http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/ en Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:14:27 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/images/v5/misc/rss.jpg http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/ http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/tonx/46-novelty-versus-adversity.html Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:59:54 GMT Todays topic is to discuss the differences with anything in life between novelty and adversity.

For months now, those of you who follow any of my facebook comments, knew that there was a new Video Game comming out on most platforms called Call of Duty- Black Ops. It was the "upgrade" to the highest selling video game of all time, Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2. For those not familiar, it is a first person shooter, where you are thrown into games with other real people, and the objective is to shoot/grenade/stab/kill other players for points and levelling up.

Modern Warfare 1 and 2 were the first video games where I got months and months and months of gametime due to their severely addictive nature. There are 25+million other players worldwide who all experience this, so don't think me as the supergaming nerd, but my goal in these games were to improve every time I played. Every single time I believed that I had conquered the game with my play style, someone would come up with some new strategy to beat me with.

So back on topic. Monday night at midnight, the new Black Ops was released. Essentially it was the same concept as the previous games.

Rushing back from the store and eagerly putting the disk into my PS3, I was expecting months and months of gameplay out of the new game. In fact I had a full slab of Jack Daniels in the fridge, and made parties concerned aware that I would be unavailable for about 48 hours.

To say the least, I was beyond extremely dissapointed and returned the game to the store the very next day for a full refund. The game had this hollow feeling compared to its prequals and I did NOT enjoy it one little bit. I just simply could not put my finger onto as why. I mean the new game had new guns to use, more customisation of character, new "maps" (levels to play on) and they had done alot of research to remove alot of the complaints people had of the previous games. All of the guns were more difficult to aim, explosives were much weaker, and if a player made a mistake in strategy, they were killed almost instantly by the better player. They had made the game so the "better gamer" or the "most skillfull player" ALWAYS topped the leaderboards. I'm not the greatest gamer ever made, but I'm far above the average joe, and I was topping almost every single game.

Since then I have been thinking about it almost non stop, and believe I have come up with why I didn't enjoy the gameplay at all.

The adversity was simply not there. Very rarely did I have to think quickly to get kills or stay alive. The game created far too big of a gap between better players and worse players to the point where doing poorly for someone as experienced as me was impossible to acheive. It widened the gap between the have's and the have nots. The novelty of the new game was there, but I think I got around 10 hours of gameplay out of it, compared to the previous version where I got close to 40days of actual gameplay out of it. Essentially, I didn't have to OUTTHINK other players at all to perform.

Then I started thinking about bowling, and how we are facing exactly the same issue as this new video game will face very shortly, when other players work out what is going on.

When a bowler no longer feels challenged by their house shot they purchase a new ball to keep them interested. Yes they are promised a huge improvement with the latest and greatest technology, but essentially they are investing in a new novelty for their enjoyment. How long does that player get use out of that ball? Until they are bored of it and the next release comes, because the challenge of scoring simply isn't there on their house shot. Compare bowling to something more difficult like golf, and using this theory, it is very easy to comprehend that while the concept of both bowling and golf is the same, they have become very very different over the years.

Facing a new challenge is what keeps competitive people in anything in life interested, not a novelty, which is usually very short lived.

This experience, and these new thoughts have given me some tools to move forward as a better competitor at life, because while we all get frustrated at many things in life, it is probably the one thing that keeps us comming back.

Hard to comprehend isn't it?

Feel free to comment and agree or disagree, or relate it to something in your life that is frustrating but you continue to do it.......

Tonx ]]> tonx http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/tonx/46-novelty-versus-adversity.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/tonx/45-thoughts-medium-portray-them.html Wed, 10 Nov 2010 02:13:35 GMT For a while, I have been looking for a medium to use to post my thoughts on life, and this blog function seems to be the best medium I can think of to post thoughts that need to be articulated. Facebook and twitter are only good for a paragraph or 2. This blog function seems to be ok for any length... For a while, I have been looking for a medium to use to post my thoughts on life, and this blog function seems to be the best medium I can think of to post thoughts that need to be articulated. Facebook and twitter are only good for a paragraph or 2. This blog function seems to be ok for any length of discussion. I don't know if anyone will read it or care even if most of my topics won't be about bowling. Hence it is time to get my typing fingers warmed up.

My first topic will be posted shortly after this introduction. Feel free to debate, agree or even give me something else to talk about if anyone bothers to read the topics.

Here we go! ]]> tonx http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/tonx/45-thoughts-medium-portray-them.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/tonx/41-cancer-our-sport.html Sat, 19 Dec 2009 13:51:21 GMT The "Sport" of tenpin bowling amuses me at times. When people come along that actually know what they are talking about, they are abused, belittled and slandered.

Let's take the late Bill Taylor for example. Bill revolutionised many things regarding the sport, with bowling ball fitting being his main calling card. Bill was a true revolutionary of tenpin bowling.

Many years ago he wrote an article, SSSC was its title. The industry "experts" (read the idiots who thought they knew what they were talking about) belittled him at the time, and due to both themselves, and the sports customers not wanting to "work on their game to produce a tour calibre delivery" the article was dismissed as nonsense. High scoring is fun right? Enjoy it while you can.....

SSSC stands for Super Soft Scoring Conditions, and in the article, he correctly states that it's the cancer of bowling.

What he talks about in the article, is amongst other things, having little to no volume of oil on the outside, and also the backend part of the lane. This tactial ploy is used to enhance the scoring characteristics in a given centre.

Oil was and is still primarily used to protect the surface of the lanes. Even back then, the aggressive pourous nature of a bowling balls surface was able to tear the protective coating off the wooden playing surface without the friction-reducing qualities of the lane conditioner.

Now that we have moved onto a plastic playing surface, the problem is delayed marginally. It can take several years to notice the effects of CANCEROUS lane conditions. Unlike wood though, synthetic lanes CAN NOT be resurfaced, so the effect while taking longer, has more long term issues than almost any current day "expert" (please refer back to original paragraph for definition of expert) in the industry can consider.

It is also no secret that the chemical reaction during the manufacturing process of a reactive resin bowling ball produces higher RA values (the measurement of peaks and troughs of the surface at a microscopic level) than ever before thought possible.

This produces a similar effect on the lanes as what an aggressively grooved golf wedge does to a golf ball. Again, while not so immediate an effect, a golf ball is able to be thrown away at the end of a round. The playing surface of a bowling centre does not have the same type of disposability.

Lets fast forward a couple of years for those looking for a point to this blog. The near and inevitable future of tenpin bowling.

Our playing surfaces are being disregarded by these experts similar to a golfer that refuses to fix his pitch marks and divots on the course. The typical Australian attitude of "she'll be right mate" DOES NOT APPLY HERE. Tournaments are going to be absolutely DOMINATED by those that can expose their bowling ball to a fresher area of the playing surface.

Low rev right handed players are going to be effected the most, as they will be bowling on a textured surface similar to sandpaper in EVERY SINGLE CENTRE that refuses to condition and protect the lane outside 10 board.

High rev right handed players will also be severely effected, as a ball crossing more boards bleeds its kinetic and rotational energy quicker than a more direct line down the lane due to generating more friction on contact.

Left handed players, and right handed players that use the left hand side of our playing surface will not be affected as severely.

Bowling centres will simply go out of business, as they will not be able to afford replacing their expensive synthetic lanes every 10 years or so, and bowlers will simply become frustrated with the condition of their bowling balls after a simple 3 game league session. They will either migrate to a newer centre if in travelling distance, or they will simply leave tenpin bowling all together.

There is a simple, obvious solution to fix this issue, yet too many of the centre techs simply refuse to bother, care or become knowlegable enough to know any better.

Ask yourself these few questions.

Do you care? Most of you believe you do.

Can you be bothered? Most of you believe you can be.

Are you really knowlegable enough to belittle those that really do know what they are talking about? Do you really understand?

Are you the "expert" or are you the revolutionary? ]]> tonx http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/tonx/41-cancer-our-sport.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/tonx/35-sa-under-23s-tournament-report.html Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:15:45 GMT Hey guys, For those of you who are interested in the run down of a great event, plus the gear I used, here is my quick tournament report. Firstly before going into the tournament, I bowled in Wodonga for an Epping Emerson Shield team the week before and the conditions up there were quite... Hey guys,

For those of you who are interested in the run down of a great event, plus the gear I used, here is my quick tournament report.

Firstly before going into the tournament, I bowled in Wodonga for an Epping Emerson Shield team the week before and the conditions up there were quite short and dry. After the event and seeing what pattern was to be put up for SA under 23 classic's, so I could train the week before on a couple of longer patterns to get a stronger roll than I needed at Wodonga.

I saw that it was 45ft in a usually long playing centre. While the total volume was not overly high, the centres typical attributes usually take play and the pattern usually plays tight and deep. Spares were the key on this type of play for me, as well as DULL bowling balls. Polished balls are required for much later in the tournament.

I took with me the following balls.
Bounty Hunter (good to clear the heads and create a strong dowlane reaction on oil)
Megafriction (pattern smasher, 500 grit)
Megafriction (2k matte finish)
Clutch (1k plus polish) (Benchmark ball, great ball to grind with)
Sideways (strong pearl, needed if pattern carried down too much)
Break point pearl (lots of length, strong clean backend reaction)
spare ball...

Very limited practise was offered, and 12 games were to be bowled. I used the BH and Mega#1 early to grind until I could work out where I was at. Stuck with the BH through most of the day, and closed with 2 solid games at the end with the Sideways. Sitting in 2nd place after qualifying.

Matchplay was another 10 games of 3 man teams. Key for me was make sure of Spares. Conditions were a little different than day 1, with opening with the BH was not the right move. Switched to the Clutch and finished strong to be top television seed.

During the long wait before my final match, I tried to keep loose and stretched, and I had the benefit of the practise pair before the final. I slow rolled every 10 minutes or so with the Clutch the ball that was to be the trusted ball in the final. I experimented and found I had a more aggressive snap to the pocket with the Break Point Pearl (the tournament ball I used at the Emerson roll-off) I could also decide to grind on the television pair with the Clutch, because the conditions were getting over-under.

Clutch I knew wouldn't hit as hard, but would be easier to get to the pocket, leaving me 9/ when I missed a little inside, but still allow me to carry with great shots.

2 shots each lane comming into the final, I threw the Clutch and BPP one shot on each lane. I decided to start with the BPP, to get me out to an early few strikes with good shots. I made good shots and then a couple of shots became tighter off the break point so I switched to the Clutch.

The conditions were obviously getting hard out there with 27 games before we got to the Title Match, and I knew that a grinding match might be a good way to play against a tiring Matt Watson. The Clutch really did come through in the Clutch situation (:)) with me winning the final by 29 pins. 648 to 617.

Matt bowled great all weekend. He made some impressive spares, and struck in the last few games to just get into the final. Then had to bowl 5 matches before me, including against his own Brother. Thanks for the first class show of bowling, because it made me push harder to stay in front! Well done.

I'd like to thank Absolute Bowling Supplies and Oztenpin bowling centres for their assistance in helping me win the 2009 Sa Under 23 classic. Without your support I couldn't be there.

Next stop is Bendigo Sports Series event in 2 weeks time! Work on your spares I believe, because this pattern is a tough one!

Thanks for reading! ]]> tonx http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/tonx/35-sa-under-23s-tournament-report.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/alkel/32-2009-inter-city-results.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:15:34 GMT I would like to say well done too my wife *Kellee* who took out the Intercity Championship 2009 ALL EVENTS for C Grade Ladies in the Singles, Doubles and Teams then the Ladies Restricted Masters she also won most of the thing on offer Inter-City Tourament. Thank you to Rob Buckley his wife and the... I would like to say well done too my wife Kellee who took out the Intercity Championship 2009 ALL EVENTS for C Grade Ladies in the Singles, Doubles and Teams then the Ladies Restricted Masters she also won most of the thing on offer Inter-City Tourament. Thank you to Rob Buckley his wife and the staff at Kirwin for the Tourament running so well.

*****We ROCK Innisfail ***** ]]> alkel http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/alkel/32-2009-inter-city-results.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/alkel/30-xception-5-0.html Sun, 24 May 2009 09:34:13 GMT I am tooking for an Xception 5.0 to buy new if possible but will take used thank you !!! :please: I am tooking for an Xception 5.0 to buy new if possible but will take used thank you !!! :please: ]]> alkel http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/alkel/30-xception-5-0.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/28-what-does-belmos-pba-title-mean-sport-bowling.html Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:07:35 GMT It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times,

it was the age of wisdom,
it was the age of foolishness,

it was the epoch of belief,
it was the epoch of incredulity,

it was the season of Light,
it was the season of Darkness,

it was the spring of hope,
it was the winter of despair,

we had everything before us,
we had nothing before us,

we were all going direct to heaven,
we were all going direct the other way. ]]> wchester http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/28-what-does-belmos-pba-title-mean-sport-bowling.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/bowlrig/27-country-cup-2010.html Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:01:30 GMT For those in Mildura, Country Cup 2010 will come around in no time at all. What would like to see at Country Cup next year? What information do you need? Ask and I shall try to assist. Rob For those in Mildura, Country Cup 2010 will come around in no time at all.

What would like to see at Country Cup next year?

What information do you need?

Ask and I shall try to assist.

Rob ]]> bowlrig http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/bowlrig/27-country-cup-2010.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/huddo1/26-299.html Sat, 07 Mar 2009 00:44:09 GMT Hayden George shot a very nice 299 last night. Hayden George shot a very nice 299 last night. ]]> huddo1 http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/huddo1/26-299.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/25-immortal-words-rodney-dangerfield.html Tue, 17 Feb 2009 23:02:40 GMT I get no respect, no respect I tell ya! I get no respect, no respect I tell ya! ]]> wchester http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/25-immortal-words-rodney-dangerfield.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/24-athletes-crying.html Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:48:47 GMT Watching Roger Rederer break down and cry during the awards presentation of the Australian Open Tennis brought this to mind.. Only someone who has reached the elite level of their sport would truly understand why he cried. The pressure, and the importance of the event and chaqnce to tie a record... Watching Roger Rederer break down and cry during the awards presentation of the Australian Open Tennis brought this to mind..

Only someone who has reached the elite level of their sport would truly understand why he cried. The pressure, and the importance of the event and chaqnce to tie a record was what caused him to be overcome with emotion.

I say good for you Roger...just proves that it's not all about the money! ]]> wchester http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/24-athletes-crying.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/23-gillian-tba-ceo-rang-me-today.html Tue, 20 Jan 2009 04:43:17 GMT I get the feeling she thinks I'm a pain in the arse....

About ten times she told me it's not my responsibility to look out for the other bowlers. I guess you're all on your own then..if you have a question regarding bowling please call Gillian. I'm sure she'll appreciate the attention.

stay tuned to this space for more info. ]]> wchester http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/23-gillian-tba-ceo-rang-me-today.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/22-would-obama-get-elected-australia.html Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:06:48 GMT Now that the USA has elected a black man as president what chance would you give to the very same thing happening here in Australia?

A BIG FAT ZERO!
AUSSIES REALLY AREN'T THE MOST OPEN MINDED PEOPLE ON THE PLANET...which is a shame really because other than that, this is generally a great place to live. ]]> wchester http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/22-would-obama-get-elected-australia.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/21-good-thing-im-patient-person.html Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:58:23 GMT I'm sure Gillian wil contact me soon...

maybe...

hoping anyway... ]]> wchester http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/21-good-thing-im-patient-person.html http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/20-its-almost-time.html Wed, 31 Dec 2008 02:16:29 GMT Waiting for an answer/action/explanation from the TBA before i spill the beans on the big story. Let's see if they take any responsibility for this one. ]]> wchester http://www.totalbowling.com.au/forum/blogs/wchester/20-its-almost-time.html