Equipment

Five pin bowling uses a simple set of equipment

Bowling Shoes

Special footwear is required for a bowler to safely slide on the approach when delivering the ball.

Bowling shoes feature a smooth leather sole that is designed to slide on the specially finished approach of a bowling lane. The heel of bowling shoes is composed of a non-marking rubber that can be used to stop a slide.

Higher end bowling shoes will feature a slider only on the slide foot (left foot for a right handed bowler) while the other foot will be composed of a non-marking rubber.

Bowling shoes are available for rent at all bowling centers. Our rental shoe fleet ranges in size from a toddler 6 to 13, youth 1 to 4, women's 5 to 11 and men's 5 to 16. Some bowling centers offer larger mens sizes, up to size 18 or 19.

Bowling shoes can be purchased for personal use. Bowling shoes generally start at $40 for cost and can go as high as $350. The median is about $55.

Bowling shoes must never be worn outside of a bowling center. The gritty surface of the ground will chew up the soles, taking away the slide. Also, dirt can collect on the soles and scratch the approach. Also, you should never step in any spills or snowmelt when in bowling shoes. Water will swell the leather sole and result in the loss of slide. If the shoes stick on the approach, the risk of injury is significantly elevated. Smokers must remove bowling shoes before proceeding outside to smoke.

Bowling Ball

The bowling ball is a perfectly round sphere. The diameter of the bowling ball can be from 4 3/4 inches to 5 inches. Bowling balls can weigh from 3 pound 6 ounces to 3 pound 10 ounces.

The bowling ball must be consistent in construction and may be composed of a hard rubber, a hard plastic, or a urethane. Bowling balls may be found in a wide range of colors. Most bowling balls come either in one solid color or in a two or three-color random swirl pattern. The bowling center will normally supply from seven to twelve house balls per pair of lanes. They are kept on the ball return. There is no need to choose a ball that fits unlike ten pin.

Bowling balls for five pin can be purchased - usually as a matched pair - at a price of $100 and up. If you purchase a set of bowling balls, they will need to be engraved with an identifying initial for tournament play. Our pro shop can engrave them for you.

It is not wise to store your bowling balls outside of room temperature as they may contract and be non-compliant. If you must store your bowling balls in the car in extreme cold due to work, please allow time for the equipment to reach room temperature before bowling.

Bowling Pin

The bowling pin used in five pin bowling has a height of 12 and 3/8 inches. The maximum diameter at the belly of the pin without the band is 4.188 inches. The pin weighs 2 pounds and 2 ounces without the band. The band around the belly has a maximum diameter of 5 inches and is one inch thick. The band adds 5 1/2 ounces of weight to the pin.

Most bowling centers use a solid state bowling pin that is made from polypropylene. Pins can also be made from maple.

The typical lifespan of a pin band varies from six to 18 months depending on the volume of play in the bowling center. Polypropylene pins have a longer lifespan than maple pins, however polypropylene pins are more difficult to keep clean as dirt sticks more easily to these pins.

Bowling Lane

A bowling lanes measures 62 feet and 10 3/16 inches from the foul line to the pit. It is exactly 60 feet from the foul line to the center axis of the headpin. The lane is 41 1/2 inches wide.

The minimum length of the approach from the flooring of the bowler enclousure area to the foul line is 15 feet.

The gutters at the pin deck are flat, compared to round for the majority of the lane. If a ball is rested on the flat part of the gutter at the pin deck, gravity will feed the ball to the pit.

A bowling lane may be built from wood or synthetic material.

A wooden lane features maple construction for the approach, pin deck, and the first 15 to 25 feet of lane where the ball impacts the lane. The mid section of the lane is made from pine. Wood lanes require focused maintenance to maintain a consistent quality of play. There are three types of common maintenance. Patching is the act of replacing broken boards in the lane. A scrub job consists of stripping old lacquer off the lane to make way for a new coat of lacquer. A resurfacing is a complete sanding of the lanes from approach to pit, resulting in a new flat and level surface. Scrub jobs and resurfacing elevate the fire hazard in a bowling center, thus most centres will close to the public for this work.

A synthetic lane (sometimes called acrylic) is a man-made durable lane surface that has a life span of up to 30 or more years. The installation methods used for synthetic lanes vary by the manufacturer, however most systems use a series of lane panels connected next to each other. The panels are secured to the lane foundation such that in the unlikely event of a failure, the problematic lane panel can be replaced. Synthetic lane panels do not use an interlocking technique unlike most wood and laminate home flooring products.

When a center upgrades from wood to synthetic lanes, the panels are normally overlaid atop the existing lanes. When a new bowling center opens with synthetic lanes, the panels are attached to a newly built lane foundation. Our 2011 upgrade used a hybrid construction model featuring new pindecks, a new lane foundation in the head of the lane, and overlays for the start of the approach and mid-lane.

The sound of bowling produced by a synthetic lane has less bass than a wood lane. Depending on the manufacturer, the delivery may resemble more of a snap for impact and a hiss for the roll. Our installation delivers the most realistic sound among Calgary's synthetic installations.

A bowling lane - whether wood or synthetic - is oiled from the foul line to a point from 30 to 45 feet down the lane. For five pin, the oil protects the lane surface from ball impact damage, compared to being designed for a specific shot in ten pin. Because of this oil, you should never ever step past the foul line onto the lane. It is very slippery.

Foul Alarm

The foul alarm is found at the foul line and is used to determine a foot violation of the foul line.

When the device is armed, an infrared beam is sent over the foul line from a sensor to a reflector on the opposite side of the lane. If the beam is breached, a buzzer will sound and a light (usually red) will illuminate above the pins. This light will stay on from 10 to 15 seconds. While the light is on, a foul signal is sent to the automatic scorer to register the foul on the scoresheet. In 5-pin, the penalty for a foul is 15 points, however any pins downed count provided the delivery was legal. This is different than most other bowling techniques which penalize a foul with a zero count for the ball.

The bowling center may not always have the foul alarms in an armed state. Most centers disarm the foul alarms for public bowling. However the foul alarms must be armed for all sanctioned events.

Pinsetter

The string pinsetter - found in most five-pin operations today - uses a series of electric motors, electronic circuits, and brake devices to set and reset pins.

Strings are made of a thick micro-braided nylon about 1/8 inch in diameter. They are black in color, but sharp eyes can see the strings when pins are standing. The pins are precision-drilled by the manufacturer such that the string fits snug into the pin.

The machine uses a set of magnetic pulleys to detect downed pins. When the machine runs, a motor moves a chain-driven setting arm. This setting arm is connected to all five pin strings and the shield. The shield blocks the view of the pindeck while the machine is operating. The pins are lifted up to a fixed pin table - pins that are knocked over are centered into the table (this is the noise you hear after the shield is down). Once the remaining pins are fully lowered, the shield ascends and the machine stops and awaits the next ball.

If the strings get tangled, the pinsetter attempts to untangle using a release and pull cycle. This repeats until the strings are untangled either by the machine or by a pinchaser.

The automatic scoring is connected directly to the pinsetter. The circuitry within the pinsetter reports the outcome to the automatic scoring.

The machine will cycle every time a pin is hit. If no pin is hit, the machine does not cycle. The computer will reset the machine at the end of each frame.

Ball Return

On a typical string pinsetting environment, the machine will pull pins out of the pit using the strings. The spent ball takes a different path as it cannot be pulled by a string.

The pit on a string pinsetter is designed using gravity in mind. It is angled so gravity can lead the ball to a collection track. That collection track in itself is also designed with gravity. The ball rides the collection track under the rear backstop and comes to a stop at an elevator.

The elevator is usually a chain-driven mechanism with one or more lifts. Each lift can handle one ball at a time. The ball is taken on a lift to the top where it is deposited on the return track. This is the final path from the pit end to the ball rack at your approach.

Given a married pair of lanes shares one elevator mechanism, balls tend to return at a rate of one every six or seven seconds depending on how many lifts are on the elevator chain.

The return track is a gravity fed track with a drop at the pit end. The drop allows the ball to return back with enough speed and energy to climb the up-ramp of the ball rack come to the tray where the other balls sit.

The return track may ride along the top between the gutters (surface based) or it may ride below the lane bed (subway return).

Most centers will have a zig-zag structure at the top of the ball rack. This slows the ball down. Without this, balls would proceed to the rack area at a speed hazardous enough to injure fingers.

Select bowling centers may have a "power lift" at the head of the ball return instead of an up-ramp. Power lifts aren't common in small ball bowling but can be found in some centers. If there is a power lift, you may see a moving wheel at the base of the exit point of your ball rack. When the ball reaches the power lift, two counter-rotating wheels will take the ball up an S-path to the ball rack.

Ball racks were mostly single-row in the 80's. In the 90's, bowling centers upgraded most racks to a double-row of balls. Ball racks will hold from 25 to 33 balls. This accommodates 8 house-owned balls per rack plus room for 24 personal balls (two teams of six and two personal balls per player). Some centers may have additional tracks at the ball rack for storage of extra balls.

Automatic Scoring

Most bowling centers use a computerized scoring system. This keeps score on a display screen usually mounted above the foul line. Some centers may use table-mounted monitors for scoreboards.

There are specific requirements for automatic scoring specified by the Canadian Five Pin Bowlers Association. All automatic scoring hardware, firmware and software must meet these requirements.

When the game is completed, the results are saved at the control desk or on a server. They can then be printed on request.

If the score recorded was incorrect, it can be edited manually - whether at the front desk or at a keyboard at the lane. The most common cause of score corrections is a ball jumping out of the gutter.

There is a ball detection device just short of the pin deck that senses when a ball has entered the pin deck area. When this event occurs, the system is advised to read the score. Score may be read through a camera, but most string pinsetters will report the result of the shot direct to the scoring when it does its cycle. In the case of a missed shot or gutter, the system will detect that the ball was rolled. However, the pinsetter does not respond if a pin isn't hit. In this case a timeout occurs and it assumes the shot was zero.

The first automatic scoring systems used a grid or graph appearance for presentation of scores. The current state of the art in automatic scoring includes a "skin" appearance to the scoresheet. This "skin" can be customized using colors and images. There is also capability in automatic scoring to have special games.

Most automatic scoring systems will display animations, graphics or other displays following strikes, spares or split situations. End of game animations for high scores (200+) are supported. Most systems can be configured to disable animations for tournaments. Some systems can provide additional animations for birthdays. Modern systems can support multiple classes and themes for animations. Customization of the scoring look and feel is at an individual lane level (or married pair in league play).

The foul line alarm is connected to the scoring system. If the foul alarm is active when the ball is sensed, the ball will register as a foul and score in accordance with the rules for foul line violations. If the foul alarm is accidentally activated and no ball is detected before the alarm resets/turns off, then the alarm is ignored by the system.

Automatic scoring audits all balls played. Scoring can be configured to run on a game-basis or timed basis. Most centers that use automatic scoring will require prepayment before activating the lane.