Tips for Beginning Bowling

Series Summary

Bowling is an ancient game that is a professional and amateur sport in today’s culture. Believed to have originated in Germany, the main object of bowling is to knock down as many pins as possible with a weighted bowling ball. American ten-pin bowling is the most common type of bowling among competitors and pros. There are many other types of indoor and outdoor bowling including nine-pin skittles, candlepin bowling, cocked-hat bowling, Bocce, and lawn bowls. In most forms of bowling, the bowler rolls the bowling ball towards the pins down a lane that is guarded by a gutter on either side. Each frame of scoring allows the player two balls or two tries to knock down the pins. If the player knocks down all the pins in the first try, it is called a strike. If the player knocks down all of the pins in the first frame with the use of both balls, this is called a spare.

If you are just beginning to play this sport, it can seem a little daunting. There is a lot to remember as you walk up to that bowling lane. However, all the experts agree that the secret to bowling is to bowl, bowl, and bowl! In this free video series, our expert, Jim DeYoung, shows you everything you need to know to begin bowling. Learn the rules of bowling. Jim shows you how to grip, throw, and aim a bowling ball. He also shows you balancing tricks. Learn how to keep score and bowl with handicap scoring. So, if you are thinking of trying a sport that's a lot of fun and a good workout, learn how to bowl today!

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Jim Young. I am here in FatCat, Salt Lake City, Utah. You can see us on the web, FatCatsFun.com. I'm here on behalf of ExpertVillage.com. Today we are going to be going over some things. We are going to be going over the basics of bowling. We'll be going over bowling balls, your equipment, shoes, everything on that much. We'll also throw a couple balls. I'll show you how to the lane. I'll also show you how to pick a mark. There's arrows and dots out here on the lane that you use for your marks. And then also down here on the lane there's also some dots as well that you can use to adjust to the shot. Right now I am going to; I brought all my bowling balls. I have six different ones as you can see. This is a basic bowling ball that you would probably want to start off with. It's a Storm bowling ball hit. It's only a three part ball. Inside there is nothing inside to help it hook, spin, or put revolutions on it. It's basically a plastic ball with the reactive resin cover stuff on it. So this is one of the good balls that you would like to start out with. This is an older ball so it's going to be hard to find. The ball that you would like to come out with that's out right now is an Ebonite Tornado. It's the same basic ball it's just made by a different company. I've got the Ebonite MVS. This is one of the most aggressive balls that are out there right now. This bowling ball will hook up to probably about 35 boards. We will go over the boards in a little bit, about the arrows and the dots. I have a Storm Tracfecta, X-factor Tracfecta. This is a ball that I would use probably on a lane that's not as fast, not as oily, sorry. This one is a Storm, Tropical Storm. It hooks about just as much as the Tracfecta. But I use it on a lighter oil pattern. And then I've got an older Columbia 300 Messenger, Orange Messenger. That one is a 16 pound ball. I like to switch off 15 to 16 sometimes depends on how the carry down is and the pins are going. And this is a Mistik. Basically I use this ball just as a dry lane ball. When the lanes carry down and the oil starts to spread down more towards the pins I like to throw this one because it's got good back-end reaction."