What is the Size of a Bowling Alley?

Bowling is among the most popular indoor sports in the world, especially in its most commonly played form, ten-pin bowling. A relatively simple game, it involves rolling a ball down a long alley to the strike down the 10 pins set up at the end of the lane.

As to what is the size of a bowling alley, the official length of a bowling lane is 60 feet (ft) or 18.29 meters (m) beginning at the head pin and going all the way to the foul line. The distance from the foul line and the guide arrows is 15 ft or 4.57 m. As for the width of the bowling lanes, they each have a measurement of 41.5 inches or 1.05 m. A single bowling lane usually comprises of 39 wooden boards, although boards made from synthetic materials are sometimes used instead of wooden ones.

Every bowling alley also consists of 2 sets of what are referred to as the approach dots. Officially, the distance between the 1st set of approach dots and the foul line is 12 ft or 3.66 m, while the distance from the 2nd set of dots going to the foul line is 15 ft or 4.57 m. As for their distance from each other, the 1st set of dots is 3 ft (0.91 m) away from the 2nd set.

Game organizers usually apply 18 milliliters of oil on the bowling alleys to protect them, the application generally starting 4 inches from the foul line going all the way down to the bowling lane with a distance of 38 ft or 11.58 m. Before reaching the foul line, and to give bowlers leverage on the bowling ball and help them gain an advantage before they deliver it, there is an approach distance measuring a length of around 15 ft or 5 m.

In addition to the size of a bowling alley, the bowling ball should have a maximum circumference of 2.25 ft or 0.69 m and each ball should not weigh more than 16 pounds or 7.26 kilograms (kg). According to the rules of the United States Bowling Congress, a bowling pin should have a width of 4.7 inches or 12 centimeters (cm) and a length of 15 inches or 38 cm. As for the weight, a bowling pin should not weigh more than 3 pounds (lbs) and 10 ounces (oz). For the majority of bowling games, most especially for international ones, a pin’s standard weight should not be less than 3 lbs and 6 oz.