Bowling is offered under the Exercise and Sport Science catalog a BYU-Hawaii. It is not uncommon for students to take the one-credit as a fun activity, according to BYUH students. The bowling class here at BYUH teaches students proper bowling techniques and allows them to perfect their own personal bowling style.
Just like every sport, a large part of the motivation you need to improve comes from how much you enjoy it and your desire to improve. Hekili Gibby, a freshman from Hawaii studying Hawaiian studies, said “there’s something about throwing a 15-pound-cement ball at some pins that’s very rewarding. You’re fighting yourself. It’s not always other opponents, you have to beat yourself. You’re trying to better your own score. It is a nice stress reliever. It definitely kills your hands and your hips, but it’s fun.
“I’ve been in the bowling class since the beginning of Spring semester. I needed one extra credit class, and Brother Clah is a good friend of mine. I really like bowling. I was going to take it last semester, but it filled up. I bowled on my mission during P-Days with my companions.”
The bowling class taught students like Davisson De Oliveira, a senior from Brazil studying computer science, that a strategic bowler can have a routine or a procedure they follow to knock down all the pins. However, each individual bowling style can be different. By bowling more, each player can cultivate their own bowling technique.
He said, “Everyone has a special way to bowl, if it works for you, go with it. But if you use the right technique, like Coach Clah taught us, you can get 100 percent of the pins each time. When I got in the class, I thought it was, ‘Ok, I just need to get the ball and just roll it,’ but there are some techniques the professor taught us. The ball needs to come from a position from your waist, going backward then forward in a straight line when you roll it.”
“There’s a misconception that bowling is easy and not a lot of work,” said Gibby. “Some people think bowling doesn’t take a lot of effort and you literally just throw a ball down a lane. It’s so much harder and techniques you have to know.
“The pendulum swing for instance, if you’re off by half an inch, it throws off your whole throw. You’re aiming for this maybe 5-inch pocket and you’re swinging this really heavy cement ball and if you’re off by a little tiny bit, your ball isn’t going to get what you need it to get done. There’s also posture and concentration.”
An example of a student who improved his bowling score is Yoshiki Wanatabe, a sophomore from Japan studying computer science. He said he enjoys the bowling class and shared, “I went bowling in Japan, but no one knew the correct form or how to make their score higher. By learning correct form, I was able to improve my score by 60. When you bowl, if you have the correct form, appropriate ball and size, you don’t need power. Just relax, have fun and bowl.”
Gibby said the bowling class here at BYUH is a great opportunity, but you just have to be willing to plan properly to complete the requirements. He explained, “The workload is manageable. Brother Claw is a good guy. He is understanding and wants you to succeed. He is a good teacher. You have these game punch cards, you play a game and they punch your card. It’s all about being consistent and planning properly. Because there have been moments when it becomes crunch time and you have to go play six or eight bowling games in one night because you forgot to do it throughout the week. If you properly plan, you can have an easy yet challenging class.”
If you want to improve and take advantage of the class, Oliveira said to “practice, practice, practice. It’s like playing racket ball, tennis, or dancing, you’re not going to get better unless you practice. If you need a one credit class, and you want to have fun at the same time, take bowling. You’re going to love it.”
Writer: Dani Castro