Tournaments and Rankings

[Michael Little]

Thought I may as well make a post about this as I am on a roll.

For too many years, the bleeding obvious has been in place with a sham of a rankings system that changes all to quickly in terms of double ranking points, old and new tournaments popping up, players losing rankings points. This is supposed to tie in with my post about national team selection and hopefully make that a little easier.

My opinion, scrap it and bring back a year by year ranking system.

However, take it one step further.

Start determining tournaments with a tiered system (this should have also been applied to TBA membership status too).

Improve on the great work that guys like Jase Pearson, Mary Flower, Steve Cowland have done with the small sport tournies/wide bay circuit etc etc. Give these tournaments some importance towards a national ranking, obviously at a points tally.

Then maybe by improving on these we can genuinely have dedicated state tournament level tournaments again (especially in NSW) which can be a development and breeding ground to help those players who want to eventually take their tournament bowling to the next level and compete in national tournaments. This may allow each state and its bowlers a continous series of tournaments to bowl in, so that when a major tournament comes to that state, the local bowlers don't represent themselves with p%ss poor attendance and support of their own event like previous, they will hopefully be eager to mix it with regular national circuit players.

Next step, current national tournaments. There are too many tournaments that are declared nationally ranked tournaments because they meet some dodgy tournament accreditation requirements when they are really not fit to wipe the bum of a proper tournament.

I would suggest a top tier of maybe 4 tournaments for the year ie majors (yes I know, much like the PBA) where maximum dollars and maximum points are on offer (obviously to assist, someone, somewhere needs to do some supreme sponsorship dollar hunting instead of continually going back to AMF/Ebonite/Columbia/Storm for money as this is where one of this sports biggest problems lies - it requires continual support from industry related companies).

Then the remaining previous ranked national tournaments (maybe 4-6) can be used as "regional style" tournaments with slightly lower rankings importance.

This system may have some flaws in it, but could be a great base to be continually built upon and evolve over future years.

There are so many great tournaments on offer currently today, and the whole system can and should be easily adapted to suit bowlers of all levels from those who are looking to ease into tournament play and have a good time as well (ie sports series), those that want a little more competition (state circuits ie wide bay), and those that want to do the national circuit and mix it with the best when said tournaments come to their town.

All of this should be designed with the focus to create a clear pathway for bowlers to improve their tournament experience and one day head overseas/represent Australia.

Anyway, that is my posting limit for the year, I know this has been discussed a gazillion times, and if I haven't made any sense, stiff sh^t, its 2am and I dont care!

 

[lgt]

Great points both here and on national selection.

I and a large, merry band of helpers are trying to promote participation at the junior and youth level in NSW.

NSW Youth have started the Goldpin Junior Youth Circuit with several regional tournaments, Chester Hill, Orange and Newcastle, and the main Sydney Youth Cup and Junior Sydney Cup at Campbelltown. We recognise the linking between juniors and youth as crucial and have combined the circuit with State Team Roll Off.

With Southern NSW Juniors we promote and support the Area Championships - Orange, Illawarra and City of Sydney. Calendars, website, information sharing, development. Over the last three years we have seen more participation in events and combine this with SNSW Shield Team Roll Off.

STBA Juniors run an Intercentre, City of Sydney Champs and Junior Sydney Cup - linking with the SNSW Juniors, NSW Youth and regional centres. Next we are targeting support of Level 2 Accreditation and Coaching Forums.

Because as bowlers, parents and supporters we have identified concerns and are trying to do something about it.

This is the approach that the Adult group needs to think about.
Identify what works: there are hundreds of players bowling each weekend with ID, Bowl Sydney, Pennants and others, an advertising outlet for giving information and promoting area championships and the State Championship.

Start small, aim high....and with tenpin bowling always finish with 'donations and sponsorship greatly appreciated'

Leanne.

 

[Troyza]

Michael's ideas sound great -- they would work if they were taken up.
Though what has caught my eye is the sponsorship. I have to totally agree with Michael here in that more $$$ lies within industry sponsorship, instead of continually going back to the same ball manufacturers.
You look at PBA, & they've gone as far as having tax evaluators sponsor their tournaments (H&R block) Not to mention the all famous CLR, anyone remember those CLR ads here?
Maybe this is one thing that is stopping publicity of our sport, failure to extend our sponsorship further than the bowling industry.
If industries realised how much potential bowling has, I'm sure a few companies would jump on board. It would start small considering we are lacking members as it is -- but even if it started with a few tournaments, they may even become televised, hence potentially bringing in more bowlers.

 

[CSP]

I follow the same idea's that Michael has posted and TBA need to start listening and putting the accelerator on and start organising a pathway commencing with state level.

I forwarded my report onto TBA last year and the response was poor. The bowlers make the suggestions but have no authority to take the idea's forward.

Officials need to wake up and do something about tournament bowling.

TBA Open forum at 1pm on May 17th at the Sydney Airport Hilton. Time to voice our opinions to get things moving.

 

[The Devil's Advocate]

I understand what Michael is trying to bring to the front of public thinking, but mostly it is directed at people in positions hiding behind policies, procedural correctness and generally not wanting to have a go at tackling it because it has been in the "too hard" basket for so long, all that happens is people tinker around the edges and use red tape to wrap it all up.
I am not here to bag the policy upholders but there needs to be some serious overhaul of the system from the grass roots up, look at the problems our main body has been dealt with due to a whole range of issues, now we continually prop up this body with increased funds from members and associated industry bodies, including tournament prizefunds, instead of getting support industries on board, however a lot of the money is associated with National companies, which require National exposure to justify their sponsorhip or advertising dollar and it just isn't justifiable at present.
Our National body needs to come up with a tiered or pathway structure that doesn't simply provide for the bowlers in the "purple circle" or bowlers in the Eastern states, their has to be a fair policy for rankings, for State and National selections based on a system that encompasses the whole of the wide variety of bowling communities around Australia, providing them with a pathway to selection which is fair for all.
The National selection policy is based on how you perform in the tournaments via ranking points, how you perform at Nationals and how you fit into a team, yet there are common basic selection mistakes and the only reason you can appeal is based on whether the procedure was followed not on whether your ability is better than a selected member...how can this be, aren't we supposed to field our best and in form side and a good way to see that is with rankings, and performances in their local state, yet members are selected on simply whether they can afford to pay, not whether they met the selection criteria.
I travel all over Australia to meet the National selection policy, (and because I love bowling) I performed well and was in the top 5 with a lot less tournaments played, yet I was not selected, however players who were way down on the list on and only played 1National comp was selected, I couldn't appeal on the grounds of ability, which was extremely clear, looking at the rankings, but luckily I ended up part of the team.
As I said I am not having a go at the decision makers, as it is a very tough gig, and I would not like to do it, but I am simply showing how the present system is flawed, and it really needs to be buried, and start from scratch to facilitate accomodating bowlers from ALL states, we all know us West Aussies pay a lot more to go to tournies, the rest of you used to complain when the Perth cup or WA Nationals was on, yet we do that every tournament, maybe we should get free entry to offset it, however a system should be developed where we can be selected based on our local results as well as National or other state tournies otherwise WA will always be worse off.
WE need a National fair system and pathway....someone out there advise us who the person is responsible for it with the authority to do something about it and then just do it.