Bowling Team Building Activities
Bowling teams can range in size from two bowlers to six. Bowling teams can include people you know, or those you have been paired up with by the league. Once your team is designated, choose activities to help you get to know one another and bond throughout the season. Sharing the ups and downs of the season can make the league enjoyable even for a last-place team.
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Team Shirt Design
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Once you have established a bowling team, choose a team shirt for each member to wear. Work on designing this shirt together. Choose a team name, and then choose a logo that team members agree they would like to have on their shirts. Design the shirt, choosing where the team name, logo and bowler's name will be displayed. Working together on this project builds team spirit early in the season.
Competitions
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Create games for your team to play while bowling that give everyone a chance to win prizes. Consider a poker game. Bring a deck of cards to the bowling alley. Each time a player rolls a strike, he gets two cards. Each time a player rolls a spare she gets one. Extra cards can be awarded for rolling three strikes in a row. Use extra decks if you run out of cards during bowling. At the end of bowling competition, compare the cards each player has. Have each player form his best five-card poker hand from all of his cards with the player with the best five-card hand winning. For prizes, each player can contribute an amount of money per game or the losing players are required to pay for the next pitcher of beer, pizza or other food item the team shares. This will all cultivate a fun, team-based competition.
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Awards
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Create awards, both serious and humorous, to share with your teammates. One could be a small trophy or sticker that the player rolling the most gutter balls in a week receives. Another could be a turkey sticker for any team member that rolls three strikes in a row, a turkey. The player with the highest score from the previous game might have his teammates go to the snack or beverage stand and pick up his order for him. Another award could be given to the player bowling a game highest above his average, who gets to have his ball carried to the car by another player. These small awards allow team members to have fun competing in a good-natured manner.
Be Unique
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Be creative with your competitions. After league games are done for the evening, bowl for fun. Have each player bowl with his non-dominant hand or roll the ball backwards between his legs, as suggested by bowlingdelights.com. Have players bowl with their eyes closed, assuming it is safe. These non-traditional forms of bowling can contribute to team bonding.
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References
- Photo Credit bowling image by Franc Podgor...¡ek from Fotolia.com
