The beginnings of the game of bowling, can be traced back through the generations. While I’m sure most everyone has set foot in a bowling alley at one point in time or another, not nearly as many are familiar with the different types of bowling games that have been around.

If you’ve ever been to a bowling party, such as a birthday party, then you do that bowling is only half the the fun. Anybody at any skill level can participate, and you can have a great time hanging out with friends as well.

For the sake of easy categorization, you could break down bowling into two distinct categories. Those games played indoors, and those games played outdoors. What is common amongst all the games are the basic parts of the game. Usually some form of bowling lane, a bowling ball, and in some cases bowling pins.

Due to the nature of a rolling bowl, it makes sense that the typical lane is much longer than it is wide. It wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense, to be bowling down a lane that was only five or six feet long. Not much fun either.

In the western hemisphere, ten pin bowling has to be the most played. Although five pin bowling would be a close second, and is great for smaller children, who may not have the strength to handle the bigger 10 pin balls.

A nine pin variation is played quite a bit in Europe, and candle pin is popular in the American north ease, and Canada.

Duckpin is an interesting, and older version of ten pin bowling, that is not seen very often, but can be a lot of fun. The pins are kind of funny looking things being that they are shorter and fatter than regular ten pins.

If you enjoy traditional ten pin bowling, then you will likely like duckpin. At the very least, it gives you a little variety.

If you really like the big noise of ten pins falling, you may not be crazy over another variation called cocked hat. It only uses three pins, and they’re spaced so far apart, it’s really tricky to get one pin to knock over another pin.

I’ve been looking for lanes that offer cocked hat bowling, as I’d really like to try it.

Feather bowling, is a little bit like curling, and a little bit like nothing else. Everyone takes turns throwing a wheel shaped ball, with the goal of trying to get it as close the the feather at the other end as possible. The lane slopes in towards the middle.