15 Things I’ve Learned About Bowling
I know that some of these are going to sound really dumb, but you have to remember that my friends and I haven’t bowled in years so we’ve forgotten even the most basic details.
Which fingers again? We had to ask the guy maintaining the scoreboards which fingers were put into the three holes. It turns out it’s the thumb, the middle finger, and the ring finger.
How do you hold the ball? At first, we were embarrassed that our lane was between two groups of people who obviously bowled regularly. And then, we realized it was an advantage because we can observe them unobtrusively to get tips on how to go about the whole thing.
So, after inserting the three fingers into the holes, we noted that the bowlers put the ball right in front of their chests.
And then what? And then, they took some steps to gain momentum before swinging their arm and releasing the ball. We tried to mimic them in our own inept way.
What’s a round? The electronic scoreboard proved to be a non-human tutor as it highlighted the person’s name whose turn it was to bowl. And, apparently, each person has two attempts to make the pins (one of two technical terms I remember) go down, and, according to the cashier, each attempt is called a round.
What happens if all the pins go down? Ah ha! The famous strike (the second technical term I remember) occurred, one of my own doing, which I humbly attribute to beginner’s luck (because it never happened again).
My friend made all the pins go down after two rounds (I forgot to ask what that’s called). The problem was we didn’t understand why the scoreboard still kept highlighting my friend’s name when it was obviously the next person’s turn. I mean, what else was she supposed to hit? All the pins went down already. So we ignored it. Then we figured out that she was supposed to get a bonus frame, which, I already did for her. So I just rolled the ball again.
What’s the little boxes for? And, the boxes upon boxes that littered the score sheet were just so confusing. My friend, the professor of accounting, figured out the scoring from our electronic friend, and explained to me the procedure of how each of the two rounds was recorded in the little box, whose grand total was written in the big box, and how if I scored a strike, it was added to two frames.
What’s a frame? Each big box in the score sheet represented a frame, and each game has 10 frames.
What’s a game? Or, to look at it another way, a game is composed of ten frames, each frame entitling the player two rounds, the grand total of which is added, and is now officially your score for 1 game.
How much is it? In Megamall’s bowling lanes, a game is Php 80, which can go lower during the off-peak time, i.e., Mondays to Thursdays, unless it’s a holiday.
How many games are played on the average? According to the cashier, each person plays 3-4 games/hour.
Why do my fingers hurt? It’s a good idea to bring padded band-aids because the friction between your fingers and the ball’s holes start to chafe the skin. However, the band-aids may go with the ball, as what happened with my friend. The good news is we were able to retrieve the said band-aid.
Can we wear rubber shoes? Although we were told that we have to rent the bowling shoes at Php 25, we saw several players wearing rubber shoes, so I’m not really sure what’s the real deal.
How old are the shoes? I asked the shoes person how old were the shoes and he said they’re new. When I pressed him when did they get the shoes, it was to learn that it was a year ago, which, it seems, is defined in his mind as still being new.
Are the shoes cleaned? Each pair is cleaned with a decontaminating spray after it is returned, and then sprayed a second time at the end of the day. It is, therefore, imperative, that one brings socks for the bowling shoes, and another pair for your own shoes to avoid cross-contamination (or am I being paranoid here?).
Why is bowling popular? I’ve sorta figured out why bowling is popular. First, although it is a physical sport, there’s more than enough time to recover in between frames, especially if there’s a lot of players. And, secondly, from what I’ve gathered, it’s usually played as a group game, so the pressure to score highly is not that great, as long as all the good bowlers are spread out among the teams.
After this, I feel confident enough to accept an invite to a bowling get-together (I just have to warn them that my average is 5-6 pins/frame).
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