BOWLING

Better bowling - assorted

By Learnzat.com

Bowling is a pretty simple game. There are ten pins and you knock them down throwing two balls per frame. A frame is one or two balls, depending on what happens on your first shot, excluding the tenth when you can throw three balls. So, that's ten frames of one or two shots.

There are ten frames in a game with one exception. If you get a strike or a spare in the tenth frame, you get another shot. So, up to three shots can be thrown in the tenth frame of a game. Also, if you get a spare, you get one extra shot (you have already thrown the ball twice this frame), but if you get a strike, you get two extra balls, thus you get three balls in the tenth frame if you get a strike or a spare.

Spares, Strikes, Opens and Splits, are the intrinsic results of throwing the ball down the lane. A spare is when you get all ten pins down on two balls in the same frame. A strike is when you get all ten pins down on the first ball. An open is when you do not get all ten pins down on two balls in the same frame. When you pick up a spare, it means you were able to knock over the rest of the pins on the second ball in the frame (you never pick up a strike).

A split is a bit more complicated. A split is when you have at least two pins left standing that are separated by where another pin would have been. Therefore, if you leave the 4 and 5 pins (the 4 - 5 split), you would have a split. The most awful of the splits is the 7 - 10 split. These are the two pins that are farthest from each other and are nearly impossible to hit.

A foul occurs any time after the ball leaves the player's hand and passes over the foul line, if the bowler permits his foot, hand, arm, or any other part of his body to touch the alley, division boards, gutters, uprights or walls that are beyond the foul line.

The customary bowling pins that most people think of are the kind used in the game of tenpins. When pins are knocked over or displaced by a ball, which leaves the alley before reaching the pins or from a ball rebounding from the rear cushion, they do not count and should be re-spotted right away. A tenpin bowling pin generally weighs 3 pounds 6 ounces. Although, as of 1998, the American Bowling Congress passed a rule, which allows tenpin bowling pins to weigh 3 pounds and 10 ounces. Another interesting fact about bowling pins is that they are made out of hard rock maple wood. The general form is glued together and then it is turned on a lathe to give it its unique shape. After that, each bowling pin is covered in a plastic material and painted. It is then given a glossy finish.

The regulations of the game are the responsibility of the American Bowling Congress, which is doing the endless job of standardizing the game to a point where bowlers all over the country play on the same basis.

Here are some important regulations: Your ball weighs no more than 16 pounds or less than 10 pounds. The circumference of the ball is 27 inches, and the diameter of the ball is 8.59 inches. Tenpins are 15 inches in length, and must weigh at least 2 pounds, 14 ounces, but not more than 3 pounds, 10 ounces. The design of all pins is clearly approved by the ABC. The size of a lane is 60 feet from the foul line to the headpin. The width of the normal lane is 42 inches, and the length of the normal lane approach is 16 feet from the foul line to the back edge.

All these regulations have evolved over a period of years, with only slight changes made recently. You don't need to know every aspect of the official rules but it is necessary to know what will precisely affect your game.