The leading professional organization for bowling is the Professional Bowler’s Association (PBA). The PBA is based in the U.S. and hosts top bowlers from around the world. To become a professional bowler you’ll need to become a member of the PBA, and to make a living doing it, you’ll have to be one of the top players in the world. Becoming a professional bowler requires a major investment of time and energy, taking at least 5-10 years to become competitive.

If you’re new to bowling or just started in the past year, you’ll need to learn how to bowl first. The basics are outside the scope of this how-to and you should check out how to bowl for more information. Much of the language and terminology in this how-to assumes that you have a basic background in bowling.

Once you’ve learned the essentials of bowling, you’re ready to improve your bowling skill. This involves improving your form, becoming more consistent, being more versatile, and learning more about the sport.

Bowling form is the foundation upon which your game is built. Proper bowling form includes a straight, but relaxed arm swing, limited up and down movement, and a solid slide with a good knee bend. If you have a four-step approach, you should experiment with five and even six steps, the additional steps help improve timing. You’ll also need to develop a good hook and most top pros have strongly hooking balls.

Consistency is key to repeating good shots. You’ll need to combine good form with practice to become consistent. Top pros can consistently hit a three-board area on the lane. To practice this, pick out an arrow to throw over and try to roll over it, or the board on the left or right side of it, at least 90% of the time.

Versatility means being able to play on a variety of conditions. It requires having an adaptive game. The best pros can vary their hook between fairly straight (stroker) to a strong hook (cranker). You’ll also need to be able to play on any part of the lane, from the outside portions near the gutter to the inside portions in the middle of the lane.

Learning about the sport involves a variety of factors. This includes learning about oiling patterns on the lane and how oil moves and dries up during bowling (breaks down). It also requires that you learn about bowling ball materials (plastic, urethane, reactive resin, particle, and more) and surfaces (from shiny to heavily sanded). You’ll also need to learn about the weights in a bowling ball and know when to utilize finger-weight vs. thumb-weight vs. leverage drilling, and other weighting in the ball.

Your next step towards being a professional bowler is becoming a regional professional in the PBA. There are seven regions in the U.S., defined by their geographic location, such as the South, East, or Northwest regions. To become a regional PBA professional, you’ll need to average 200 for two consecutive years in a USBC (United States Bowling Congress) sanctioned league. The other option is to bowl in a PBA regional as an amateur and finish in the top one-third of the field while earning a check.

You have the option of being a part-time or full-time regional professional. Part-timers bowl at least one tournament a year, but pick and choose which tournaments they want to compete in. Part-timers are more causal professionals and are not actively seeking to move up into national ranks. Full-time regional pros attempt to make most of the tournaments. Full-timers are trying to obtain the coveted exemption. One regional pro from each region earns an exemption into the national tour in each year.

To become a national PBA professional requires being an exempt player. As of the 2009-2010 season, there are 62 exempt players, and most compete in all tournaments.

There are a few ways to get an exemption:

1. Have the highest points in your region
2. Do very well as a non-exempt player bowling in national tournaments
3. Win a national tournament (1 year exemption for normal tournaments, and multi-year exemptions for majors)
4. Win a spot in the tour trials yearly PBA tournament
5. Get a special exemption (international and golden parachute)

To get to the national level, you’ll have to be an extremely good bowler. This is on par in competing in the NFL, NBA, or PGA. To get on this path, you must devote your energy to constantly improving your game and bowling on a variety of conditions. You can’t be content to bowl on easy “house” conditions and only compete against local amateurs.

The way to get better and the way to improve your game quickly are to bowl with the pros. Watch them and learn from them. If you can, find a good pro in your area and pay them for lessons. The small amount invested in lessons will reap big rewards on the lanes.

To move from a regional player to a national player, start bowling in a few national tournaments. Some of the national tournaments have open fields, such as the U.S. Open and the USBC Masters. The only way to test your ability is to compete in these events. Be forewarned, there’s a learning curve and it may take several years of straddling the regional/national line before you become an exempt player.

As an exempt player, you can expect to earn between $30,000 - $200,000 a year. It’s not the salaries of pro football or baseball players, but you can earn a decent living. Some pros have advertising/endorsement contracts and work in the industry during the off-season.

Maybe you’ll be the next Walter Ray Williams Jr. or Earl Anthony? Work hard and have fun and you’re guaranteed to at least throw a lot of strikes.