The Sport of Bowling is Seeing a Resurgence in Popularity

welcome facebook live viewers my name is brad bodus and this is our weekly facebook live event uh thank you for joining us today you’re gonna find that we are doing something a little bit more upbeat today during the last year um uh the bonnie boates law offices all of you and these facebook live episodes have helped out with some pretty heavy issues mask wearing vaccines social distancing um you know i i think we’re starting to see um some positive things in the future and today we are going to talk about something very positive a sport i love and that’s the sport of bowling and today we’re very fortunate to have my good friend and the general manager of vestavia bowl in vestavia alabama just outside of birmingham angela nance angela welcome and thank you for joining us today thank you for having me so angela i want to talk with our viewers about the sport of bowling it’s a sport that i’ve been passionate about for well i’m 60 years old so for for most of my life i remember bowling with my dad when when i was just very very young i remember hearing stories from my dad about when he was young working as a pin setter back in the days when you know the the the pin setting machines weren’t automatic it’s just it’s a sport that’s been in my family that i’ve loved and i know you feel the same way but to get started here folks this is our weekly bonded bonus facebook live event the bond and botus law offices are located throughout alabama throughout mississippi and folks we help people that are facing tough financial challenges and we know and again i said today’s episode is going to be upbeat but we know a lot of you have had financial challenges over the last year and mortgage payments are beginning to come due rent payments folks are going to have to worry about going forward and here in the state of alabama and in mississippi those extended unemployment benefits are going to expire soon so please just know if you need help we’re here we’re offering absolutely free additional consultations and we’ll do them by phone we’ll do them by a video consultation so you’re safe we’ll do it from your home or office please reach out to us if we can help you and angela you know this i always tell my bowling friends that are listening yes i’m a bankruptcy attorney that’s what i do primarily but if you need help with any legal situation any question please please please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if it’s not something i can do i’ll help you find the right attorney i’m not only am i a bankruptcy attorney i’m an old attorney so i’ve been doing this a long time and i know where you can get help if you need it so please don’t hesitate to reach out to us angela last week’s episode actually it was two weeks back but our last bon and bonus facebook live episode we dealt with a pretty heavy issue and that was small businesses and the impact that kovitz had on the individuals running those businesses because a lot of individuals have to put up personal guarantees on the businesses debt we had my good friend derek johnson with south point bank and uh you know i encourage people that have concerns about um operating their small businesses and the finances that episode is available on our facebook page it’s available on the bonnie bonus website uh all of these facebook live events are available so if you’re someone like me and you love bowling and and you know somebody else that might want to watch today’s show please tell them about this they can tune in later and watch what angela has to say angela it’s been a tough year for the bowling industry hasn’t it it has been yeah i never thought we would ever have to deal with something like this yeah and none of us have i you know the last time it happened something similar to this happened in our country was 100 years ago over 100 years ago back in the i think 1919 but you and i think the sport of bowling have just done a wonderful job of pulling through this angela for our viewers i know you and i know about your history with the sport but why don’t you give us just a little bit of background about angela nancy and your experience with bowling and with versailles okay um well my family all has have bowled longer than i have um they started bowling when i was probably 12 years old i started when i was 14. i’ll be honest it wasn’t something i wanted to do it didn’t interest me in the moment but i got set up with the right people who made it fun for me and just grew into something i loved we would come every day after school and practice probably about five of us and just really enjoyed it and as soon as i was able to start working keith henderson he hired me um i was 15 years old i’m 38 now so i’ve been here a very long time um but i just love it you know i met my husband here of course when we met it was way before we ever thought about anything you know together but you know it’s something that we love um we love the sport we love the people i really feel like it’s a family here um we have great owners that really look after us in the business um and and that’s what’s kept me here for so long is just you know the people the sport um i’ve had so many wonderful opportunities with bowling i’ve traveled all over the country competed in many different tournaments at various levels um so it has provided me with many opportunities that that i never would have had and met so many wonderful people um through the sport well and and you have been such a wonderful you’ve contributed to the sport in such a wonderful way let’s go ahead and give your husband ryan a plug ryan runs the pro shop located in vestavia bowl and he also has a location over at riverview um bowl um and ryan and you um teach bowling you helped coach youth bowling uh in fact you both worked with the vestavia high school team is that correct yes yes and we’ve helped numerous teams as well but yes that’s one of the big schools here yes well i i know you’ve had some you’ve done tremendous work with a lot of youth bowlers at all ages um and and and i know ryan does coaching and teaching with with bowlers of all ages um and folks you know if you need equipment um this is something you know you don’t want to just go online and order something you want to talk to somebody that will look at how you bowl look at your hand look at what your needs are and help you pick the best equipment possible so um you know go to a local business vestavia bowl is locally owned and operated ryan’s pro shop locally owned and operate good people go to them for help let’s talk about the sport of bowling in general angela so yeah spring of last year everything changed but prior to that time what was the state of bowling in our country um i mean for us it was it was booming you know we had leagues every night of the week took up every lane that we had on the weekends we would be full with open bowling and group events parties um so we were definitely at a height in bowling at least here i can only speak for ourselves but um but we were in a good place when we got shut down and i’ve looked the numbers um nationally i know probably the height of bowling was back in the 50s and 60s i think when when they first came up with the automated pin setters it changed the sport and league bowling became very popular um you know i remember going to the bowling centers with my parents and watching them bowl and the fun they had and then things tapered off a little bit um i guess just competition with other activities and other sports in the 90s but over the last 10 years ago bowling has really seen nationally and from what i’ve seen locally an increase in popularity and for good reason it’s a fun sport it’s it’s a great sport parents for your children to be involved in um the the bowling centers that i visit really especially the savior bowl but the others also really provide a good atmosphere there are good people like angela and her husband ryan there to help coach your kids and bowling i’m i’m i’m proof of it as a sport you can do all your life um angela you see bowlers of all ages if i save you of all don’t you we do and we have youth bowlers my nephew started this year three years old um and then we have senior citizens that i mean nine in their 90s you know so all ages for sure well yeah it’s wonderful to see both the very young bowlers who can enjoy the sport more than you know when i was a youngster every time i pushed the ball down the lane it seemed like it went into the into the gutter but not today there’s all kinds of things you can do bumpers and things so that very young kids can enjoy the sport of bowling and then to see the older people folks much older than me out there bowling i’ll never forget angela you know i bowl with uh dr larry gazzini who’s been a guest on this facebook live and several years ago he just had a great night bowled uh at 240 something and he was beat by um drawn a blank valerie jeffries mother who passed away a few years back um annie and annie was uh well up into her 70s and whipped up on larry and larry still talks about that today but it’s it’s wonderful to see people of all ages all ethnic groups men and women in bowling really is a wonderful place as far as the mix of people all right so so things are good you’re busy and then the spring of 2020 happens um tell us about your experience angela what happened with bowling at that point well you know fortunately um we did have a lot of leagues going on at that time and the majority of them decided hey let’s just wait it out and see what is going to happen because obviously nobody knew what was going to happen um so while we were shut down you know we just tried to make the best of it we tried to do a few improvements that we ourselves could do without hiring out um any outside help we kept our employees working on the payroll we you know used all of the government assistance that was provided to us to allow the employees to um to keep working and then once we were able to reopen like i said the majority of the leagues came back of course we had to modify how leagues were to bull because of social distancing and and all of the leagues that we had you know they wouldn’t all fit at the their normal day and time um but fortunately everyone was willing to just do what needed to be done everybody missed bowling sitting at home for two months not able to interact with anybody um you know so when they came back we just made best with what we could and got everybody bowling again it took a little while before we resumed open bowling just as we wanted to make sure that you know we felt comfortable bowlers felt comfortable of course we wanted to get the league season finished even though it was going through the summertime which was not normal but um but you know we just wanted to do one step at a time instead of going full force into something that nobody was really very comfortable with at the moment but we needed to just do whatever we needed to do to kind of resume a semi-normal life at that point and it was it was it was difficult on your end um it was a change for bowlers um maintaining distance wearing masks there was a lot of nervousness but from what i’ve observed bowling as you said people missed the sport people were anxious to get back and uh you know i i think people were understanding of the challenges and we’re now seeing uh the bowling centers fill back up again which is just wonderful um i’m hoping that we’ll see um that resurgence that we saw pre-prac pre-pandemic continue and people to continue to get involved so what would you say angelo surprised you the most um what happened during the pandemic as an advocate of bowling as a bowling center proprietor what was it that surprised you over the last year well i would say i’m surprised but i’m not really surprised um just how wonderful our league bowlers were throughout this whole process um you know sticking it out with us instead of saying look let’s just end um because that was you know a few months of of leagues that that we normally would have had each year had they stopped i mean that would have hurt tremendously on the business but the fact that you know they said no let’s stick with it and and just continue whenever we can um i would say that was probably the biggest thing i mean and the biggest help to us was just the fact that you know our league bowlers were just so supportive of our business and um in doing whatever to help help keep us going as well so so i would say i’m surprised but then i’m not you know they’re a family it is it the the it’s it’s a fraternity it’s a family um it’s one thing i just i love about bowling is getting together with a group of people um and like i say folks from all over um you know when i bowl on wednesday night i’m bowling with a dentist i’m bowling with a doctor i’m bowling with people that are in the trades there’s all different types of people and on wednesday night at the bowling alley we’re just one big family and we have a lot of fun together pick on each other support one another learn from one another so where are we now with league bowling um are things back to normal are things close to normal where are we right now so when um when kiv said that we no longer had to do social distancing and all of that it was only about a month prior to all of our leagues coming to an end so we decided it was best let’s just finish out our league seasons um how we’re how we did it all year social distancing one team per pair um and then that way it would give us time to uh let people know what our plans are going forward um so with our summer leagues we are going back to two teams per pair of lanes um with open bowling we’re going back just normal as far as reservations and parties we’re everything’s going forward at pre-pandemic um but with leagues we did want to give that time like let’s just finish how we are we’re so close to the end but know that summertime comes around we’re going to have some normal life around here again and i know bowlers are really enthused about that um league bowling has been different with um keeping a lane between each other and and just it’ll be it’ll be good to get back to normal you know i remember from my perspective as a league bowler things shut down if you’ll remember it was the week before my law firm does its annual tournament at vestavia ebola the bonded bonus team challenge and um you know we went from preparing for that tournament to not bowling at all and not bowling at all for a period of time this year you were able to put that tournament back together again people came from all over uh really from all over the state of alabama and participated everybody had fun it went very well so many good activities angela what i know years ago bowling proprietors depended on league bowling for the bulk of their income is that still the case today or or do you see a lot of other type activity in the bowling centers um so for us and of course i can’t speak for all bowling centers but here i feel like it’s probably 50 50. um during the week it’s league bowling on the weekends it’s open bowling’s events parties things like that so um what we try to do is just be focused on what is happening in the moment so weeknights we are fully geared towards league bowling on the weekends were fully geared towards events and parties and things like that so both are very crucial to to keep the business going but i would say we’re probably half and half so let’s talk about that parties at the bowling center a lot of people that are not bowlers don’t naturally think of that but but tell me what a facility like vestavia bowl can do of a group of people want to get together and have a party at the polling center what’s that involved um so with our reservations they’re typically all two hours of bowling we include the shoes for up to six people on a lane anytime we have lanes available we will reserve for you in advance we also have six lanes that are separate so it’s a private area that we have a lot of companies that like to book i think especially now with people wanting to still be spaced out a little bit i think that’s still going to be a great option for those that might want to have family events team parties but not want to be with a large group of people we do have that option available as well um we haven’t started back our birthday packages per se um but we still have where you know we can make a reservation they can bring in a birthday cake we can upgrade it you know um but we don’t have party coordinators right now um to do that but we are we’re slowly getting back to where we were before you know and folks what a wonderful place to have a party the the bowling center vestavia and most bowling centers there’s a meeting room available there’s a bar there’s food there’s flashing lights there’s a great sound system it’s really a fun environment to have a business get together a birthday party from birthday party for young kids all ages it’s just it’s a fun event it’s a fun place to celebrate and get people together in an atmosphere that they’re not used to and where they might have a little bit more fun with one another so we’re beginning summer leagues now and then the summer league is a shorter period and then in the fall the regular leagues will start up if somebody is interested in getting involved in league bowling how do they do so angela what’s the best way to get started um so the best thing to do is to just get in contact with the lead coordinator of whichever bowling center that you’re interested in joining um typically like you said leagues are going to start up the end of may beginning of june they’ll go for probably 10 to 12 weeks and then the regular league season will start typically around labor day maybe a little before or a little after um but if it is something that you are interested in doing just contact your lead coordinator um as quickly as possible then that way they’ll know to try to start looking to find you a team if you don’t already have one or go ahead and get you on the list in case the league fills up to make sure that you have a spot and the league coordinator at vestavia bowl would that be

okay and and to get her she can people could just call the main phone number at vestavia bowl or go to the website um and express interest so do i need to be a good bowler to participate in the league no not at all no any level we have leagues that are geared towards certain certain groups we have women’s leagues in the morning senior leagues in the morning mix leagues fun leagues youth leagues uh beginners competitive um so we have a wide range so when you express your interest just you know let them know what day of the weeks you’re available what you’re looking for um but yes you could have never bowled before you don’t even have to have your own equipment we can get you there eventually but as long as you want to do it we can get you a spot bowl explain and i know because i’ve done it for a long time but in most leagues there is a handicap system um it allows a not so good bowler like me to compete with some of the much better bowlers don’t get too deep in the weeds here but explain generally how that handicap system works angela um so let’s just say to make it easy we’ll use a hundred percent handicap based so if if the handicap was based off of an average of 200 um and i average 160 and you average she averages more than 160 folks so just for example um so if you averaged 180 you we would take 200 minus 180 and you would get 20 pins added to every single game that you bowl if i averaged 160 i would get 40 pins added to every game that i bowl but let’s say we have ryan who averages 200 he would get zero added to whatever he bowls so it helps equalize everybody out so that way the 160 bowler does not have a disadvantage towards the 200 average bowler um but again we would you know try to make sure you’re within the league that works best for you we don’t want anybody to feel intimidated because even though we do have handicaps you know you don’t want to put a beginner bowler in a competitive league um just for the intimidation factor because handicap sometimes is a little tricky to understand even for those that have been bowling for a long time but if you’re a new bowler i encourage you that the handicap you know a lot of the better bowlers like having a low average bowler on their team because that higher handicap can make a big difference so it’s a great way to get involved a great way to learn as your average increases as you do better your handicaps going to go down and you’ll just you’ll learn to love the sport you’ll you’ll meet a great group of people um let’s talk about the future of bowling and youth bowling i know when i was very young my parents would bring me to the bowling center on saturday morning and i mean i was there were people like you there there were coaches to help us learn how to bowl and keep an eye on us saturday morning still a pretty popular time for youth bowling isn’t it it is yes we have um typically we have about 80 to 100 kids that bowl in our youth program on saturday mornings we have probably eight to ten volunteer coaches that are here now during the summer time this is more or less just for them to just keep bowling um so many of the kids bowl on their school teams so we wanted to make sure that they didn’t just quit bowling for the summer time so we don’t really have coaching in the summer so many of our coaches are tournament bowlers so they’re traveling and so forth but when our main league season does start back we have like i said about eight to ten coaches um ryan gives every youth bowler that we have two free one-on-one lessons to come outside of their normal time um yeah we have a really great youth program um and with high school bowling and middle school bowling picking up tremendously in our state it has brought so many more youth bowlers who want to learn and get better and help their team achieve championships especially those teams that have gotten close or have

been champions themselves you know the underclassmen want to be able to continue that tradition so it’s been great seeing the kids coming in and wanting to bowl league wanting to get the extra lessons coming to practice and just try to get better so what what is the uh youngest age what what what age do people start getting their kids involved in bowling with youth bowling angela so our bumper division um typically they bowl two games a week um and everett my nephew like i said he started this year at three years old sometimes he could only get through one game which was fine um you know but it’s just for fun just getting them out here and and learning the sport um now as far as transferring from bumpers to non-bumpers we kind of let that be up to the parent and the child but we we say maybe around age six seven or so but if it if the child just is not quite ready for that it’s okay you know we just want kids bowling and having fun and on their pace when they feel it’s time to to move up to learn without bumpers we just let that happen whenever they feel comfortable but typically it’s around probably six seven years old or so yeah everett’s he’s going to be a bowler he’ll be beating me in 10 years i’m sure or maybe sooner than that so then middle school bowling um do a lot of the middle schools now have competitive teams here in alabama yes so we have four middle schools that use our bowling center as their home center but i believe there’s probably just in our metro area probably eight eight or nine middle schools that have bowling teams wow that’s awesome yeah and then even more so when you get to high school um yes which has been great to see now has that always been the case in the state of alabama or is that a recent thing that high school bowling has become more popular it’s definitely new so i believe probably five or six years ago is when the ahsaa made high school bowling a sport which myself tommy barbarini at oak mountain lanes we work together with them to help get high school bowling going um and you know the first year there were so many kids with house balls house shoes you know they just wanted to just be a part of a team you know they’ve never been a part of a team before but now you see the kids are taking it much more seriously the coaches are taking it seriously um and it has grown tremendously like i said we have four middle school teams that use us as their home center we have about 10 high school teams that use us so when the high school season or when the bowling season begins um october to january after school on a monday through thursday we are packed out with with kids here on their bowling teams and that’s probably every bowling center in the area that’s how much it’s grown and all schools can participate that’s that’s awesome and angela i know um you’re being a little bit modest here but i know you and your husband ryan have had a whole lot to do with the growth of high school bowling in our community and parents you know again bowling is a sport you get your kids involved in it when they’re young they can do it all their life you know we’ve all seen that high school football player take the helmet off for the last time they’re never going to play football again the rest of their lives most of us aren’t going to play basketball for an extended period of time sports like that but bowling is a sport you can and you will do all your life it’s a great activity to get your kids involved in and you know i know a lot of you probably have a stereotypical view of what a bowling center might be what the atmosphere might be for your kids get out and visit get out on a saturday morning and visit vestavia bowl or one of the other local bowling centers you’ll find a very wholesome environment um bowling setters you know angela i remember 10 12 years ago i’d go bowling and come back and my wife would make me take my clothes off in the garage because i reeked from cigarette smoke maybe longer how long ago was it that most bowling centers eliminated smoking now i don’t know i feel like time just kind of runs together but i want to say it’s probably been about 20 years oh wow wow i i remember when that happened i said oh it’s going to be a real challenge um bowlers just a a lot a lot of smokers there were and in the bowling centers and i thought it would be a challenge but it really hasn’t been um people uh no longer smoke in the bowling centers um you know the the the lounges are in a separate area from where the bowlers are um there’s food service and there are people like angela around to help watch your kids and coach your kids and make sure they’re doing the right things so i encourage you if you’ve got young kids if you’ve got people that want to get involved in something that they can carry with them the rest of their lives get them to a bowling center angel i want to take a little bit of break here and talk about where we are and what we’re doing and then we’re going to get into some more detailed questions about bowling um folks my name is brad bodus i’m with the bounty voters law offices we are located throughout alabama we’re in mississippi and we help people with money props we’ve been doing so for over 30 years we’ve filed collectively thousands and thousands of bankruptcies for individuals and families that have run into challenges financially we know a lot of you are having financial challenges right now and and we know the foreclosure moratoriums and the eviction moratoriums are starting to end we know the extended unemployment benefits are are coming to a halt

folks if you need help don’t stick your head in the sand reach out for help we are offering absolutely free initial consultations we’ll do them by phone or video we’ll do them from the comfort safety of your home your office been doing this for over 30 years folks and this is the first time ever in my career you can file a bankruptcy from start to finish from home because even the bankruptcy courts are doing hearings online right now reach out for help if you need it our consultations are free we’ll just talk about where you are what your options are and help you get to a better place dealing with financial problems with money problems is tough reach out for help we’ll be glad to help you and to my bolding friends that happen to be watching you need help with any legal problem please ask me about it people come up to me in the bowling center angela and i apologize before asking a question but no need to apologize i want to help you if i can so angela is the angela nance is the general manager at vestavia bowl in birmingham alabama her husband ryan nance runs ryan’s pro shop which is located in vestavia bowl there’s also a location in riverview bowl in the birmingham area and ryan not only can help you get a bowling ball help to get it drilled properly get shoes merchandise brian also does some graphic work also t-shirts jerseys those type things wide variety of things he can help with you with and it’s a locally owned and operated business folks so so reach out to ryan if he can help you reach out to angel if you’re interested to get involved in bowling or go to if you’re not in the birmingham area um go to your local bowling center get involved it’s a wonderful sport and i encourage you to to get involved with this angela we’re starting to have some questions come in from some of our viewers i want to give you a chance to answer them and then i’m also going to mix in some questions here so the first question i have here is um

and i think you’ve already answered this but what are the different age groups generally for bowling if if somebody wants to get into a league what should they look for as far as picking a proper league um so what i would recommend as far as that goes is just to talk to the lead coordinator let them know what you are interested in because we know who’s in every league that we offer um we know their age groups we know you know their personalities and all of that and and we can kind of help gear you into the right direction um versus just picking one without any idea whatsoever but um but you know let them know what you’re interested in um you know if you’re just looking for a fun league to come drink some beer and hang out with some guys you know we know what leagues to kind of gear you towards you know or if you’re looking for something for you and your spouse that’s a little more low-key we know what league to direct you towards um so that’s what i would recommend it’s just the conversation of you know what kind of level you’re at and what you’re interested in and um we can kind of gear you towards the right direction but any ages really um like we said earlier we have youth bowlers starting at age three up to 18 league bowling adult leagues 18 to 90 plus so i know there are some for everybody yeah i know there are senior leagues i i know that um as you mentioned earlier women’s leagues and you know all different times of the day um these leagues are active so yeah i’ll give an example angela the team eyeball on wednesday night um we we recently lost a guy that had bowled on our team for a long time and your league coordinator melanie keener introduced us to a gentleman that had just moved into the area that was interested in getting involved and she thought we would be a good fit arranged for us to meet with ron at the bowling center before league bowling started and we decided to be a great fit he has been so yeah contact your bowling center ask for help there’s all kinds of people lead coordinator the guy in the pro shop the general manager there’s all kinds of help at the bowling center to find the right team how much does it cost if i want to participate in league bowling um so each league it varies based on prize fund basically so if you have a league that is just just for fun they might range 15 to 18 per week if you have a league that’s more competitive interested in having a little extra prize fund it’s probably going to be 22 to 25 per week um it all varies our youth league ranges typically it’s about 200 for a season um that way you don’t have to pay weekly um but you know it just varies based on on what you are interested in so i would say it could range from probably 15 a week to 25 a week for adult leagues and and for nine bowlers to a league is usually gonna be three games you’re going to be at the bowling center for a couple of hours there’s going to be camaraderie there’s going to be a lot of fun surrounding the bowling but 15 to 20 or even a little bit more per week i can tell you there are activities where you can spend a whole lot more money and not have near the fun that you’ll have at your local bowling center so angela years ago when i bowled i got my one bowling ball and i stuffed my bowling shoes in that bag and i showed up at the bowling center um i get there today and i see people showing up with two three four sometimes six bowling balls why is that why has that change occurred in bowling over the last several decades um so i’m not a golfer but i’ll use ryan’s analogy so bowling is a lot like golf so if you were to go play golf you would not take out your driver to play your whole 18 holes you wouldn’t cut with your driver so forth so bowling is the same way you have different lane conditions that you’ll encounter sometimes it’ll be oily so you need a ball that hooks a little more um sometimes the lanes will be hooking a lot and and this is only for the people that have reactive bowling balls if you have a ball that goes straight it’s just going to do what it’s going to do but you know if you have balls that are meant to do different things you need to be able to use them in the scenario that it’s required um so that’s why you see a lot of that now they they have them for different conditions that they’ll encounter when you bullet different bowling centers you’ll have different conditions that you encounter when the weather changes the conditions change there’s so many little factors that you know that you don’t think of because you can’t see it you can’t see the oil on the lane so a lot of times especially the beginner bowler wouldn’t quite understand what’s going on but um but before every league you do all the lanes the lane condition kind of lets you know what ball you’re going to want to pull out of your bag if you see that your ball is hooking too much then you want to grab another ball that might hook a little bit less that way you’re not having to move your feet all over the lanes but um but yeah each ball that you have should do something different i wouldn’t recommend having five balls in your bag that do the exact same thing i would recommend if you’re going to have multiple bowling balls to have them do something a little different so if you encounter something that’s not normal to what you’re used to then you have something to go to but it’s definitely not required to have that many bowling balls i i would suggest at least three three is probably good so i wanna and i don’t want to get again too deep in the woods i know we have a lot of people that just are interested in getting involved in bowling but we also have some people that have been bowling for quite a while um when i tell people well i need different bowling balls because of different oil patterns they kind of roll their eyes at me if they’re not bowlers explain when i say different oil patterns or you say different oil patterns explain what that means if you can in in more simple terms for people um why am i concerned about the oil pattern on a lane so and that’s a tricky one um so again i would probably refer to golf because a lot of people are golfers so i would refer to it as how they cut the grass if if the grass is a little longer it might be a little harder for my ball to roll or so forth same thing if you have a little extra oil on the lanes your ball’s not going to hook as much if you have a little a little more oil on the lanes but i try to not look so much because there’s there’s graphs that you can look at um that show how the oil is laid on the lanes but for me that’s not something i try to really pay too much attention to i try to just grab my ball bowl in a in a place that i feel comfortable and if it just seems like it’s not working then adjust from there but every bowling center they put out different oil patterns so it’s like going to a different golf course you’re going to play different golf courses differently because they’re just not the same so same thing with bowling it’s not going to be the same place to place it’s not going to be the same when the weather changes so it’s always good to have at least one ball maybe two in your bag that you know okay if i encounter something you still have your favorite ball but if you encounter something that you might want it to hook a little more you have something to go to i hope that makes sense i i think it does it does to me and i hope it does to our viewers what i want our viewers to know is there are a lot of intricacies in the sport of bowling it’s you know you go once or twice you think you just get a house ball and you you just try to throw it down that straight lane and hit one of their as many of those 10 pins as you can but but there are a lot of intricacies weather conditions humidity within the bowling center um the the oil patterns that have been laid out and they’re going to change from bowling center to bowling center and even within the same center i had the tremendous experience angela a couple years back you and ryan encouraged me i went out and bowled in the national bowling tournament las vegas and uh those lanes they had some very very difficult bowling patterns and it’s humbling people go out there for the first time and they’re very good bowlers and can barely keep the ball in the lane

so so it’s it’s uh and if you are a league bowler you’ve never done something like that i’m bowling in the state bowling tournament up in huntsville this weekend i’ve been able to bowl in that national tournament i plan to do it again i won’t win any prizes and it is humbling but it’s a wonderful experience again with some great people angela if somebody is interested in learning more about bowling again let’s zero in on vestavia bowl right now which is located just outside of birmingham alabama

first thing they should do to get involved in a league i think you said earlier is to talk to your lead coordinator melanie keener and she can be reached by dialing the main number or going to the vestavia bowl website um and she’ll get help um that that person will get help being placed upon an appropriate team but then if they want to learn the ball and get better what’s the next step in developing their game so i would recommend coming to see ryan in rise pro shop he has all the coaching tools that that anyone could need um down there from beginners to that have never bowled before to even those that have old for a long time that just need help you know advancing their game just a little bit but um but he’s very good at what he does he’s he is a silver certified usbc coach as well as just has many years and experience under his belt but um he’s really good with with all ages he um coaches young children to senior citizens men women all ages all body styles it doesn’t matter he he can definitely help get you to where you need to be so you know sometimes people think i’m not good enough to get a lesson well no you want to get a lesson first before you start getting into some habits that might be harder to break down the road so if you think hey this is something i might want to do even if it’s just a lesson or two get one bowl for a few weeks get another one bowl for a few more weeks and go from there but it’s not something you have to come every day a week and get a lesson we actually don’t encourage that we encourage get a lesson practice a lot try to get that mastered maybe get another lesson or two um and just kind of go from there but yeah he can definitely get you taken care of now i know a couple of years back uh you all installed um a system down in the last i think four lanes at the bowling center uh that helps ryan with this coaching tell us about that a little bit what the system what it is and what it does okay so um it’s called kegel specto s-p-e-c-t-o and it’s on the last six lanes so lanes 29-34 anytime you come in and practice you’re able to download the app on your phone and you select that you are here at vestavia bowl you select what lane number you’re on and you’re able to see your ball go down the lane um it’s not a video camera but it tracks ball movement on the lane so you yourself can come practice and see am i accurate am i not accurate what do i need to work on and when he’s doing lessons he’s able to show people you know because a lot of times you think you’re doing one thing and you’re really doing something completely different and it allows you to visually see what is actually happening it lets you see how your ball rolls down the lane it lets you see how your ball drives through the pins it also has where you can come and practice and do different levels of um training drills spare shooting for example it lets you compete against people all over the world um you know i think ryan just did one that was a 10-pin thing where he got 32 10 pins in a row and he’s ranked like fifth in the world at the moment or something i don’t know how many people do it but you know it’s it’s a it’s a good training tool and it’s something that’s here it’s for free if you want to come practice you don’t have to pay extra to be able to log into that on your phone um you know and we did it to allow people the opportunity to improve their game so they can do it on their own or they can get a lesson and dive in a little deeper so i’m not only talking to beginning bowlers here we’re talking to league bowlers we’re talking to very experienced bowlers you can always get better and uh i can tell you that ryan nance and don’t tell him i said this angela but he’s a great guy he’s one of these guys he’s not only a great bowler he’s a scratch golfer he got into hockey what four or five years ago i think it’s three years now three years ago and he’s already playing competitively

in addition to you know just being a natural athlete a great bowler and again don’t tell him i said this but he’s a good guy he’ll he’ll really he’s a personal guy he’ll really um you know show interest in you and your game um and what angela says right get training get lessons early um you don’t want to develop bad habits i’m i’m a perfect example of that

i don’t know about that my habits no i we did last week we had parker bone who’s a usbc hall of famer he came down to do some stuff with our youth bowlers and um so he did a lesson with me and there were things i just couldn’t because my muscle memory is so set in place i mean i struggled trying to get a couple things fixed but i mean all of us have things that that we can do better i mean nobody’s perfect and so funny story i may have told before and some of our league bowling friends will appreciate this but i had hip replacement surgery a number of years back and i was determined i couldn’t bowl for a couple of months i got back and i was determined to get my form improve start bowling properly so i i didn’t know ryan well enough at that time i got my friend cope graves so we he’s gone now but we all loved and i got cope to come out and try to help me and he he tried for a while and finally we just gave up and said i’m too old to change but maybe i need to get up there and get some some lessons from ryan um but it doesn’t matter folks it’s it’s bowling is a sport unless you’re going to get real competitive it’s just a sport to have fun we have handicaps um all different levels of bowlers all different types of people bowling great community great camaraderie get your kids involved in it angela um

the best way to contact you if somebody’s interested in getting more involved in bowling or perhaps getting their kid involved in bowling um getting involved in one of the school bowling programs what’s the best way to contact angela nance um so i would say just give us a call or give me a call at the bowling center

205-979-4420 or you can send me an email which is a nance a-n-a-n-c-e at vestaviable.com okay great or ask me and i’ll tell you how to get in touch with her because angela’s a great friend and and just is a tremendous asset for our community has been for a long time uh you mentioned our friend keith henderson beforehand who was the general manager before you and i think was a little bit of a mentor to you um there have been so many people if they save you a bowl that have just made it a great family uh owned and operated business a great place to uh to to get your kids involved great place to just spend time and and socialize with other people i don’t want to slate the other bowling centers we have some other great bowling centers in the birmingham area i bowl in a league at riverview every week in addition to bowling in the league at vestavia oak mountain lanes you mentioned earlier is a great facility there are a number of great bowling centers in the birmingham area alabama area throughout the state of alabama and throughout mississippi so uh to our listeners out there bowling’s a wonderful sport it’s been around for years it’s probably something you may remember doing with your parents if you haven’t bowled recently get out and try it i think you’ll enjoy it angela it’s great to see this sport growing as it has i hope now as we’re emerging from this pandemic bowling will continue to become more and more popular and i know the work done by you and your husband ryan we’ll make that a reality angela i always try to give my guests an opportunity i’m sure i’ve missed something i give my guests an opportunity to say something is there anything that you think people need to know about bowling or bowling in the birmingham area any of these topics that i may have missed that you’d like to emphasize for folks um i mean i feel like we covered a lot of everything um just know you know that we are always here for you guys no matter if it is a league bowler with a question on anything if anybody’s wanting to get better if you’re wanting to come have a party if you’re wanting you know whatever we are we’re here for you guys we um we’re very hands-on you’ll see the same people here all the time um most of our employees have been here probably 10 plus years so so we know you guys we want to help you guys if there’s ever anything that we can do if you ever have any questions concerns anything um we’re always available so um we just you know i appreciate you brad you know you do so much for the sport of bowling here at the bowling center and for the city of birmingham um so thank you for being such a you know asset to our sport as well well thank you angela it means a lot to me um the bonded bonus offices have sponsored leagues and tournaments for many years and we just we love bowlers we love being involved with bowlers and uh we want bowlers and and other people that may be listening just to know that we’re here to help you if you need it again we know those are tough times we’ve tried to be a little bit more uplifting with today’s show and talk about something fun something positive um and that’s what the sport of bowling is and that’s what my friends at vestavia bowl and really in the bowling community uh represent um so folks i hope this has been enjoyable for you angela thank you so much for joining me um thank you if you’re interested in getting bowling angela nance is the person to talk to if you need legal help we are offering absolutely free initial consultations here at the bonnie voters law offices just reach out to us but on behalf of angela on behalf of myself and all of us at vestavia bowl at the bonnie motors law offices god bless you good luck and we’ll be here again next week thank you angela all right thank you