While not everyone is a great bowler, there are some ways you can still use bowling to build teamwork and team chemistry while taking the pressure off high scores. Bowling provides an informal atmosphere for the team to develop and grow together. Whether you are building a company, a nonprofit organization or a youth group, building strong relationships will strengthen the team and make it more successful.
1) Bowling Poker
Bowling Poker builds teamwork by having teammates work together to form the best possible poker hand. To play, you will need one deck of cards for every two teams. A team should consist of four participants. The teams will compete by bowling to earn playing cards. After a person bowls a frame, they will select cards from the deck based on their score in that frame. For a strike, select two cards. For a spare, select one card. For a "7-10 split", select one card. If only the "7" pin or the "10" pin remains standing, select one card. For all other scores, no cards will be given. If the deck runs out, no other cards will be given during the game. After the last frame, the team will combine their cards to create the best five-card poker hand. They will put their cards up against the other team and the best hand will be the winner. This game can be played as a tournament if you have four or more teams.
2) Bowling Bingo
Bowling bingo builds team chemistry while removing the pressure of bowling for a high score. To play bowling bingo, you will need to create a bingo card for each team. The bingo card will consist of a 5-by-5 grid with a free space in the center. Think of twenty-four different scenarios to put in the squares. Scenarios could include: a strike, a spare, a split, one pin left, two pins left, 10 pins left, and so on. The game can be played the traditional way of getting five squares in a row, up and down or diagonally. You can come up with different ways to play, such as getting all four corners or getting the shape of a letter. The team will have fun together as they mark off the squares on their bingo card.
3) Funky Bowling
Funky bowling creates teamwork as the group performs silly ways of bowling together. To play funky bowling, you will need a list of 10 silly things to do while playing. Some ideas would include: Have team members stand in a line and pass the bowling ball between their legs to the person at the front, who throws it underhand. Go through all the team members' legs. Stand backwards and do it through your legs. Create your own fun ideas for the group and put all the silly ideas in a hat so the bowler can draw one before they bowl. When setting up the game, set it up for one bowler at a time. Each team member will rotate bowling from frame to frame. The team will perform the same funky bowl on the second ball of the frame. At the end of the game, the team with the highest score wins,
4) Gag Bowling
Gag Bowling builds team chemistry as team members perform a list of gags based on the bowling score. To play, each member will bowl two frames. Create a list of 10 gags for the team to perform according to their score. For splits, strikes, spares and leaving only one pin standing, your team does not have to perform a gag. For all other scores, the team will select a gag from a hat and the team must perform it together. Some ideas include: Sing Ring Around the Rosie together and fall down at the end. Move from one side of the bowling alley to the other while walking and quacking like a duck. Stick your finger in another team member's nose while shaking hands. Create at least 10 of these gags, play and have fun.