If you want to be a great bowler, then you have to talk the talk! Do you know the meaning of all of these common bowling terms? Check out our list and sound like a pro next time you bowl!
- Picket Fence – These are spares consisting of the 1-2-4-7 or the 1-3-6-10 pins.
- Punch Out – A punch out is when a bowler finishes a game with any number of consecutive strikes.
- Scratch – In tournaments, scratch is the actual score a bowler earns before the handicap is tallied.
- Six Pack – As the name implies, this is simply 6 strikes in a row.
- Sleeper – Sleeper pins sit behind other pins, making them hard to see. For example, look at the 2-8 and 1-5 pins.
- Span – This is the distance between the finger and thumb holes on a bowling ball.
- Spot Bowling – This is a bowling method which utilizes the dots and arrows on the lane rather than the pins. In spot bowling, you keep your eye on the spots instead of the pins during a throw.
- Tap – Have you ever thrown a “perfect throw” but one pin was still standing for seemingly no reason? That’s a tap.
- Turkey – 3 strikes in a row is a turkey.
- Vacancy – This is often used in league play. This is a standard score used when one team has fewer bowlers than the other. Essentially, it’s the “score” of the “missing” bowler.
Now that you know the lingo, come practice it at our amazing Staten Island bowling alley! Check out our upcoming Staten Island events and Staten Island bowling tournaments and make your plans to visit today.
That’s interesting that having six strikes in a row would be called a six-pack. I knew that three strikes would be called a turkey, but I didn’t know the names would go up to six. I feel like getting a six-pack would be a good goal to work towards when I go bowling with my friends.
The Picket Fence in one article says it is the 7-8-9-10.
This one says 1-2-4-7 or 1-3-6-10