Statistics are particularly useful identifying parts of the bowler’s game that could be improved through practice. A lot of effort goes into gathering statistics so if you are going to do it, do it right. There are three rules that apply to bowling statistics.

Over many trails, a coin will come up heads 50% of the time but in a few flips of a coin it can come up anywhere from 0% to 100% heads. An extended period of taking statistics is necessary in order for those stats to be reliable. You can’t make good decisions from bad data.

It may be that a baseball player gets more hits when wearing blue underwear instead of white, but why would anyone know that? Keeping statistics takes some diligence and if a bowler is going to do the work there is no need to become occupied with information that is irrelevant to bowling well. The majority of statistics available from bowling can be divide into accuracy stats and effectiveness stats. Accuracy stats measure the bowler’s ability to hit the headpin when throwing for a strike or to convert a spare.  Effectiveness Stats track your ability to throw strikes and strikes in a row.

Bowlers accept this to be a fact when they say that they don’t want to know the stats because they will focus on the stat too much. Bowlers should be rejoicing that keeping statistics affects those statistics. Knowledge is power, the power to do something about your situation. Knowing a stat gives bowlers a place to begin and a way of keeping track of where they are going. Even bowlers that say they don’t keep stats have an idea of their accuracy and effectiveness. They just don’t know whether they are fooling themselves or not.

Bowlers may not like keeping stats but coaches should love them. Statistics help a coach design practises that deal with the strengths and weaknesses of a specific bowler. Statistics are a tool. They will not predict any particular performance but are a very good indicator of what the coach can expect from a bowler. Just like a map, they help you get around but you don’t have to look at the map all of the time, only when you’re (you’ve) lost.

copyright 1999   Ken Gryschuk