We’ve all heard the saying practice makes perfect. And we all mulled on it for a few seconds and thought well that makes sense. But have we elevated the saying to be the prime directive of sports? Why no we haven’t. This site believes that we should.
Let’s take 5 pin bowling. A so called perfect game is 12 strikes in a row. Only 12 shots. Whereas a person that gets no strikes or spares takes 30 shots. Obviously the person with no strikes or spares gets the most practice. If practice makes perfect, we must somehow elevate them to be the winner. We can’t have the bowler with the least practice winning the game with their show off 450 points. So I suggest we do something different.
The person that gets the most shots is ranked highest. So thirty shots with no strikes or spares is the best. After that we decide by the most points. The best you can do with thirty shots is get 150 points. So after calculating the most shots, then the closest to 150 points, wins.
The bonus of this new bowling is finally I will be able to compete with some of the best bowlers at this game. I suspect they will grandstand and throw two gutter balls each frame so the third has to be a strike. I’ll just plod along and hope I can get close to 150.
With practice makes perfect being the prime directive, games with a goalkeeper like soccer and hockey might now be decided by which team gets the most shots on net. That ought to change things up. In fact they might as well get rid of their goalies. A warning though. The scores may now be almost as high as a basketball game. This has the added bonus of making soccer fun to watch.
Most racing will have to change. For example the fastest car in most races spends the least time on the track. In other words it gets the least practice. So races will have to change to winning by distance. Like Le Mans, the winner will be the car that goes the furthest in a set amount of time. In the case of Le Mans that is 24 hours.
The fastest sprinter in track and field might now measure the distance they run in 10 seconds. The high jump is one of the few sports that would not have to change much. You’d get 3 tries at each height regardless of succeeding. But you would only move on to a higher jump if you were successful in one of your three tries. The highest jumper would have more turns than any other.
Golf would have to do something similar. They would be given a set amount of shots and the player who got through the most holes would be the winner. This way not every golf course in the world would have 18 holes. Par for the course might be set at par for 18 holes. The best golfers might get 21 or 22 holes.
Obviously we have made a world where practice doesn’t make perfect. But if we elevate practice makes perfect to a prime directive of sports, things will change. Some changes will be for the better, like me being able to compete with the best bowlers. Some changes will just be weird.
But, if you’re sick of the same old games with the same outcomes, this new prime directive ought to keep even old pros on their toes.
