Posts Tagged WII Bowling
Seniors strike up fun with Wii bowling
Posted by vantagebowling in General on February 15th, 2010
Every Monday a crowd of seniors takes turns, lining the pins in their sights, then throwing the ball down the lane.
But this isn’t a bowling alley, where 16-pound balls are hurled down alleys over the constant din and clatter of pins and set-up machinery.
It’s Monday morning at the Livonia Civic Park Senior Center, where about 12 seniors are gathered for Wii bowling in the lobby.
“It’s fun; it’s exercise,” said Donna Hagen of Farmington. “It’s a nice group, too.” Hagen joined because she and her teammate wanted to bowl in a tournament. Hagen said the Wii bowling is just like real bowling, She finished with a 157 that morning.
Larry Eickhoff of Livonia lofts his ball so that it hits the pins from the Brooklyn side and curves to the right. It’s like bowling, without the weight of a heavy ball, Eickhoff said.
Eickhoff said the bowling is good exercise and a great opportunity to meet new people.
Eickhoff lofts his ball purposely so that it hits farther down the lane. “If it’s closer to you, you have to control it,” Eickhoff said. “It’s like regular bowling, but everyone (here) throws it differently.”
Eickhoff said he threw a perfect game in Wii bowling, but readily admits that he was never a great bowler. “With the arthritis in my hands, I can’t hold the ball,” he said. “It is much easier than hanging onto a 16-pound ball.”
Bob Hoyrup of Westland, who bowled a 279 that day, used to play senior softball and volleyball. “I had prostate and colon cancer, and three operations, and this is all I can do,” Hoyrup said. “I did bowl years ago. The exercise isn’t quite there (in Wii bowling) but it does take skill. Consistency is the name of the game. It’s a lot of fun.”
The Wii bowling program is overseen and administrated by Madonna University intern Carol Mosley.
“Some of them signed up as teams, as husband and wife, or they showed up and we matched them up,” Mosley said. The league features six teams with two players each. It is the second season of Wii bowling, as the league’s first season started in the fall of 2009.
Teams that finish first, second and third will get prizes at a Wii bowling banquet in May, Mosley said.
“It’s really a great program for them. They all know each other by their first names,” Mosley said.
The Wii bowling began last year after the center received a Wii donated by state Sen. Glenn Anderson. Livonia City Councilman John Pastor had donated money from a senior celebration day he organized when he was a state representative. The center used that money to purchase a television for the senior center.
Karl Peters of the Senior Center was skeptical at first of the Wii bowling idea but is as enthused as the seniors are now. “They love it,” Peters said. “It works out well. They get to yell and scream out there.”
Source: http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20100214/NEWS10/2140433/1027/Seniors-strike-up-fun-with-Wii-bowling
