The moment I was thrilled with the Taegeuk mark on my chest, my elbows tingled. It was a relationship with a 15-pound (about 6.8 kg) urethane ball that I thought was over.
He is 1m80 tall and has broad shoulders. Park Geun-woo (33, Team MK Gloria) is the owner of strength that suits his body type.
The average velocity of male professional bowlers is about 25 km per hour. The number of revolutions per minute (RPM) is about 350. Park Geun-woo is different. It shows unrivaled pin action with intense power bowling with a maximum RPM of 495 times at a speed of 29 km per hour. He is also unique in that he is a left-handed bowler, which is still rare.
He monopolized the 2022 Korea Professional Bowling Association (KPBA) prize money rankings and points rankings, and even won the MVP. This is thanks to the fact that he showed off a sense of stability regardless of the bowling alley environment or situation based on his overflowing strength.
His journey to the top was not smooth. He fell in love with bowling when he was 11 years old, starting out with his parents out of the blue. It was solid as his unique basic skills were added to his innate strength. He ran through the national team through the youth representative without hesitation.
But he hit a wall. It was an elbow injury that came to him ahead of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.
Bowling is not an Olympic sport. This is why the weight of the Asian Games is unique. The doctor recommended rest for at least a year, but Park Geun-woo caught the bowling ball again after 3 months. However, the dream of the Asian Games, which had come close to my nose, was frustrated and the wandering began. Park Geun-woo said goodbye to his beloved 60-foot (18.29m) lane and chose to enlist in the military.
As a player, he fell in love with darts, which he enjoyed as a hobby. The blood of the winner, who even carried his Taegeuk mark, was also valid in the darts world. After being discharged from the military, he won the championship in a pro tournament four days later, and thus began his life as a darts pro that lasted for over three years.
“My friends and seniors and juniors are all bowlers, so there were many occasions when I cheered them on. I made a hypnotic promise several times, ‘You are no longer a bowler. “온라인바카라
Returning to bowling in 2019, he chose to turn pro instead of the National Sports Festival. He had a desire to forget his trauma and challenge a completely new stage. In particular, what Park Geun-woo paid attention to was the unique system of professional bowling called ‘one-player system’.
“When I was an amateur, there were managers and coaches. They saw patterns and I focused on rolling exactly as instructed. But there is no such thing in professional bowling. I’m not good at ceremonies or provocations out of fear of becoming a burden, but pros aren’t like that. That’s why the stadium atmosphere is very different. Unemployment runs with the National Sports Festival every year, but pros are fiercely competitive in every competition held 2-3 times a month. There is.”
Around the time Park Geun-woo finished adapting to the professional stage and showed off his full-fledged skills, he encountered a super bad news called Corona 19. It was a huge crisis for Pro Bowling, which was founded in 1995. He dreamed of a revival by holding six competitions in 2021, and Park Geun-woo quenched his thirst by winning his first professional championship in the Sangju Dried Persimmon Cup. He also won the rookie award.
This understanding gained further momentum after his marriage in December. In 2022, when 33 competitions were held, if you only participated, it was a mess until the final stage. He won 2 championships (Yeongwol Cup and Yangsan Cup) and 3 runner-ups, and was honored with MVP at the year-end awards ceremony.
Park Geun-woo’s wife is known in the bowling world as a ‘bowling club’ with outstanding skills like her husband. However, Park Geun-woo laughed and said, “There is a misunderstanding.”
“Actually, I met while playing darts. He didn’t know anything about bowling, but I started dating while preparing for the pro test. I kept dating at bowling alleys… I wonder if it’s similar in terms of a sport that deals with the senses at the fingertips, and my wife can enjoy it too. I won my first championship three days before the wedding, so I went to the wedding with the championship trophy.”
33 years old this year. This age can be a turning point for professional athletes. Even on the day of the interview, Park Geun-woo said, “The opening is imminent,” and he was busy adjusting his diet and weight. He says he rarely drinks alcohol.
The 2023 season of professional bowling will begin with the MK HC Cup held at Mind Bowling Alley in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi-do on the 12th. Park Geun-woo smiled broadly, saying, “Please look forward to the new season as well.”