PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR -- 11-03-2018 -- TENN PIN ALLEY 

I have long wanted to demonstrate why I prefer to shoot the 3-10 (and the 3-6-10) from the left side of the lane, rather than playing it down the right side of the lane as some of the kids we've had on PRODIGY insist on doing. I hope that animation helped make it crystal clear why playing it from the left side of the lane is much better.

Hold the Thanksgiving greetings for now. We've got two more shows before Thanksgiving. Our 2nd Anniversary show (taping tomorrow, 11/10) and our Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout (taping 11/17, hoping to release it on Thanksgiving Day). But thanks for the kind words, David.

Yeah...this didn’t age well, unless by low key you mean he’s on every show

Get your rest. Speaking as someone who's undergone five surgeries in recent years, I'd much rather know you're safe and up to undergoing your surgery. PRODIGY will be a nice diversion for you while you're recovering. (Hope all goes well.)

@@ProdigyBowlersTour yeah, I should be sleeping especially if I'm meeting him early to go over stuff about my surgery

Anyone who doesn't know who Dave Husted is should look him up on RU-vid. Just one of the best players in PBA history. Not surprising that he would have this alternate release. You call it a "suitcase" release. I have the same release; I call it my "kill shot." I use it whenever the lanes are so burned I need to "kill" much of the hook on the ball so I can control it. Not very effective on fresh oil, but a really useful alternate release for when the lanes are burned.

jadas videos welp what’s ur excuse for not bowling with us?

Uhhhh I don’t know

jadas videos see ya next week!

jadas videos same, Bowling in the tournament tomorrow

Jonathan Mosebach - The only reason we don’t is because we don’t usually get enough of them. I would love to do an “All Littles” episode every now and then.

It won't be a full "Littles" show, but our Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout, set to be recorded tomorrow (11/17) and released in time for Thanksgiving the following Thursday, always pairs one Varsity with one Junior Varsity kid into doubles teams. It's always a lot of fun, as the kids bowl for actual frozen Thanksgiving turkeys.

I don't know anyone named "Loflow." But if you're referring to LOFO (short for LOgan FOssum), he has said on his Instagram account that he's not bowling PRODIGY this year. The timing of his announcement was curious. We went to a pre-pay model this year on PRODIGY. In previous years, the kids simply paid for their lineage on the way out the door at the end, and unfortunately, quite a few of them walked off without paying. Some did it again and again. Something had to be done or the bowling center would not be interested in hosting us. So I worked out a deal with the management of the center whereby we could have the kids pay a flat fee of $10, which would not only cover their lineage during qualifying and the stepladder, but would also enable them to stay and bowl on the warm-up pair while the stepladder was being held. I'm not saying whether Logan was one of the kids who repeatedly walked out without paying. But as soon as the pre-pay policy was announced, it got around through the grapevine that he had made it clear he was not intersted in paying to bowl PRODIGY, and his declaration on Instagram that he wasn't bowling PRODIGY this year came just a few days later. You can draw your own conclusion. Personally, I prefer to believe that Logan has decided to focus his attention on getting ready for big tournaments and has concluded, for whatever reason, that bowling in unofficial events like PRODIGY does not serve his purpose. I'm not sure that I agree with that assessment, since bowling match play and simulating pressure situations, I think, is unquestionably good preparation for competitive events. But it's not my call to make; it's his. And I respect his right to make it for whatever reason he chooses, or for no reason at all. It's a free country. We all like and admire Logan, and I support whatever decision he makes. There is no ill will between us, at least as far as I know. But here's something I'm absolutely certain about: Logan Fossum is deeply embedded in PRODIGY's DNA. It was Logan who, for years before PRODIGY even existed, frequently stayed after league to bowl in unofficial, informal and impromptu challenge matches with his buddies that first inspired me to start filming them (with their parents' permission, of course) and put them on RU-vid, which eventually led to me giving the series a name -- PRODIGY BOWLERS TOUR -- as a way to promote our youth program at Brunswick Zone Roswell. Logan is well-known in youth bowling circles around the Atlanta area, and I figured why not show him off (and show off our other top players) as a magnet to try and attract other competitive youth bowlers to come join our youth leagues and thereby be on hand to participate in this cool "TV show" that we tape most weeks. That was the genesis of PRODIGY, and Logan was smack dab in the middle of it. It's not an exaggeration to say that PRODIGY wouldn't exist if it weren't for Logan Fossum. So I'm saddened by his decision to skip PRODIGY this year. But it's his decision, and I respect it. He's welcome to bowl on PRODIGY anytime he wants. I think he realizes that. I hope he considers that we have many LOFO fans among the PRODIGY faithful (like you and many others) that he's disappointing by not appearing on the show. For admittedly selfish reasons, I hope he changes his mind. But either way, PRODIGY will keep going and growing with or without him. Three years ago, Logan was THE MAN at Brunswick Zone Roswell. Everyone who was a part of our youth bowling program knew that he was the one guy who seemed destined to become THE hotshot teenage bowler in our program some day, and might even be on a course that would lead to far greater heights once he aged up into college and beyond. The sky was (and still is) the limit for Logan. Would it surprise anyone to see him show up on some future PBA telecasts ten years from now? It sure wouldn't surprise me. But while he was kind of the only one in our program at Brunswick Zone Roswell who was held in that high regard a few years ago, part of the reason he was the only one was that our program was kind of small. One of the things I was tasked with when the bowling center's management handed me the title of Youth Director was to grow the youth bowling program and breathe new life into it. PRODIGY has helped us attract a growing number of highly skilled bowlers to our youth program -- some you've seen on PRODIGY in the last couple of seasons, and some who have still not yet made their PRODIGY debut. (Yeah, there's still more that you haven't yet seen.) So, while Logan Fossum holds and always will hold a special place in our hearts, he's not the only really great youth bowler we have anymore. He's now one of several really great youth bowlers we have in our program. And as we talk about PRODIGY's future, I'm looking beyond our four walls at Brunswick Zone Roswell. I continue trying to attract kids from other centers around the area and from out of state to come bowl with us on PROIDGY. And I still hope to continue opening things up to include the occasional PRODIGY SATELLITE TOUR shows, thereby expanding the show's footprint into other markets across the country so our viewers can see more talented youth bowlers in other cities, too. The show is about youth bowling. It's not about Logan. I would love for Logan to be in that mix going forward. But it's up to him.

@@ProdigyBowlersTour also I haven't seen Charlie and a while

Well, in the overall scheme of things, the Brunswick A2 pinsetters at Brunswick Zone Roswell aren't really "old" by pinsetter standards. The A2, which I have long referred to as "the workhorse of the bowling industry," is built to last. Properly maintained Brunswick A and A2 pinsetters, when properly maintained, can last a hundred years. Certainly there are A2 machines in operation today that are a lot older than the ones we have at Brunswick Zone Roswell, which was built in the 1980s. So these machines are "only" about 30 or 35 years old. That sound old for a mechanical piece of equipment. But remember, there are still Brunswick A machines in operation, and they were built in the 1950s for Brunswick Corporation by a company many people are familiar with from another industry -- Otis Elevators. And Otis Elevators that are almost a hundred years old safely transport people up and down old office buildings every day of the year. Unfortunately, the pinsetters at Roswell were neglected for many years, and the Facilities Manager we have there now did a remarkable job at just getting them back working again. In some ways, it was an exercise in treading water. But slowly but surely, he got most everything working. Sadly, the original owners of the bowling center, Brunswick Recreation Centers, had budgeted an ample amount to preventative maintenance that mechanics were able to stay ahead of the problems that mechanical devices as complex as pinsetters can suffer. The current owners, Bowlero Corporation (formerly known as Bowlmor-AMF) do not take the same approach. From what I gather, their budgeting philosophy pertaining to pinsetters is to be RE-active, rather than PRO-active when it comes to maintenance. And it shows. When a pinsetter stops working, it can often mean that a particular lane is out of commission for weeks (even months in some cases). I simply do not understand this. Back when I was working at radio stations, whenever a piece of studio or transmitter equipment was not working, we would write it up on the discrepancy report, and the engineering team would fix it THAT DAY. That's the only model I'm familiar with, and it's the only one that makes any sense to me.

He said he isn't doing prodigy anymore.

Scroll down to Jacob Keehn's question about "Lowflo" (I think he meant LOFO). I answer the question there.

No bass boost. A little audio dynamic compression, that's all.

@@ProdigyBowlersTour haha

We record videos most every week. The new episode was released to PRODIGY patrons yesterday. If you'd like to gain early access to all our shows, or possibly even become a PRODUCER of the show and get your name listed in the credits each week, learn how on our Patreon page at www.patreon.com/prodigybowlerstour . But as for when our next episode will be released, they usually come out on Fridays. The next one is slated to be released shortly after 12 Noon Eastern today, Friday, November 16th, 2018. Check back within the next hour or so. It's a good one.

Spiros bowls league with us. But in a surprise move, he started going to bowl another youth league that bowls on Saturday afternoons right after we finish on Saturday mornings. So while we may see him bowl PRODIGY occasionally on dates when that other league takes off, he probably won't be on PRODIGY much anymore. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm disappointed about this. Spiros is a great little kid and a heck of a bowler. But he has friends who live across town who bowl in that league, and he is a very social little guy and wants to bowl with his friends. Can't blame him for that. Hopefully, we'll see him on the show occasionally.

You would be correct. 14# (Just got that report from his mom.)

Man dude Ali-A I

Like all skilled bowlers, Charlie is able to modify his speed as needed. So the short answer is, "it depends."

BrownswickBowling alright how about the house shot since I really only bowl on that

Google "bowling ball speed chart." You should find a number of charts that will enable to you translate the time a ball is on the lane to ball speed. Use your cellphone stopwatch.

Just a guy who bowls - Mikey does. Danny did not return this year.

Just a guy who bowls I wanted to know the same thing

BrownswickBowling just to be clear does Logan fossum still bowl prodigy and do you know if he ever will

Ashtin Christopher Logan has started over social media that he will not participate in prodigy this year, but you never know if he’ll have a change of heart and decide to bowl in an event or two.

Just to be clear, I posted a very complete answer on this. Scroll down and read the comment from Jacob Keehn, who asked if "Lowflo" still bowls with us. I'm sure he meant LOFO. I typed a long answer there. Don't want to type it again. Go find it.

If you're referring to Brandon Racioppi, actually, he's dropped out from our league. About a week ago, his father informed me that Brandon had decided to take the rest of the season off from bowling. Not really sure why. But as of now, we've dropped him from the roster of our league. If you know anyone who can bowl a little and would like to join the team with Christian Mennell and Logan Fossum that won our league championship last Spring, I'm sure Christian and Logan would love to hear from them. :-)

BrownswickBowling I would but I live a couple hundred miles away...

In the Summer of 2017, we had a young man travel from Honolulu, Hawaii to come bowl PRODIGY. We've also had people come from Michigan and elsewhere around the country to come bowl PRODIGY. Why, we've even had families travel clear across the country just to come watch us tape an episode of PRODIGY. So you're now officially out of excuses.

BrownswickBowling my brother is an excuse, he has hockey every day and I would travel to bowl prodigy on a weekend if it weren’t for that

That is the lamest excuse I've ever heard. Sell your brother. Or loan him out to someone for a weekend while you come #GetYourBowlOn with us.

Let's celebrate!

First Last yes

I believe the Roto Grip Winner, and the Code Red for some spares

He's smooth, ain't he?

Rip'd hybrid. The Rip'd pearl is blue and gold.

Yes, I would agree.

He bowls out-of-town (and often, out-of-STATE) tournaments all over the country almost every weekend.

Storm sure lock

Roto grip halo he said it in the video

10

I bowl in the same league with him, even with those guys, nick would still be contending for first like the rest of the guys u mentioned. But yeah, it is weird not having all of them around.

Well, Christian has been in a slump. We'll get Charlie on the show occasionally, but only when he's in town. He travesl to EVERY out-of-town tournament there is to bowl in these days. (Must be nice.) And the kids over at Lilburn (Tyrell, Dawson, Jacob, the rest) just haven't been over recently. I imagine we'll get 'em occasionally when their league takes days off or they're just in the mood. We get Gilbert Kang to come over from there every now and then. Josh D is off to college. And Tristin's just been out of town or doing school stuff recently. I'm sure you'll see him again soon.

Luke S I agree with you cuz there aren’t many bowlers on Nick’s level now

There are. But some of them don't often stay and bowl PRODIGY. There are a couple that I'm especially anxious to show off to you guys one of these days. I'm hoping that you'll get to see one or two of them in a couple of weeks when we do our annual Thanksgiving Turkey Shootout, which is always a fun time and usually brings out a few faces you don't normally get to see.

Luke S - Big Logan M. Is another who can give Nick a tussle. But on this particular week, we had a whole bunch out at the Interstate All Stars team tournament (See Prodigy Striking News near the end of the show.). They’re all back this week. Honestly, I would have been inclined to do a Single or Double Ball Elimination event this week if it weren’t for the fact that we had a couple of families drive hundreds of miles to come bowl with us. I don’t like rewarding visitors from far away with a format where the could throw one ball and be out. ;-)

The flow of PRODIGY Selfies kind of petered out. If you want to send one in I'll keep it in case we start doing them or get a bunch. The problem with the Selfies segment is that it had to be produced custom each week, and adds to the post-production time of the show. Probably adds another hour or two to the process. For just a one-minute segment, that always seemed like a lot. But I did love hearing from our fans all over the world. That was super cool.

BrownswickBowling yeah I loved seeing where people were from watching the videos

BrownswickBowling I also love how u are active with your fans I never thought u would respond to me

BrownswickBowling but I would love to bowl prodigy but we don’t drive much and I live in Tennessee sooo yeah lol I have bowling leagues on Saturday and on the high school bowling league (still don’t know how to hook the ball)

Why wouldn't I respond to you? Look, I really appreciate you guys watching the videos and sharing them with your friends to help me grow the channel. I know that watching these shows is an investment of time that you don't have to make. Some people take one look at the length of these videos and their eyes glaze over. But PRODIGY fans watch the shows knowing what they're getting into. Most are used to watching bowling on TV, so they know what to expect. But still, there are infinite entertainment choices out there, and you guys chose to watch PRODIGY. I'm grateful for that. The least I can do is respond to you guys when you post comments. I can't respond to all of them (indeed, some of them don't really seem to require a response), but rest assured that I do read every single comment that's ever posted on this channel. Usually within a few minutes of when it's posted (unless it's in the middle of when I'm asleep).

You were doing so good until you said “you either can do it, or you can’t” 😂 everyone can do whatever. It just takes some people more time. I bet if you were a coach you’d give up on a kid after one lesson