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

[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.