Sandbagger or ?

[Tony]

Tell me what your thoughts are on this situation.

Bowled a team of young kids last wed and we beat them one game and lost by 10 pins in another.
I noticed over the evening one bowler in particular was throwing some awesome shots, big hook, dead nuts in the pocket and blowing the pins off the lane, first game he shoots a 279 second game 268 last game he's closing in on an 800 and leaves a make-able split in the 10 so the last ball he dumps , had he picked it up and finished with the last strike he would have had the 800......
Made me wonder why he threw one ball away, and why his league average is 203 after 27 games.

When I looked up his history on USBC he has more than a dozen 800 series and 30 + 300 games,
his composite average 230 228 234 over the last 3 years ....

Does this seem like a sandbagger to you ?

[mc_runner]

Tough to tell, if it is it is not super obvious. What was his reaction after dumping the split? Throwing 279/268/crap could just be behind in the transition. If his average stays around 200 for the next few months vs. picking up to say a 220-225, you probably have your answer.

[Tony]

Tough to tell, if it is it is not super obvious. What was his reaction after dumping the split? Throwing 279/268/crap could just be behind in the transition. If his average stays around 200 for the next few months vs. picking up to say a 220-225, you probably have your answer.

The last game was something in the 240 range, one guy asked him" why didn't you shoot that", he said I don't want an 800 unless it's a big 800 ....

[LyalC52]

The last game was something in the 240 range, one guy asked him" why didn't you shoot that", he said I don't want an 800 unless it's a big 800 ....

sounds more like young pre-madonna attitude than sandbagging

I know a few kids around here that will start with a string of strikes, open, then screw around to finish. Their attitude is "go big or go home"
it could be considered sandbagging, but I look at it as more just lack of pride

[Timmyb]

My thoughts exactly. We have a couple of big, young arms in my league, and once they see the score won't make the morning paper, they stop caring. Seems like there's a lot of "give up" in a few kids these days.......

[Amyers]

I don't know whether I call this sandbagging or not. I know some people with this attitude. If it's not a 300 and if not a high series they just coast it out. I don't know if I've seen them dump one but I can tell the effort's not there. It does **** me off and I've had words with a few of my junior league bowlers about it on a couple of occasions. It's disrespectful to the game in my opinion.

[fordman1]

Tony why don't your league put in a 5 or 10 pin drop rule. Then when they throw off it is futile. A 21 to 30 game cushion won't hurt either.

[Tony]

sounds more like young pre-madonna attitude than sandbagging

I know a few kids around here that will start with a string of strikes, open, then screw around to finish. Their attitude is "go big or go home"
it could be considered sandbagging, but I look at it as more just lack of pride

I have seen the attitude before and it prompted me to look at his current and historical averages, with a current 203 and all the historical stuff in the 230 range it made me wonder.

[Tony]

Tony why don't your league put in a 5 or 10 pin drop rule. Then when they throw off it is futile. A 21 to 30 game cushion won't hurt either.

That's a great idea, a 10 pin drop rule would take away the advantage of a lower average. For this case he would still be at 220 and that's good for 0 handicap where now he is collecting 17 pins

[Mark O]

I see this all the time myself and unfortunately it's a part of the world we live in bowling in handicap leagues and handicap tournaments. Seems like everyone is looking for an advantage and they partake in "Average Management" which essentially is just a nice way of saying sandbagging. Really makes it tough for honest bowlers who represent their true average but sadly it is one of those things that is really hard to prove and enforce. As mentioned here too though, I also see my fair share of hot shots who I feel have never made a 10-pin in their lives because they simply don't care about spares. It's a strike or bust mentality and if they can't compete for the high game pot the game just goes straight into the toilet. That's probably more ego than sandbagging though.

[Tony]

I see this all the time myself and unfortunately it's a part of the world we live in bowling in handicap leagues and handicap tournaments. Seems like everyone is looking for an advantage and they partake in "Average Management" which essentially is just a nice way of saying sandbagging. Really makes it tough for honest bowlers who represent their true average but sadly it is one of those things that is really hard to prove and enforce. As mentioned here too though, I also see my fair share of hot shots who I feel have never made a 10-pin in their lives because they simply don't care about spares. It's a strike or bust mentality and if they can't compete for the high game pot the game just goes straight into the toilet. That's probably more ego than sandbagging though.

Mostly I have been in leagues with bowlers in their 30's and older and have not really seen this happen until we got a couple of teams of hot shot 20 year old kids, I think I'm also going to talk about other ways to curb this.