How to calculate averages

[tylerhavlin]

Hey guys,

Kind of a stupid question. I had a 194 average going into this week and tonight I rolled a 268, 201 and 208 (677/3=225.6). How would I figure out what my average will be for next week?

[Brownswick]

You have to know your total pins for the season and the number of games you've bowled. Take total pins (including your most recent series total) and divide by the total number of games you've bowled (including the three games you bowled tonight).

[75lockwood]

You have to know your total pins for the season and the number of games you've bowled. Take total pins (including your most recent series total) and divide by the total number of games you've bowled (including the three games you bowled tonight).

This is correct, however if you simply know now many games you have bowled this year you can still figure it out:


say you bowled 12 games and have a 194 average: you average 194 pins per game, 194*12=2328 you then add your 3 scores to get 3005, then divide this by 15 (12 games + 3 this week) to get 200.33 average.

just change 12 to equal the number of games you have bowled so far.

[75lockwood]

Also, Welcome to the forums!!!!

[tylerhavlin]

75lockwood, thanks so much :)

[75lockwood]

75lockwood, thanks so much :)

Any time, if only my bowling skill rivaled my math skill :p

[billf]

any time, if only my bowling skill rivaled my math skill :p

I second that!!

[AngeloPD]

im new the leagues and i thought they just calculate your average every two weeks. lol

[75lockwood]

im new the leagues and i thought they just calculate your average every two weeks. lol

Well, if they did your average would vary greatly if you had one good/bad week, but hey it would remove sand bagging from the game :p

[striker12]

well ik another way to figure out if your avg s going to go up or down for the next week so your avg is 194 so you go 194x3=582 ok and your games with that avg is -268-201-208=677.... at this point u go 677-582=95 soo then you know you are 95 pins above avg and lets say u have done 15 games after those 3 so then you go.... 95/15=6.3333 that 6.333 is how much your avg will go up so u will end up with a 200 avg from a 194.


that's my way of doing it and its pritty easy and fast all you need to know is how many games have u bowled and what your avg is and your series at the end of the day.

[striker12]

works same way if you where below your avg soo if u where below avg series then u would dosame thing and just divide games and it will tell you how many pins u go down.

[AZBowla]

Any time, if only my bowling skill rivaled my math skill :p


I second that!!

Not me... I suck at math. :P I'm far better at bowling than math (and that ain't sayin' much so you can just about imagine how bad I am at math).

[snafu]

Well, if they did your average would vary greatly if you had one good/bad week, but hey it would remove sand bagging from the game :p

This is something I have been trying to convince my league to do, that is work out a floating average over the previous four weeks rather than over the season. Firstly it removes sandbagging aka cheating and more accurately reflects how you have been bowling. Take for example a bowler who had a 160 average for half a season and improves through coaching, equipment etc. Their average only marginally goes up and they will kill you for the rest of the season.

[bowl1820]

This is something I have been trying to convince my league to do, that is work out a floating average over the previous four weeks rather than over the season. Firstly it removes sandbagging aka cheating and more accurately reflects how you have been bowling. Take for example a bowler who had a 160 average for half a season and improves through coaching, equipment etc. Their average only marginally goes up and they will kill you for the rest of the season.

It doesn't remove sandbagging, in 4 weeks you could easily plunge your average 10 to 20 pins.

You have to remember while "Their average only marginally goes up" is true. The reverse is true also, if someone bowls bad their average only marginally goes down.

Now you could add a 10 pin drop rule to make it more effective. But if you did that, I don't think there would be any need to do the four week averages over the standard way.

[75lockwood]

It doesn't remove sandbagging, in 4 weeks you could easily plunge your average 10 to 20 pins.

You have to remember while "Their average only marginally goes up" is true. The reverse is true also, if someone bowls bad their average only marginally goes down.

Now you could add a 10 pin drop rule to make it more effective. But if you did that, I don't think there would be any need to do the four week averages over the standard way.

Sorry could you explain the 10 pin drop rule? not familiar with it and how it would effect averages...

[bowl1820]

Sorry could you explain the 10 pin drop rule? not familiar with it and how it would effect averages...

A Ten Pin Drop Rule is for handicap purposes, a bowler’s average cannot drop more than 10 pins below his entering average (when entering average is a book average).

For new bowlers, a new bowler’s average cannot drop more than 10 pins below his 21-game established average (an average established after bowling his or her first 21 games) which will remain for the balance of the season.
(It doesn't have to be 21 games, it could be something different.It just depends on how the league handles establishing averages for new bowlers)

Example:
Bowler "A" enters with a 200 book average, the handicap is 90% of 230 his handicap is 27. Now if he averages below that 200 lets say 180, he only gets handicap for a 190 average (36) His handicap doesn't go any higher than that 36.

[snafu]

A Ten Pin Drop Rule is for handicap purposes, a bowler’s average cannot drop more than 10 pins below his entering average (when entering average is a book average).

For new bowlers, a new bowler’s average cannot drop more than 10 pins below his 21-game established average (an average established after bowling his or her first 21 games) which will remain for the balance of the season.
(It doesn't have to be 21 games, it could be something different.It just depends on how the league handles establishing averages for new bowlers)

Example:
Bowler "A" enters with a 200 book average, the handicap is 90% of 230 his handicap is 27. Now if he averages below that 200 lets say 180, he only gets handicap for a 190 average (36) His handicap doesn't go any higher than that 36.

The "Ten Pin Drop Rule" does not affect the concern I raised that for one reason or another a bowler's scores improve dramatically part way through the season while their average and therefore handicap does not alter proportionally.

[billf]

So the bowler that spends their own time and money to improve shouldn't have an advantage over those that don't? Talk about no reason to improve lol

[snafu]

Certainly they should be rewarded for their effort, but the idea of handicapping is to try to level the playing field not to offer an opportunity to have an unfair advantage. Take for example a bowler who has an average of say 160 and through the season by equipment and or coaching improve a couple of spares a game to average 185, should he still be handicapped on the marginally increased average of about 165 or on his recent more accurate average?

[bowl1820]

Certainly they should be rewarded for their effort, but the idea of handicapping is to try to level the playing field not to offer an opportunity to have an unfair advantage. Take for example a bowler who has an average of say 160 and through the season by equipment and or coaching improve a couple of spares a game to average 185, should he still be handicapped on the marginally increased average of about 165 or on his recent more accurate average?



Okay "not to offer an opportunity to have an unfair advantage." The 4 week system.
(Lets see 160 ave. went up to 185 and 25 pin increase.)

While a 4 week system wouldn't give the low ave. bowler a unfair advantage. It could give the high ave. bowler a unfair advantage.

Take for example a bowler who has an average of say 200 and due to being in a slump, illness or condition changes for the last 4-5 weeks he averages a 175, should he still be handicapped on a marginally decreased 195 average or on his last 4-5 week 175 average? when all of a sudden he's back to bowling his normal 200 ave.

[snafu]

Firstly, a "200 average bowler" doesn't average 175 either during a slump or condition change (I assume you mean pattern change), as far as illness, Jimmy Connors said: If you are ill don't play and if you do play don't complain.

[billf]

This season, in three leagues combined, I averaged 238 for Aug., 234 for Sep and 202 for Oct thus far. This includes a 480 series two weeks ago. So how could a 200 ave bowler not slump and ave 175 for a month?

[bowl1820]

Firstly, a "200 average bowler" doesn't average 175 either during a slump or condition change (I assume you mean pattern change), as far as illness, Jimmy Connors said: If you are ill don't play and if you do play don't complain.

It's just as likely as a 160 average bowler averaging 185 for a 4 week period. As for the ill bowler, he's not complaining. he averaged 185 for the last 4 weeks and now that he's better He's reaping the reward of your system. he has a handicap based on a 185 average, instead of the 195 average he would have had using the old system.

The 200 ave. bowler doesn't have to be ill or whatever, he could be a sandbagger. That 4 week average system made it real easy to do. He could dump 2 weeks out of the 4 and go into a position round with a nice little handicap bonus.

The old system his ave. wouldn't have dropped that much just dumping 2 weeks.

Yes These might be extreme examples and not likely to happen in real life. But they are meant to show that every system has flaw. You close the door for one person, you open it for another.

This whole thing is the handicap/average argument that has been going on for years. Your system isn't new, but if you can get your league to do it and they are happy with it fine. Hey go for it I'm not telling you not to do it.

[snafu]

You know...you are quite right.

Last year a member of my team pointed to a player on an adjacent lane and predicted that he would miss his spare, when I asked how he know he answered that whenever that bowler wasn't going to win his game he dumped. He said that he was surprised I hadn't noticed. I said that in 50 or so years of bowling I had never thrown a game and it would never have occurred to me that someone would.

Handicaps are a problem, the answer is, of course, as we did in tennis and other sports to have competitions graded and all scratch. But bowling doesn't work that way.

[billf]

My scratch league works like that. You are paired against the other team based off of average. High score wins. My opponent last week had a first game of 98, easy win. Second game was in the 230s. He wasn't sandbagging as there is no reason to in that league. Plus I knew they had changed the oil and the machine was serviced so I wasn't as stuck on trying to play my normal line (if I even have one) as the other guys. Out of 60 bowlers I was the only one who was above average the first game. Guys that means I bowl with 59 typical house bowlers lol