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USBC STRING PIN COMPETITION CERTIFIED! | AUG 2023 LAUNCH!! | RULES IN PLACE FOR 2023-2024 SEASON???
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Personally, I wouldn’t participate in a certified competition for this without seeing how balls being thrown on string pinsetter lanes with the proper specifications. There is a house here that has 6 pair of string pinsetters but they are absolutely awful.
That said, if the USBC certifies this, this will only be for the US, and any applicable scores and/or awards for it won’t technically be recognized outside the US unless the bowling orgs around the world also certify this (JBC, KBC, WTBA, etc.). Until that happens, this is effectively useless, as it will still leave free fall pinsetters as the gold standard around the world.
Other areas of the world already approved string pins…so it’s really just a matter of time.
@Jeremy Hatcher Other areas of the world do not own The PBA tour, Bowlero does. Serious doubts the pros will sit Idly by while the game changes to more of a a carnival attraction.
@james bills i get your point, although my comment was primarily responding to the other world organizarions sanctioning bodies.
@Jeremy Hatcher I don’t see the Japan Bowlign Congress or S. Korea’s or Australia’s organizations approving these. In fact, from what I have seen, there isn’t an alley in Japan that has these, and with my time in Australia, I have yet to see these there as well.
@Brad Littlejohn ..Australia already did, Britain, Canada, and IBF..unfortunately, it looks like we the US are behind on this one.
As a 200+ avg bowler for 30+ years, I will quit bowling before using string pins.
Why? Don’t you think you can still bowl over 200 on them? I am 200+ bowler for 40 years, and they look kinda fun. And good for the Houses.
I’m a nobody league bowler but yeah I won’t bowl on strings plain and simple. I live in S California so theres already several standard pin alleys around. I doubt I’ll have a prob finding standard leagues.
For now… but the lack of certification was the only thing holding a lot of centers back from making the switch. Eventuality you’ll have no choice… this is where the industry is heading. Might as well get used to it.
I’ve never bowled with string pins so I don’t really have an opinion. I can’t knock it till I try it. However, my gut says that if everyone in an event is bowling on the same lanes, then it shouldn’t matter.
Bowlero bought 2 of the 3 centers in our area in Nor Cal, and there’s now only one mechanic for 2 of the 3 remaining centers north of SF. The oil situation is dismal and they only care about the people who show up once a year to have a birthday party over league bowlers who spend hundreds a month. So it’s just a matter of time till its string pins and its 100% rock and bowl. It will be the end of bowling for me and I suspect a bunch of others.
I know what you mean here. I’m in NorCal as well. I will move back to the midwest before I bowl in one of these centers that has the strings.
I’m on the other side of the country from you in Connecticut, but believe me it’s exactly the same over here. I bowl both a house and sport league here and I’m really not sure if I’m coming back next season. We had a great Brunswick house that they came in and ruined. Bowlero is going downhill fast. Approaches are completely scuffed up and worn, our balls get chewed up from the ball return, the oil machine constantly breaks down while they try to oil before league, the computer system crashes and the pinsetters jam at least five times a night. Even our pro shop guy who’s been great is leaving because he’s fed up with them. They just don’t care about us. All it is now is making money off of open bowlers. We can’t even go practice without it being cosmic bowling literally every second it isn’t league. The closest non Bowlero to me is over an hour away and that guy is one of the VERY few left in my state that’s independently owned. If string pins somehow take over I’m all set.
@athlonen thinking similar.
They don’t even clean the approaches at the bowlero that just hosted the WSOB. I’m pretty sure that’s the only time they actually do anything there, it’s pretty sad
@Chris Henze I wouldn’t be surprised.. As Bowlero owns the PBA, their ways and rules hold sway. The only times it doesn’t is for the US Open and the Masters.
Having already seen one major college event winner determined due to the strings tangling each other just no. I will quit before I bowl string.
this is when bowling ends for me. 40 yrs into it… USBC totally sucks and always has
I’m all for upgraded, more reliable and less expensive pin setters… BUT string pins are not the answer. Strings are not an innovation, they are a fundamental change to the most central part of bowling … knocking down free standing pins. In the current rules, anything hitting a pin that isn’t the ball or another pin is a foul. Even a dead wood eleventh pin in the gutter is a foul if it comes into play. So how exactly does the USBC explain away strings tripping out other pins as a viable and legal replacement to free standing pins? It just doesn’t work with out ignoring or changing the rules.
I’ll quit bowling before i bowl with strings…
We have a restaurant here in Lewes Delaware that has a string bowling center in it. I’ve bowled there once. They use no lane oil so that’s that. I wasn’t very enthused about bowling there but it was a family thing so I did. The overall experience was, eh, not great. Could only use house balls which had zero friction so no hook. As far as the string thing, I didn’t like it. The strings do interfere with the overall movement of the pins. I don’t care what the USBC says. This needs to be kept in the closet where it belongs.
Keeping an open mind. I think those people saying it will kill the sport are exaggerating. Centers closing due to high costs will kill it faster. Sports evolve over time. People probably complained when they switched from pin boys to automatic pin setters.
Simple case of the “business” of Bowling pushing out the sport of Bowling. I would not bowl in a string pin situation, ever.
Wow will there even be anymore real bowling in the next year or two? Think that it’s time to stop purchasing bowling balls, because I may not even be able to use those shortly.😮
I for one hope string pin bowling does not catch on because it just seems ridiculous and has an unrealistic pin response.
If we’re talking about solely for competition use as a variety to the support, I don’t see that as much of an issue, but if they try to take the real bowling pins from bowling alleys and put this crap in its place, I won’t be happy.
Have you watched the newest vid on it. Seems like pin response has been figured out. Which is why the USBC approved it. It’s been approved by other Foundations since like 2017.. so it’s not exactly new. And it seems the bugs have been worked out.
@Joe Brrr Fan I’ve seen videos and i don’t think it looks realistic, esp with spares.
The strings get in the way of each other.
Carrie is affected also because pins that would roll across or fly across don’t spin or roll properly.
I just see it as like nerf football. They’re both football but one’s real and one’s a toy.
Imagine if we took this concept to golf.
I bet real golfers have a preference of grass over artificial turf.
I believe there’s room for both real bowling and marionette bowling.
Maybe dedicate a few lanes in an alley and you know charge less because it’s a lesser experience 🤣
Anyway, the idea has come around. People are more about saving money than keeping the sport the way it should be. So whatever is going to happen is going to happen, right?
Not a fan of the string pin idea at all. I enjoy the “luck” factor of free-standing pins in regards to messenger strikes and tough split conversions. Both of which will be eliminated with string pins.
I’m done if we go to string pins, USBC’ your really pushing it
Different country (UK) so here’s my initial thoughts on one year of league on “strings” after the initial first year of “no f’ way”.
This is likely the future of bowling (money talks) and with no centers there would be no game.
Quit or don’t but in most countries outside the US recreational bowling makes the centers the most money and the number of available places to bowl is shrinking (what i pay for 3 games is what a “fun” bowler pays for 1).
Our bowling center does have good management and they do tend to work with the leagues quite well.
They also allow us to operate a youth bowling club on a heavily discounted rate which means the sport will have a future.
I think co-operation between the leagues and the center will be key.
So long as the center does keep up maintenance, rotates the pins correctly (otherwise the head pin gets murdered) then you’ll probably appreciate the lack of break downs and get used to the odd “string drag down” or ” string hold up” that occurs.
What you lose on proper bird dog messengers you do typically gain on some spares (7/10’s are pretty much impossible on strings at our center).
My league average is ever so slightly up as is the average across the league i bowl in.
The major “con” so far is that we’re seeing a higher % of ball surface scratching. This isn’t the kind of dings you’d see from screw heads and the like.
We believe this is caused by the “pit” rather than the strings.
As there’s less moving parts, less mechanics doing maintenance (see my point above) and more plastic for dust and grit to just sit about on the balls tend to pick up a lot of small surface contamination at that point.
If a center goes this route I’d advocate that any bowers push for routine cleaning, vacuuming of this area as the recreational bowlers do tend to contaminate everything over time.
Experimentation with a good ole “henry hoover” has shown to reduce this sort of damage markedly.
Overall:
I prefer free fall but this isn’t as horrific as i expected (with the big asterisk of everything needs proper maintenance).
I suspect the US may be able to resist this more due to popularity, number of centers, etc.
In reality as more places go strings those sticking with free fall will only see their costs continue to increase.
Less free fall setters made means parts, and so on will only become more costly over time which is just another cost burden.
We only have VHS bowling so what we need is Beta bowling too!