I was a sub in a league last wednesday night. Bowlers with higher averages than myself were hooking the ball at corner pins.  Some were hitting the gutter, some the ball would hook out of the way and miss, some the ball would hit the 6 pin but miss the 10.

I am an average bowler 175 currently, even I know you shouldn't do that.

Does anyone here think that spare shooting has gone down in leagues? For open play sometimes I'll watch the league before hand and you see the same thing, people hooking the ball at corner pins and missing most of the time.

It seems as if the emphasis is more on throwing strikes and less on spares. Has anyone noticed this?  Seems like a lot of bowlers don't practice spares or are so sure they will strike every time that picking up spares is not important to them.

Whats your opinion?

Thanks for the backiup Rags...some people will never listen to reason. Either that or they are just that much better than us. I mean I like having a margin for error...especially on SPORT certified paterns.

Throwing angle at a 2-8 gives me a lot more room for error than dead on. If I recall I think you have a board either way of dead straight and the 2-8 wil lstill go if you throw head on. If you hook the ball into it you get about 10 boards to play with. Personally I like those odds!!!

If I recall properly the book I have at home "Bowling, Knowledge is the Key"  says it best....if you leave a 9 pin and throw a straight ball at it you literally have a 20 board area to hit that pin once you factor in the diameter of the pin and the ball.

Besides hook was created to get better angle to increase carry. Carry is not a concern when shooting spares so why hook a ball into the spare and increase the probabilitythat you can add an error to the game?

Just my 2 cents.
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mcm42,
I think the point of it all is try that in 10 houses on 10 patterns.
including PBA and sport shots.

moving 5 boards right may put you in OOB.

the big factor is initail trajectory. you are projecting the ball forwards and it has to incounter friction to turn left.

this can be at a different spot and create different angles of intersection. take into account ball roll out and other forces  that can happen in 60 feet along with the human inconsistent factors.

tug the ball on a wet dry and you will miss right. fling it out and it may bounce off the dry to soon and go infront of the pin.

same scenario with plastic. the inital trajectory is directed at the pins. friction is at it minimal per your release. this means the plastic ball will react less to incosistencies in your release and speed and lanes. but if you have very, very, poor accuracy then that inital projection will miss a lot becuse of less luck from the lanes.

so You have to better to use plastic on a THS. but when it comes to tough patterns the luck from the lanes becomes a greater liabilty to sparing.
so Plastic is better in the long run. and this comes from A guy who can kill anyball. yo9u need less of a special release.

so 100's of hours practicing a high speed,low rev, straight release or $50.00 and a dozen games with a siple flat release that is easy to duplicate.

easy math on my part.


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"deserves got nothing to do with it."
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