Post #5 Royal Crest Lanes

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The Kansas City Open (KCO) tournament is for youth bowlers and happens once a month. This week on April 1st in Lawrence Kansas is the next tournament. KCO's are bowled in alleys all over Kansas and is a great way for kids to earn scholarships. There are 5 divisions and 2 squads in which the kids will compete against each other to make the top 5. Each kid bowls 6 games and the top 5 advance into a step ladder. All top 5 finishers will receive scholarship money which means 25 kids will be getting some sort of help with paying for college. Making the top 5 isn't easy thought, these kids come to preform and will shoot 270 games.

Post #4 Why I Bowl

In this post I'd like to step away from telling you how to bowl and tell you why I bowl. I was about 6 of 7 seven years old when I first starting bowling on a regular bases. Gage North Bowl is the alley I grew up around which is located on highway 24. Sadly it closed down about 6 months ago to my disappointment (I have heard somebody bought it recently). My grandfather and father both used to bowl and my dad still does every once in awhile. The first 800 series shot at Gage center was actually shot by my dad which I've always thought was awesome. He also has a couple more 800 series along with 8 300 games. I currently have 2 300 games but no 800 series....yet! When I was interviewed by the Topeka Capitol Journal about my first 300 game half the article was about how happy I was to bowl 300 before my dad. By that I mean he bowled his first when he was 21 while I did it at age 17. My mother also used to bowl while my younger brother does. Jessica is my girlfriend and guess how we met...we met each other bowling in the same league. Bowling has helped me pay for a little college from tournament winnings and also travel Kansas. Just last year bowling brought my girlfriend and I to a tournament in Vegas!! That was definitely a trip I wont forget. To this day my dad still has the upper hand on me, he is just to good. He has beat a couple professional bowlers and was inducted into the Topeka Hall of Fame. I guess you could say I like to thing my dad is a bowling god. Bowling has done many good things for my life and I just hope it continues that way until the day I die.

Post #3 Bowling Balls

If you did not know there are thousands and thousands of bowling balls out there to choose from. It's hard to just choose one without another and being happy. There are many aspects to look at when looking at balls. You need to look at the coverstock, hook potential, typical length, track flare potential and whats inside the ball. Types of coverstock are highly reactive which means the ball is going to hook, urethane which is little hook, and plastic which means the ball should go straight no matter how many revs you put on it. Hook potential usually ranges from 10 to 175, the higher the ball is in hook potential obviously means it's going to hook more. Length comes into play on a scale from 1 to 10, 1 meaning the ball will change direction the earliest while 10 would be the latest. Also on a 1 to 10 scale is track flare which means the ball will have a smooth flowing arch or could snap at an angle in an instant. There is around 22 different bowling ball companies but some are better than others. From experience I would have to say Brunswick is the most used but not far behind is Storm, Roto Grip, Track, and Hammer. Here is a video that explains the types of bowling balls.

(It's not very exciting)

Until then GO BOWL!