Robot vs. Coach – Part 1

Not long ago, Coach Juha Maja wrote an article about technology in bowling and floated the idea of AI as a bowling coach. In this article series, I’m going to put that idea to the test. I’m asking ChatGPT to help me improve my bowling, and I’m comparing its answers to my own knowledge of the game.

What I’m hypothesizing is that for more basic information, AI will be pretty helpful, but for more advanced or nuanced coaching, ChatGPT will fall short of what a real coach can bring. I’ll start with some basics, and then we’ll build from there.

I’m learning how to bowl. Where do I start?

Just to get this out of the way, I wanted to see what ChatGPT would say to a beginner getting started. For the sake of brevity, I’m not going to copy and paste all of the answers. Instead, I’ll address the things that I like about the information that was provided, and I’ll point out some basic flaws in the advice that ChatGPT gave.

The good stuff

ChatGPT’s answer starts by going through the basic objective and scoring system of bowling. I like this a lot, because automatic scoring has created a generation of bowlers who aren’t particularly good at keeping score themselves. While the information isn’t readily applicable, at least it gets you started on the right foot.

Speaking of feet, it recommends that bowlers start with a four-step approach and throw the ball straight “before trying curves or spins.” While that particular phrasing raises the hairs on my neck, I can let that slide. There’s an argument to be made that a five-step approach is the more dominant form of bowling in the modern game, but I really don’t mind that it starts bowlers off with four steps, because that’s often what I’ll do as well when teaching ...