In the sport known as bowling, a player tries to score by rolling a ball on a surface such as a lawn and either getting close to a target, or knocking down what are known as pins. The numerous indoor and outdoor variations of bowling include Italian Bocce, ten pin bowling, candlepin, and lawn bowling, among others. The origins of bowing date back at least 1700 years, and primitive forms were played in Finland, Yemen, and Germany.

In ten pin bowling, the most popular form in America, the game is divided into ten frames and you have either one or two throws per frame, except for the last one when you may possibly have three. If you hit all tens pins down with the first throw in a frame it’s a strike and that’s the end of throws for that frame, and your score for the next two throws are later added to the ten points, so it is possible to get 30 points in that frame.  If you knock down less than ten pins on the first throw of the frame you get a second throw at the remaining pins, and if you knock them down it’s a spare for 10 points and the end of the frame, but you score could end up as 20 because the score for the next throw is added on. If after your second throw there are still pins left standing, your score is the number knocked down, that’s the end of the frame, and  no points are added in that frame for subsequent throws.  The last frame can consist of three throws because if you throw a strike you get to add the score for two more throws and if you get a spare you add the score from one more.

You can get as much as 300 points with this scoring system by bowling twelve strikes in a row (the ten frames plus the two extra throws in the last one), and the most of the time professionals will bowl a mix of spares and strikes for a total substantially above 200.  Bowlers who are not pros are unlikely to average anywhere near 200 points because they tend to have a number of frames in which pins are left standing. One of several things about bowling that can make watching it an exciting experience is the skill that pros have to still manage to score a spare when their first throw in a frame leaves a split, which is pins left standing in two separate areas. Pros can aim so exactly that frequently they can hit one group of pins in just the right spot so that they fly over to the other side and knock the rest of the pins down. To find out more about bowling, go online to read more articles about this sport.