Duckpin Bowling

When I was a kid we would go bowling, but it was full-on bowling. Maybe if we were lucky they would put those balloon-like cylinders in the gutters to keep the ball from always going to the same place. We would use the smallest ball we could find, usually a neon colored 6lbs ball with the tiniest finger holes that were still too big.


However, Al has always talked about duckpin bowling. I had never heard of this type of bowling before and it only took us until our oldest was 6 years old to go try it out. So duckpin bowling uses 10 pins, but it uses small balls that fit in your cupped hand and no finger holes...oh, and you get 3 balls per frame rather than 2 and there are permanent rails down the gutters until the last few feet.

The kids were really excited and we arrived while the lanes were still relatively quiet. After Al gave each kid a brief lesson on how to get the ball down the lane we let them loose. Lillee would put the ball on the floor and give it a little push and when it barely moved she would kick it. When she saw this wasn't working she tried Al's suggestion of spreading her legs and rolling it with both hands towards the pins. She ended up with a hurling action that resulted in massive THUDS as the ball fell for being slung 2 feet into the air.



Lillee ALWAYS stood like this after each ball.


Isabel was really excited to bowl and couldn't sit still and wait until her turn. But we did a LOT of waiting during her turns. She could not put much force behind the ball so it took them a long time to make it down the lane. Here is an idea of what it was like:



The exciting release of the ball....




Waiting for the ball to make its way down the lane...




Still waiting.....Three balls per frame. YAWN!


We finally got smart and had her getting multiple balls going at once. She would send down the first ball and go straight to get a second ball and start it before the first was to the pins...here is a shot of what that looks like:



One ball is near the pins while the other is at the bottom of the shot.


Connor was quite good! He was even able to pick up spares. Have you ever wondered why little boys' pants always seem to have no knees?

Connor LOVED sliding on his knees across the slick floor.

Here is an action shot of Al:


I heard so many excuses for why his score was not much higher than Connor's...
1. the lane isn't even
2. the balls all have nicks in them
3. the floor is too slick
you name it, he said it!

We had a great first game and then Al wanted to push for a 2nd game. I warned him this was a bad idea, the kids were melting down the bowling alley was filling up, it was dinner time and almost bed time....BAD idea. But we went one more time and it was suddenly a proven BAD idea.

I held the baby and kept score, I look forward to doing a little duckpin bowling next trip!