Joey Berardi Used to Bowl Two Handed

"There was this 13- or 14-year old kid who was bowling with what looked like his grandfather against two other guys. The kid really caught my attention, not only because of his age but because of his style: He was using two hands to deliver the ball. I don't know whether his thumb was in or out, but he unleashed the ball like I had never seen before. I didn't watch too long because I got involved in a match of my own, and I didn't see this kid again until a PBA event in Edison, N.J., some years later.Only this time, he was bowling the traditional way, but with a very strong ball for the time. It was Joey Berardi, who eventually became a PBA Hall of Famer. I've always wondered whether Joey would have revolutionized the game, as Mark Roth ultimately was credited with doing, if he had stuck with his two handed delivery." ~ Bill Spigner

Brian Valenta: Bowling's Lord of the Loft

Jason Belmonte and Osku Palermaa are the undisputed stars of two-handed bowling, but there's another two-hander out there who shouldn't be overlooked, even if, unlike me, you're not a big fan of the two-handed style. His name is Brian Valenta, and even though, unlike Belmonte and Palermaa, he puts his thumb in his strike ball, it doesn't noticeably diminish the awesome power he unleashes on the pins.

Since being a member of Junior Team USA, leading Lindenwood University to the Intercollegiate Team Championship in 2005, winning the Intercollegiate Singles Championship in 2006, and joining the PBA in 2008, Brian has cashed high in several Tour events, and he finished a respectable 42nd place in the recently concluded U.S. Open.

One way he managed to perform so well on the hugely challenging lane conditions of the U.S. Open was to draw upon his remarkable ability to move extremely far left (we're talking NEXT-LANE far left) on the approach when he needed to and loft the ball 30 feet down the lane with freakish consistency and accuracy to crush the pocket.

It's an amazing sight to behold, and, fortunately, the short video below provides a glimpse of what I'm talking about. It comes from PBA Xtra Frame's coverage of later cashier's round play in the U.S. Open. It just so happens that Mark Roth was sitting in as guest commentator on Xtra Frame at the time, and even Roth, who isn't particularly fond of the two-handed style and has seen and done so much in bowling that he seems forbiddingly difficult to impress with any style, appeared to be almost dumbfounded by Valenta's prodigious demonstration. It should also be noted that Valenta replicated the results shown on the video several times in that game en route to a 255 score. It was stunning!

It's true that modern oil patterns, reactive resin bowling balls, and high rev releases are prompting more and more right-handed players to move far left and loft the ball over the gutter cap and that guys like Belmo, Osku, and Mike Fagan do it routinely and very well in the latter games of rounds. Yet, I must say that I've never seen anyone do it quite as impressively as Valenta. And to put an exclamation point on his loftmeister skills, the second video shows him executing a tamer but still mighty impressive version of Osku Palermaa's now legendary loft-over-the-barchair trick shot strike of a few years ago.

I know that some people don't like this modern freakshow development in the sport, and I have to admit that I too am not thrilled that lane conditions and bowling equipment are such that anyone would ever need to take such drastic measures to score well. But necessity is the mother of invention, and I can't help but marvel at the mind-boggling loftmeister skills of a Brian Valenta.

How do you feel about this? Are you similarly impressed and enthralled, or do you recoil in repugnance and horror at this wholesale desecration of the traditional bowling game?

Bowling Video of the Day--Young Two-Handed Bowler Wesley Low

Bowling Week in Review--May 2-May 8, 2010

~ On my Bowling Quote of the Day for May 3, I quoted renowned bowling coach Fred Borden on the importance of moving fast enough on the approach and through the armswing to generate sufficient ball speed to hit the pins with more energy and better carry. I think many of us are too slow and deliberate with our games, and this results in our throwing the ball too slowly to be as effective as we could be, or we mistakenly try to increase our ball speed by forcing it with our upper body.

I think I've tended to throw the ball too slowly over the years (click here to see a fairly recent video of me throwing the ball slowly, even though I did get a strike). So I mentioned that I've recently upped the tempo of my approach and armswing and have been pleased with the effortlessly extra speed and better carry it's created. I tried it out in league this week and got good results and even threw 22 strikes in a row in practice after league as I alternated lanes. That's encouraging. Now if I can also work with a coach to successfully increase my revs and alter my axis tilt and all that fancy stuff, it should dramatically improve my scoring on a variety of lane conditions.

~ When I was growing up, I kept seeing the name Elvin Mesger as the guy with the most sanctioned 300 games. He was THE 300 god to me back then. When you're a kid who loves to bowl, you really look up to records and to the people who set them. But I never knew what Mr. Mesger looked like until this week when I saw his photo on Dr. Jake's Bowling History Blog. Now I know. He looked like a serious bowler who could get the job done.

~ As you may know, the Women's U.S. Open is now taking place in Ft. Worth Texas and the finals will be televised live next Wednesday on ESPN2 at 9 PM EDT. It should come as no surprise that Kelly Kulick leads the tournament after the first 8-game round.

What may surprise if not shock you if you haven't been reading my blog or bowling news from somewhere or other is that the USBC recently announced that they won't be sponsoring the Women's Open in 2011 due to a budget shortage. That's right, they say they can't afford to give the women their due. So, unless another sponsor steps up to the plate, the Women's Open is on indefinite "hiatus." I don't know about you, but I think this is a travesty.

I agree with Bowlers Journal International writer Dick Evans that the BPAA (Bowling Proprietors Association of America) should do it if no one else will. They apparently did it before, and they could do it again if they really care about women's bowling in particular and bowling in general in the good ole USofA.

~ Did you read Mike J. Laneside's piece To Hambone or not to Hambone on PBA.com this week? When you read the comments there and elsewhere, you discover that some people are absolutely rabid haters of the "hambone" and of its originator, ESPN's bowling announcer Rob Stone. Here is what one particularly disgruntled guy named Dave said about the hambone and Rob Stone:

"If you use "HAMBONE", you should be fed a milkbone. Don't sink to the level of that no-nothing Stone. Also, don't drag bowling down into the sewer that he has taken it to during the regular season. I have never before been this uninterested in watching a telecast of the best in the world at a game that I have played for 44 years. Rob Stone is the biggest joke and disappointment in the history of the PBA. He should be thrown aside and forgotten after turning a great thing like the PBA into one of the biggest running jokes that we have in our bowling league. It used to be "Did you see Pete?" or "What a finish in the finals this week." Now it is "Did you hear what the moron said on Sunday?" Don't sink to his level. Put on the great show we deserve. Who knows, maybe you can be a permanant replacement. He would never be missed!"

Do you agree? Or do you think this is all "much ado about nothing"?

~ People continue to debate whether Chris Barnes is a great bowler. I think Thomas Scherrer does an excellent job of addressing the issue (don't be deterred by the "Adult Content Warning" page that comes up first when you click on the link) in his This is Bowling Philosophy blog. He systematically lays out 5 criteria for bowling greatness and opines that Barnes unequivocally meets one of them and is likely to meet some or all of the others before his career is over. I agree. How about you?

~ I quoted Mika Koivuniemi saying that he moved to the U.S.A. when he decided that, despite his many tournament victories, he wasn't winning enough money in Europe. However, the way things are going, it looks like the men and women from the USA will soon need to move to Europe, Asia, or the Middle East to earn even half way decent money from tournaments. Yet, if Mika came here because he wasn't earning enough in Europe, and, pretty soon, there won't be any more professional tournaments here for either men or women, will this spell the end of high-level professional bowling everywhere?

~ Back when bowling apparently got more respect than it does today, they even had heavyweight boxing champ Rocky Marciano plugging Ebonite ball fitting equipment. Could you imagine a boxing or any other sport's champ doing that today? If you asked them too, they'd probably laugh in your face. How sad!

~ One nice feature of Bowl.com is its live streaming coverage of the USBC Open in Reno, and one of the highlights of that coverage this week was its airing of Mike Lichstein bowling doubles with his dad Larry Lichstein, and Pete Couture bowling doubles with John Janawicz. They were all on the same pair, and Ricky Ward was bowling on the pair to their right. As I pointed out in my blogpost, Mike Lichstein has one of the most unusual styles I've ever seen. And what I didn't point out then but have discovered since then is that his style has changed since he bowled on TV during his younger years. Check out this video and this one (that also includes a very young Patrick Allen) from two of those early TV appearances. But what watching guys like Wayne Garber and Mike Lichstein tells ME is that you can move to the line in some of the strangest ways imaginable and still get the job done if you know what you're doing and can repeat shots.

~ When it was announced that Walter Ray Williams Jr. would be bowling his first PBA Senior event last week, everybody was saying he'd waltz right through the field to the championship. After all, he'd topped all the major statistical categories and won Player of the Year on the regular tour. How could he not dominate any Senior event he entered with competition that couldn't come anywhere close to his level on the regular tour?

Yet, it seemed to me that in a single elimination match play format on higher scoring conditions against guys who, though they may be 50+ years old can still bowl, even Walter Ray was no shoo-in for a title. And when he finished in 11th place going in to match play, it looked as though I might be right, and I began to tone down my expectations for him.

I needn't have bothered. He proceeded to dominate match play with a perfect 10-0 record and average over 260 on his way to his first Senior title in his first Senior event. Yes, he got a few breaks and his opponents might have fared better had they gotten more breaks or had better carry in crucial situations. Nevertheless, if you watched then or watch now on PBA Xtra Frame, you saw or will see Walter bowl great under what must have been tremendous pressure to meet the lofty expectations people had for him. The man is an absolute bowling marvel!

Now he's bowling a PBA Regional event in Canton, Georgia that will be carried by PBA Xtra Frame tomorrow (Sunday).

When I heard he was headed for the tournament in Georgia, I commented on PBA.com that he was like the Terminator headed to another destination to "decimate" his enemies. Someone else asked if NORAD was tracking him. He DOES seem kind of like an unstoppable force right now. You know he's coming, but you can't do anything about it if you're his competition. Can he win "simultaneous Player of the Year" honors?

~ If, like me, you're impressed enough with the two-handed bowling style to try it yourself or, at least, to help others learn it, Joe Slowinski, the "Mr. Spock" of bowling coaches, has an article that dissects the style with patented Slowinskian meticulousness. Enjoy.

And that's all for this week's Bowling Week in Review. The next installment should appear next Saturday. Take care, and great bowling.

Bowling Bytes--5/6/10

Today we see how Walter Ray Williams Jr. fared in his first PBA Senior event and learn about the USBC SMART scholarship funds, a Michigan bowler's big game in the USBC Open, Bo Goergen's return to the Open this year, famed bowling writer Dick Evans' take on this year's USBC convention, a fancy new bowling center in the Ukraine, the good and not-so-good aspects of next season's Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour, and top coach Joe Slowinski's characteristically brainy and detailed analysis of the two-handed bowling style.

~ Walter Ray Williams Jr. Wins Senior Miller High Life Classic in PBA Senior Tour Debut -- "Recently-crowned Professional Bowlers Association Player of the Year Walter Ray Williams Jr. of Ocala, Fla., picked up where he left off at the conclusion of the 2009-10 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season in April by winning the Senior Miller High Life Classic Wednesday at George Pappas Victory Lanes. Making his PBA Senior Tour debut, Williams, the PBA Tour’s all-time leader in career titles with 47, notched his first Senior Tour win by defeating Keith Sharp of Orlando, Fla., 267-245 in the championship match..."

~ PBA Senior Miller High Life Classic--Match Play Rounds

~ USBC SMART scholarship funds transferred to new independent corporation -- "The United States Bowling Congress has created a new corporation dedicated to the management, protection and promotion of youth bowling scholarships. All funds in the USBC SMART (Scholarship Management and Accounting Reports for Tenpins) program have been transferred to the new entity called SMART Bowling Scholarship Funding Corporation. This new corporation is financially and legally independent of USBC, but will continue to use the SMART name. All scholarships previously earned through SMART remain in place with all benefits and eligibility protection for recipients continuing..."

~ Michigan bowler rolls 298 game at USBC Open Championships -- "Only a handful of bowlers each year find themselves in position to roll a perfect game at the USBC Open Championships. Chris Damon of Kimball, Mich., has been there twice in his seven tournament appearances but fell short of perfection on both occasions. Damon's recent attempt came in his final game of singles at the National Bowling Stadium on Tuesday night, but he left the 4-7 on his final shot and finished with the fifth 298 of this year's event. There have been 13 perfect games this year..."

~ On the Lanes with Bo Goergen -- "In the coming months, we'll talk with some of the best-known bowlers at the USBC Open Championships and get their thoughts on their time at the tournament and what it takes to succeed on the championship lanes. This week, we heard from 2009 Regular Singles champion, Bo Goergen, who tossed 32 out of a possible 36 strikes en route to games of 299, 299 and 264 for an 862 singles series last year in Las Vegas. His effort was the highest three-game set in tournament history. He added a 700 series in doubles and 628 in team for a 2,190 all-events total, which was third overall..."

~ Everything you didn't want to know about USBC Convention by Dick Evans -- "Trust is something that is earned and not granted automatic entry into our brains. It is especially true in bowling where the old gutter-ball shooters would flirt with the gutter on their strike deliveries but had trust that their timing would be perfect and the ball would end up the strike pocket. They all lived by the creed: "trust is a must."Their trust was well founded in most cases but I remember when a gutter shooter lost a PBA title because he hit his ankle with the ball, which rolled into the gutter, and he lost the championship game by a few pins. My beliefs about trust seeped into my brain at the USBC Convention April 30 when President Jeff Bojé pointed out how important trust is to the future growth of the United States Bowling Congress..."

~ Largest FEC in the Ukraine features Brunswick-equipped bowling center -- "The largest Family Entertainment Center (FEC) in the Ukraine, Entertainment World Cosmix, which is also one of the largest entertainment complexes in the entire territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), recently started its operation in the country's capital, Kiev. The entertainment facility was completed at the end of 2009 and spans more than 5,700 square meters. It offers visitors some of the most popular and modern leisure activities for the entire family to enjoy, making it the trendiest source of entertainment in the region."Cosmix" includes a pub, a pizza restaurant, a sushi-bar, a billiards hall and tenpin bowling. The bowling center features 20 Brunswick-equipped lanes with Vector® Scoring and Management System, GS-X™ pinsetters, Anvilane™ synthetic lanes, new Frameworx® furniture and the Authority22® lane maintenance system..."

~ Rocky Marciano for Ebonite (1955)

~ PBA 2010-11 preview: fizzling or sizzling? -- "IT’S SAID THAT SIZZLE sells the steak. But is it possible to create an enticing sizzle and produce an appetizing dinner with a limited supply of beef? As a case in point, check out the 2010-11 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour. It buzzes with the promise of a $1 million Tournament of Champions — in which the winner will collect $250,000 — and a real breakthrough in television coverage of the U.S. Open: The winner is slated to earn a check for around $120,000 — after three days of live ESPN coverage. That’s a sizeable amount of bread (or steak, as the case may be) allocated by an organization nearly starving for sponsors and whose internal financial underpinnings have publicly become a concern. Measuring bang for the buck, the PBA’s desire for an attention-getting 2010-11 seems to be on track. But it is the result of some deft rearranging that attempts to make less money look like more...budget constraints will reduce total prize money awarded to players by about $1 million next season, while the new arrangement also will save the PBA about the same amount by reducing TV production costs and staff expenses...A closer look reveals next season’s “tour” barely meets the definition. It’s certainly not a pro bowling tour based on a perpetual city-to-city concept. Instead, it’s a compilation of traditional, though enhanced, majors, surrounded by a revised renewal of the World Series of Bowling and a strategically stretched-out playoff series at the end. Mix in a couple of other official tournaments and unofficial special events, and it adds up to 22 “unique” telecasts originating from eight locations — all subject to change, of course, until all of the plans are etched in stone..."

~ Two-Handed Bowling: A Brief Analysis of a Powerful New Bowling Form -- "In recent years, 2 bowlers with thumbless two-handed bowling styles have emerged as two of the most successful bowlers of our time. These bowlers always attract viewers due to their exciting ability to strike, strike and strike again. Osku Palerma, Finland and Jason Belmonte, Australia, can dominate a tournament with their exciting styles and high scoring games. In November 2006, Palermaa dominated the AMF World Cup, start to finish, to claim the title. In 2007, Belmonte won the High Roller as well as the World Tenpin Masters titles, defeating Chris Barnes along the way. Palermaa defeated Belmonte, this week, in the final of the Istanbul Open, in Turkey. More and more bowlers are attempting to emulate these two bowlers. In fact, in Hickory, NC, PBA great Guppy Troup’s children both use a thumbless release. In December 2006, Chaz Dennis (10 years, 2 months and 27 days) became the youngest bowler ever to shoot a 300 game approved by the United States Bowling Congress. With such success, coaches should review and analyze these styles. With this in mind, here is a brief analysis of this style. I will continue to develop an understanding of the 2-
handed delivery from a coaches’ eye..."