Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

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Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by Cracker »

I've never posted here before, so apologies if this is not the appropriate place

To elaborate on my question, I'm essentially asking if in your opinion, we will ever see a stroker go on a dominant run on tour again.

Watching the shows now, especially with the ball speed and rev rate tracker; I've noticed that pretty much everybody has a super high rev rate and at times we see a plurality of players play some absolutely rediculous angles compared to what they did way back when.

So what do you think the odds are that we'll ever see somebody step up on tv with a sub- 350 rev rate and not only win but win often again?
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by EricHartwell »

Welcome to BowlingChat

I would put Walter Ray and Norm Duke in the same category as Earl.
(edit) I wanted to add Liz Johnson to the list as well.
All of which are still bowling so the next dominant stroker is still in development.

While the Crankers are dominant in the game today it doesn't mean they always will be.

I also think that the rev rate they are showing us is not off the hand it is the rolling rev rate.
It would be nice to know for sure how the shot tracker is measuring or calculating the numbers.
Last edited by EricHartwell on February 10th, 2019, 3:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by TonyPR »

I know I am going to get a lot of heat for this, mainly from the people who haven’t learned to generate decent speed and revs... a higher ball speed and rev rate are the product of a more athletic physical game and a more efficient energy transfer position at release. It is the evolution of the sport to a more physical/athletic way of playing. Many of the kids who are kicking butt are young and do cross training at the gym. The college programs are teaching them the discipline to participate in a sport rather than to play a game. No, I don’t believe another stroker will dominate the sport.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by RobMautner »

I have to agree with Tony here. Not only is there the physical aspect of the game that has changed due to superior conditioning of the athletes, there is also the physical changes in the playing field: bowling balls, lane oil, and most of all, synthetic lane surfaces. The strokers game has gone by the way of persimmon golf clubs and ballata golf balls.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by fufu »

A pure stroker might win a tournament here and there, but will never dominate for even one season ever again. The game has become a power game. It’s no different than golf. If you don’t hit the golf ball at least 265-270 yards IN THE AIR, then you will not routinely compete on the PGA tour. The same can be said for bowling. A rev rate of at least 375-400 is required to compete week in and week out.

It’s funny bc at the recreational level the higher friction lane conditions can actually hurt some high rev players. But on more volume, flatter patterns the lower rev rates will struggle to compete.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by EricHartwell »

Ok Tony here comes the heat, just kidding

I'm not saying that the power players in general are not going to dominant the sport. I am saying to find one that has the ultimate success Earl had is going to be difficult.

Earl competed against similar bowlers, there were very few power players in his day.
Today the power players are competing against mostly power players.
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So in terms of being dominant in the game during your time in it, regardless of style, is a daunting task to become the most dominant ever.

Will any of the "Crankers" have the long term success that the "Strokers" have enjoyed. Or even the "Tweeners" like PDW or Parker Bohn.
It is going to be a very difficult task for a single individual to break into the top 5.

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When competing at the highest level staying healthy and injury free is a major part of long term success.
The power game while it is impressive and high scoring takes a toll on the human body.

Sure when in peak condition The Crankers are at the top today. But because of injury they have not been able to stay at the top. examples Tommy Jones, Amletto Monecelli, Robert Smith, Jason Couch and I am sure there are more bowlers that suffered injuries that has limited their ultimate success as bowlers.

Mark Roth has had the most success and until another cranker can surpass his accomplishments/tournaments wins there is no chance in my mind for a power player to be as dominant as Earl was.

If Jason Belmonte can stay healthy and collect 2 wins a year for the next 15 years he will surpass Earl and Walter Ray and become the most dominant bowler ever.
EJ Tacket is on a good pace, he only needs 1.5 a year until he is 50 to top the list. 24 more years of staying healthy.

Time will tell.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by Pinbuster »

You never know what lane conditions might occur in the future but I agree that with current conditions power players will dominate.

Strokers where a product of their time. With hard rubber and plastic, wood lanes with lacquer coating and the oils of the time did not lend themselves to high speed high rev bowlers. You needed to keep the ball in track area of the lane where the friction was.

Roth was the first evolution after urethane and softer plastics where introduced. With advent of urethane balls and short oil, higher speeds and higher rev rates were able to exploit those conditions.

Resin balls, particle balls, synthetic lanes, lane machines, new oils continued to change the playing field and reward newer styles.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by snick »

If we ever return to very low volume oil patterns, wood lanes and rubber/plastic balls, then yes, we will probably see another EA.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by Meteobowler »

The biggest challenge for any low rev player is lane topography. With bird wing topography becoming more and more present - combined with worn track areas on synthetics because of house shots - the laws of physics make it really difficult for strokers to compete with the athleticism that has developed in our sport...and will continue to develop.

The topography challenge manifests itself in the ball having to burn excess energy just to climb a physical hill. When it starts out with a relatively small amount of energy to begin with, the margin becomes small. Add into that the need to often open up angles even a little, the low rev rate makes it even tougher because the ball has to roll downhill before it comes back up the topography hill that is typically in the track area.

With lane surfaces not getting any newer and it becoming more and more cost-prohibitive to fix the problem and/or replace lanes, there will be more and more of a need for higher revs and torque to overcome the gravitational forces of topography; and still be able to create the proper entry angle while the ball retains enough energy to carry consistently.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by Mongo »

snick wrote:If we ever return to very low volume oil patterns, wood lanes and rubber/plastic balls, then yes, we will probably see another EA.
This.

So long as we see PBA regularly using patterns with 25+ mL (and probably 30+ in the near future), you'll never see a sub-300 rev rate dominate. There's just not enough natural friction to create the angle you need to carry at the rates the big handed guys do.

Go back and watch the old videos when "straighter is greater". Those guys did nothing to the ball because if they did, it would be in the left gutter at 20 feet. Now, on the super short or really flat patterns they have a shot, but week in/week out, no, they just can't be there every week.

So long as there are gallons of oil out there, power is where it's at. I haven't even gotten into how, with the number of power guys out there, they can blow apart the pattern and take advantage of transition that the lower rev guys can't.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by kajmk »

Some may enjoy reading Earls book, which includes a bit about how he became a bowler and how hard he worked at his craft. He wrote about how he rolled 300 shadow-bowl games a week when he worked at a center. His wife, stopwatch in hand would confirm his ball speed when he was working on speed control.

Baseball reference:
" Earl Anthony is considered by many as the greatest bowler ever. Before his illustrious bowling career, he was offered a $35,000 signing bonus by the Baltimore Orioles to pitch, but the deal was negated when he tore his rotator cuff."


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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by deanchamp »

Stu Williams was talking about rev rate when commentating the other day.

It was something along the lines of increasing rev rate from 350rpm to 450rpm doesn't make a huge difference in how you can play the lane, but increasing rev rate from 450rpm to 550rpm does.

The guys with the higher rev rates are able to use balls with less surface or polish and still get some midlane and entry angle as they move in, where the guys with lower rev rates still need some surface to help them, and they lose out with entry angle and energy at the pins.

...

You can also compare it with the power baseline game in tennis, where Andre Agassi basically changed the sport and the touch players were made obsolete.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by EricHartwell »

Norm Duke is a humble man and also better than Jason Belmonte on this day.

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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by kajmk »

Norm came to mind when this thread developed.
Versatile and very personable man.
Great example of the fact that great bowler's come in all shapes and sizes.
Norm's instructional DVD is top notch.
I wonder if he still using 16 pounders.

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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by Mongo »

EricHartwell wrote:Norm Duke is a humble man and also better than Jason Belmonte on this day.

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Norm is awesome. Just a great guy...and a pretty decent bowler.

Also, he proves that the shotmaker still has a spot in this game, but, again, you're not going see these guys winning that often, not now. Short patterns and US Open (near flat) is when the straighter guys shine.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by TonyPR »

Duke’s rev rate is in the 420s to 370s... case closed.

He can adjust and play the lanes any way he wants.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by deanchamp »

I'm very dubious about the accuracy of the RPMs on the Fox tracker. It looks more like an average than off the hand.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by TonyPR »

I agree, it seems that they way they set it up it reads speed on the heads and rpms at pin contact... but it’s all relative, Wes Malott’s reads 450 at the same location
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by vicsmyth »

deanchamp wrote:I'm very dubious about the accuracy of the RPMs on the Fox tracker. It looks more like an average than off the hand.
I'm wondering if it doesn't just calculate rpms based on ball speed at the pin deck. In the Chris Paul Celebrity event, Chris Paul, who looks like he's about 225 off the hand, the tracker shows 370. Then on the next shot the long-haired blond guy, who actually puts some revs on the ball, tracks at 330. Didn't make sense.
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Re: Will we ever see another Earl Anthony?

Post by Mongo »

When they showed Norm's rev rate at 420 last week, I lol'ed....like to the point where my wife asked me what was so funny.
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