February 10, 2006Bowling LessonsI thought bowling was supposed to be fun. I was in a league once with two other guys. We named our team Carpe Hoc (very rough Latin for "Seize this"). We made ourselves t-shirts. We lost every competition of the summer. But we had fun. Around the same time a friend of mine was taking a bowling class. He saw his average score drop considerably at the beginning of the class, but by the end it had jumped considerably higher. He had bought his own custom-made bowling ball and gloves. He had become a bowling Jedi. And he was no longer any fun to bowl with. Perhaps it's a reflection of my profoundly noncompetitive nature, which is itself a coping mechanism for my persistent inability to compete, but I don't bowl to win; I bowl for kicks. My friend bowls for kicks too, incidentally. He's certainly not in it for the money. But he sees the opportunity to bowl as an opportunity for self-improvement. For him, competition is great fun. For me, it's a giant buzzkill. There's something to be said for going out with friends, borrowing a bowling ball, settin' em up and knockin' em down. We laugh at each other's errors, we cheer each other's successes, we granny-bowl, we strike bowling poses, we have fun. Bowling--a sport in the most technical sense--is a great communal activity. On the flip side are competitive bowlers. I have some in my extended family, and I've met some middle- and high-school would-be Olympic bowlers who are deadly serious about it. They don't want a peep out of you while they stand on one leg and perfect their follow-through. They try to hug the gutter and attempt to earn a turkey. They knock down eight pins intentionally just to practice picking up the seven-ten split. Bowling in this sense is an epic, a conquest. Somewhere in the middle is the love of the game: the meeting point of the linear progression toward the final frame and the harmonic experience of each thrown ball. The thrill of victory is rightly matched by the thrill of play, of enjoying the company of one another for a set time. In bowling, as in life, we are inclined to celebrate victory, which requires both a sense of competition and a sense of camaraderie: there may be only one winner, but there must be many players. *** Care to share a bowling memory? Post a comment below. Check out my personal weblog: Loud Time. Posted by Dave Zimmerman
at February 10, 2006 1:31 PM
Oh yeah? I bet I'm more non-competitve than you are! Oh . . . wait . . . dang. You win. Comment by: Macon Stokes at February 10, 2006 3:47 PMI remember Carpe Hoc, wasn't there also something about Carpe Carp - or is that my memory playing tricks on me again. Oh well. This is not a bowling story. We're using the current Winter Olympics to provide some context for family discussions about competition and winning. We have had several incidents, including a pre-Christmas photo face plant onto concrete by a three-year-old as a result of an older sibling wanting to win more than anything. It is great to celebrate victory. I greatly fear the dillution of competition to the point where "Everyone wins" - insert culturally hip and relevant clip from The Incredibles here -. So instead of emphasizing the fact that "there can be only one", we have chosen instead to currently focus on the gratification of self-improvement, working toward individual victory, and using our strengths for God's glory not our own. So that's my little ol sports story. Comment by: Steve at February 14, 2006 2:48 PMI remember Carpe Hoc, wasn't there also something about Carpe Carp - or is that my memory playing tricks on me again. Oh well. This is not a bowling story. We're using the current Winter Olympics to provide some context for family discussions about competition and winning. We have had several incidents, including a pre-Christmas photo face plant onto concrete by a three-year-old as a result of an older sibling wanting to win more than anything. It is great to celebrate victory. I greatly fear the dillution of competition to the point where "Everyone wins" - insert culturally hip and relevant clip from The Incredibles here -. So instead of emphasizing the fact that "there can be only one", we have chosen instead to currently focus on the gratification of self-improvement, working toward individual victory, and using our strengths for God's glory not our own. So that's my little ol sports story. Comment by: Steve at February 14, 2006 2:49 PMBTW I'm so competitive that I had to post twice as much as Mr. Stokes. Make that three times now. Comment by: Steve at February 14, 2006 2:50 PMMy bowling adventures have been few for a reason. On a cold Kentucky night in 1985, a bunch of us went all-night bowling and by the end of the party, I wanted to beat up a "friend" for stealing my girl. She came with me and left with him...something was drastically wrong with that scenario! Comment by: Roger Feeback at February 17, 2006 9:41 AMThat's the kind of bowling experience that will leave a bad taste in your mouth. Of course, there are lots of bowling experiences that would leave a bad taste in a person's mouth. Comment by: dave at February 17, 2006 1:14 PMComments are closed for this entry. |
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