Youth Bowling

information as she lives near the Kegel training facility and is there nearly every day.

The next step was to get Verity onboard. After a couple of quick back-and-forth calls, Verity agreed to be the coach of Kids Bowl Better! I reached out to Pat Ciniello, the proprietor of HeadPinz in Fort Myers, FL, who agreed to be the host center for us to shoot a series of virtual video bowling lessons.

Over the next few weeks, Verity and our team worked together to create an amazing set of bowling lessons that can now be delivered to every family who bowls in Kids Bowl Free.

We have a series of 100% free lessons and another series for families who want more instruction on improving skills. These premium lessons have a small fee attached but are very reasonable. All coaching lessons are available for Kids Bowl Free operators to view on their dashboard.

A vast majority of the kids who sign up for Kids Bowl Free are new to the game of bowling. They’ve never bowled before; some haven’t ever been to a bowling center. These new, young customers need to know everything about the game, starting with why bowling shoes are unique, why they need to keep their fingers and face away from the ball return, and the importance of not going over the foul line.

For young bowlers who want to knock over more pins without hitting the bumpers, they need to know how to properly pick up a ball, where to hold it, where to start their approach, how to get the ball swinging in the right direction, and more.

Each lesson with Verity builds on the lesson before. With the power of video, Wi-Fi access, and the new Kids Bowl Free app, we can help more kids learn the game at scale.

Will this solve all our industry coaching challenges? No, but it’s a big step forward for the millions of kids introduced to our game each year.

An enormous thank you to Verity who is a true professional to work with. She has a love for the game that is infectious, and it’s our hope that this effort will drive more families to gravitate toward organized play, not just youth leagues, but future high school bowlers, adult league players, and maybe even the next Verity, Belmo, or Amleto.•

Darin has been in the bowling business his entire life. He grew up in a small town of about 300 people where his parents built an 8-lane bowling alley in 1977, one year before he was born. He grew up doing all the jobs at the center. After moving to Green Bay and working at a large center, he found his passion in marketing. He met Bruce Davis and together they formed the team that created Kids Bowl Free®. Over the past 10 years, he has helped create over 10 million new customers for his clients and his own businesses.