What people say is the most boringest sport to watch besides golf and cricket is one of the most enjoyable sports to play. It requires no physical skill nor any play making or any of the sort. It’s a game of the mind and a lot of math and science.
Bowling has been around for years and is played on almost every continent that has the necessary facilities. Otherwise a boulder and 10 Pepsi 2L Bottles acting as pins is quite alright. Who would throw something at a Coke?
Bowling involves a spherical ball that range between 8 and 16 lbs. The different weights are to accomodate the different weight of each player and which they feel comfortable in playing in.
How to Play Bowling
There are 10 pins setup :
X X X X
X X X
X X
X
What you do is throw the ball straight down a lane in order to knock down as many pins as you can. The more you hit, the more points you get and bonus points you can get with consecutive knockdowns.
When you knock down all the pins, it is called a strike. When you knock down some of them, you get a second shot to pick up the spare. If you can’t get the spare, it means you really suck! Just kidding, it just means that you cannot get extra points if your next shot is a spare or strike.
There are 10 frames in a game of bowling. The top score you can is 300; so basically 30 points per frame. You can only get 30 points in a frame if you get 3 strikes in a row .... in which you get what is called A TURKEY.
In some other countries, they use rabbits feet and horseshoes, but in North America, the turkey is the ultimate 3 strike symbol.
There are different ways to throw the ball. You can either throw the ball straight down the lane or you can curve the ball so that it rides the gutter and upon reaching the final moment to hit, it’ll curve in on the most successful angle to get a strike. After my wrist injury (See my basketball review for full details), I am unable to curve a ball anymore because the pain is absolutely excruciating.
You can play at any bowling alley for about $2-$3 per game and a low cost shoe rental of $1.
Overall Thoughts ...
The game is great for a bunch of friends for a Friday night at an alley when the lane lights are on and the rest of the alley is pitch black with the sounds of some nice house or techno music. The music will help you relax and throw a smooth ball and concentrate better. I recommend the game to anyone!