
What do you call the middle of a bowling lane?
Common Bowling Lane Terms. Mid-Lane - The middle one third portion of the regulation bowling lane. Pit - Space at the end of the lane where the bowling ball and pins wind up. Range Finders - Two sets of markers embedded in the surface of the lane. One is a set of ten dots seven feet beyond the foul line.
What are the parts of a bowling ball?
1 Pin (element of bowling ball): A usually cylindrical, polyester or urethane stem extending from the top of the core (weight block) to the ball's cover, seen as a colored dot ... 2 Pin action: See pin scatter. 3 Pin carry: The process by which pins are knocked down by direct ball impact and pin scatter. ... More items...
What are the different types of bowling lanes?
Lanes have wood or synthetic surfaces onto which protective lubricating oil is applied in different specified oil patterns that vary ball path characteristics. Common types of pin bowling include ten-pin, candlepin, duckpin, nine-pin, and five-pin bowling. In target bowling, the aim is usually to get the ball as close to a mark as possible.
What are the arrows on the approach on the bowling lanes?
Embedded on the approach are guides or alignment dots which correspond to the bowling arrows and with the pin spots located on the pin deck. Arrows - Sighting targets embedded in the lane about 15 feet beyond the foul line to help players align with a chosen starting position.

What are the sticks in bowling called?
Bowling pins (historically known as skittles or kegels) are the target of the bowling ball in various bowling games including tenpins, five-pins, duckpins and candlepins.
What are bumper rails in bowling?
Retractable rails that can be raised directly out of the gutter (patented by Kinzer) are now the most common bumpers seen in bowling centers around the world.
What are the parts of a bowling alley called?
Bowling Lane ComponentsBowling Lane Parts.The Lane.The Gutters.The Foul Line.Lane Arrows.
What are the terms used in bowling?
Spare – Picking up a spare is knocking down all remaining pins on a bowler's second throw. Double – If you get two strikes in a row, you've just made yourself a double. Turkey – Three strikes in a row is a turkey. Badger – Once you've made a turkey, next up is a badger.
What are blockers in bowling?
Looking to take the gutter ball out of the game of bowling entirely? With the help of blockers known as bumpers on each side of the lane, bowling can be a fun activity for players both young and old.
What is the bowling aid for kids called?
Ramps allow everyone to participate The ramps are used to encourage anyone — regardless of any physical limitations — that they are capable and welcome to bowl in our lanes whenever they please. These animal-shaped ramps provide a way for kids to set the ball up for success.
What are the four parts of a bowling lane?
The first 20 feet of the lane is called the head or the front-end. This is where most of the oil is applied. The next 20 feet is called the mid-lane, where there is still oil, but it is significantly less than what was applied in the head. Finally, the last 20 feet of the lane is called the back-end.
What is 7 strikes in a row called?
7 strikes: seven bagger or front seven. 8 strikes: eight bagger or front eight. 9 strikes: nine bagger or front nine.
What is 5 strikes in a row called?
Two strikes in a row are called a double, three strikes in a row are called a Turkey, while four and five strikes in a row are called four/five-bagger(s) and so on and so forth. A strike is commonly indicated with an “X”.
What is a frame in bowling?
A game of bowling consists of ten frames. In each frame, the bowler will have two chances to knock down as many pins as possible with their bowling ball. In games with more than one bowler, as is common, every bowler will take their frame in a predetermined order before the next frame begins.
How do you put the bumpers up in bowling?
Bumpers are being placed on both sides of the bowling lane, fencing off the gutter. This way your ball doesn't swerve into the gutter time after time. Bowling certainly come a long way since its origin.
How do you get the rails up in bowling?
Simply stated, the bumpers come up when the next bowler has chosen to use the bumpers and the bumpers stay up until the next bowler who has selected not to use bumper bowling is up to play at which time the bumpers move back down.
When were bumpers in bowling invented?
1982“It's like learning the game of baseball without experiencing the pain of striking out,” said Philip Kinzer, who is credited with developing bumper bowling in 1982 at his Jupiter Lanes Bowling Center in Dallas.
Who invented bumper bowling?
Phil KinzerIn order to fix this, Phil Kinzer invented the concept of "bumper bowling," in which something keeps balls from getting into the gutters.
What year was the bowling glossary?
An 1892 glossary of bowling terms from a publication of Spalding's Athletic Library.
What is alignment in bowling?
Alignment is usually expressed in terms of board number and arrow number, for example, "standing at (board) 25, sliding at 20, looking at the second arrow". Anchor: In league play, the person bowling last: usually the bowler with the highest average or the best performer under pressure.
How many pins are in a rack?
Rack: A full set of ten pins, either in the pinsetter or after being placed onto the pin deck.
What is a 180 pinsetter?
180: A pinsetter malfunction in which the sweep bar is stuck at the back of the lane, halfway through a pinsetter cycle.
What is balance hole?
Balance hole: A hole drilled into a bowling ball into which a finger is not inserted. The hole, originally meant to correct static imbalance, has also been used to change the ball's intended dynamics and was banned in competition by USBC effective August 1, 2020. Also called a weight hole.
Why are bowlers matched?
Bowlers are said to be matched up when they optimize their release ratio —ratio of a ball's speed and rev rate at time of release— so that the ball achieves full traction immediately before contacting the pins to maximize the useful energy of impact.
What is a back up ball?
Back-up ball: A ball thrown with a right-handed release that hooks left to right, or thrown with a left-handed release that hooks right to left.
How Do You Win at Bumper Bowling?
Bumper bowling is similar to regular bowling in that you must throw the bowling ball and attempt to hit all ten pins. The main difference is that bumper bowling has no gutters, so you have a better chance of hitting at least one pin. In addition, bumper bowling balls are lighter than standard bowling balls.
How Do You Turn On a Bowling Bumper?
When you first walk into the bowling alley, you can ask for bumpers. It’s possible that the bumpers are already in place, but you can ask for them to be fitted if they aren’t currently there.
What are the different types of bowling?
This article is about bowling in general. For specific types of bowling, see Ten-pin bowling, Duckpin bowling, Candlepin bowling, Nine-pin bowling, and Five-pin bowling. For other uses, see Bowling (disambiguation).
How much does a bowling pin weigh?
Ten-pin bowling pins are the largest and heaviest, weighing 3 lb 6 oz ( 1.5 kg).
How many pins did Martin Luther have?
Protestant Reformation founder Martin Luther set the number of pins (which varied from 3 to 17) at nine. He had a bowling lane built next to his home for his children, sometimes rolling a ball himself.
Why did Indiana have ten pin bowling alleys?
An 1838 Indiana newspaper describes how ten-pin bowling alleys were constructed to evade a Baltimore statute prohibiting nine-pin bowling.
What is the sport of bowling?
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term bowling usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling ), though in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries, bowling could also refer to target bowling, such as lawn bowls .
How many people play bowling?
Lawn bowls, bocce, carpet bowls, pétanque, and boules may have both indoor and outdoor varieties. Bowling is played by 100 million people in more than 90 countries (including 70 million in the United States alone), and is the subject of video games.
What is the goal of pin bowling?
In pin bowling, the goal is to knock over pins on a long playing surface known as a lane. A strike is achieved when all the pins are knocked down on the first roll, and a spare is achieved if all the pins are knocked over on a second roll.
What is pocket hit?
A pocket hit when the headpin is barely touched by the bowling ball .
What is the angle at which the finger holes in the bowling ball are drilled?
The area at the opposite end of the lane from the approach where the pins and bowling balls end up after a roll. The angle at which the finger holes in the bowling ball is drilled. For right handed bowlers, it is the 1-3 pins, for left handed bowlers, it is the 1-2 pins.
What is a 1-2 pocket bowling ball?
A lane that resists any hooking action of a bowling ball. For right handed bowlers, this is the 1-3 pocket; for left handed bowlers, this is the 1-2 pocket. A bowling ball that breaks to the left for the right handed bowler and breaks right for the left handed bowler. A lane where the bowling ball hooks very easily.
What is a high board in bowling?
A roll of the bowl that hits the headpin dead on. High board. One or more boards in the lane that expands or contracts due to atmospheric conditions. This results in a bowling ball taking a different track because some boards may be high while others are low.
What is the outer layer of a bowling ball?
The number of pins that are knocked down on the first ball of each frame. Coverstock. This is the outer most layer of a bowling ball and the part we can actually touch on a bowling ball. Currently, there are 4 different types of coverstocks. They are plastic, urethane, reactive resin, and particle.
What is a bowling lanes?
When the first ball is rolled on a frame and all the pins go down except one. Bowling lanes are made up of strips of wood or synthetic wood called board s. Usually, they are called out according to number of boards away from the left side or right side.
Which side of the headpin do left handed bowlers strike from?
Right-handed bowlers would strike from the left side of the headpin and left-handed bowlers would strike from the right of the headpin. Broom ball. When the bowling ball hits the pocket in such a way that it mimics the sweeping action of a broom. Bucket.
Overview
B
• Baby Split: A split that can be converted by hitting both pins with the ball. Examples: 3—10, 2—7, 4—5.
• Back _#_: A number, _#_, of consecutive strikes ending with the final roll of a game. For example, a player rolling strikes in the seventh, eighth and ninth frames plus three more in the tenth frame is said to have the "back six". Compare: front #_.
Numerical
• 180: A pinsetter malfunction in which the sweep bar is stuck at the back of the lane, halfway through a pinsetter cycle.
• 270: A pinsetter malfunction in which the pin sweep is stuck at the front of the pin deck and the setter is unable to lower the next set of pins. In some bowling establishments, this malfunction is incorrectly referred to as 180.
Symbols
• X: Symbol for strike.
• / (slash): Symbol for spare.
A
• ABC: American Bowling Congress, the first enduring standards and rules governing organization for ten-pin bowling in the United States, formed in September 1895 and merged in 2005 with other organizations to form the United States Bowling Congress (USBC).
• Abralon (pad): An abrasion technology product used to "sand" ball coverstocks with different grits (degrees of roughn…
C
• Carry: See pin carry.
• Carry-down: Process by which balls, having picked up oil from the oil pattern, deposit it in the normally-dry back end to cause subsequently-rolled balls to "slide" and thus extend their length before hooking. Carry-down is one aspect of lane transition. Distinguish: breakdown.
D
• Dead wood: A pin left on the lane or in the channel out of reach of the sweeper.
• Deck: See pin deck.
• Deck (table) jam: A pinsetter malfunction in which the pinsetter is stuck and pins fall out of it.
E
• Early timing: A delivery in which the ball is released before the sliding foot slides. Compare: late timing.
• Emergency service (UK): Knocking down 9 pins in three successive frames—a reference to the "999" emergency telephone number in the U.K.
• End over end: A release that imparts more forward roll on a bowling ball, as opposed to side roll. See axis rotation.