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Bowling is one of the few lifetime sports, once you learn the game you can play, even at a competitive level if you desire, for the rest of your life. You can play and compete as an individual or as part of a team. Organized leagues, open bowling and tournaments are all available almost anywhere. A player can compete as a scratch bowler, where your raw score counts, or play in handicap events, which allow you to compete with players of all levels fairly.

If you go bowling often then you are definitely familiar with the term strike or spare. For those of you who do not know, you have a strike is when you knock all of your pins down when you throw your first ball. You have a spare if you knock the remaining pins down with your second ball. You have a miss or an open if you have left any pins standing after 2 balls.

One of the greatest feelings when you're a novice bowler is to knock down all the pins. Just watch some very young kids bowl, the ones who just kind of push the ball to get it going, the more pins that go down the more they squeal and jump! With everybody cheering and clapping it's no wonder people want to do it over and over again.

Sometimes it feels like luck but in time it becomes a question of skill. As you gain confidence and skill you will pass many milestones, your first 100 or 200 game, your first 500 or 600 series (set of 3 games bowled in a row), and if you get really good maybe even a 300 game or 700 or 800 series. You can even become a professional if you wish but you have to be dedicated to a lot of practice, then some more practice and when you think you have it, practice some more.

When you start competitive bowling get ready to be in the spotlight. When you have a great score, people will congratulate you, however if you have a bad game, the high fives come to a screeching halt. In order to gain skill and score higher, you should have your own ball, one that is fitted to your hand, you may even want a few balls that react to the lane differently or are more suited to a particular lane condition. Once you get used to your own ball, and learn to deliver it to the pins consistently, you will be able to control your game much better.

A big step toward learning the game may be to take a lesson or two, check with the control desk, you bowling center should have a certified instructor on staff. This instructor should be able to recommend the style of delivery you should try to use, and start you on the road to a consistent stroke. There are three basic styles in currently in use, one or more of them will be right for you.

The first style or technique is the down-and-in The ball is usually thrown from the outside part of the lane, aimed to cross over the first arrow from the gutter (5 board) or the second arrow (10 board) and travel fairly straight to the pocket (this is for a right handed bowler). The pocket is the area exactly between the 1 and 3 pins, and when hit will, in theory, produce a strike. The main characteristics of the down-and-in delivery are; the ball will go fairly straight, with little or no turn, will have medium speed, and will roll generally end over end with little or no side rotation. In order to produce strikes this style demands hitting the pocket with great precision, this demand for accuracy is one of the drawbacks of this style, it is very hard to do consistently, therefore strike production may mot be real high, however bowlers who use this style tend to be very accurate spare shooters.

Next is the stroker, this style is the most common among better league bowlers. Typically this shot will start a little more away from the right gutter, it will be started at a small angle toward the right gutter, aimed to cross over an area roughly between the 7 and 12 boards, and because there more side rotation the ball will move out slightly to the right and then hook back into the pocket area (this is called bellying out). The technique adapts well to different lane conditions and can actually be played from almost any position on the approach. This bowler will tend to have a very smooth delivery, throw the ball with a little more speed, have better ball control, good accuracy, carry more strikes, and be a very accurate spare shooter. Because the ball is hooking back into the pocket with more speed and control it delivers more energy to the pins and does not have to as accurate, this seems to make that pocket bigger. This generally produces more strikes and bigger scores.

Enter the cranker, this is the technique for those of you who really like to really hurt the pins and make them fly. Called the cranker because it is thrown with a lot of speed, a lot of hook, and delivers extreme energy to the pins. You do remember that "there is no free lunch", this is true for this technique, because of the speed and the huge hook, accuracy suffers, if you miss the pocket the result can be a very difficult spare leave, and that lack of accuracy does not help on spare shooting. The best crankers tend to use the stroker or down-and-in techniques for spare shooting. This technique is used by many of the best bowlers, including a lot of the top professionals, however it is very demanding to throw, and your body may pay the price.

It really doesn't matter how you play. Once you've figured out which style best fits you get comfortable with it, practice as much as you can, use it and make as many strikes or spares as possible. And enjoy bowling, this really is a great sport!