JASON BELMONTE

Jason Belmonte is an Australian  professional bowler. He is one of the  

professional bowlers that I really admire and idolized. Jason was born 

on July 29, 1983 in Orange, New South Wales, Australia. Jason is popularly

known for his rare two handed "shovel" style to deliver his shot. It's rare

because he's the only one who delivers that kind of shot among professional

bowlers. It's a very difficult shot. I've tried it so many times and I find it really 

difficult. Jason perfected that style because he started holding a bowling ball

as early as 18 months old. He's father owned the Orange Tenpin Bowl. As a 

to toddler, Jason pushed the bowling ball with his two hands. In doing so, he

developed that two handed style as he grow up and until today, placing only

two fingers and no thumb in the ball to produce more revolutions. He started

competing at the age of three, winning his first event at the age of four. He had

an average of 117 at age five and a high game of 179.

Jason Belmonte has won one European Bowling Tour title, and the Brunswick

Euro Challenge, held in Greece. He also won the World Tenpin Masters

Championships in 2007, and owns four PBA Tour titles, including the Bowling

Foundation Long Island Classic (2009), 11-12 GEICO Shark Open, 11-12

World Series of Bowling Chameleon Open, and the Pepsi PBA Elite Players

Championship (2012). In September 2010, he defeated American Sean Rash in

the finals to earn the 2010 Korea Cup title.

At age 17, Jason became the first Junior Australian to roll a perfect game

overseas. He also took five Gold medals at the 2000 Junior National 

Championships. He was a member of the Youth Australian team in 2000,2002 and 2004. He was also awarded the Orange Sportsperson of the Year award in 2002

and 2003. Belmonte won one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals at the 2002

Commonwealth Championships in Scotland and a silver medal at the WTBA World Youth Championships in Thailand. Later in the year, he was selected in the

Australian Open men's team where he remains to the present.

In 2004, Belmonte took three gold, one silver and one bronze in the Asian Youth FIQ in Hong Kong and followed this up in the World Youth FIQ titles in Guam  with a gold in the singles and a gold in all events. He also competed in the 2004 AMF World Cup in Singapore where he was lead qualifier and never lost the lead in five days of qualifying events, finishing in 5th place after being knocked out in the quarter final. He won the prestigious 2004 Bowler of the Year award, voted by the Board of Directors of the World Bowlers Writers' Association. Belmonte was invited to participate in the 2005 World Tenpin Masters in England where he was defeated in the semi-finals. In this event, he made history by bowling the first-ever 300 game in the event.

Belmonte represented Australia in the 2006 World Youth Championships in Berlin. He was part of the team to take the gold medal in the Team Event and went on to make the Masters after finishing in sixth place in the All Events. He was defeated in the second step of the Masters by the eventual winner, Mads Sandbaekken from Norway. In 2007, Belmonte was once again invited to take part in the World Tenpin Masters, held at the Barnsley Metrodome. After defeating the defending champion Chris Barnes of the United States in the semi-finals, Belmonte went on to defeat England's Paul Moor in the finals where he rolled the event's second-ever 300 game. Belmonte rolled 23 out of a possible 24 strikes to win the event with a 566 score for two games, against Moor's 524.

Belmonte participated in the 2007  World Ranking Masters and after qualifying in second position, was defeated in the quarter finals by eventual runner-up Peter Ljung from Sweden, 2-0 (190-258, 158-279), finishing in sixth place.

In 2009, Belmonte won the Bowling Foundation Long Island Classic PBA event in his PBA TV finals debut. As the second seed, he defeated Bill O'Neill, and went on to defeat number one seed Michael Fagan 215-201 for his first PBA title. The title earned Belmonte "exempt" status for the 2009 – 10 PBA Tour, and he was also named the 2008 – 09 PBA Rookie of the Year.

2010 marked his first season as an exempt PBA bowler. Belmonte qualified for the TV finals in three events, but did not win a tournament. He came close at the GEICO Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship on 28 March 2010. Finishing as the top qualifier, he faced Brian Ziesig in the finals. Ziesig was a non-exempt amateur who had to qualify via the TQR round. The two were tied at the end of the regulation game, 247-247, which sent the championship to a sudden-death, one-ball roll off. Belmonte's high flush shot on his first attempt left a solid 7-pin standing for a count of 9. Ziesig then threw a strike to dash Belmonte's hopes and take the title.

In the 2010-11 season, Belmonte appeared in 10 of 12 PBA events, making match-play 9 times and appearing on TV 4 times. Without a victory, he had earnings of US$62,950. while averaging 218.82 pins per game. In his first three years on tour, Belmonte cashed in 33 of 37 tournaments, making match-play a total of 25 times, with 8 television appearances; and earnings of US$187,420. During 2011, on the World Bowling Tour, Belmonte defeated good friend and fellow PBA Player Michael Fagan, 300-205, to win the 2011 Thailand Open.

Belmonte won his second, third and fourth PBA titles at the PBA's "World Series of Bowling" in November, 2011 taking the trophies in the Chameleon Open, GEICO Shark Open and the Pepsi PBA Elite Players Championship. Belmonte also rolled a nationally-televised 300 game in the quarterfinals of the PBA World Championship, broadcast on 8 January 2012 in North America; however, he did not go on to win the tournament. Despite his three titles in the 2011-12 season, Belmonte did not win the PBA Player of the Year honors. The award was won by Sean Rash in an extremely close vote (Rash received 29% of the vote to Belmonte's 26.6%).

Belmo as his nickname is married to Kimberly and have two children, daughter Aria and son Hugo. He has a total career earnings in the PBA of $ 327,545.00

1st BATCH OF COACHES

This was the first batch of the international coaching seminar conducted by four-time World Cup champion Paeng Nepomuceno (back row, third from the left), a USBC certified coach and USBC Ambassador.I am the only Filipino in this batch( back row, fourth from the left).
 
Among the 22 coaches, who were certified in both levels, were 7 Hong Kong national team coaches, 3 Hong Kong pro shop operators and 1 Hong Kong national team player; 1 national coach and 3 pro shop operators from Macao, China, 1 England-based Australian and 5 Philippine Kegel Asia/ Bowlmart coaches as well as 1 Filipino bowler.

The new certified coaches were:

Kent Li, Yuet Ming Leung, Daniel Lui, Vanessa Fung, Tilda Shum, Suet Yee Fung, Dorvian Yu, Frankie Cheung, Ivan lee, Carol Pang, Vicky Yeung, Hei Ieong Lok, Cookie Lee, Eurico Lam, David Craig, Jose Manuel Manchon, Lucy Cheng, Johnson Cheng, Yap Seok Kim, Cecilia Yap, Nichol Yap, and Miles Cabia.

"I think that the seminar went well even with encountering translation difficulties", Paeng reported. "Unfortunately, I don't speak Cantonese but one lady, Dorvian Yu, was gracious enough to act as my translator. She did a great job because her group passed with flying colors."

PAENG NEPOMUCENO

Rafael  "Paeng" Nepomuceno of the Philippines was named The Greatest International Bowler Of All Time by the prestigious Bowlers Journal International in its September 2003 issue. Paeng is a six-time World Bowling Champion He is the only four-times winner of the World Cup of Bowling and he's done it in three different decades. He has won in 1976,1980,1992 and 1996.Paeng also won the Worlds Invitational Tournament in 1984 and the World Tenpin Masters Championship in 1999.

Paeng is my good friend and a very humble one. He's not spoiled by his success in his chosen sport. He is the highest awarded athlete in Philippine Sports history. In 1984, He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Merit by President Ferdinand E. Marcos. President Joseph E. Estrada awarded him The Philippine Legion of Honor in 1999 and in 2008, President Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo awarded Paeng the Order of Lakandula with Class of Champion for Life and was declared the Best Filipino Athlete of All Time. Both the Philippine Senate and the House of Congress have declared Paeng "The Greatest Filipino Athlete Of All Time".

He was also named Athlete of The Century by the Philippine Sports Writers Association in 1999 and Athlete of the Millennium in 2000. Paeng was named Philippine Athlete of the year in a record five times by the Philippine Sports Writers Association and the first athlete to be inducted to the association's Hall of Fame in 1993.

The World Bowling Writers awarded Paeng the Mort Luby Jr. Distinguished Service Award for his lifetime contribution to the sport.He was honored by the same body naming him World Bowler of the Year three times in 1984, 1985, and 1992. He was also the first inductee to the World Bowling Writers Hall of Fame in 1993 making him the first and only bowling athlete to received all awards in all categories of the World Bowling Writers.

My good friend Paeng at 54 is still active in competition. In fact last May 5,2009, he rolled games of 300, 299,268 and 256 for an average of 280.75 thereby establishing a new four game Philippine National Record. In that series, he bowled 23 strikes in a row when he bowled a perfect 300 followed by a near perfect 299 game.

The Guinness Book of World Records listed him in three records: 1) for winning the World Cup four times 2) for being the youngest ever to win the Bowling World Cup at 19 years of age and 3) for having won the most number of bowling tournament titles.

Paeng is the only bowling athlete to have won or awarded titles in the U.S.,Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa. He has a total of 124 career bowling titles to his credit. I think my good friend Paeng is not done yet. I believe that he is going to win his 5th World Cup Bowling Title very soon. He is a very disciplined athlete. He keeps himself physically fit all the time.So what do you think guys? Is he gonna do it again?

A PERFECT GAME!!!

In bowling, a score of 300 is considered a perfect game-the highest possible score in a game. It is achieved by bowling 12 strikes in a row. A bowling game consist of 10 frames. So a perfect game has one strike each for the first nine frames and three more in the tenth frame. When a player gets a strike of his first ball in the tenth frame he gets two more extra shots.

Many great bowlers have yet to experience the thrill of rolling a perfect game. I myself has not rolled one. I got 11 strikes in a row for around nine times already but I always ended up short on the twelfth. Historically, a perfect game was dauntingly difficult to achieved. But with the advent of new technology starting in the 1970's it has become a slightly easier goal even for the advanced amateur or the semi-professional players. Such technology include the use of more active synthetic bowling pins, more favorable lane conditions and most importantly bowling balls with modern coverstocks that allow greater hooking action and consequently better strike carry on less-than-perfect hits. Indeed, there is a certain amount of luck involved to score that magic number of 300 but a bowler can improve his chances of rolling a perfect game with the right equipment and state of mind and maybe a favorable lane condition.

IN LOVE WITH BOWLING

I think everyone of us has a personal choice of a certain kind of sport that we like  irregardless  of our involvement with it whether we are active or not. Our involvement in sports is influenced by the kind of environment that we have , by the kind of friends that we have, the school, media, our physical fitness and of course our economic standing.

For me, bowling is the sport that I fell in love with. It's the kind of sport that I would love to play for as long as my body have that energy to lift my ball. The first time that I got to play bowling right there I realized that I'm in love with the sport.

For the love of this sport, I would like to share with this blog the rudiments of the game. The bowling enthusiasts, beginners, and even the advanced  players will certainly find this blog helpful to improve their game. 

Watch out for my next post!