Bowling's final frontier: modern sports science weighs in on a burning issue: topnotch bowlers are topnotch athletes - Cover Story - Statistical Data Included

Bowling Digest, August, 2002 by Lydia Rypcinski

IT'S AN ETERNAL QUESTIONS, KIND of like. "Which came first--the chicken or the egg?"

Is bowling a sport? That question begets another: Are bowlers athletes?

Too often, bowling and bowlers' claims to legitimacy have been pooh-poohed with a dismissive, "You can't be a sport because ... (choose any or all):

"You don't sweat."

"You drink and smoke while performing."

"You sit more than you move."

"You can be out of shape and still get high scores."

It's been hard to refute those arguments. People with serious spare tires around their middle do win bowling tournaments. Not many scientific studies deal specifically with bowling and fitness. What's more, people in bowling--like people everywhere--assume that "real" sports require huffing and puffing, which bowling admittedly does not.

However, a small but growing core of sports science professionals inside and outside of the sport has become convinced that bowling and bowlers do indeed fall within the realm of sport and athletics.

"Sport is academically defined as a well-organized physical activity, with sub-factions and sub-disciplines, that is regulated through rules. Bowling fits that definition, given all its membership groups rules and levels of involvement," points out Dr. Jeff Briggs, a lifelong bowler with a Ph.D. in administration and science and the founder of Briggs Consulting, which offers consultative services to the bowling industry.

"Of course bowling is a sport, and it takes an athlete to perform it well," says David Grisaffi a corrective exercise kinesiologist in Washington State who trains boxers. Grisaffi worked with Hall-of-Famer Jeanne Naccarato when she was touring regularly. "An athlete combines a God-given genetic talent with sport-specific skills that tire developed to ti high level. Bowling simply differs in the bio-motor abilities it requires."

"Competitive bowlers who take a holistic approach to their sport--that is, have a coach, train and practice--tire certainly athletes," states Dr. Rob Wood, a sports scientist at the Northern Territory Institute of Sport (NTIS) in Darwin, NT, Australia. Wood specialized in long--jumping and sprinting in his younger days, and now works with elite-level Australian bowlers at the NTIS.

Bowling's bad rap, it seems, comes partly from the fact that it's an anaerobic sport. "`Anaerobic' means you're relying on adenosine triphosphate, which is stored in the muscle's fibers, for immediate energy," Grisaffi says, explaining thai performance in bowling comes in short bursts of energy that stress the musculo-skeletal system [muscles, joints, and bones] rather than the cardiovascular [heart and lungs]. That's why the sweating and "windedness" seen in a continuous-activity sport such as soccer or long-distance running aren't present.

Bowling, Grisaffi says, is more akin to weightlifting, golf, and even platform diving. "You get up, perform the activity, and then go back and wait for your next turn."

"Cardiovascular endurance plays a minor role in bowling performance," adds Wood. "Some cardiovascular fitness is important because it helps the bowler stay fresh for longer periods of play, maintain fine motor control and execute properly. However, there seems to be a threshold aerobic level for howlers, beyond which further increases have limited contribution to improving performance."

Grisaffi suggests comparing a bowler to a sprinter on a scale of one to 10 in various bio-motor abilities. "Bowlers would rank very low on speed, compared to sprinters However, a bowler's power needs would be up there with the sprinter, if you look at the full spectrum of bio-motor abilities. you'll find that bowlers actually score high on several of them--power, balance, coordination, and flexibility."

These needs blend into what Briggs calls "functional fitness."

"Physical fitness concerns itself more with aesthetics and appearance," he says. "Functional fitness refers to how someone performs. A basketball player trains to jump higher. A bowler works to acquire and then sustain a low finishing position."

As bowling legend Carmen Salvino cautions, "Developing the wrong muscles--or the right muscles the wrong way--could even hurt your performamce. Too many pushups, for instance, can overdevelop the chest muscles and force your swing off-line. You want muscles that are strong but lean." Salvino, a fitness butt who still uses a 16-pound ball at age 68, is competing again in selected PBA national stops.

"Let's face it: You've got only so many hours in a day to eat, sleep, work, and train," Grisaffi says. "You have to allocate your training time to where it will do the most good."

The principles of kinesiology (the study of the body in motion) will determine the most effective exercise program for a bowler. "Bowling is really ti combination of a lunge, a twist, and flexion and extension of the shoulder, or extending the arm straight out in front of the face after extending it behind the body," Grisaffi says.

Briggs notes that today's power game generates so much torque, or twisting three, on the body that bowlers who generate a lot of revolutions "create a `whiplash' effect on the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints. Enormous stress is placed on the body when the ball is thrown. This is one of the biggest reasons bowlers develop `bowler's tendinitis' and many other cumulative-trauma disorders."