okansas.blogspot.com

okansas.blogspot.com
Occassional thoughts about orienteering

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Why isn't Aspleaf a professional bowler?

Bowling is a simple sport. It isn't especially physically demanding. You don't face a defender who can affect your game. You can, in fact, have a perfect game. Rank beginners can bowl a strike. You compete and train indoors. It is easy to find a place to train.

If you look at a professional bowler, you'll notice that they look like a regular person. They aren't freaks of nature, like professional basketball players or Olympic marathoners.

There's good money to be made in bowling. Top pros can win prize money well over $100,000.

So, why isn't Aspleaf a professional bowler?

I think the answer boils down to two things:

1. Even though it is a simple sport, it is more difficult than you might think.

While rank beginners can bowl a strike, putting together 12 strikes in a row, when it really matters, isn't easy. Good bowlers train a lot. They train for years. It isn't easy.

2. Aspleaf doesn't love bowling.

To be really good at something you've got to really want to be good at it.

That's why Aspleaf isn't a professional bowler.

Keep Aspleaf's professional bowling career in mind when you read ideas like this (lifted from an Attackpoint discussion):

Probably the easiest way to increase US Team performance is to recruit sub-elite (say sub 15 minute 5K for the men) collegiate or ex-collegiate runners with stipends or some such and train them to run sprints.

Back to okansas.blogspot.com.

posted by Michael | 7:31 PM

4 comments

Comments:

Hehe..

Well I do play some mean Wii Sports bowling. But you are correct in, "Aspleaf doesn't love bowling"

I totally agree that to be great in a sport you have to love the sport as well as have the physics for it.

I remember some talk, years ago, how long it would take before all the great runners from Africa would be best in the world in orienteering. There mostly cutural differences to overcome I guess.

# posted by

AspLövet : 7:08 AM

As soon as I posted, I wondered, "what if Aspleaf turns out to be a great bowler?" I actually thought about doing a Google search just to be sure.

Michael

# posted by

Anonymous : 9:12 PM

I like a dictatorship in the world under my Lordship.

# posted by

Anonymous : 2:38 PM

As the person quoted, I wrote a response in my attackpoint log.

# posted by

WhyJustRun : 11:25 AM

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