So I think where part of the translation is lost here is: slow players vs impeding the pace of play.
There’s plenty of slow bowlers who don’t impact the pace of play.
If it’s an incidence of one fast set of lanes was left waiting for 20 minutes one game? Wow, congrats to them on the great bowling!
If it’s an incidence of there is regularly one set of lanes preventing the others from moving on, every game (or the majority of games) by 15-20 minutes…I think this is the issue.
In the entire time I’ve competed here (Alberta) I’ve run into two pace of play issues caused by a player.
One legitamately had a broken arm and had a hard time getting the grip on the ball with their other hand, the other was the example I mention above. I’ve played a variety of events, both scratch and POA, and both serious and fun events. In all the events: two incidences. From a fairly large sample size I’m seeing pace of play is rarely an issue. I have very little concerns of us seeing this as a growing concern as we open up the elite playing field.
I understand why people are slow, I understand why people need to take their time (they need time to be ready) versus the players who grabs the ball and go (they need the least amount of time to think as possible). I also understand how focusing on your pace of play is going to negatively impact your game, so what can we, the non slowest, do to bridge this gap?
You’ve admitted for youself you think its a confidence issue: I get that. I have a lot of perfectionist tendencies, I have a hard time setting the bar at a realistic standard for myself. The natural ebbs and flow of the game are extremely hard for me. There’s things I cling to that make me feel safer and more secure when I am bowling. There’s times where I’m taking an extra 3-5 seconds (resetting the pins, walking the lenghth of the approach ot the pit) to get back on it. 10 or 20 seconds here? Not a big deal.
I think any coach has said the phrase “take your time, go when you’re ready, etc.” …the truth of the matter is…there could be a time where a judge of play is coming up to us telling handing us a warning for taking so long. We have to look at how we’re fostering confident and sure bowlers. So the times whne they are affecting the pace of play, it’s a one off or rare occasion, not the standard.
And for what it’s worth: I am equally as frustrated by the pace of play being impacted by a lack of pin chasers addressing tangles in a timely manner as I would be the pace of play being caused by a single player. There’s a ton of bits and pieces that keep the flow of the tournament going.
I commend you for seeking solutions. I admire that you’re exploring all possible avenues for how we make the playing field fair for players of all paces. It’s clear you’re making every attempt to be considerate of the tours and events you play at, including having conversations like this.
And maybe I’m wrong, maybe this is not a one, or two, or three player issue. But if this is a minimal player issue: how can we support them to increase their pace of play to a level that isn’t bottlenecking a tournament by hours? Not: how do we shift an enitre tournament format to meet the needs of the 1% (I don’t know what percentage it is, but it’s small, you get it).
At the end of the day, I think it’s coming down to this for me:
What’s making a bowler’s pace be so slow, they’re impeding the flow of a tournament → what support can we provide to prevent this from happening?