Looking for BOWLING? Here's BOWLING information for you!: Learning to Keep Score is Part of Knowing Bowling Rules

Learning to Keep Score is Part of KBy Sean Lannin

Properly tallying of your bowling score is a central element to learning the bowling rules. In the sport of bowling the score is used to determine who won or lost, and therefore knowing how to keep score are basic rules of bowling.

Many people shy away from keeping score thinking it is complicated or difficult, but keep score is as simple as adding up how many pins were knocked down. A player is given two attempts to knock down as many pins as they can each frame. The pins that are knocked down the first attempt are added and recorded, and the same thing happens for the second attempt. Then the score from both attempts are added together.

The score from the first attempt is written in the small space in the top left corner of the box for that specific frame, and the number of pins knocked down on the second attempt is recorded in the small box next to the first score. After both scores are tallied together, this total score is recorded in the large space at the bottom of the box.

So, if a player knocks down a total of 6 pins the first frame and 8 pins in the second frame, they have a total score of 14. Pretty easy, right? Well in bowling they have what is known as bonus scoring and this is what intimidates most people from learning bowling rules. Learning this is simple also, so stick with me...

Bonus scoring happens when all ten pins are knocked down in frame, either on their first ball or with a combination of the first and second ball. Knocking down all 10 pins with the first ball is called a Strike, and is recorded by marking an 'X' for that frame. The points are written down after the players next 2 balls, and the score is tallied by adding the 10 points from the strike and the combined score of the next 2 balls in the frame that the strike was thrown.

A spare is handled similarly. A spare is when a player uses both of their turns in a frame to know down all ten pins. A spare is recorded by marking a '/' in the box for that frame. The bonus scoring for a spare includes adding the 10 pins for the spare plus the score of the next ball.

So the difference between a strike and spare is how the bonus scoring is handled, which are important bowling rules. For a strike, the 10 points for scoring a strike are added to the score of the next two balls, whereas for a spare, only the score of one ball is added.

There is one more wrinkle to properly scoring bowling. In the 10th frame if a person bowls a strike they are given 2 extra balls, and if the roll a spare in the 10th frame they are given 1 extra ball. After all of the scores are recorded they are all added up to determine the total score for the game.

Knowing the bowling rules is important, and learning to keep score is one part of the official bowling rules. It really is easy to learn to keep score, but just takes a little practice. A great way to learn is to have someone that knows how to keep score teach you, after a few frames you will know exactly how to score a game.