$50 per bowling strike for a year or $125,000 right away? (1 Viewer)

[Yankee23Fan]

I think the only way to really make this work is to dedicate yourself to it. I’m basically living there for a year. I’m hiring a massage therapist to come by and a bowling instructor to help maximize my form and prevent injury. I’m going all in and retiring at year end.

Now you're thinking. You don't even have to roll it full throttle. Just start it at the 1 and let the pins do the work.

Think you have to start out slow or risk blowing out your rotator cuff or elbow. Maybe two hands for a while and see where it gets you. Mix in lefty and righty to build strength. Also, immediately buy a custom lightweight ball with larger finger holes than usual.

Is this a one year thing or indefinite?

I voted to take the lump sum but I think you are right. I was thinking it through with the weight I used when I bowled alot in younger times. When we do it now my shoulder is not happy. But drop down to a 7 or 8 pound, no second throw, and no need to wrist snap in any way, I'm thinking bowling is better option.

Fun question.

 

[Grahamburn]

OVER THE LINE!

Mark it 8, Dude.

This isn't 'Nam ... there are rules.

 

[Jayrod]

I also realized that if only strikes matter I can wing it lefty if I miss with the first ball and save on the wear on my right arm.

But honestly your shoulder shouldn't be a problem with bowling. The underarm motion isn't damaging like overhand baseball/volleyball shoulder rotations. Fast pitch pitchers can throw on back to back days if I'm not mistaken.

 

[-OZ-]

I could get 7 strikes in a couple games a day but that’s a lot of bowling.

Figure, you don’t need to throw twice each frame even if you miss, you’re only going for strikes here and there doesn’t seem to be an incentive to actually play for real.

So I’ll take $50/ strike but there’s Fair chance of injury. Possibly an equal chance of becoming a professional bowler, not sure which is worse.

Kidding, that would be a fun job.

 

[jhib]

If my husband can bowl for me or take the deal for us then bowling all day.

Last Thursday in league he shot 300 and probably had 25 strikes total in 3 games.

Seriously though I don't think anyone understands how much easy money this would be.

You're right, that sounds much easier than I had thought...

I choose to have msudaisy26's husband bowl for me, too.

 

[-OZ-]

drop down to a 7 or 8 pound

Are we going with a shot put approach?

 

[urbanhack]

I also realized that if only strikes matter I can wing it lefty if I miss with the first ball and save on the wear on my right arm.

But honestly your shoulder shouldn't be a problem with bowling. The underarm motion isn't damaging like overhand baseball/volleyball shoulder rotations. Fast pitch pitchers can throw on back to back days if I'm not mistaken.

Or just hit the reset button

 

[Anarchy99]

I also realized that if only strikes matter I can wing it lefty if I miss with the first ball and save on the wear on my right arm.

But honestly your shoulder shouldn't be a problem with bowling. The underarm motion isn't damaging like overhand baseball/volleyball shoulder rotations. Fast pitch pitchers can throw on back to back days if I'm not mistaken.

I'll spare you the full physics and anatomy breakdown, but top-level bowlers get a ton of spin / torque / rotation on the ball. They snap their wrists to get the ball to break. That dramatically increases the strike and carry percentage. Good bowlers could adjust and just throw the ball straight and save strain on their body parts, but they wouldn't strike anywhere near as often. You're right that regular Joe's probably won't damage themselves to the same level. In my case, I would want to strike as often as possible. It wouldn't be worth it to me to switch hands, use an 8-pound ball, or change how I bowled. Think of it this way. If an MLB pitcher gets guys out throwing a 96-mph slider that can mess up his arm over time, simple telling him he could just lob it in at 60-mph and expect the same results wouldn't be realistic.

In my case, I would go in with a plan of sticking around until I got 200 strikes in a session. I guess it would depend on the lane conditions (a huge factor in all of this), but I would project that would take 4 hours or so (especially since there would be not spare shots). Not worth it to me to drag it out to 6 or 8 hours a day. I'd go 3 days a week, take my $30K, and end up the year with $1.5M. For me, my body could probably tolerate 12 hours of bowling a week. And the way bowling works, this really needs to be done on a pair of lanes. That's how leagues and tournaments work. People would be able to shoot on one lane while the pins are getting reset on the other.

On the flip side, if I tried to bowl 12 hours in a day, my body parts would start falling off. I already have issues with my ankle I land on (ligament and tendon problems), back (degenerative arthritis), thumb (will never be the same from years of bowling), shoulder (partial tear), and wrist (broke it and hasn't been 100% ever since). I don't know about John Q. Public, but IMO, casual bowlers will run out of steam after 8 or 10 games worth of bowling and won't do as well past that for quite a while. Like anything else with a lot of practice, people would start doing better after a few months, but initially people. Being a fit young buck in your early 20s would certainly be a benefit in this hypothetical exercise.

 

[wlwiles]

I'm not on @Anarchy99 level, but I've been in bowling leagues off and on for the last 20 years, have a couple of custom made bowling balls fit for me, my own shoes, etc. At my best my average was 225, and I would absolutely take $50/strike over a lump sum.

 

[playin4beer]

I have a bum wrist and my average when I did bowl was just shy of 150..

Give me the money please....

 

[FarFromHome]

I'm not on @Anarchy99 level, but I've been in bowling leagues off and on for the last 20 years, have a couple of custom made bowling balls fit for me, my own shoes, etc. At my best my average was 225, and I would absolutely take $50/strike over a lump sum.

U had me at custom bowling ball. Ha ha

 

[Gally]

But drop down to a 7 or 8 pound, no second throw, and no need to wrist snap in any way, I'm thinking bowling is better option.

Doing this would make getting strikes a lot harder. Essentially you would need to get lucky to get a strike. The 7/8 LB ball will bounce off the pins and you will get no carry which is necessary to consistently strike.

 

[Anarchy99]

I'm not on @Anarchy99 level, but I've been in bowling leagues off and on for the last 20 years, have a couple of custom made bowling balls fit for me, my own shoes, etc. At my best my average was 225, and I would absolutely take $50/strike over a lump sum.

That's what used to get me when I was more active than now. Guys would show up to league night or tournaments with 8, 10, 12, 16 different bowling balls (and bowled like 5-6 nights a week). They had these giant wheeled cases that looked like they were moving a giant safe. I had my main ball and a plastic ball to shoot 10 pins (which I rarely used) and only bowled on league night. Once I had a family, I didn't even practice. Just those 3 games a week (plus an occasional tournament).

It didn't matter what the lane conditions were, which bowling alley I was at, what oil pattern they used, or how the lanes changed as the night progressed. I just made adjustments. I learned how to bowl on wood lanes, and every lane had different tendencies. Some nights, I had to start all the way on the left on the left lane with massive hook, and all the way to the right throwing a straight ball on the right lane. You had to learn to read the lanes and adjust accordingly.

Nowadays, most houses use synthetic lanes, and all the lanes usually will react pretty similar. I used to laugh at guys who went through 8 bowling balls trying to figure out the best one for that particular night. Sometimes, those guys would figure it out early and have three games of 250+. Other nights, they couldn't figure it out and had 3 games of under 150. I remember one guy went an entire night without a spare. It was strike or an open frame.

One of my favorite (READ AS: least favorite) memories was when I bowled in a regional PBA event. In terms of accuracy, I was ON that day. Every single shot I threw was flush in the pocket. Never went high, never went light. It was like I was throwing hand grenades right in the pocket. But I could not buy a strike. And I do mean I could not get a strike. At all. In 3 games. I mean that LITERALLY. I got a nine count on every single ball for 3 games. Take your pick, solid 7 pins, 8 pins, 9 pins, ringing 10 pins. I shot 190-190-190 on 30 straight single pin spares. No matter what I did to try to make tweaks or take a different line to the pocket, my ball ended up not carrying (with pins flying all over the place).

IIRC, there were 4 of us bowling at the same time. Each of the other guys had a 300. The worst part was those guys were wild as all get out. Brooklyn strikes, up the gut strikes where pins fell for no reason, missing the headpin and having a pin fly and knock pins forward, just a bunch of lucky breaks. They all thanked me profusely for taking one for the team and giving them good mojo. That was probably one of my top 3 most accurate series I ever bowled (yet I had for me one of my worst scoring totals). It happens.

 

[Zow]

I also realized that if only strikes matter I can wing it lefty if I miss with the first ball and save on the wear on my right arm.

But honestly your shoulder shouldn't be a problem with bowling. The underarm motion isn't damaging like overhand baseball/volleyball shoulder rotations. Fast pitch pitchers can throw on back to back days if I'm not mistaken.

In my case, I would go in with a plan of sticking around until I got 200 strikes in a session. I guess it would depend on the lane conditions (a huge factor in all of this), but I would project that would take 4 hours or so (especially since there would be not spare shots). Not worth it to me to drag it out to 6 or 8 hours a day. I'd go 3 days a week, take my $30K, and end up the year with $1.5M. For me, my body could probably tolerate 12 hours of bowling a week. And the way bowling works, this really needs to be done on a pair of lanes. That's how leagues and tournaments work. People would be able to shoot on one lane while the pins are getting reset on the other.

While I'm not the same quality of bowler as you (I think I last averaged ~180 years ago and I do throw a hook utilizing all three fingers), this was nonetheless my exact same analysis to get to 1 million per year with the difference being less strikes than you per session but the same plan. I'd add that I'd also put it significant effort and the necessary funds to ensure my shoulder, wrist, arm, fingers, etc. were well maintained so I could do 3--5 sessions per week of at least 4 hours.

In doing so, I think I'd still stick with a 15 pound ball with maybe occasionally switching to a 14 lbs. for some sessions if I was getting sore and not recovering. I could not see going below 14 lbs. and I'd much more focus on ensuring the inserts in the finger holes were regularly rotated to ensure comfort and I'd probably look into a wrist wrap or tape for fingers to prevent minor, nagging injuries.

 

[Zow]

I'm not on @Anarchy99 level, but I've been in bowling leagues off and on for the last 20 years, have a couple of custom made bowling balls fit for me, my own shoes, etc. At my best my average was 225, and I would absolutely take $50/strike over a lump sum.

That's what used to get me when I was more active than now. Guys would show up to league night or tournaments with 8, 10, 12, 16 different bowling balls (and bowled like 5-6 nights a week). They had these giant wheeled cases that looked like they were moving a giant safe. I had my main ball and a plastic ball to shoot 10 pins (which I rarely used) and only bowled on league night. Once I had a family, I didn't even practice. Just those 3 games a week (plus an occasional tournament).

Agree - I never understood the massive amount of balls. I could see two balls for differing lane conditions (one to generate more spin and one less depending on the condition) and the low spin plastic ball for single pin spare shots on the right side of the lane.

Same goes for softball. I see an opponent or even a teammate roll up with like a dozen bats and I immediately knew they wouldn't be that strong of a player. One bat per each core ball that fits your swing (so end load v balance, one piece versus two piece, etc.) and that's it. Otherwise, you're just in your own head and you're switching it up every at bat and it just made no sense.

It's the usually wizard, not the wand.

 

[The Z Machine]

So I can't use a ramp or any other external devices to assist? Nothing that's not PBA sanctioned?

 

[Doug B]

I love bowling and with that much practice/chances I bet I could bowl 7 strikes in under 30 minutes time per day in no time. Frankly, knowing myself, I could quit my job and make more by just bowling a couple of hours per day.

About where I'm at.

I enjoy bowling, but I consider myself a poor bowler. Used to bowl a lot more ~25-30 years ago, but my form has gone to schmidt since then. Still, I get 2-3 strikes every time I play a complete 10-frame game these days even coming in ice-cold.

 

[JAA]

Anything humans have to do every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year will get old old OLD.

Oh, not every day? So I need to bowl 5 days a week? Lets say 50 strikes a week? Thats 2.5k a week to earn $130k. Lets pretend I can get to 1 strike out of 5 frames. So thats 250 frames a 5 day work week, or 50 frames a day. So like 10 games of bowling a day to earn $130k tax free, which is about $200k. This doesn't include vacations, sick days, etc.

I think this is doable, but would get old fast.

I think id rather ask about free throws. How about $1 per free throw or the $125k cash? I like that one better.

 

[WDIK2]

I'm taking the bowling. Not having to throw a second ball is a game changer for both fatigue and time. I'm for sure using thumb tape. The tournaments when I've bowled 9 consecutive games really tears up my thumb. I used to bowl in a league regularly, but now only sub about once a month.

I asked a couple coworkers who still bowl league regularly. The guy who averages ~160 is taking the bowling. The girl who has trouble bowling 100 is taking the money. That makes sense.

 

[msudaisy26]

If my husband can bowl for me or take the deal for us then bowling all day.

Last Thursday in league he shot 300 and probably had 25 strikes total in 3 games.

Seriously though I don't think anyone understands how much easy money this would be.

You're right, that sounds much easier than I had thought...

I choose to have msudaisy26's husband

I also realized that if only strikes matter I can wing it lefty if I miss with the first ball and save on the wear on my right arm.

But honestly your shoulder shouldn't be a problem with bowling. The underarm motion isn't damaging like overhand baseball/volleyball shoulder rotations. Fast pitch pitchers can throw on back to back days if I'm not mistaken.

Or just hit the reset button

Hitting reset when you don't strike is a game charger. I bet any bowler with a 175ish average could make over a million dollars in that year just bowling a couple of hours a day, five times a week.

 

[msudaisy26]

Anything humans have to do every day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year will get old old OLD.

Oh, not every day? So I need to bowl 5 days a week? Lets say 50 strikes a week? Thats 2.5k a week to earn $130k. Lets pretend I can get to 1 strike out of 5 frames. So thats 250 frames a 5 day work week, or 50 frames a day. So like 10 games of bowling a day to earn $130k tax free, which is about $200k. This doesn't include vacations, sick days, etc.

I think this is doable, but would get old fast.

I think id rather ask about free throws. How about $1 per free throw or the $125k cash? I like that one better.

50 frames would be 5 games of bowling. Plus no spares.

 

[Doug B]

I think this is doable, but would get old fast.

Desk jockeying gets old fast, too.

 

[the moops]

Think of it this way. If an MLB pitcher gets guys out throwing a 96-mph slider that can mess up his arm over time, simple telling him he could just lob it in at 60-mph and expect the same results wouldn't be realistic.

We aren't expecting the same results though. Nobody is thinking they will hit the same success rate if they change up weight and form and whatever. It's a balance

 

[the moops]

I think id rather ask about free throws. How about $1 per free throw or the $125k cash? I like that one better.

I love shooting free throws, and am good at it. I could go down the street and shoot better than 80% no problem.

But this is an easy give the 125K rather than a buck a free throw. Need to make 350 a day to break even. Let's say you can only make 60%, that means taking almost 600 free throws a day. I imagine a lot of this time you are solo. Am I using just one ball? Gotta be the like 20 seconds at least for each shot? Considering you gotta go grab the rebound and get back to the line. That's almost 3.5 hours of straight shooting just to break even. How many more can you take in a day?

 

[Nipsey]

I think id rather ask about free throws. How about $1 per free throw or the $125k cash? I like that one better.

I love shooting free throws, and am good at it. I could go down the street and shoot better than 80% no problem.

But this is an easy give the 125K rather than a buck a free throw. Need to make 350 a day to break even. Let's say you can only make 60%, that means taking almost 600 free throws a day. I imagine a lot of this time you are solo. Am I using just one ball? Gotta be the like 20 seconds at least for each shot? Considering you gotta go grab the rebound and get back to the line. That's almost 3.5 hours of straight shooting just to break even. How many more can you take in a day?

Save time with one of those rebounding machines.

 

[Zow]

I think id rather ask about free throws. How about $1 per free throw or the $125k cash? I like that one better.

I love shooting free throws, and am good at it. I could go down the street and shoot better than 80% no problem.

But this is an easy give the 125K rather than a buck a free throw. Need to make 350 a day to break even. Let's say you can only make 60%, that means taking almost 600 free throws a day. I imagine a lot of this time you are solo. Am I using just one ball? Gotta be the like 20 seconds at least for each shot? Considering you gotta go grab the rebound and get back to the line. That's almost 3.5 hours of straight shooting just to break even. How many more can you take in a day?

Good analysis here.

I used to shoot 100 free throws as practice when I was a teenager and I think it would take about an hour. I enjoy shooting baskets as much as I'd enjoy bowling, but man that would get monotonous.

 

[Cowboysfan8]

saw some say use a super light ball to save on wear and tear but that will make it harder to get strikes. You need the mass to help carry and improve strike consistency.

FWIW when I was bowling league all the time I used 14 lb

 

[ghostguy123]

If I have a rebounder or one of those net things, I'd do the free throws a few hours a day.

 

[msudaisy26]

saw some say use a super light ball to save on wear and tear but that will make it harder to get strikes. You need the mass to help carry and improve strike consistency.

FWIW when I was bowling league all the time I used 14 lb

14 is a pretty popular weight.

 

[the moops]

If I have a rebounder or one of those net things, I'd do the free throws a few hours a day.

Sure, but are you making much more than the 350 free throws needed to break even? And if you are how much more?

 

[Harry Frogfish]

Damn. I saw Moop posted and was hoping for another trip to the alley to read about. Or maybe even some video footage.

 

[Desert_Power]

Unless your time is not valuable, you take the money up front. Obviously

 

[ghostguy123]

If I have a rebounder or one of those net things, I'd do the free throws a few hours a day.

Sure, but are you making much more than the 350 free throws needed to break even? And if you are how much more?

Figure shooting 5 per minute, so 300 per hour.
The first couple weeks will be rough with soreness, but after shooting a couple hours a day for a couple weeks I could easily ramp up the number of shots per day.
So in my estimation, shooting 50% (which I will easily beat), averaging 28 hours per week would put me around 250k for the year.

Again, this is assuming some sort of rebounding mechanism.

 

[Anarchy99]

Unless your time is not valuable, you take the money up front. Obviously

Let's play this one out. Say you can bowl enough to pocket $1.5M by bowling for a year. Wouldn't that be enough for most regular people to live reasonably comfortably for 8-10 years (not even counting what you could earn by investing the money)? Wouldn't that be a more valuable use of your time to be able to live rancho relaxo style for a decade? Wouldn't that be a judicious use of one's time?

 

[ghostguy123]

Unless your time is not valuable, you take the money up front. Obviously

My time is definitely valuable, which is why I'd prefer to work hard for the year and make a lot of money. It's and investment in the rest of my time/life

 

[fruity pebbles]

Unless your time is not valuable, you take the money up front. Obviously

To me it’s obvious you don’t do that

 

[ghostguy123]

I posed a question to someone at work a while back.

At age 40, would you work 12 hours a day for 365 days straight, and when done you get whatever money you earned during that year, then get 150k a year for the rest of your life (with inflation adjusted raises each year).

Probably very dependent on what your job is.

 

[fruity pebbles]

I posed a question to someone at work a while back.

At age 40, would you work 12 hours a day for 365 days straight, and when done you get whatever money you earned during that year, then get 150k a year for the rest of your life (with inflation adjusted raises each year).

Probably very dependent on what your job is.

Of course

 

[AAABatteries]

Unless your time is not valuable, you take the money up front. Obviously

Let's play this one out. Say you can bowl enough to pocket $1.5M by bowling for a year. Wouldn't that be enough for most regular people to live reasonably comfortably for 8-10 years (not even counting what you could earn by investing the money)? Wouldn't that be a more valuable use of your time to be able to live rancho relaxo style for a decade? Wouldn't that be a judicious use of one's time?

I’ve been trying to decide if I would quit my job and do this or just try and do as much off hours as I could to supplement - given the one year stipulation I think I would try that but would maybe decide after a month.

 

[beer 30]

I posed a question to someone at work a while back.

At age 40, would you work 12 hours a day for 365 days straight, and when done you get whatever money you earned during that year, then get 150k a year for the rest of your life (with inflation adjusted raises each year).

Probably very dependent on what your job is.

I worked in a machine shop when I was in college and we did this on a pretty regular basis. I also worked a lot of 7/12's when I was in environmental cleanup. If I knew it was just a year, yea I think I could do that. It would be a ****ing grind but you can do it.

For folks that aren't accustomed to working that, it would be a real challenge.

 

[Zow]

Unless your time is not valuable, you take the money up front. Obviously

Wat

 

[Zow]

I posed a question to someone at work a while back.

At age 40, would you work 12 hours a day for 365 days straight, and when done you get whatever money you earned during that year, then get 150k a year for the rest of your life (with inflation adjusted raises each year).

Probably very dependent on what your job is.

Of course

Yeah at 40 (last year) I worked an average of 8 hours per day for the 365 days.

At 50% more work than I did it would definitely suck (my golf game would definitely go to **** bc I’d likely just barely have time to see family and hit the gym) but since the hypothetical lets me make my money I’d have an amazing financial year there where we could almost pay all debts (mortgage, car payments) and do the partial home renovation my wife wants.

Then, at 150k per year guaranteed for life I could potentially retire in my early 40s and have a heck of a next forty years in terms of quality of life. So, while that year would entirely suck and I’d want some time to prep for it (resign from boards, basically warn all golf partners I’m unavailable, prep family that I won’t be around for holidays, etc) and I’d probably want to hire some personal trainer or nutrition coach to help me during and after, it would be entirely worth it for what I assume would at least be another 40 plus years of an amazing life. Heck, if I started to feel useless or we wanted some extra income, I could go work part time for a public defenders office, go be a part time judge, or teach college (all jobs I’d genuinely enjoy doing and get satisfaction from). But I’d still have plenty of time for family and personal hobbies/health that far exceeds what I have now and likely will continue to not have.

Like the bowling proposition, how soon can I get signed up for this??

ETA: Just dawned on me that my only worry would be that it would be genuinely challenging to remain competent at my job working that much and my risk of potentially impactful bar complaints would be high.

 

[JAA]

If I have a rebounder or one of those net things, I'd do the free throws a few hours a day.

Sure, but are you making much more than the 350 free throws needed to break even? And if you are how much more?

Figure shooting 5 per minute, so 300 per hour.
The first couple weeks will be rough with soreness, but after shooting a couple hours a day for a couple weeks I could easily ramp up the number of shots per day.
So in my estimation, shooting 50% (which I will easily beat), averaging 28 hours per week would put me around 250k for the year.

Again, this is assuming some sort of rebounding mechanism.

This is where I am at. I think I could get to 1-2 hours before lunch and 1-2 hours after lunch. I think this would be the easy life.