be lucky, too.
And to close the gap between skill and luck, the Bowlerstore practice facility now has the new Specto Bowl tracking system on a video board directly above the pins. It allows for comparison…where you threw the last ball as compared to where you should have thrown the last ball. It record miles per hour, the correct target board, and the point on the lanes where the ball breaks towards the strike pocket. In laymen’s terms…Specto Bowl eliminates some of the guesswork as a teaching tool.
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Does it work?
“Absolutely,” says Phlipot.
Sophomore Brooke Keiser averaged 165.5 this year with a high game of 209…in only her fourth year of bowling.
Bowlerstore is also the home training facility for PBA professional Michael Davidson, whose parents Doug and Lori own and operate Bowlerstore, as well as the Community Lanes bowling center in Minster.
“It has the same benefit for Michael as it would have for Sam Albers or Brooke Keiser,” says Phlipot. Keiser is a member of the Versailles girls team, and only a sophomore in her fourth season of competitive bowling.
“On the PBA tour the margin of error is ever-so-slight. You have to hit your mark, and you have to know by how much you’ve missed your mark on the previous shot, because that’s going to impact how your ball reacts to the oil pattern farther down the lane. And it’s the same for high school bowlers.”
Specto Bowl accurately tracks the path of the bowling ball on a video screen at the end of the lanes where you can immediately see where you missed your mark…as well as the path of the ball on its way to the pins.
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“It’s nice to have. It’s helped me,” says Sam Albers, who’s averaged 196.5 this year for the Versailles boys – a team high – and his high game has been a 247. “It not only shows me where I missed my mark, but how fast the ball is traveling and where the break point is down lane. It helps you to adjust quicker…make the proper adjustment.”
And it’s really helped sophomore Brooke Keiser, who began bowling as a junior high student, and this year averaged 165.6 with a high game of 209.
“There aren’t many Specto Bowl facilities that I know of,” adds Phlipot. “And in fact, I think this one is the only one in the state of Ohio.”
A fact confirmed online by the Specto Bowl company map…Bowlerstore is the only confirmed site in the Ohio.
“We used to have the app and the same information that we could display on a desk-top monitor,” says Phlipot. “This is taking it to the next level.”
Will it help Sam Albers in next week’s district round of the tournament?
He hopes so, as he faces the variables that come with bowling in any unfamiliar bowling center. Of course, it cannot throw the ball for you. That you have to do on your own.
“I really threw the ball well last week during my 230 game,” he says. “But when you change lanes you have to adjust to different conditions. That’s why I had a 166 game. The oil was different and the ball reacted differently . But I’ve bowled before at Beaver-Vu (in Beavercreek) and I’ve done OK there.”
Like with any sport and any coaching adjustment, the advantage comes when you can see it – visualization.
And while Albers may not use the information with the efficiency of a Michael Davidson, at least he can see he’s on the right path.
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