Growing up in Maryland, outside of Baltimore, I was fortunate to be introduced to duckpin bowling at an early age, and I grew to love it very quickly.
Sandusky's Bowling Alley in Pasadena, MD, which regrettably closed its doors some years ago, was a bowling alley that featured only duckpin bowling.
The greatest thing about Sandusky's was that it was within walking distance from my childhood home, which meant that we frequently bowled there.
We were blessed to have a bowling alley so close to home.
As a kid, I bowled on duckpin leagues and did pretty well. I won't boast about all the bowling trophies I won and are still collecting dust in my father's attic. (Oh wait, I just did. Lol.)
Needless to say, I played duckpin bowling a lot in my younger days.
After Sandusky's closed, I found another bowling alley in Severna Park, MD that was a hybrid of tenpin and duckpin bowling. That is, half of the lanes were duckpin and half were tenpin.
Severna Park Bowling Lanes was a unique bowling alley because it offered both, and it's where I first became exposed to tenpin bowling. Or, as many call it "regular bowling."
(To me, regular bowling was duckpin, but hey, to each their own.)
I enjoy tenpin bowling, but I'll always love duckpin bowling too. Part of the reason I like it better (other than pure nostalgia) is because duckpin bowling is more challenging than tenpin bowling, in my opinion.
Let's dive into why.
Why is Duckpin Bowling Harder Than Tenpin Bowling?
While tenpin bowling is certainly not easy, duckpin bowling presents more of a challenge.
The reason duckpin bowling is harder is because the pins are smaller and the balls are smaller. The balls also don't have finger holes, which many bowlers prefer.
Moreover, with the basic laws of physics applied, there's more control and less room for error when throwing a larger ball. (Duckpin bowling balls are very easy to slip up and throw in the gutter or miss your headpin.)
Though it took getting used to a bowling ball that was at least 5 times bigger than a duckpin bowling ball, I got the hang of tenpin fairly easily.
With slower curve rate and better precision, the tenpin bowling ball proved superior to the poor little duckpin bowling ball, in terms of accuracy.
When I first started playing tenpin, I noticed something very different about my scores; my tenpin scores were much higher than my duckpin bowling scores.
My highest duckpin bowling score of all time (and remember, I played over a thousand games) was a measly 165.
I told you, duckpin is hard!
After the first few games of tenpin, I was almost breaking 200.
That shouldn't have been, right? I bowled duckpin all my life, and then my score jumped as soon as I switched to tenpin.
Holy cow! That's gotta tell you something!
The scoring in duckpin bowling and tenpin bowling are very similar, with each having a maximum of 300 points for a perfect game.
In tenpin, candlepin and duckpin, a bowler is required to bowl 12 strikes in a row for a perfect game.
A marked difference between tenpin and duckpin bowling is the number of rolls you get each turn.
In tenpin bowling, the bowler is only allowed a maximum of 2 throws each frame.
In duckpin bowling, the bowler is allowed up to 3 throws each frame.
(We say "up to" because if the bowler gets a strike or spare, their turn is over.)
The reason why duckpin bowling allows up to 3 throws per frame is that it's decidedly more difficult to knock all ten pins down as opposed to tenpin bowling.
Even with up to 3 throws every frame, duckpin bowlers rarely see scores over 200.
No bowler, as of the time of writing this article, has ever bowled a perfect game in regulation duckpin bowling. Conversely, perfect games are fairly common among professional tenpin bowlers.
I'll say this in a whisper: That's because duckpin bowling is much harder than tenpin.
The Bottom Line
Yes, duckpin bowling is harder than tenpin bowling, though they are both challenging and a lot of fun to play.
The intent of this article wasn't to badmouth tenpin or say that duckpin is better, only to voice the incontrovertible truth that duckpin is harder than tenpin.
Trust me, duckpin is much harder than tenpin!
I love duckpin bowling, and I love tenpin bowling as well. They're both great and don't need to compete with each other.
Bowling is a lot of fun and a great way to spend an afternoon with your kids, family, friends and other serious bowlers. So have fun!
Happy bowling!
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