BOWLING

Bowling is an indoor sport, very popular especially in North America.
The game consists in knocking down the greatest number of pins, out of a total of 10, with a bowl of variable weight (from a minimum of 6 up to a maximum of 16 pounds, which corresponds to about 7 kg) provided with three holes in the which the thumb, middle and ring fingers must be inserted.

The pins are arranged at the end of the straight lane in a triangle pattern. The correct throwing technique foresees that the shot is carried out by placing the bowl on the palm of the hand facing upwards, the elbow inclined 90° at the height of the side and keeping the forearm stretched and the wrist straight. The starting position is with legs together.
The game takes place on a track specially built in wood or synthetic material and delimited by two "channels" (gutters), no less than 8.89 cm deep; shoes with special soles (in natural leather or suede) must be used, which help to slide up to the edge of the throwing area of the lane (called approach), where the ball is thrown and follows its trajectory up to the pins.

The game is played by a free number of players, in the case of amateur games, over ten rounds. Each round of the game can foresee two situations: the knocking down of all the pins (in this case the term used is strike), or the partial knocking down of the same (in this case one has the right to an additional shot to try to hit the pins remaining, and if this happens the term used is spare).
The maximum score that can be reached is 300, a total given by the sum of 12 consecutive strikes (1 strike in each round for the first 9 rounds, called frames, 3 strikes for the last frame). When you get a spare at the end of the tenth round, you are entitled to a further shot; if, still in the final round, the result of the shot is a strike, the additional shots become two.

Also in Italy we find a fair following of practitioners at a competitive level and like all professional sports it has its own federation, the FISB (Federazione Italiana Sport Bowling) a sports discipline associated with CONI. The competitive circuit is divided into an amateur circuit and a competitive circuit, and the latter is divided into five categories: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and beginners.

The ranking tournaments take place throughout the year.