The Beauty Behind Adaptive Bowling


Bowling, a sport loved by generations as it’s easy to pick up and have fun with, and the rules can’t get any simpler than just picking up a ball and throwing it down the lane. A bowling alley can be a great place for people to hang out and have fun. Bowling can be tracked all the way back to Ancient Egypt, showing hieroglyphs of people playing the game, and it made its way to the modern era, where the game of bowling has evolved significantly.

But what’s great about this game is the fact that it can be inclusive for all kinds of people and can cater to even the disabled giving them the chance to play the game and score as well as able-bodied players. And the evolution for this kind of bowling is referred to as Adaptive Bowling.

What is Adaptive Bowling?

Finding physical activities and sports that the likes of both able-bodied and disabled can participate and have fun in together can present itself as a bit of a tough challenge. Luckily, such activity exists, which is referred to as “Adaptive Bowling” slowly on the rise of popularity, allowing disabled people to compete with anyone. Adaptive Bowling comprises disabled people being allowed to use special equipment so that they would be able to participate and compete in bowling matches.

It was initially thought up to after the second world war in the 1940s when many veterans and soldiers returned from the war with a multitude of disabilities and injuries suffered to their bodies. Adaptive Bowling was then proposed to them in order for them to maintain a healthy social life over a friendly game of bowling. Since then, the world of Adaptive Bowling has kept growing and growing to introduce new types of equipment and techniques so that everyone would be included in the game.

Because of Adaptive Bowling’s constant growth, new equipment and techniques kept being discovered and improved upon, allowing the game to be more inclusive of what kind of people can properly play the game.

Can you bowl in a wheelchair?

The equipment required by the player for Adaptive Bowling can widely vary from person to person solely based on their disability. With a few pieces of equipment in place, anyone can start bowling whether they are standing, in crutches, or even in a wheelchair. The first piece of equipment we would need is a ball ramp. One of the essential parts of Adaptive Bowling is allowing a person to deliver their ball down the lane to the pins. A ball ramp is initially simply placed in front of the wheelchair on which the player can adjust the angle and direction and push the ball down, sliding it towards the lane and onto the pins to start playing the game. They are available in most local bowling alleys, but if your nearest bowling alley doesn’t own a ball ramp, then you can easily buy one online as well, such as Amazon.

Although if for some reason, you are not a fan of a bowling ramp, then there are alternatives that people can try as well. You can buy special bowling balls with handles attached to them to hold on to them instead of regular holes. The handle retracts back in when thrown so the ball would roll away smoothly. This kind of bowling ball is mainly focused on those bowlers with poor finger grip and control to use regular balls, as well as aging bowlers who can’t support the regular bowling ball’s weight with just their fingers anymore.

Other than a custom bowling ball with retractable handles, a differently-abled bowler can also rely on a special cane called a bowling ball pusher. This cane has a holder at the end of it, allowing players to push the ball to the lane to bowl. This is mainly focused on those kinds of people who have problems with their arms and shoulders and can’t muster up enough force to roll their bowling ball perfectly or for those users who use wheelchairs who have sufficient arm strength to push the ball towards the pins and don’t want to use a bowling ramp. These bowling ball pushers can also be easily found online for you to purchase.

Now are you an adaptive bowler but are frustrated by the gutters always sinking what you thought was a perfect shot. Then worry no more as today’s bowling alleys also offer players the facility to raise the bowling gutters and turn them into bumpers. Everyone just assumed these bumpers were meant for kids, but they were actually designed for those who have trouble aligning their shot straight. This way, the gutters always taking away your points won’t damper in on your fun with your friends at the bowling alley, and you can play to your heart’s content. And after sufficient practice and experience, one can always transition back to a bowling alley with no bumpers on the side for the extra challenge. In the end, all everyone needs to remember is that there’s no shame in using bumpers if someone can’t serve their ball accurately; what matters is that everyone should be having fun.

All of these facilities are given to a bowler with disabilities so they would be able to compete in this marvelous sport alongside others, and all of these methods are deemed legal so you can choose to bowl and play the game however you feel comfortable playing with.

How do you make a bowling ramp?

What people usually do is that they buy their bowling ramps from online e-commerce stores such as Amazon or eBay and get the bowling ramp delivered to their home with a hassle-free experience so they can start bowling as soon as possible.

But this might not be the case for everyone else as these bowling ramps can be more on the expensive side which can make your wallet up to 100 dollars lighter as well, making it unaffordable for many financially struggling families.

So the greatest alternative for those families can be to opt for a “Do it yourself bowling ramp” made with any sturdy material of your choice. All you need to focus on is have the perfect angle for the ramp so that your ball may slide down accurately and with enough speed gained by gravity. We recommend you use PVC Pipes to make your bowling ramp if you want to keep things in under a tight budget as those pipes can be very durable on holding up weights of many bowling ball rolls, and with bent connectors between each pipe, you can easily gain your desired angles and build your bowling ramp without requiring any sort of technical skills such as wielding all you’ll need is primer glue to hold all the parts together.

With this, you shall have your own bowling ramp in 20 dollars or even less perfect for you to take to the local bowling alley and hit your first strike with it.

Other than PVC Pipe if you want to step up a notch, you can also use steel pipes instead of PVC pipes and get them wielded by a professional to get the feeling of a store-bought bowling ramp.

The world of Adaptive Bowling is truly beautiful to us how it’s an entire world dedicated to just finding new ways to include people of every shape and size and grow the bowling community. And this kind of advancements can be found in other sports as well slowly including wheelchair-bound people or people with another disability to every sport imaginable so, in the end, they could successfully have a feeling of enjoyment gained from rolling a sweat down your eyebrow after completing their physical activities.

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