Tenpin Bowling
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Components of Fitness
To help in determining what components
of fitness are important
for bowling (such as speed, endurance, strength etc.), I made a rating list which asked readers to rate the
different components of fitness on a scale of one (low) to five
(high) on how important they thought each was to tenpin bowling. This poll is no longer online (results below), but there is a more comprehensive survey of the important factors of success in tenpin, which you can add your opinions.
Apart from skill (which would be the most important ability), the relative importance of the physiological parameters listed in this table differ in their contributions to making a champion bowler. A certain amount of aerobic fitness is important to maintain adequate health levels, and to reduce fatigue over long tournaments and busy playing schedules, while strength, power and flexibility are important in adequately performing the bowling action.
When trying to interpret the fitness testing results, it is important to have an idea of what are the relative importance of specific fitness components. Use these ratings to compare to the results gained from the fitness testing for bowlers.
Results
The higher the rating, the more important people considered that component to achieving success in bowling. Strength and power were rated highest as expected. Surprisingly people did not consider aerobic fitness very important. This would be the case for individual bowling deliveries, however in a tournament situation where the bowlers must bowl for many hours, aerobic fitness will become a more important factor. You may also want to compare these results to the more recent poll about the single most important fitness component for tenpin.
Rating Table
| component | rating | ||
| strength | 3.9 | ||
| power | 3.8 | ||
| flexibility | 3.5 | ||
| agility | 3.3 | ||
| aerobic fitness | 3.2 | ||
| speed | 3.0 | ||
| anaerobic fitness | 3.0 | ||
| body size and composition | 2.8 |
