Although there is not the need to keep score manually in bowling like there was once upon a time, it is still an important piece of information at all, if you plan to bowl at any level.

 

Bowling is broken down into ten frames. Each frame you can throw a maximum of two balls, except the tenth frame in which you can throw up to three balls.

 

There are three types of frames:

 

1. Open Frame – When all ten pins were not knocked down after both ball were thrown

 

2. Spare Frame – When all ten pins were knocked down after the second ball was thrown

 

3. Strike frame – When all ten pins were knocked down after the first attempt.

 

An open frame is scored by adding the total amount of the pins from that frame.

​

Ex. Five pins were knocked down on first ball, and 3 pins were knocked down on second ball. Your score for that frame would be an 8.

 

A spare frame is scored by adding the total amount of pins from that frame (which will always be 10) plus the number of pins from the next ball thrown in the following frame.

​

Ex. Five pins were knocked down on first ball, five balls were knocked down on second ball. In the next frame, you hit 7 pins on the first try and 2 pins on the second try. For the first frame, you would have 17 pins. For the second frame, you would have 9 pins. Add the two frames together, and you have 26 pins in the 2nd frame.

 

Strike frame is scored by adding the total amount of pins from that frame (which will always be 10) plus the amount of pins from the next two balls thrown.

​

Ex. If you used the example from the spare frame but got a strike instead of a spare, you would have 19 pins in the 1st frame and 9 pins again in the second frame. Your combined score would be a 27.

 

Here is an example of a game with the score for each frame.