Great article about women as competitive bowlers in mens leagues and tournaments

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I found this article pretty interesting so i thought i would share it and see what you guys think about it Women In Competitive Bowling – Behind The Gender Lines a lot of men think women need to stick to their own women leagues and not let women be involved. What do you believe?

[mike_thomas93]

I think the article says is all. Bowling is an "anyone" sport. It's not about a separate women's series of leagues and stuff versus men's. Women should be free to bowl whenever they wish to in any league or tournament. Some people need to realize they have to appeal to the women because they work just as hard as the men to get where they need to be. Like me. I was involved in high school bowling, and I lost to a girl in my senior year in one of my singles games, but that was just because I didn't bowl my best as well as losing my concentration. But I had already known that she was a great competitor, not just some beginner. The bottomline is that everyone has their own styles and opinions, and women should not let any criticism affect their performance or anything. Everyone bowls to be their best, male or female. That's why bowling is such a widespread sport, which is what I mean when I say it's an "anyone" sport, not just one or the other gender. An "anytime" and "anyone" sport.

[dnhoffman]

I won a 9-pin tourney today but a woman came in 2nd and whopped a lot of men...

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Yeah there is nothing bad with losing to a woman, there are a lot of great women bowlers. We probably all saw kelly kulick beat chris barners on tv and she destroyed him badly.

[Hampe]

Bowling is definitely not an activity where losing to a woman would threaten my masculinity.

What I do find annoying though is that in our league here, women get 10 pins handicap every game. It's completely unneccessary except for maybe in the highest league.

[TCJ]

I don't have a problem bowling with women, however, if it's a league that's specifically for men, then only men should be in it. I don't go around trying to join the women's league! If you want a league with both, just designate it as mixed or don't designate anything at all. For instance, the sport league I bowled in over the summer wasn't designated in any way and we had both men and women bowling. No problems, no egos hurt when the women beat the men, and so on. I think people make things a little more complicated than they should be.

[MICHAEL]

On a given day Manic, (my wife), can whip me,,,, she had high scratch game this summer in a 12 week sanctioned league, 247! Her average on that league was 165. But on any give day she can turn on the after burners!!! She has been close to a 600 several times, but as of yet no cigar!!! But ,,, I think this fall it will happen!!! Her 247 high scratch was for women, I had high scratch form men. So husband and wife holding same slot!! lol

[noeymc]

as long as they dont get a handicap they can bowl with the men

[Stormed1]

Years ago in our Classic Scratch League we had about 7 women that were regulars and whipped all are butis many a time. I brought a woman sub into another of my leagues as she was willing to compete with the men and was better than over half the league.

[GeoLes]

Has Penny Marshall seen this thread? Gives new meaning to "A League of Their Own" It should be more like "They are In Every Leaue".

I would love to see more truly "open" competition. Pro bowliing does have some mixed events but it is more like American Baseball where we compete only within our own nation and call it "The World's Series" - Not even close to the range of teams in "The World Cup" - (small editorial here).

I recently saw the tournment in Ohio. It was the ONLY televised tournament I have see that featured both men and women. The only thing is there was a Mens' elimination and a Women's elimination. Only the winner of eadh gender's league competed head-to-head, man against woman".

And guess what? the woman won.

(even if she did bowls like a girl )

(kidding. I have an irreverant sense of humor)