How many of you remember or were a member of Y.A.B.A. when you were younger?

[hehateme]

Some of my best memories of bowling were in our local lanes every Sat. morning bowling with all my friends from school, recruiting other people from my school, going to State tournaments, etc.. We used to have a huge awards picnic at the end of every year, we got trophys for best game, series, average, teams, everything. My mom ran the leagues, and she would set up a thing where if you got perfect attendance you would get a new bowling ball every year, it was great. I do miss those days.

How do you remember your early bowling days?

-Chris

[panbanger]

Yep I was in the Saturday morning leagues also! Got quite a few trophies from those youth leagues, recruited friends to my teams, all nice memories. My Dad would always take me and give me pointers like "aim for a spot, not for a pin" which was great advice!


This was back in the early to mid 1980s.

[JaMau24]

Does Y.A.B.A. still exist? I remember I was a member when I was 14 or 15 (8 or 9 years ago).

[hehateme]

I started in 84, was in it up until I was 16-17. My high school didn't have a bowling team, so I didn't go much further with it even though I was good. I also hit this wall around that time which made me kind of hate bowling, even though the problem was my own attitude.

I don't think YABA is around anymore, I think it's USBC Youth bowling now.

[jimlc2001]

I think Y.A.B.A was around when I was 12 (1995). If it wasn't Y.A.B.A, it is the current youth bowling program. Good times. I threw a backup ball and still have my personal High Game Pin of 169. My team came in first too. We had a guy that was just awesome...averaged around 200. I think my average was around 100-110.

[vgw]

I started bowling when I was around 6 years old. The league was called the Pee Wee Preps. It was lots of fun. I don't know my average but I do remember popping a 178 for my high game back then.

[bayedup84]

chris those were good times, your mom taught me how to bowl. Always took me and blake every saturday morn to league and tournaments

[bowl1820]

How do you remember your early bowling days?

-Chris

Blurry and in a fog :D, but I was never in YABA.

[hehateme]

chris those were good times, your mom taught me how to bowl. Always took me and blake every saturday morn to league and tournaments

Yep. She was a good lady, I'm willing to bet more than a couple generations of Sebastian's kids learned how to bowl because of her.

[bayedup84]

yes sir easily!! When you comin bowlin with us?

[edpup316]

yes YABA... good times. Wasn't that long ago for me though being only 24. I happy that i bowled my 1st 300 when YABA was still around I think the rings looked nicer and oh the patachs even as an adult i would love to get patchs instead of these magnet jokes.

[billf]

I never bowled as a child, didn't start until I was 36.
I am a volunteer coach for our youth leagues. Strangely the only one. Anyway, did you guys have coaches? Did they help you at all? I stress tot he kids that fun is first and I help any kid that asks for it (I hate when people want to help without me asking). I work with them on both the physical and mental games. Any feedback would be appreciated as I want to make a positive impact on these kids' lives both on and off the lanes.

[floridanative772]

Yes, we had coaches. My mother was a certified coach and the league secretary. The coaches would usually be going between the lanes and working with us when we were struggling and in need of help. I remember one in particular named Claudio. He was always there for me, he would watch me getting upset and just wave me over to him, he would tell me exactly what I was doing wrong and evrrytime he calmed me down I improved. We were a small 12 lanes house but I learned many great things from the coaches including my mother. I miss more than anything those times of my childhood. I took my son to the same alley when they were doing the youth league sign up where they have free bowling and food, there was maybe a total of 12 kids there. The alley is not in good shape. It is depressing to me seeing that, our sat youth league was so packed as a kid that age groups started at different times, now they are so small they all bowl at the same time.

[The German Shepherd]

I was a member....

Jay

[got_a_300]

I do not think there was such a thing as the YABA when I was a kid
back in the early to mid 60's not that I know of anyway. I didn't get
into bowling full time until I was something like 30 years old. When
I was a teenager 15 years old been a long time ago it seems like; I
bowled a 300 game and everyone said that was the best game you
could bowl so I didn't see any reason to keep bowling after that. I
thought well if that was the best game I was ever going to bowl what
was the use in going back after that but I did bowl but maybe once after
that on a date when I was 21 years old but she beat me. LOL!!!

[The German Shepherd]

I started bowling in 1967 and it seems like YABA was around when I started...

Jay

[Brownswick]

When I was growing up, there were two competing youth bowling organizations. Depending on where I bowled, we were a part of one or the other organization. As I think back on growing up in the greater Kansas City area, it may be that when I bowled at bowling centers on the Kansas side of the state line, we were in the Youth Bowling Association (YBA), and when I was bowling on the Missouri side of the state line, the bowling centers there had us in the American Junior Bowling Congress (AJBC). At different times, I was in one or the other. I have my old junior bowling shirt and it has patches from both associations. It also has one from the Missouri Junior Bowling Congress (MJBC). I think the YABA came along later. My years of junior bowling were from around 1961 through around 1967, give or take.

[slowfaller]

I bowled YABBA in the mid 90's from 9 yrs old to I think about 16 yrs old. We'd get a plaque every year with our name and high score (222 was the highest for me), tons of ribbons too indicating high avg, pins improved etc. One year we took first and got a nice sized trophy.
At some poing I qualified for a coca-cola tournament and went but bowled poorly. Still don't know how I qualified for that.
There was really zero coaching for the older kids and one coach total for the younger kids. Manual score keeping too. I wish someone would've told me back then to ditch the conventional grip and get finger tip. I rolled a conventional grip ball till January of 2010! Didn't bowl much from 1999 - 2010 though, no leagues or anything.

Chris

[hehateme]

We didn't really have 'official' coaches so to speak, but a lot of the adults whose kids bowled, all bowled leagues and were good. They helped out, my mom was a certified coach, she even took me to the class, and I was a certified coach at a pretty young age. Our Sat. morning leagues always had SOMEone who was knowledgable, or enough so to help the kids.

I always got into the Coca Cola Tournaments, and ALWAYS did bad.. It was all in my head, I had a horrible mental game when I was a kid.. It didn't help that one year a 12 year old girl bowled a 300 right next to me.. I wanted to throw my hands up and say "Looks like it's f*** this s*** o'clock" and walk out..

I also had a pretty bad habit of kicking the ball return, yelling curse words, throwing my rosin bag, towel, anything within reach, and getting kicked out of the bowling alley when I was a kid. I was a bad kid, and a really bad loser.. Ahh the good old days, when I was almost able to get away with it!

[TheSheibs]

Oh hell yea. I remember YABA. First league I bowled in was a YABA league. I have several patches and pins from those days and even a YABA state bowling championship towel from bowling in Indianapolis for that same tournament. Did absolutely horrible at it too. I will never forget that day. It was the day that I lost my curve. No matter what I tried, the ball would not curve. It was also the last time I bowled in any kind of league/tournament games. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I also formed some friendships that have lasted 10 years of serving in the Coast Guard and 2 years of being out as well as thousands of miles between us. Great times of that league. My last year bowling in it, my team was the number 1 team and the team that everyone hated to bowl against. We had a lot of fun that season. I would love to get that team back together now. I'm sure we would still dominate.

[xthe_charismatic_enigmax]

I was part of Y.A.B.A. when I was bowling Saturday mornings!! I haven't seen that mentioned in years!

[J Anderson]

It got assimilated when the three U.S. bowling organizations merged to form the USBC

[AZBowla's Girl]

I remember Y.A.B.A. too. I was in a youth league when I was in high school on Saturday mornings. My best friend at the time got me into it. I loved bowling during that time. It was fun being with other kids my age and learning how to bowl. I actually was able to be one of four to represent Arizona back then for a tournament. That was so much fun. I wish that there more youth bowling programs around at the bowling alleys where I live. I really want to get my son into a league and be able to have a similar experience like I had when I was young. I know that I was older when I started and he is only five and a half, but he is already doing really good when he bowls and absolutely loves it.

[kx90]

I was a Y.A.B.A. member. My mom and aunt have been in bowling their entire lives, they started my brother and cousins and I early too. I just found my 240 game pin still stuck to my 650 series patch. :o

My mom was one of the coaches and assisted with the league stuff, Saturday mornings getting there well before start time and not leaving until quite a bit afterwards, 12 year olds can get into a lot of trouble at a bowling alley. :D

[Flyer41]

Oh boy, Y.A.B.A. My mom ran the youth leagues on Fridays after school, Saturday mornings, and parent/child league every other Sunday. (Her side of my family own the local bowling alley, sort of explains my proficiency in bowling) I had every patch from 50 game to 700 series from ages 5 to 14. So many patches, I was never one to put them on a coat, just kept them in the certificate they came in and put them on my wall. Good times

[billf]

I remember Y.A.B.A. too. I was in a youth league when I was in high school on Saturday mornings. My best friend at the time got me into it. I loved bowling during that time. It was fun being with other kids my age and learning how to bowl. I actually was able to be one of four to represent Arizona back then for a tournament. That was so much fun. I wish that there more youth bowling programs around at the bowling alleys where I live. I really want to get my son into a league and be able to have a similar experience like I had when I was young. I know that I was older when I started and he is only five and a half, but he is already doing really good when he bowls and absolutely loves it.

This facility held the youth volunteer coach seminar;
Name: Brunswick Zone Mesa
Address: 1754 W Southern Avenue Mesa, AZ 85202
Phone: (480) 834-0588

You may try calling them and see if they know which centers have the youth leagues. No sense in training volunteers if there aren't any leagues.

[UBowling]

Yep only YABA for me. I became adult the year USBC took over from ABC. I bowled Saturday morning and a travel league Saturday afternoons. Was pretty fun but it was smaller here and all my friends were adult already. I had a lot more fun once I went adult.

[Tampabaybob]

Well, bring back real memories here. I started bowling at age 11 (tenpins that is) and at that time it was AJBC (American Junior Bowling Congress). My Mom eventually started coaching the league a year or so after I started bowling in it and she coached for probably 20 years. She also became the Junior Association Secretary, so we had events, tournaments going on all the time. We had many local and state association winners from the group I started bowling with and many of those have quit the game a long time ago.

I mentioned "TENPINS" because I actually started bowling (and had my first pair of bowling shoes) at age 4. My Mom and Dad war both very good DUCKPIN bowlers and we all switched over to tenpins when they built the first center in our area. For those of you that don't know what Duckpins are....Google it !

Bob

[hutch3703]

I started bowling Y.A.B.a in '78 when I was 4. I bowled every Saturday til I graduated high schoo ('91)l. Those were good times, and yes I beat Earl Anthony and had the patch to prove it. The trophies from tournaments and the patches from my league, thats what it was about. I remember my parents driving me all over California to play in tournaments. I wish it was as easy now as it was back then.