Last Updated on: 11th October 2024, 02:46 pm
Today we’re combining our love of football with our love of bowling. This is a fun game for children and can be adapted for any ability and size of space.
Football Bowling
All you need to play is a football and some cones to act as pins. If you don’t have football cones then you can buy a set from our website or substitute them for something you have around the house. Fill old drinks bottles with some rice or water to give them a bit of weight but make sure they’re still light enough to knock over.
Why it’s useful
This is a great game for developing accuracy. The player needs to be in control of the ball and use enough power to knock the pins over. You can have the player focus on their weaker foot if they need to work on it.
Basic Rules
It’s exactly what it says on the tin: set up your pins at the end of your lane and have each player try to knock over as many over as possible. Use a cone or marker to show where the player stands. You can play normal bowling rules of 10 pins and two balls or adapt depending on who is playing.
Length of the lane
Officially, a bowling lane measures 60 ft (18.29m) from the foul line to the first pin but you can work with whatever space you have. If you have younger children, you might want to place the pins slightly nearer and decrease the number.
Tip: If you have your own goal, set it up at the end of your lane so it catches your balls for you.
Football Bowling
- Set the football by the first marker.
- Kick it down the bowling lane.
- Attempt to knock over as many pins as possible.
- Remove the knocked-over pins and take a second turn.
- Count the pins and reset. The next player takes their turn.
- Keep going for 10 rounds (or however many you want).
Speed Round
To get your kids moving and to work on their speed, why not time them to see how quickly they can knock over the pins?
- Set up three cones in a horizontal line. Space them fairly far apart.
- Have the player stand at the first maker.
- They try to knock over 1 pin.
- Sprint to get the ball and bring it back to the start.
- Keep trying to knock over the pins.
- Time how long it takes for all the pins to be knocked over.
This is a great game for one player to set up themselves or for multiple players to get involved in. A solo player can keep trying to beat their own score while multiple players try and beat the other players.
Head to Head
Set up two lanes next to each other. Give each player a time limit and see who can knock over the most pins in that time.
Teams
If you have a few people in your household, you can always make it more of a relay. Have two or more people on each team and see which team can knock over the most pins.
- Set up two lanes.
- Put the football by the first marker.
- The first player kicks the ball to knock over the pins.
- They run to get the ball and bring it back to the second player.
- The second player tries to knock over the pins.
- They must return the ball to the next/first player.
- Keep going until the time is up or one team has knocked all of their pins over.
Pendle at home
Being in lockdown shouldn’t prevent you from having fun outside. Pendle wants to make sure that you have everything you need to stay fit and have fun during this difficult time. So, check out our range of training equipment and keep developing your skills.
