Our Bowling Glossary

If you’re planning on spending time on the lanes, it’s best to get up to scratch with the lingo and understand the most common bowling terms. Once you’ve learnt them all, you won’t only feel like a pro, but you’ll look like one! Below are must-know terms, as well as some weird and wonderful bowling phrases and their definitions.

Arrows

Arrows in are the marks/triangles embedded in the lane to help the player aim when throwing the ball.

Brooklyn

A Brookly strike in bowling is when the ball crosses over to the other side of the head pin, opposite to the side it was thrown. E.g. a right-hander bowls and it hits the headpin from the left side and vice versa.

Clover

A clover refers to scoring four strikes in a row, which is incredibly lucky – just like a four leaf clover!

Conventional grip

A bowling conventional grip is when the ball is held with the fingers placed up the second joint. It can help with accuracy, but isn’t commonly a technique used by more skilled players as its harder to get a hook.

Dutch 200

A Dutch 200 refers to a player consistently alternating between knocking down a spare and then a strike throughout the entire match. This comes to the score of 200 if done correctly!

Foul line

The foul line in bowling is the line across the top of the lane, stepping over it and crossing it during a game can result in no score for that roll.

Frames

Each game consists of 10 frames per player, a frame in bowling consists of two chances/rolls to knock down all the pins.

Gutter

The gutter in bowling is the channel that sits along the sides of the lane and catches the balls when they come off the lane.

Hook

A hook is when the ball is bowled, and it curves towards the pins.

Pocket

The pocket on a bowling lane is the ideal area for a ball to go to get a potential strike and is the place to target to knock down all the pins in the first frame. This is generally between 1 – 3 pins (for right-hand players) and 1 – 2 pins (for left-hand players).

Strike

A strike in bowling is when a player knocks down all 10 pins in the first roll.

Spare

A spare in bowling happens in the second bowl when a player knocks down all the pins remaining from the first bowl.

Split

A split in bowling is when the pins left standing after the first bowl have a gap between them, making it hard to score spare in the second bowl.

Turkey

Turkey in bowling refers to when a player scores three strikes in a row.

There we have it, some of the most common bowling terminology that is used on the lanes here at Zone Bowling! Get the practice in and learn the lingo whilst you bowl, find a venue near you.