Bowling For Beginners

The gang and I have been looking for something new to do. I’ve given up on the whole role-playing DM gig, because it takes all my creativity and most of my time to keep a campaign running, and nobody else will DM. The board game thing is fun, especially with stuff like Zombies!!! and Settlers of Cataan, but as an exclusive social activity it gets kind of old. And the final straw was dropped when one of us decided that he just wasn’t going to go to the movies anymore. Ever. The cost, the rude noisy people, and the poor picture quality have all conspired to make sure he just buys DVDs, but never graces a multiplex again.

So, there we were. A bunch of geeks, looking for something vaguely amusing to do on a Saturday night, batting around ideas without much enthusiasm, when I said “Well, there’s always bowling.”

We ended up at the local lanes just before the Cosmic Bowling mess, and signed up, got the shoes and the balls, and proceeded to have a great time.

Total blast. Fun from beginning to end. Only one of us had bowled much before, and my boyfriend and I had been bowling fewer than five times apiece. We all broke a hundred at one point or another, everybody got enough strikes in to keep things interesting, and everybody gutterballed enough to make everyone else feel somewhat superior.

We talked at length over the inevitable Denny’s appetizers afterwards, and decided that the Cosmic Bowling thing got old really fast; loud, badly amplified music and weak UV added very little to the experience. But we’re all very interested in going again, soon. 'Cause, ya know, it was fun.

Which brings me to my point, at long last. (I like to take a while to get to my points; that way they’re really happy to see me when I arrive.)

I feel vaguely fish-out-of-water-ish in a bowling alley. I’m not sure of the local customs, I’m never sure if I’m about to commit a major social faux pas, and I really have no idea how to bowl. If we’re going to be doing this often, I think we’re going to need some advice. Which is where you, O People of the Dope, come in.

What are the basic do’s and don’t’s of the bowling world? What is the difference between annoying amateurs who you want to see leave the lanes and amateurs you’d like to see stick around? What should we do to improve our games beyond the “imitate what everyone else is doing” stage? How can we keep the cost of this hobby down, so we can do it often? What are the common beginners’ mistakes, and how can we avoid them?

I have no idea how this happened, but I’ve lived almost forty years and never figured out that bowling is fun. Help me make up for lost time with any tips you may have; I’ll be grateful.

My one courtesy tip: don’t bowl your lane at the same time as the people in the lane next to you. You don’t have to wait for them to bowl both balls, of course, just let them throw (is that the right term?), then, as they wait for their ball to return, take your turn.

As for learning to play better, I’m almost positive there’s a Bowling for Dummies book–that would let you get an idea of the right grip, release, how to pick the right weight ball, etc.

Good luck and have fun. And I think I’m going to try to organize a bowling party myself!

While this is covered in myriad places around the 'net, I’ll see what I can remember off the top of my head:

Kallessa is right on about the “right-of-way” courtesy. Where two bowlers are ready at the same time, the one on the right should go first. You’d be surprised at how many people don’t know this. It can be a safety matter as well as a courtesy.

Hold the ball with your thumb at 11 o’clock; this is the easiest effective grip for someone starting out.

Always follow through on your delivery. A good way to remember this is to make a ‘saluting’ motion (minus the actual saluting, mind) upon releasing the ball.

Make sure your body is pointed straight ahead upon releasing the ball.
Cosmic bowling really brings out the ‘salt of the earth’. :wink: Many kids like to throw the ball as it were a basketball down the lane. Some even dare to walk down the lane. I’m sure you’re quite mature enough to not do this, but I’ll say it anyway, for anyone else: The area beyond the foul line is basically hallowed ground. Do not walk beyond the foul line to retrieve a stalled ball, for instance; the personnel take such actions seriously, and will often throw you out before warning you. This is basically because the lanes are slippery and can cause a nasty fall, as well as the fact that the pinsetters/spotters in back aren’t designed like, say, a modern garage door; pinsetters have been known to kill people.

Other than that rather extreme example that I feel I needed to address, there’s not much to fitting in a bowling alley like a pro beyond common courtesy. You might find some good stuff here: www.bowling.com . It’ll give you links to all the nitty-gritty that’s all technical and everything.

Actually, no it won’t. That’s a largely commercial site.

http://www.angelfire.com/nv/bowling/tips.html is a better bet.

Thanks for your help. I actually have been wandering the web in search of bowling tips, and I think I’m going to pick up Bowling for Beginners at some point soon.

Oddly enough, there is no Bowling for Dummies book. Which means that, in this thread, I may have completely redefined the stupid question.

So, MrVisible, just out of curiosity, what were your scores? If you’d rather not disclose this, I understand. I’ve bowled off and on for most of my life, but my average is in the 130-140 range (my all-time high is 193).

To prevent hijacking this thread with people talking about their scores, etc., I just started a thread in MPSIMS for people to post their high scores and discuss their other experiences at the bowling alley. This may help give you a better idea of what to expect if you become a more avid bowler.

How much easier is regular bowling than candlepin? I’ve only ever bowled candlepin (3 frames just yesterday!), and I’ve never once broken 100. Do I just really suck, or is candlepin harder?

dinahmoe: Much easier., so I hear. You’re doing good if you break 100, and I think the highest score bowled is 240, which, you’ll notice, is much lower than the maximum high score of 300, which is bowled all the time in tenpin bowling.

Thanks, I don’t feel so bad about my paltry scores now:)

Let’s see. IIRC, I scored 113 on the first game, and then around 90 for the next three. The more experienced of us (who hasn’t bowled in about nine years) bowled a 130 one game, and over a hundred for the other three. The other two guys wavered between seventies and nineties.

So, we suck, basically. But it was a blast.