Tips for Bowling - Beginners Bowling Guide to Consistent Strikes and Spares

Bowling strikes and cleaning up spares require that you concentrate and relax throughout your bowling motions. In case you don't know yet, a strike is when you knock down all ten pins on your first attempt. A spare is when you knock down all ten pins over the course of your two attempts. It is very hard to score points in bowling when you fail to at least get a spare.

The first step to good bowling is learning to recognize the condition of the bowling lane. You need to take note of whether the lane is oily, with balls sliding a lot, or dry, with balls mostly rolling. Neither one of them is any easier than the other, but you do need to realize which you are dealing with.

Always visualize yourself bowling the strike or spare before you make an attempt. You want to then go out and make your attempt just like you visualized, so it is important that your visualized attempt included a smooth motion and a proper release. After proper visualization, you just go out and do what you visualized. A benefit to visualizing this way is that you are always making your attempts at strikes and spares with a clear plan in mind of how the ball will travel and how you will hit the pins. The biggest mistake a new bowler can make is just trying to toss a bowling ball down the center of the lane and hoping it hits something, without any specific goal in mind.

It used to be the hardest part of learning how to bowl was keeping score. It is truly a complex game to learn how to score in the beginning, but fortunately nearly all bowling alleys now feature computers that calculate your scores for you. The important thing to remember is that you get a lot of bonus points beyond the number of pins you hit when you hit consecutive strikes. You want to at least get spares when you can't get strikes or you could find yourself ending with a double digit score. You might note someone calling you a turkey or a chicken during the game. Don't worry, those are compliments in bowling. A turkey is three strikes in a row, while a chicken is three spares in a row.

Beginners should really concentrate more on learning to throw the ball straight. Spins are more for the professionals, and you can hurt yourself twisting your wrist instead of your fingers. It isn't unusual for a beginner to score in the triple digits by simply throwing a plastic ball straight towards the pins of choice. This is particularly true when trying to clean up with a spare. The best part of a plastic ball that travels straight is that the type of surface doesn't need to be gaged and calibrated in order to bowl straight. You can always learn how to play with hooks after you are consistently a triple digit bowler, but the straight shots will still serve you well.