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don's report archiveWellness in the Headlines
Wednesday February 18, 2004
More than 95 million people enjoy bowling in 90 countries spanning six continents! Bowling is one of the largest participatory sports in the world. There is even a museum and a hall of fame devoted to bowling in St. Louis, Missouri! In the 1930's, Sir Flinders Petrie, a British anthropologist, discovered a collection of objects in a child's grave in Egypt that he concluded were used in a crude form of bowling. On that basis, bowling enthusiasts trace the ancestry of their game to 3200 BC. (Early man and woman no doubt ran like hell when chased by large animals--does this mean the ancestry of track and field traces back millions of years?) *
Since 74 percent of Americans are overweight and a third are obese and a lot of these heavyweights bowl, perhaps bowlers would welcome an opportunity to design more exercise into their favorite sport. (A deficiency of exercise is also seen in cart-riding golfers, an even more popular low heart rate activity, but that's for another day.) Besides the health benefits, new features of the game might make the sport more interesting for those who just go along to watch. In any event, here are a few new twists that bowling authorities might consider to transform the sport into a better exercise routine. Basically, I would leave bowling itself alone, but encourage teams of bowlers to develop new methods for scoring contests. Keeping everything in the same location (and possibly adding to the profit margins of bowling alley proprietors), treadmills and/or stationary bikes would be installed in the viewing area of the alleys. The players would run on treadmills or ride the bikes when not tossing balls down the alleys! Isn't that terrific? Scores would depend on such factors (all to be decided by the national bowling hall of fame and other top officials in St. Louis in consultation with exercise organizations) as exercise duration, incline and intensity on the machines. The experts can decide point values to credit and, at the end of an hour or whenever, as agreed, scores would be totaled. The old time method (pins felled) would be supplemented by scores based on treadmill/ bike performances. Then awards could be given, but the best of all rewards would be the improved fitness levels of participants. That's it, that's my idea. Do you like it? What's not to like? Aerobic bowling. A sport for the fit, for the future. Golf could be next. Who knows? Maybe this will get me nominated to the bowling hall of fame. *Data and graphic courtesy of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame. (Note: This essay will be filed in the archives in the PHYSICAL DOMAIN under the skill area of exercise and fitness. Additional articles related to this theme may be found there.)
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