Insight from a Blind Man: Successes and Mistakes when Bowling

Occasionally, I like to write in these columns about activities I participate in that you might think, “Would a blind person want to do that?”  It might surprise some that I really enjoy bowling.  I enjoy it as a social activity.  It doesn’t matter much to me how many points I get.  I do enjoy hearing a friend exclaim, “You got a strike Gregg!”  The gutter is usually my friend.  The bumpers help me get a better score than I would without them.

When I was in high school, I was on the Special Olympics bowling team for the Waukesha School District.  We would practice once or twice a week at AMF Waukesha Lanes, formerly Red Carpet Lanes or Sunset Bowl.  We also participated in other bowling tournaments with other Special Olympians living in the greater Milwaukee area.  I vividly remember the mantra of my bowling coach, “forward, back and down the lane.”  He would also tell me to visualize myself “shaking the hand of a really tall giant.”

I attempt to employ this strategy now when I bowl with friends, but it doesn’t work as well as it did back then.  Maybe my coach had the magic helper touch or something like that.  To bowl back then, I used a metal ramp which I put the ball on to roll down the lane until I became good enough to bowl free-handed.  At that time, my average score was about 120 per game.

Some of my more embarrassing bowling experiences include throwing the ball down the lane two or three lanes over from me.  I thought I was rolling it straight.  That ball turned out to be a gutter ball by the way.  My ball has also gotten stuck half-way down the lane as I rolled it too slowly.  Luckily, I have never fallen or even touched the slick, oily surface which would mean that I had stepped over the shooting line.  This is probably because I always have good friends who lead me right up to where I am supposed to release the ball.

I recently went bowling with a group of junior high students from my church as part of a week-long mission trip.  Many of the students fared better than I did.  My highest score in three games played was 58 with three strikes and one spare.  I had fun and at least I know what the ball going in the gutter sounds like.  As a post-script, I would recommend any parent who has a child with a disability check out Special Olympics.  I have nothing but positive things to say about the wonderful coaches in various sports who encouraged and challenged me. I also know that the organization is always looking for volunteers to help coach and facilitate tournaments.