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My featured player of the week section deserves to be the PBA brain trust who decided to change things up a bit. I believe they deserve credit and recognition. Now I don't know who all was involved in these decisions so I will just give a general recognition to those that know they had a hand in the decision. Take this as an insider appreciation and recognition for your efforts.

There are many things that go on behind the scenes that have a tremendous impact on the outward appearance of our sport. Lane conditions are extremely important. There are those that like to choose sides on scoring pace. I personally do not think we can standardize a scoring pace anymore than we can conditions. When you standardize the course you are establishing conditional stars. The PBA is a collection of our sports greatest stars and those at the top are the representing icons for each of us. I do not want a conditional super star representing our sport.

The key to not having conditional superstars at the top is variety. Variety does not allow us to choose sides and say this ONE scoring pace or condition is better than the other. An icon of our sport is one that can be taken anywhere and represent our sport with his or her performance on anything against anyone and the format does not matter. We need to find that group of bowlers and in my mind that is what the governing bodies should be looking for.

20 weeks, 5 patterns and two formats may not be enough. I would like to see more tournaments, multiple patterns during the week and get rid of "Crapshoot Sunday". But that is my personal belief and the point of this article is "variety"

The PBA brain trust is very busy with little time to focus attention to details at every level of concern. The core of our sport is its uniqueness to other sports. That core is very important towards our future growth and development. You can break our sport down how ever you want in what ever era you want and you will see and hear conflicts and opinions. Those conflicts and opinions will always be a part of our sport until we define and market our sport in a way that does not allow for a person to stand up and make statements contradicting the core of our sport. That core is present throughout the history of our sport and needs more attention to detail. The PBA showed attention to that detail this week and hopefully will realize the value and importance by showing continued attention and giving it definition.

When giving lessons I start out every long term student with a question and a definition of our sport. The question is What is so special and unique about our sport compared to other sports? The definition is directly related.

The answer to the question I am looking for is based upon history and reality. Bowling is the only sport that is a battle with an invisible course. Every other sport goes out of their way to create a pristine playing fields or surface and challenge the competitors with visible obstacles. Bowling is unique because our obstacles have never been visible and technology has taken the ability to manipulate the invisible course to an entirely different level.

It takes years of experience and knowledge to understand what it takes to become a great bowler. I believe it is very beneficial to a student to let them know right up front that their development is based on their appreciation for the uniqueness of our sport. Appreciation for this uniqueness does not allow for the condemning remarks of individuals who are biased towards personal results or theories.

Once a bowler realizes what is so special about our sport they begin to take pride in this uniqueness and you will see their development take a totally different path. That is why marketing a definition of our sport would be so valuable.

You tell a gifted bowler that this is what the sport is about and here is what you need to do to improve and I promise you they will do it. They just need to be told.

The definition of bowling is knocking down the most pins in as few shots as possible with 60 feet of invisible course between them. The physical game and a range of equipment is used to probe this invisible course. Strategy is based upon the opponent and the competitive format.

Marketing the uniqueness and definition of our sport gives respect to those that have developed their art form and quiets those that don't understand what the sport has always been about.

Realizing this uniqueness and definition leads to strategies that will create true icons at the top of our sport. The conditional superstars will be indentified for what they are. Just like the DH is just a DH. Every sport has stars that are very gifted at aspects of their sport but they are not the true icons of the entire sport.

What the PBA did this week is great not because a lower scoring pace is right but because variety is right.

It is amazing how different bowlers practice and develop based upon definition and appreciation for what the sport is really about. From my experience as a coach I believe the same value would be seen for the entire sport and industry when and if we choose to market the true uniqueness and definition of our sport.