Wheelchair Programming for Bowling Success (with Video)

As THIS post from October explains, I got a new chair last year and it has taken a fair amount of time to program/test/tweak settings that I like for bowling.

I bowl about twice a month with other local wheelchair users (we call ourselves the Central Florida Quad Squad) and I am also unable to change the programming for the different drive modes on my new Permobil C300 wheelchair. Long story short, my wheelchair guy and I set up two similar-but-different bowling modes that I thought I would like. But I have been blessed that my new chair has not had too many issues, so I have not had a lot of appointments with my wheelchair guy, and again, bowling just twice a month… that combination results in a slow process to fine-tune the programming for bowling.

But I think we finally have my chair set up to where I can drive/bowl well using my sip-and-puff controls to direct my chair.

The key is to be able to drive slowly, and make minor turns/adjustments as you approach the foul line with the bowling ball atop your IKAN Bowler®. More specifically, the forward speed and acceleration need to be slow, as do the turning speeds. I have tried accelerating and driving fast, and doing so does not add much speed to the ball (at most, users can increase the ball speed from roughly 6.0 mph to 7.0 mph) and it's not worth the loss in accuracy. Driving slowly and in control is best for bowling.

EDIT: here is a video of me bowling on July 11, at our Quad Squad outing…
 

If you have any questions, or would like to see my actual programming speeds for bowling, feel free to contact me.

Bill Miller :-)
C1-2 Quadriplegic with a 255 High Bowling Game
Co-founder of Manufacturing Genuine Thrills Inc. d/b/a MGT
Business website: http://www.ikanbowler.com
Personal website: http://www.lookmomnohands.net
 

Wheelchair User with MD Enters 200 Club with a 201 and 213!

On October 10, 2009, my friend Alex McDonald became the fourth IKAN User (to my knowledge) to bowl 200 or better! That day Alex bowled a 201 to join the 200 Club -- and just two weeks later -- Alex bowled a 213 to up the record for male wheelchair users with muscular dystrophy! :-)

Alex has been really consistent (and good) at picking up spares. But he's had trouble getting strikes relatively often, partly because his ball wouldn't hook how he wanted it to. Well, on October 10th, our fellow Quad Squad member Rhonda Reese brought Jeff Parker's old ball up for Alex to try (for those who don't know, our Quad Squad friend Jeff Parker passed away at the age of 37 from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy; Alex also has Duchenne MD, but he's only 17 -- and may he have a long, healthy life with the Good Lord's blessing and all the advances being made in medicine). On the below scoresheet, you can see Alex was trying to get familiar with Jeff's ball in the first game.

Maybe it was the cosmic Duchenne connection (maybe Jeff was there, kicking over some pins) I don't know, but Alex sure got familiar with Jeff's ball in the second game. As the scoresheet shows, Alex had four strikes in the 10 frames, including a double over the 8th and 9th. Since Alex was already extremely comfortable with his ball for spares, he kept using it whenever he didn't have a strike, and he picked up every spare in his second game, which led to a mighty good 201 -- and Alex's entrance into the 200 Club.

I would've loved to have been there to watch and cheer Alex on, but my wheelchair batteries were almost completely dead when I got in my chair that afternoon, so I couldn't go bowling.

But I saw Alex's 213 game -- and it was exciting!

Alex opened with a spare -- and then FIVE STRAIGHT STRIKES -- and the record watch was ON! After his fourth frame (so he had a spare, followed by a turkey) I'm thinking, "Alright Alex! This has a good chance to be another 200+ game!"

After another strike, and ANOTHER, my eyes were getting big and I was thinking, "Look out Jon Musgrave!" Jon is the overall world record holder in dynamic wheelchair bowling with a 243 (available HERE). Alex followed the five straight strikes with another spare in the 7th frame, but unfortunately he missed his spare attempt in the 8th frame. He spared in the ninth, but didn't spare in the 10th. The final tally was 213 -- an impressive score for just about anyone, able-bodied or not.

I must point out an odd similarity between Alex's best game and my best game (mine is 221; available HERE). We both had two open frames (i.e. two frames without a spare or strike) -- AND we both missed two single-pin spares in those open frames. It's amazing that we both scored as high as we did, considering we each had two open frames, and the irony is we usually pick-up those single-pin spares when we're bowling well.

Alex had no open frames in his 201 game, and I have also bowled a 201 with no open frames. The fact that we both had two open frames in our highest games, shows the power of consecutive strikes.

For any IKAN User who wants to join the 200 Club, I highly suggest trying out different bowling balls until you find one that has a pretty good amount of break (curve) that you can hook into the headpin. I elaborate on how to do that and more with my blog entry titled, "Keys and Tips for Dynamic Wheelchair Bowling" available HERE.

Alex's 201 scoresheet AND 213 scoresheet are both HERE!

If you're curious, Alex's previous best was 195, available HERE.

CONGRATULATIONS ALEX! :-)

Bill Miller :-)
C1-2 Quadriplegic with a 221 High Bowling Game
Co-founder of Manufacturing Genuine Thrills Inc. d/b/a MGT
My blog: http://powerwheelchairusers.blogspot.com
Business website: http://www.ikanbowler.com
Personal website: http://www.lookmomnohands.net

Five Things to Know about Power Wheelchair Bowling! :-)

#1. Virtually ALL power wheelchair users can use an IKAN Bowler for real, dynamic bowling. (Wheelchair users, IKAN? Yes You Can!:)

How can virtually all wheelchair users bowl? The IKAN Bowler attaches to the user's wheelchair, and is designed so that anyone who can safely drive their chair, can bowl. It's basically a really well engineered attached ramp system -- the momentum from driving forward and stopping releases the ball. We have two types of mounts: Universal and Center-Post. The Universal Mount can accommodate any wheelchair with two side legrests (traditional or sport style legrests; not power elevating -- but people with power elevating legrests can use a set of regular legrests when bowling). The Center-Post Mount is a custom mount designed for newer chairs with the legrest system that has the foot pads coming off the single center post. Between those two mounts, we can accommodate the vast majority of wheelchairs on the market and in use today.

What makes it real bowling? The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) sanctioned the IKAN Bowler for league play -- any league, anywhere in the U.S. -- bowling with and/or against able-bodied bowlers, or fellow IKAN Users. The USBC sanctioned it because the process mimics the able-bodied bowling process, i.e. setup, physically approach and release the ball upon stopping at the foul line. This is referred to as dynamic bowling, not stationary ramp bowling.

Who bowls and what are top scores? Thus far we've had people with Muscular Dystrophy, Cerebral Palsy, and Spinal Cord Injury, driving their chairs with different methods (joystick, sip-and-puff, head control and chin control) achieve scores of 150 and higher. The overall record is 243 by a spinal cord injured C4-5 quadriplegic in Colorado named Jon Musgrave. Click HERE for our message board thread with additional records.

#2. The IKAN Bowler is considered therapeutic medical equipment, and as such, financial assistance is available in most every state. One customer ONLY had to pay the SHIPPING cost for an IKAN Bowler! Click HERE to contact us for details!

#3. For $599 the IKAN Bowler with Universal Mount can be purchased and delivered anywhere in the continental United States. There's no sales tax for residents outside the state of Florida and shipping is included to the continental U.S. We can ship worldwide, click HERE to contact us for a shipping quote.

#4. Our mounts work with both the IKAN Bowler and IKAN Soccer Guard, enabling users to compete in two sports! Our quality mounts actually reinforce the legrests, especially compared to most existing mounts for power soccer. We have the best power soccer equipment available anywhere. Power soccer is already a popular sport being played lots of places. Click HERE for details.

#5. You've got to see it to believe it -- click HERE for links to two videos and a slideshow on power wheelchair bowling -- it's social, therapeutic, recreational, allows for legitimate competition, and it's a whole lot of FUN! :-)

Sincerely,

Bill Miller :-)
C1-2 Quadriplegic with a 202 High Bowling Game
Co-founder of Manufacturing Genuine Thrills Inc. d/b/a MGT
Business website: http://www.ikanbowler.com/
Personal website: http://www.lookmomnohands.net/

Introduction -- emPOWERing Wheelchair Users! :-)

Welcome to my blog! :-)

I'll cut to the chase -- this blog will illuminate how power wheelchair users are getting back in the game of life.

I'm one such power wheelchair user.

My name is Bill Miller; I'm a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic due to a spinal cord injury incurred August 23rd, 1997. I'm diagnosed as a C1-2 (complete) quadriplegic -- and I have a legitimate 202 high bowling game.

Several years ago, I wanted to get back in the game of life, but there really was no way, no sport or recreational endeavor that I could actively participate in. But I can operate my power wheelchair independently (with my mouth) via what's called a sip-and-puff system (I'm paralyzed from the neck down). My Stepmom saw how well I could drive my wheelchair, and absolutely knew there must be some way that I could bowl, using my chair.

She eventually got me together with a retired engineer named Claude Giguere (pronounced: G-gair). The two of us got together and invented a really cool way for me to bowl, and if someone who is completely paralyzed from the neck down (like me) can bowl -- shouldn't virtually any wheelchair user also be able to bowl?

That idea -- and the genuine desire to improve the quality of life for people whose bodies require them to use power wheelchairs -- is now embodied in a company called Manufacturing Genuine Thrills, Inc. doing business as MGT (for short). That first strike is a genuine thrill. The name for the bowling device comes from a Greek word, ikano, meaning enable. What enables me and can enable virtually all power wheelchair users to bowl is the IKAN Bowler®.

Wheelchair users: IKAN? Yes You Can! :-)

When developing the IKAN Bowler (which really started back in 2003) another sport for power wheelchair users was starting to blossom -- power soccer -- which is already pretty popular. But after doing some research, we learned from power soccer players that the only commercial soccer guard (a 3-sided shield that protects the user's legs and enables him or her to push an extra-large soccer ball) available, that using it occasionally resulted in damage to their wheelchairs (it used a single clamp to attach the guard to one of the user's legrests, and while there aren't supposed to be any collisions playing power soccer, if one did occur, sometimes the legrest would break off from the wheelchair).

In developing the IKAN Bowler, by far the most challenging aspect was developing an easy, quality mounting system that could fit multiple styles of wheelchair. We developed (and have a patent pending on) a Universal Mount that will work on every wheelchair with two side legrests (not power-elevating legrests, users with those can get a set of standard legrests to use for bowling/soccer; we also have a mount that accommodates chairs with the new center-post style legrests). So we developed the IKAN Soccer Guard to work with our Universal Mount (it also works with the center-post mount). The quality two-clamp system is able to withstand any reasonable collision. We repeatedly rammed a brick wall with the IKAN Soccer Guard and Universal Mount attached to a manual wheelchair (used for testing purposes) and we couldn't break the guard or the legrests. True story. (The center-post style is even more crash resistant.)

The beauty of our mounts is that with the IKAN Bowler attachment and the IKAN Soccer Guard attachment, people can do two sports (not at the same time, of course:). We're quite proud to be able to offer the ability to play two sports to people with significant physical disabilities that require the use of power wheelchairs -- including people with Cerebral Palsy, Muscular Dystrophy, Spina Bifida, Spinal Cord Injuries, Quadriplegia, Multiple Sclerosis and more.

Medical experts and IKAN Users have said using our products is fun, social, therapeutic, competitive, and recreational.

The world record holder for bowling by a quadriplegic is Jon Musgrave, a C4-5 quad due to a spinal cord injury in 1991. Jon bowls anywhere from 3-5 days a week, and bowled an amazing 243. He said: "Who could have thought that one thing could change a person's life so much. I have something that I'm good at to look forward to enjoying every day; something I can share with my family and fiends. I can tell you this for sure, my life has not been the same since I got my IKAN Bowler®."

That's how we're getting power wheelchair users back in the game of life.

With this blog, I plan to tell you more about Jon, and others like Jon. I want to profile people who think life is better with the IKAN Bowler. I'll bring some IKAN Soccer Guard news here also, but our primary product is the IKAN Bowler. There is no other assistive bowling device that enables users to mimic the able-bodied bowling process, i.e. setup, begin the approach and release the ball upon reaching the foul line.

The IKAN Bowler attaches to the user's wheelchair. A caddy places the ball atop the IKAN Bowler, as the user instructs (how the finger holes are positioned determines the shape of the shot). The user's knowledge of the ball, plus where the user sets up, then drives forward, turning the chair slightly left and right (aiming the shot) as necessary when approaching the foul line, and finally braking the wheelchair which sends the ball down the IKAN Bowler -- that is what determines how well we bowl.

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) declared that process and the IKAN Bowler acceptable for league play -- any league anywhere in the U.S. -- sanctioning it for competition with and against able-bodied bowlers or IKAN Users.

Ok, that sets the foundation for this blog. I'll be back soon with the first profile and story about an IKAN User. I am also in school via the University of Florida's online business program (bachelor's degree) which takes up quite a bit of time, but I'll have at least one blog entry each month.

Our IKAN products are available right now for shipping anywhere in the world (shipping to the continental United States is included in the price, but we can ship anywhere).

Anyone who may be interested, ABSOLUTELY MUST READ my next post about a PRICE BREAK on our products (click HERE!:).

Thank you very much for your interest! :-)

Sincerely,

Bill Miller :-)
C1-2 Quadriplegic with a 202 High Game
Co-founder of Manufacturing Genuine Thrills Inc. d/b/a MGT
Business website: http://www.IkanBowler.com
Personal website: http://www.LookMomNoHands.net
Blogger: emPOWERing Wheelchair Users!