BallReviews

General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: punkrawk77 on December 23, 2003, 08:52:50 AM

Title: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: punkrawk77 on December 23, 2003, 08:52:50 AM: I hear a lot of people saying to throw straight at your spares, yet i throw a hook when i pick my spares. Is there a right and a wrong way of doing it. I don't use a spare ball at all. I have just one ball, and old Ebonite Gyro blue.

I don't have a big hook, so maybe that is why i can get away with it.

Let me know
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: omegabowler on December 24, 2003, 12:09:18 AM: best way to pick up spares:

buy them and drink and say " so what's a nice pin like you hanging put in an alley?"

"I a nice pair of balls back at my place"

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"deserves got nothing to do with it."
-- William Munny
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: channel surfer on December 24, 2003, 01:15:21 AM: Well for the 6 pin, 9 pin and 10 pin i throw it straight, for evrything else, i throw a slight hook.
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Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: WAYouthBowler on December 24, 2003, 03:20:34 AM: As straight as possible!

Started doing this a couple years ago. It's so nice to know that if you miss a spare, it's because you flat missed, not hitting a dry spot or catching too much oil.

Only problem is now I miss more 2 pins then anything else... shoot me.
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I'm neither good, nor consistent, which is why I bowl.
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: shotmaker on December 24, 2003, 07:52:04 AM: Throwing straight is the way to go. While hooking at your spares can be done fairly consistently on a house shot "wall", when the pattern gets harder you won't be able to count on the reaction as you cover other areas of the lane other than where you throw your strike ball.

Learning to throw it straight isn't too hard. I recommend trying to throw with locked elbow, slightly broken wrist, and following through to target with the rear of your thumb. This works well for me and generates that wonderful B-bump,B-bump,B-bump, as the ball thumps down the lane.
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: TheBowlingKid25 on December 24, 2003, 08:04:22 AM: I throw a hook for spares, when it is a 10 pin, I throw my urethane scout, it straightes out right next to the gutter everytime. As for 7 pins, I just throw my strike ball from way over on the right, no big deal! Screw what anyone else says, if you can pick'em up...WHO CARES?
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15 years and still going strong! 15 years old that is!
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: anotherwindup on December 24, 2003, 08:12:28 AM: Hmm, can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned this yet........

Knock all the pins down. That will get you a spare everytime.
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Jason Jenkins
"Nothing HITS like a Hammer"
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: TheBowlingKid25 on December 24, 2003, 08:21:53 AM: YES, WHY DID I THINK OF THAT BEFORE?! DA DA DAAAAAA UP UP AND AWAYYYY! TO THE BAT CAVE ROBIN!
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15 years and still going strong! 15 years old that is!
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: Rock77 on December 24, 2003, 10:18:38 AM: quote:
Well for the 6 pin, 9 pin and 10 pin i throw it straight, for evrything else, i throw a slight hook.

Same goes for me.
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"I am the most consistent bowler in my house....

I consistently SUCK!!"
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: Porkchop on December 24, 2003, 12:20:53 PM: I'm right handed and hook at anything on the left and use plastic for anything on the right throwing hard and straight.
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: janderson on December 24, 2003, 12:22:21 PM: Whatever works best for you and the conditions you're bowling on. Don't be afraid to experiment.

From personal experience, when the pros started throwing straight at most of their spares, my reaction was "bah, who needs to do that?". Me, Mr. Know-It-All was quickly proven wrong when I started bowling tournaments across more lane conditions and different bowling centers and started missing simply 1-pin pickups.

The advantages of each method (help me out if I miss something gang, I'm not Mr. Know-It-All anymore...)

1. Hooking for spares

PROS: you can use the "forgiveness" in the lane condition to make spares on less than perfect shots .. CONS: On difficult or unknown lane conditions, you miss easy spares due to unforseen or unpredictable ball reactions

2. Straight at 'em

PROS: you can set up a "system" of where to stand and where to throw that you can use anywhere on any condition. You are unaffected by lane conditions.. CONS: no "forgiveness" from the lane conditions. If you miss your mark, you generally miss your spare.

On Edit - BTW, don't feel that you must use one or the other method. I generally hook the balls at my spares on my home house and typical house shots, but throw straight at my spares as soon as I go anywhere else.
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(c) Copied Right! 2003 Knarly Stuff Inc.

Edited on 12/24/2003 1:21 PM
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: Chrispy on December 24, 2003, 01:57:45 PM: I use the suit case delivery for my spares. If i hear the ball rolling over the thumb hole on my spares i know it's a good release
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: jd1319 on December 24, 2003, 02:27:19 PM: I throw straight at spares on the right side, and hook on the left. Anything on the left, if I adjust 1-2 boards to the right, my strike shot will go brooklyn, make the same adjustment again, it breaks to the 4 and 7. Just a slight modification on the strike shot. For the right hand shot, I move left and it goes straight into the 3, keeping the same mark. Move 10 boards left, it goes straight to the 10 pin.
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: trash heap on December 24, 2003, 03:23:32 PM: Okay. I go straight on right side 6, 9, 10 and everything else I adjust with my strike ball and hooking the ball. Now I can do this when there is are variance of THS. But on the extremes (dry and heavy oil), is throwing straight a better approach?
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Over the years I got to be quite a connossieur of soap. Though my personal preference was for Lux, I found that Palmolive had a nice, piquant after-dinner flavor -- heavy, but with a touch of mellow smoothness. Life Buoy, on the other hand... YECCHH!
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: DP3 on December 24, 2003, 09:17:25 PM: After bowling collegiately for three years, and seeing all of the great bowlers out there, the guys that usually go straight at every spare usually miss the most spares. From what I've seen(and from what I do) sometimes you just gotta know what spares to hook the ball at and when it is ok to do it and what spares to go straight at and when it is ok to do it. I mean why go straight at a 2-8 sleeper and have 1 board margin for error when you can hook at it and still have up to 2 boards left and 5 boards right margin of error when squaring up and hooking at it?
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-D. Marshall
ScratchBowling.com Shirt Staff 2003-2004
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: AnotherRinger on December 24, 2003, 10:05:29 PM: I'd say it depends. On a house shot, hooking the ball to your spares is quite effective, as the wall helps the ball find it's way to the other side of the headpin, but, on more difficult shots, hooking the ball is actually to your disadvantage.

Personally, I use both. On my normal walled up shot, hooking the lane for the 7 pin is easy, but on difficult flat shots, straight at 'em is definately the more guranteed method.
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The THING!
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: CountryClubBowler on December 24, 2003, 10:38:41 PM: The reason I switched from hooking to straight at almost ALL spares cept the 5 was simple. If there was a puddle in the middle of the lane, as there is on most THS, then hooking to a side got kind of wierd. On a fresh sport shot, it was just so darn difficult to hook at em.

Straight means I don't have to change anything about a huge part of my game from house to house. I go straight so I don't have to use my strike ball again, and so that I can be confident that I can get the same spare no matter what the condition.
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Buzzsaws are very, very dangerous.
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: 10pin2002 on December 25, 2003, 02:03:36 PM: I'm right-handed so:

2,5,8,3 pins: adjust from strike ball
other single pins: straight at them (don't count unless you hit the pin 3 times)

3-6-10: straight
2-4, 2-4-5:Hook
4-7 or 6-10: straight
sleepers: Hook
Durbin: Hook
Bucket: Hook

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Just once I'd like to show up at a place with the lanes FLOODED 45 feet down and flat. That way I can watch these crankers struggle to find the pocket and leave splits while I come straight off the corner and do nothing but make 4 pins and 10 pins all night.
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: punkrawk77 on December 26, 2003, 10:45:43 PM: Using a hook to knock down my spares has been working quite well. The only time it doesn't is when i have a difficult spare. I guess those are challenging no matter what.

I have found that I can get a 6-10 spare, or 10 pin spare standing way left shooting cross alley but putting some hook on the ball. The last 3 feet or so, the ball will ride down along side the gutter, but not fall in the gutter and not hook out of the way of the 10 pin.

Is this odd? or does anyone else knock down there 10 pins that way?
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: shotmaker on December 27, 2003, 08:49:56 AM: Forgot to mention one of the benefits of my method (posted earlier in this thread). I pick up 90% of my spares over the middle arrow, I just have different starting points for my feet. Also, since I throw straight I always use the same line to my spare. Imagine how easy it is to pick up spares when you always throw at them the same no matter what the condition.
Title: Re: Best way to pick up spares?
Post by: LuvThatWhiteDot on December 27, 2003, 12:36:44 PM: quote:
Durbin: Hook

Pardon my ignorance, but what's a Durbin?
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White Dot
Queen of the Stone 8 Pin