Pictured Is ACE Being Unveiled At This Years USBC Convention. Photo Courtesy Of USBC.
Editors Note: Come 2023, You Will Begin To See This Lane Tool Do Lane Inspections In A Quick Efficent Manner. At A Bowling Center Near You. No Longer Will Associations Across The Country, Be Responsible For Doing Lane Inspections. ACE Was Introduced At The 2022 USBC Convention on Thursday April 28, By Sam Guy. He Is In Charge Of The Lane Certification Department At USBC. Below Is A Conversation Of How ACE Will Work.
By Michael 'Chip' Begg
Managing Editor - thetenpinexpress.com
Director Mesa Metro Association
Las Vegas, NV. - - - Just like when the lane machine was first introduced to bowling proprietors across the country, during the late 60s and early 70s. It was heralded as the inventions of all inventions, when it came to conditioning lanes for league play and tournaments. The spray can, lane applicator, and buffer became almost obsolete overnight. With the press of a button, lanes could now be dressed automatically.
Fast forward to some 56 years later on Thursday April 28, at the 2022 USBC Convention. The next best thing to annual lane inspections, was introduced to the delegation on this afternoon at the Orleans Hotel and Casino. Just like the lane machine, this tool is being heralded as the next best thing to come to bowling. No longer will association lane inspectors have to straddle a lane every 15-feet, with a leveler, to make sure each Pannel is in compliance. The USBC is banking on this tool to be successful, when it makes its debut in 2023. And quite frankly, so are the bowling proprietors nationwide.
"ACE was an idea that USBC started to explore in mid-to-late 2019. It started with us exploring ways to make the inspection process more efficient," said Sam Guy, USBC's lane inspection specifications director. "It was a great feeling to finally introduce the tool to the industry at this year’s USBC Convention. To see the delegate’s response in the room during the demonstration was a great feeling."
ACE is defined as the Automatic Certification Evaluation Tool. Each lane will take about five minutes per lane to be inspected. Before lane inspections take place, lanes will be required to be stripped before the inspections can be completed.
"ACE will be assembled and calibrated on-site prior to each inspection. Once assembled, the inspector engages the lifting mechanism and moves the tool to the desired location," he said, of how the tool functions. "The tool is set in place, and a wireless trigger is activated to send the measurements from each tool to the laptop. Each lane takes about five minutes to complete."
Inspections with ACE will start to take place in January 2023. Lane certifications will be valid for three years. Unless new lanes are installed by the proprietor. Each year approximately a third of the bowling centers in the U.S. will be inspected.
"ACE will allow USBC staff to complete inspections and provide a complete inspection report to our centers on-site," he said, of the process. "The tool and program can give our centers more information about their lanes, and a confidence that all centers are being measured with the same calibrated tools and standard operating procedures across the country."
The fee for the inspection and three-year certification will be $30 a lane. It falls in line with the previous fee of $10 per lane per year. Lane recertifications had to be done before the start of a new season under the old program.
The current version of the tool has been tested since early 2020. While many people were working at home, the research team was utilizing the International Training and Research Center to perform testing of the ACE tool. USBC measured more than 4,000 lanes in 2020 and according to Guy, the tool performed very well.
"ACE has been very accurate. If the hand tools are properly calibrated, they are just as accurate as the digital tools. The ACE tool simply allows us to complete the inspection more efficiently than inspecting a center using hand tools and a clipboard with a paper report," said Guy, of the original performance of the tool. "Each of the digital tools have matched or performed more accurately than their specifications sheets state. We have been very pleased with each tool through all testing phases."
The ACE name was chosen by a group of staff members at USBC. The name is a reference to lane installers and levelers having used playing cards to level lanes in the past. With the roll out of ACE, Guy is hoping for greater consistency with the lane inspection process. And when it comes to those who have wooden lanes in their bowling centers, the inspection process will be the same as for synthetics.
"One person can now inspect a lane in five minutes with the ACE tool. With hand tools, we could complete a lane in about 10-12 minutes to start a center. Though we also became slower and needed to take breaks due to the strain of straddling the lanes or crawling under the pinsetter." he further explained of the new lane inspection process. "The ACE tool removes those physical demands. "Consistency in the process is a key factor in the new program. All official USBC lane inspections will be required to use the ACE tool operated by authorized USBC staff."
Again, unless a proprietor installs new lane panels before the bowling center's lane certification expires. Approximately one third of the bowling centers in the U.S., will be inspected every three years.
"The tiers will be announced once the Equipment Specifications Committee has had a chance to review a sample of data collected from the field under the new process," he said, of when the new lane inspection system will go into effect. "Our goal in 2023 is to inspect a third of the centers in the country. That equates to approximately 1,300 centers and roughly 26,000 lanes. More centers will be inspected in 2023 if time allows."
USBC initially according to Guy, will have four lane inspectors traveling the country to inspect lanes. Training will be done at the USBC headquarters in Dallas/Ft. Worth.
"We plan to launch the program with four inspectors on our team. Inspectors will not have a designated area. Instead, they will each travel as needed and will cover the entire country," said Guy, of the initial process. "When setting the schedule for our inspectors, we will factor in the concentration of centers and lanes around the country and the climate in various parts of the country. It makes more sense to start in the southern part of the United States in January when it’s warmer there, and then migrate north as the year progresses."
Staffing began in May, and anyone interested in joining our team can apply and see the preferred experience at //BOWL.com/Careers.
"Our team here at USBC met with industry stakeholder's multiple times to develop this program, and the program is designed based on the feedback from those meetings," he said, of how the introduction of ACE was rolled out to industry leaders. "We will learn a lot as we launch the program, and we will follow the data and seek feedback on how we can improve."
Depending on how successful ACE is when it is rolled out in 2023. He was then asked if he thinks other companies, such as Kegel, would invent their own version of ACE.
"If this is a topic of interest for our industry partners," he said, of a prototype. "We will be happy to share ideas and feedback with them."
He started bowling at age 6, and from there it became pretty tough to keep him away from a bowling center. When the opportunity opened up for the Center Certification Coordinator position it just seemed like such a great fit. He has always loved bowling and having the opportunity to be a part of the national governing body is not something that presents itself very often. He gets to be around the sport he loves every day, and talk with people around the country who have that same passion. There are days it still doesn’t seem real to him. My game is ok.
"Like most people there are good league nights and not-so-good ones," he said of how his own game has gone the last couple of years. "I grew up helping my dad with his construction business. I just started with seeping sawdust and over time moved to helping him build entire homes from the ground up. He taught me a lot, and he is the person who taught me how to use a level."
Little did he known then, the level would return full circle. And end up being part of his daily job function.
"As I got older, I got into the retail business and moved up through a few companies to manage my own stores," he added. "And have a chance to open new locations. I learned a lot about building a team, building relationships within a new community, and of course customer service. I try to take things I learned at all of these career paths and use them now in this role."
National Bowling News - June 30, 2022