How to build teamwork with bowling events
While not everyone is a great bowler, there are several ways to use bowling to build teamwork and group chemistry, taking the pressure off the need for high scores. Bowling offers a relaxed atmosphere that is ideal for a team to develop and grow together.
Whether you are building a company, a non-profit or a youth group, strengthening the relationships inside the team will make it stronger and more successful.
1. Bowling Poker
Bowling Poker builds teamwork by getting teammates to work together on the best possible poker hand. You need one deck of cards for every two teams, each made up of four players.
Teams compete by bowling to earn cards: after each throw, cards are drawn according to the score.
- Strike: two cards
- Spare: one card
- 7-10 split: one card
- Only pin 7 or pin 10 left: one card
- Any other score: no card
If the deck runs out, no more cards are dealt during the game. After the last frame, the team puts its cards together to make the best five-card poker hand and plays it against the other team. This game can be run as a tournament if there are four or more teams.
2. Bowling Bingo
Bowling Bingo builds team chemistry while removing the pressure of scoring high. Each team needs its own bingo card: a 5x5 grid with a free space in the middle.
Come up with twenty-four different scenarios to fill the squares: a strike, a spare, a split, one pin left, two pins left, ten pins left, and so on. The game can be completed the traditional way — five squares in a line, horizontal, vertical or diagonal — or by inventing your own variations, such as filling the four corners or forming a letter.
The team has fun together as they mark off their card round by round.
3. Funky bowling
Funky bowling creates teamwork as the group performs silly ways of bowling together. You need a list of 10 funny actions to perform during the game, for example:
- Line the team up and pass the ball between their legs to the person at the front, who bowls it underarm.
- Run the ball through all your teammates' legs before bowling.
- Turn your back and bowl between your legs.
Come up with your own ideas and put them in a hat so each player draws one before throwing. Each team member takes their turn frame by frame, and everyone has to repeat the same funny action on the second ball of the frame. The winner is the team with the highest score at the end of the game.
4. You must
You must builds team chemistry by having members carry out a series of forfeits depending on the score. Each player bowls two frames.
Draw up a list of 10 forfeits the team has to perform according to the result: on a split, a strike, a spare or leaving a single pin standing, the team is let off the forfeit. For any other score, the team draws a forfeit from a hat and has to do it together. Some examples:
- Sing "Ring Around the Rosie" together and fall down at the end.
- Cross the bowling alley from one side to the other walking and quacking like a duck.
- Put your finger up another teammate's nose while holding hands.
Come up with at least 10 forfeits, play and enjoy it as a team.
Related products: Bowling Lane Poker Table
