- At-home drills
- Bowling
- 12 year olds
Bowling drills at home for 12 year olds
A 12 year old can practice aim, approach and focus at home with 20 bowling drills picked for the age. Keep a session to about 40 minutes, up to 5 days a week, with rest days between. Why: Organized sport should total no more hours a week than the child's age in years, with two rest days a week (NATA youth sport specialization recommendations).
A parent's page for a 12 year old: the drills that work at home, one session to follow, what changes this year and how much is healthy. Free, no account.
By Coach Evan Waechtler Youth coach (U11, Cache Valley, Utah) and founder of SSTracker Updated November 5, 2026
A parent's page. Free to read; no card to start; running a team is always free.
At a glance
- At 12
- 20 bowling drills the app opens for a 12 year old work at home, across 6 skills.
- How long
- One home session of about 40 minutes; SSTracker never plans more than 60 minutes for a 12 year old.
- How often
- At most 5 training days a week, with rest days between. Organized sport in all: no more hours a week than the child's age (NATA), so at most 12 hours for a 12 year old, with two rest days a week.
- What you need
- Most used: line or tape (4 of the 20 drills), tape (4), lane (2), plastic bottles (2), soft ball (2), bowling shoes (1), bowling shoes or socks (1), flat floor (1). 1 drill needs nothing but space. 1 is for two, and a parent can be the partner.
- Safe at home
- One child and one parent in a room, garage or yard. Never tackling, contact, diving or head-first falls, no stunts or loaded lifting, and nothing that needs a coach, rink, pool or court. Stop when anything hurts.
20 at-home drills
Bowling drills for 12 year olds to do at home
Every drill below is one the app opens for a 12 year old and one that works at home: a room, garage or yard, one parent as the partner, no venue. Each drill's page has the steps, a diagram where the setup can be drawn, three ways to make it a game and a log to print.
aim
Aim
approach
Approach
focus
Focus
release
Release
spares
Spares
A 38-minute session
A home bowling session for a 12 year old
A warm-up, 3 drills and a cool-down, 38 minutes in all. Do it up to 5 days a week, with rest days between.
- 1Bowling Warm-Up, Ages 11 to 13A 10-minute moving warm-up for bowling players aged 11 to 13: running, moving stretches, plank, balance, landings and build-up runs, then bowling moves, with a note on growth spurts.10 min
- 2Balanced Slide HoldLow and still at the line.10 min
- 3Pendulum Swing With a TowelLet gravity swing it.6 min
- 4Count the BoardsCount from your side.6 min
- 5Bowling Cool-Down Stretches, Ages 11 to 13A 6-minute cool-down for bowling players aged 11 to 13 after training: stretches for the legs, hips, wrists and sides, each held 15 to 20 seconds, never to pain, with growth-spurt notes.6 min
At 12
What changes in bowling training at 12
From 12, a home session can run to 60 minutes and the plan can have 5 training days a week, up from 45 minutes and 4 days at 11.
The app opens the same 20 at-home drills at 12 as at 11; the ones below are a different selection from that list.
Organized sport in all: no more hours a week than the child's age (NATA), so at most 12 hours for a 12 year old, with two rest days a week.
The week
Fitting bowling into a week at 12
At 12 the limit is 12 hours of organized sport a week. If you count home sessions against it to be safe, 5 sessions of 40 minutes is 3.33 hours, which leaves 8.67 for team practice and games. Even 5 days at the app's longest, 60 minutes, is 5 hours.
The research behind it
Ages 6 to 12 are the "sampling years": high play, low deliberate practice.
Côté and Vierimaa 2014Organized sport should total no more hours a week than the child's age in years, with two rest days a week.
NATA youth sport specialization recommendations
Questions and answers
What bowling drills can a 12 year old do at home?
20 drills the app opens at 12 work at home. A few to start with: Bottle Pin Aim at Home, Count the Boards and Name That Arrow. One child and one parent in a room, garage or yard. Never tackling, contact, diving or head-first falls, no stunts or loaded lifting, and nothing that needs a coach, rink, pool or court. Stop when anything hurts.
How long should a 12 year old practice bowling at home?
One home session of about 40 minutes; SSTracker never plans more than 60 minutes for a 12 year old. At most 5 training days a week, with rest days between. Organized sport in all: no more hours a week than the child's age (NATA), so at most 12 hours for a 12 year old, with two rest days a week.
What do you need to practice bowling at home at 12?
Most used: line or tape (4 of the 20 drills), tape (4), lane (2), plastic bottles (2), soft ball (2), bowling shoes (1), bowling shoes or socks (1), flat floor (1). 1 drill needs nothing but space. 1 is for two, and a parent can be the partner.
What changes in bowling training at 12?
From 12, a home session can run to 60 minutes and the plan can have 5 training days a week, up from 45 minutes and 4 days at 11. The app opens the same 20 at-home drills at 12 as at 11; the ones below are a different selection from that list.