Rich Williams' bowling average isn't important. In fact, he doesn't even bowl in a league.

"Don't ask me about my average - it's what I can do for your average," the longtime bowling coach said.

Williams, 53, lives in Munson Township, Ohio, a small community near Cleveland, and has been a bowling instructor for 20 years. He was at Family Bowlaway in Butler Sunday teaching a Level 1 coaching class to certify youth coaches.

Bowling's governing bodies recently merged to form the U.S. Bowling Congress, and Miller is one of a few USBC instructors to conduct classes nationwide.

"I've done classes from Spokane, Wash., to Rhode Island," he said. "I do a lot of one-on-one instruction around home as well."

Rick Reeder, president of Butler County Youth USBC Bowling, said the increase in young bowlers necessitates more coaches.

"We've got 125 kids in our program in the immediate Butler area alone," Reeder said. "We've got more than 500 throughout the county.

"Rich has been in this region before, particularly Ford City, but it's been years since we've done a class like this in Butler County."

The class ran from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday with about 25 new coaches from bowling houses all over the county in attendance.

The course begins in a classroom setting and ends with instruction on the lanes.

"These people will be dealing with beginning bowlers who have no pre-set habits to break," Williams said. "The coaches I'm working with all bowl without even thinking about it.

"I make them use a house ball and bowl with their opposite hand to give them an idea of what this game is like when it doesn't feel natural or comfortable."

The class covers equipment, how to work the "playing field" (lanes), along with the role and responsibility of the coaches themselves.

Williams shows how to get beginning bowlers to progress from a multi-step, awkward approach to the classic four-step approach.

"I'll have the bowler stand at the foul line and swing the ball from side to side," he said. "Then I'll let him take one step and throw - eventually he'll have the four-step approach down."

Williams said he's had as few as three in a class and as many as 65. He estimates he has trained 3,000 bowling coaches in his lifetime.

Teaching bowling coaches is not his full-time job. Williams is employed by Philips Medical Systems and does most of his bowling work on weekends.

"My wife is my traveling secretary," he said, laughing. "She schedules everything."

Never an avid bowler himself, Williams got into coaching when his children became involved in youth bowling.

"I saw the youth organization needed coaches, I learned and everything went from there," he said.

Two bowlers now on the PBA Tour still come to Williams for instruction. He coaches a 12-year-old who carries an average above 200.

How much can a coach help a bowler? That depends on how much help a bowler wants.

"It varies," Williams said. "Some bowlers want to see me once every two weeks. Other bowlers I work with once and never see them again."

Reeder was happy Williams saw prospective coaches in Butler.

"You have to go through a course like this to become a certified coach," he said. "Rich is very knowledgeable. A lot of people will benefit from this."

Williams teaches classes for all levels of bowling, including the "bronze" level for advanced bowlers. That course lasts three days.

"Bowling seems so simple and basic when you watch it," Williams said. "But it's amazing how technical and precise it actually is."