This is a simple calculator for calculating your bowling handicap. Use it together with our bowling score calculator and you don't need any other bowling related calculators.
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Just enter your bowling average, basis score and percentage factor and press calculate to get your handicap. You can also enter your game score to calculate adjusted score.
A handicap system is used in various sports to equalize the chance of winning for players with different skills. You can read more about handicapping in general for example from Wikipedia. In bowling a calculated handicap value is added to the game score to adjust the result. The handicap value is based on previous games bowled by the player. The lower the average score of previous games the higher the handicap value. This way making it possible for players at any level to compete in same competitions.
You can read more about bowling handicap in here.
A bowling handicap is a percentage of the difference between your average and a basis average. So for calculating you need to know the used basis average and the used percentage factor. You get these from your league or tournament officials. If you are not competing in either of those, you can decide those values with your competitors. Usual values are 200, 210 or 220 for basis average and 80%, 90% or 100% for percentage factor. The basis average is intended to be more than any individual bowler’s average.
To find out your average add the scores from your previous games and divide the result with the number of games. If you are bowling in a league you probably must use game scores from league games. Otherwise, once again, you can decide the number of games with your competitors. Let's say you decided to use three previous games with scores 157, 143 and 142. The sum of these is 442 and when you divide it with 3 you get 147.3 pins per game. Drop a fraction of a pin and your official average is 147.
Subtract your average from the basis score and multiply the result with the percentage factor. Let's say that the basis score is 200 and the percentage factor is 90%. You get (200-147)x0.9=47.7. Once again drop the fraction and your handicap is 47. To get your adjusted score, simply add the handicap to your game score. For example if you get 143, your adjusted score is 190. Try this out with the bowling handicap calculator above.
Below is also a video explaining how to calculate bowling handicap.