by Oral O. Miller
Although the first “national championship” blind bowling tournament in the USA was conducted in 1948, the sport is known to have been enjoyed by blind people several decades earlier. Several residential schools for the blind are known to have had bowling lanes as part of their physical education facilities as far back as the 1920s. The push for making the sport available to blind people beyond their student years came in the 1940s and was urged by, among many others, enthusiastic and dedicated leaders and workers such as Roy Ward of Richmond, Va., Leroy Price of Williamsport, Pa., Merritt Clark of Albany, N.Y., the late Holland Horton of Chicago, Ill., and the late Arthur Copeland of Brooklyn, N.Y.
For the first 40 years following that initial championship tournament, 10-pin bowling was one of the most popular sports activities enjoyed by blind people in America; by the mid-1980s the Memorial Day weekend national tournament of the American Blind Bowling Association (ABBA) was attracting over 1,500 people from the USA and Canada while serving also as an invaluable organizational training ground for countless leaders in other blindness-related organizations. Some of the reasons for this popularity included the general popularity of bowling and the general availability of bowling lanes, the eventual development and adoption by the ABBA of a standardized guide rail for the use of totally blind and low-vision bowlers, and, very importantly, the adoption and enforcement by the ABBA of rules mandating the placement of totally blind bowlers on teams engaging in competitions sanctioned by the ABBA.
International Recognition
In spite of the popularity of 10-pin bowling among the blind in the USA and Canada, the sport did not, until very recent years, enjoy such popularity in most other countries. Some of the reasons for this situation were the fact that other forms of bowling (such as lawn bowling and nine-pin bowling) were traditional favorites among the general public and the fact that a widely accepted guidance system for totally blind and low-vision bowlers had not been developed or obtained. However, in 1997 the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) adopted bowling in its various international forms as official sports to be promoted pending the adoption of uniform rules to be applied internationally. Whether a sport is adopted by IBSA for recognition and sanctioning for purposes of international competition is not based on the total number of people engaging in that sport (such as the large number in the USA and Canada) but rather the number of different countries engaging in it on an organized basis. Since there were no international rules governing bowling by blind athletes at that time, it was recognized by several interested nations that it would be productive to conduct competitions and conferences to try out the various rules and to develop recommendations for consideration by IBSA in its rule-making process. Although interest in such an event was immediate in the USA, two small nations on opposite sides of the globe, Finland and Singapore, were the first to schedule such events, both in 1997. Because of my long-standing interest in 10-pin bowling as a past president and life member of the ABBA and the winner of several national championships over the years, I was invited to both events. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the event in Singapore due to prior professional commitments, but it was my good fortune to be able to attend the outstanding event held in Finland.
At this point I can almost hear the readers of this article asking why there was a need for playing rules for a sport that had already been in existence for hundreds of years. After all, isn’t the object of the game to roll a large ball down a smooth lane and to knock down as many milk-bottle-shaped pins as possible? Yes, that is the basic objective, but, as far as visually impaired bowlers are concerned, consideration must be given to such factors as differing levels of performance due to differences in visual acuity, the extent to which totally blind bowlers can compete successfully with the greatest degree of independence, the need for a guidance system to give such independence, the need for an equalizing handicap system of some sort to make it possible for lower average bowlers to compete with higher average bowlers, and the importance of requiring teams to include totally blind or low-vision bowlers rather than recruiting only legally blind bowlers requiring few if any accommodations. In the USA over the decades, the prevailing policy has been to follow the bowling rules used by the American Bowling Congress or other generally recognized sanctioning authorities, deviating only to the slight extent necessary to accommodate totally blind or very low vision bowlers.
The philosophy of the very well-run bowling competition and rules conference held in Finland in late 1997 followed universally accepted bowling rules to the maximum possible extent and gave each of the six nations present an opportunity to describe the bowling programs in their countries and to discuss any variations therefrom. Each bowler was placed in one of three visual categories based on his/her visual acuity — those who were totally blind were in class B1; those who could see no better than 20/600 were in class B2; and those who could see no better than 20/200 were in class B3. These are the standard visual classifications used by IBSA in all sanctioned sports where visual classification is required, whereas bowling in the USA has been governed by a system of self-certification in which each bowler classifies himself/herself as essentially totally blind (not having enough vision to be of assistance in bowling) or as partially sighted (legally blind but having enough vision to be of assistance in bowling). However, there was no uniform system of guidance for the few totally blind bowlers who took part.
Guide Rails
The guidance system which each of those bowlers used consisted of a very short hand rail, perhaps 18 inches long at most, which stood approximately three feet high and, when not in use, was folded back into a case approximately the size of a medium-sized fishing tackle box. The box also served as the base for the rail when it was in use. The totally blind bowlers who used such rails positioned themselves and then rolled their balls from either a stationary position or after taking a single step. Although those bowlers were members of teams which also included class B2 and/or class B3 members, the B1 bowlers bowled on a lane by themselves on the assumption that the short rail would interfere with and distract the bowlers with usable vision.
So, how do these practices differ from those in the USA and Canada? First, over the years the ABBA has encouraged the development and production of a lightweight tubular metal guide rail, approximately three feet high and 12 to 15 feet long, which is held in place when in use alongside the bowling approach by bases weighted down by four 10-pin bowling balls and which, when snapped apart, can be stored in a small canvas bag. Because this rail is in line with the channels or “gutters” and is alongside the area where the bowler walks while preparing to roll his/her ball, it is left standing in place throughout the bowling session and it enables the bowlers needing it to bowl on the same lanes with their partially sighted or fully sighted teammates. Its length gives the bowlers needing it the full range of options ranging from a standard three-, four- or five-step moving approach to delivering from a stationary position. Most blind bowlers in the USA and Canada who use a guide rail take the standard moving approach. Guide rails that are used in the national championship tournaments in the USA and Canada are similar to the portable rails described earlier but are attached to the floor in uniform locations at the beginning of the tournament and are left in place until its conclusion. Since I have always used the multi-step approach, at the competition in Finland I opted not to use the very short rail but to position myself as well as I could in relation to the bowling ball return mechanism. As an experienced blind bowler I had used that guidance technique a few times in the past when a standard American guide rail was not available, but, in Finland as at other times, I did not bowl as well as I generally do while using a guide rail.
Overseas Competitions and Conferences
A giant step toward introducing 10-pin bowling to the blind of the world and toward the adoption of uniform rules was taken during the summer of 1999 when the Independent Society of the Blind of Singapore hosted the Asian Invitational Blind Bowling Tournament and Rules Conference, which attracted participants from Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, Australia, the USA and, of course, Singapore. It was my pleasure to accept the gracious and generous invitation of the Independent Society of the Blind, the consumer organization of the blind in that nation, to speak at the conference, take part in the rules discussions, participate in the competition and demonstrate the use of the American-style bowling guide rail which I had taken with me (after a conscientious employee of United Airlines had been convinced that it was not a dangerous item). During a practice bowling session I ascertained that no standard guidance system was being used by the totally blind and very low vision bowlers in that the systems that were being used involved a considerable amount of sighted assistance or the use of tape affixed to the bowling approach. The new bowlers in particular were especially interested in trying out the guide rail and before the competition ended two days later their bowling had improved significantly. The Sports Chairman and other officials of the Independent Society of the Blind saw the value of the guide rail as a means of encouraging totally blind and very low vision people to take up bowling and, in order to give further encouragement and following a quick call back to the USA to the owner of the rail, I presented it to the Independent Society with our best wishes. The general sessions and the rules conference were very well run and very thorough, resulting in a set of clear recommendations to IBSA designed to expand sports opportunities for blind and visually impaired people. The thrust of some of the recommendations was that competition should be structured so as to encourage totally blind and very low vision persons in particular to participate. In view of the popularity of 10-pin bowling in the USA and Canada, it is my hope that it will be possible for some of the very enthusiastic leaders from nations such as Singapore to observe the large bowling tournaments in the USA and perhaps participate as guest competitors.
Most Recently, England!
The most recent giant step forward took place during November 1999 when the British Blind Sports Association, with the sponsorship of Bass Brewing Ltd., conducted the Bass Visually Impaired International 10-Pin Bowling Tournament and Rules Conference in Birmingham, England. Bowlers and team administrators from eight countries took part in the three-day–long event, which featured both net and handicap competition in the singles, doubles and four-person team events. The U.S. Association for Blind Athletes requested that the American Blind Bowling Association select two members of the team to represent the USA; ABBA selected Harry Cordellos of San Francisco, Calif., and Marie Van Liere of Newport News, Va. USABA itself selected McKinley Young of Washington, D.C. and Tim Finan of Silver Spring, Md. McKinley “Mack” Young served as the team leader and his wife, Shirley Young, served as the team pin-spotter and administrative aide. Mack took two American-style guide rails along for his and Harry’s use. Participants from some of the other nations who had never seen an American bowling guide rail before described them initially as appearing rather cumbersome and ungainly, and a way in which the first competitive event was conducted, contrary to Mack’s advice, seemed to reinforce that description. More specifically, Mack Young was scheduled to bowl on the same lane with totally blind bowlers using the very short guide rail described earlier in this article. That meant, as hilarious as it may sound now, that the American guide rail was put in place each time before Mack bowled and then moved out of the way so the short rail could be put in place for the use of the other bowlers and this process was repeated 30 times during that set of games. (Shirley Young as the team administrator and her counterpart from Finland were exceptionally busy during those games.)
Although the American bowlers were not selected for the team primarily on the basis of their bowling prowess and although many of their competitors were selected primarily because of their bowling ability, Mack, who is totally blind, and Tim Finan, who is a class B3 bowler, shocked the other doubles teams, most of whom did not have totally blind members, by winning the doubles event, with Harry and Marie not far behind in third place. In the singles event, Mack finished first and Harry finished second among the totally blind men; in the singles event, Marie finished second in her category and first in all-events (her combined score for the entire tournament). Yes, by the time the competition ended, many of the bowlers from the other countries were looking at the American guide rails, watching the Americans bowl, and discussing ways in which the rails could be modified. The recommendations which were approved by the rules conference recognized, if somewhat reluctantly, that, if the sport is truly to be made accessible to any blind person who is interested, it must mandate, even if not immediately, that totally blind bowlers must be included in competition and that they be allowed to use equipment that enhances their capabilities while also increasing their independence.
What Now?
So what happens now? Recommendations from the various rules conferences along with input from knowledgeable technical committee members will be considered by IBSA, which will then issue rules to govern competition receiving international sanctioning. It is going to be an uphill effort to obtain adoption of rules that will strongly encourage or require the creation of opportunities for totally blind and low vision athletes to join their legally blind and fully sighted friends in the enjoyment of 10-pin bowling as an invigorating, sociable and beneficial activity. Perhaps someone someday will develop a better guidance or reference system than that “ungainly” guide rail, but, so far it is clearly the best!