I'm not a league bowler but I work in a bowling complex so bare with me. With certain age groups you get a certain handicap and with different genders you get a certain handicap and also how good you are. Say a 10 year old was playing a 20 year old, the 10 year old will get a handicap of about 30 I think and the 20 year old would get nothing. The scores get automatically added onto the handicap. So if you got 70 in your game and you had a handicap the your overall score will be 100. Say a woman is playing a man of the same age, the the woman would automatically get a higher handicap because women aren't generally as strong as men so they will on average knock less pins down. Say you have someone who bowls often and someone who doesn't, then the one who doesn't bowl often will have a higher handicap. Then it gets even more complex when you get different ages, genders and abilities bowling. But basically a handicap is a head start on the score to make it fairer, whoever has the lowest handicap is on average the best player. Definition: a disadvantage imposed on a superior competitor in sports such as golf and horse racing in order to make the chances more equal. http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/handicap?view=uk Yes, this is an opinion. The opinion of someone who knows what they are talking about because they work in that environment. At the end of the day, two people competing against each other will have an average. Highest minus the lowest, then this gets added onto the score of the person who has the lowest average at the end of the game or you add it on at the beginning then merely top up the scores. This way the odds of winning are equal.

Bowling handicap is not based on age, or gender. It is, however, based on your average score. The exact formulas used to determine an individual handicap may vary from league to league, but the idea remains the same. Some leagues use the 80% of 200 rule. In this case, you would subtract your average from 200, and multiply that number by 80%. The resulting number would be your handicap. For example: If your average is 160, subtract this number from 200, and you get 40. Then multiply 40 by 80%, and you are left with 32. In this case, 32 will be your handicap. This number will be added to your score each game to determine your final score. An easier formula is 100% of 200. In this case you take your average, and subtract it from 200. The resulting number will be your handicap. If your average is 160, subtracting this from 200 will leave you with 40. Your handicap would be 40. Then you just add this score to each game to determine your final score.

A handicap makes things more even. If I am an experienced bowler of 15 years, and I am bowling a 14 year old, handicap evens that out. If the 14 year old is averaging 160, and I am averaging 210, then handicap can help even it out. Handicap is added to make it so if all bowlers bowl their averages, the scores will be the same. Handicap is meant to make it fair. Handicap can be taken from many different numbers. They take the difference from your average and a set number to determine handicaps. One example is 100% of the difference between your average and 200, another is 90% between your average and 200. 220 is another number used, but other numbers and percentages may be used. These are just some examples.

In my bowling league, we take your first 3 games and add them together. We then divide this number by 3 and subtract it from 200 and then multiply that number by .9 to get your handicap 120 game 1 130 game 2 137 game 3 ========== 387 total ////////// divided by 3 129 200-129=71 71 x .9 = 64 handicap so your scores would be 120+64=184 game 1 130+64=194 game 2 137+64=201 game 3 You then continuously keep adding up your raw scores and your handicap will change over time.