by McKinley Young
USABA Team Leader and member of IBSA Ten-Pin Bowling Technical Subcommittee
Although ten-pin bowling has been a popular recreational and competitive sport for blind people in the USA for more than 50 years, not until the late 1990s was it popular enough among blind people in other nations to enable the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) to recognize it as an official sport eligible to certify world champions. International conferences to discuss proposed rules and to demonstrate varying techniques were held in Singapore, England and Finland before IBSA, following generally the rules of the World Ten- Pin Bowling Association, officially adopted in late 2001 the rules to govern competition to be sanctioned by IBSA. Furthermore, some of the rules adopted were significantly different from the rules and procedures with which American blind bowlers had become familiar over the decades. This was the background under which IBSA sanctioned its first world championship ten-pin bowling tournament, which took place in Helsinki, Finland, during the period June 11-16, 2002, and into which the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes (USABA), the organizational member of IBSA in the USA, entered a talented team of blind and visually impaired athletes and team administrators.
Since the American Blind Bowling Association had been conducting national tournaments and competitions in the USA for more than 50 years, the USABA invited that organization to select four team members and a team manager to fill five of the 13 positions (bowlers and administrators combined) allocated to each nation entering the tournament. The other eight positions were filled by the USABA (which unsuccessfully lobbied the tournament organizers to allow other interested American blind bowlers to participate as at-large international participants). We went into this history-making tournament with a great deal of confidence that our blind bowlers would more than hold their own in international competition. Much of this confidence was based on performances by a few American blind bowlers during earlier international demonstration events and the fact that in the USA over the years we have developed a very reliable and simple guide rail that is used to assist visual class B1 athletes in particular and some visual class B2 bowlers to bowl with little or no sighted assistance. That guide rail has transformed the sport of bowling into a sport where a totally blind athlete can reach a high level of performance. Every B1 athlete on the USA team credits his or her phenomenal success in Finland to the use of the American guide rail, which a few of the other teams scornfully demeaned initially as "awfully ungainly." During the tournament, totally blind bowler Wilbert Turner of Cleveland, Ohio, bowled a scratch game of 207 and, when asked how he felt about bowling such a good score, he replied, "I was in a zone and all I had to do was stay relaxed and just follow the rail."
Like Wilbert, the other members of the team were very focused, constantly reminding one another that we must do our best to bring home honor and respect for the USA.
The tournament included teams from Australia, Chinese Taipei, Finland, Great Britain, Japan, Singapore, Sweden, Thailand and the USA. The ten bowlers making up the American team won an astonishing total of 11 gold medals, 9 silver medals and 5 bronze medals -- a total of 25 medals. Every team member won at least one medal and I cannot resist the temptation to share my pride by telling you how well we did in this, the first world ten-pin blind bowling championship tournament. In the B1 men's singles event, for example, Wilbert Turner of Cleveland, Wayne Keeney of Los Angeles and Simon McNeil of Cleveland swept the scratch division, after which Wilbert and Simon won silver and bronze in the handicap division (actual score plus handicap based on previously established average). Our only totally blind woman bowler, Cathy Fleming of Roanoke, Va., in the B1 female singles event won the gold medal in the scratch division and the silver medal in the handicap division. In the women's B3 singles event, Linda Keeney of Los Angeles, Calif., finished first in the handicap division and Marie Van Liere of Newport News, Va. won the silver medal. In the three-person team event we won the gold medal in the handicap division and the bronze medal in the scratch division. In the four-person team event we won the gold medal in the handicap division and the silver medal in the scratch division. We capped off this success by capturing the silver and bronze medals in all-events (total pin fall during entire tournament).
The USA team wishes to thank the USABA for making it possible for us to participate in the first world ten-pin blind bowling championship tournament, which was truly a once in a lifetime experience for everyone who participated. In my capacity as team leader and the USABA member of the IBSA ten-pin bowling technical subcommittee, I commend the team members for the flexibility and cooperation they displayed while taking part in a history-making world championship tournament that was conducted under sometimes difficult conditions and subject to rules and procedures which were sometimes very different from those we are used to. Many of those differences will be smoothed out as the Helsinki tournament is reviewed, future competitions are scheduled and potentially unclear issues are clarified by the IBSA ten-pin bowling technical subcommittee.
Some rules and practices which may be subject to review include the following somewhat difficult circumstances, all of which were dealt with very competently by the USA team members:
First, the visual status of each bowler was required to be confirmed by an experienced ophthalmologist before the tournament started and each B1 competitor was required to wear somewhat uncomfortable opaque goggles while bowling, to guard against assistance from any residual vision.
Also, selected athletes were required to undergo drug testing (just as in the Olympics and Paralympics) and there was some concern that the tests were administered without the presence of a third-party witness.
Another issue which deserves clarification was the practice of assigning each B1 bowler to a separate lane during the singles events, which required him or her to bowl 60 or 80 consecutive turns without having any opportunity to rest briefly after each frame while a partner bowled his or her turn. Proper pacing is a significant factor in establishing and maintaining an effective bowling rhythm (perhaps this practice was motivated in part by the incorrect assumption in many nations that the placement of a bowling guide rail of any type interferes with bowlers who do not need or choose to use it).
Finally, an unfortunate interpretation of one rule during the tournament had the effect of denying B1 bowlers the use of the guide rail at the instant of releasing the ball. Many accomplished bowlers believe that the release is the most important part of the bowling approach-and-delivery sequence. The overly literal interpretation related to a rule that was intended to prevent a bowler from leaning on a guide rail but not intended to prevent him or her from having contact with it through the release of the ball.
Several other concerns can almost certainly be collected under the heading of misunderstandings due to language differences.
These concerns notwithstanding, the first IBSA-sanctioned world ten-pin bowling championship tournament was an unqualified success! It was obvious that the Helsinki organizers had worked tirelessly for many months to plan and implement very detailed procedures that culminated in an outstanding bowling tournament. Nothing can detract from the success of the first world championship tournament, which will surely serve as a model for other outstanding international tournaments in the future.