Spare Practice ?

M

Mantis

How do you guys practice spare shooting. I have this past week asked for just 20 minutes practice with just the ball return. I've looked back on some old score sheets and found that one pin spares have cost me heaps.
So 20 minutes with my plastic just shooting at arrows with feet here, and seeing what works without thinking. I have found foot positions and arrows that IF I hit the arrow, I WILL hit the 10 or 7 pin. It has been a learning curve to stop throwing at the pin and concentrate on the arrow, but after just one of these sessions, I upped my average on Wed night 20 pins. I bowled a 181 av with only 11 strikes for the night. Damn good for me!!! The average I mean. Only left 5 frames open for the night ( two in the ninth frame, bugger).
I hope after another session today that I can qualify for the Emmerson tomorrow.
 
What I do is aim just for 7-10 during practice and i find it helps my spare game during leauge and I mannaged to get a 6-10 split twice in one game. When I am doing practice I try not to hit any other pins but 7-10.
 
I practise spare shooting all the time.
Monday nights there is usually 3 to 4 of us and I will spare whatever is left by someone. That way I can work on everything rather than just one thing in particular.
Fridays I often shoot at 7 and 10s, trying to get ten of each. If I miss one, I go back to the start, and am very honest about it because its the only way I can get better.
 
Yeah, I was really chuffed on Wed when i lined up some 10 pins and hit them square on, like I meant it. I picked up a couple of ugly spares as well. This practice isn't fun, but it helps heaps.
 
You should practice sparing EVERY pin on different conditions. Build confidence by developing a line for each pin and remember that an oily outside condition means bowling an inside tighter line. Sparing is all about confidence (ie mental game).

Hope this helps.

Feral
 
Couldn't agree more. There's nothing that builds my confidence more than when i've practiced my spare lines, and know all i have to do is hit my mark, and pencil in the next spare. I can almost guarantee that when i'm lazy, and decide to improvise a line which 'should work', i will more often than not miss the spare.

It's the same with everything really isn't it? Practice having a line for every pin, and it will become second nature to you in time.

When i bowled regularly, my practice focused on reinforing these lines in my head, but mainly focusing on troublesome pins, which for me was most definitely the 7 pin.

Then all that needed to be done was sort out those pesky strikes!

Best of luck in your Emerson Shield tryouts
 
Missed 7 th spot in the Emerson by 17 pins. Sheez. Will have another go this Sunday. Had to shoot 10 over average to get in, but I should be able to with my sparing getting better.
 
Here I am bragging about my sparing getting better then last night in league I couldn't hit a barn door with a hand full of wheat, let alone a one pin spare jeez.
Got back to practicing those spare lines after work today and widened my angles into the 10 and 7 pins. Seems to work a bit better. I am standing on the far left dot and throwing over the third arrow from the right for the 10 and the far right dot and the same arrow for the 7.
Where do you guys and gals setup to hit 10 and 7???
BTW I got a 6,7, 10 split last night for the first time.
 
Mantis said:
Here I am bragging about my sparing getting better then last night in league I couldn't hit a barn door with a hand full of wheat, let alone a one pin spare jeez.
Got back to practicing those spare lines after work today and widened my angles into the 10 and 7 pins. Seems to work a bit better. I am standing on the far left dot and throwing over the third arrow from the right for the 10 and the far right dot and the same arrow for the 7.
Where do you guys and gals setup to hit 10 and 7???
BTW I got a 6,7, 10 split last night for the first time.
Click to expand...

Mantis, there's some different versions of spare shooting systems, but I like the simple ones. This one just uses 20 board for everything a straight ball will cover.

I stand on the 19th board and target 20 with a straightish ball for a seven pin, then adjust left about three boards to the right (can change a bit with conditions) for the 4 pin and again for the 2 pin. For the 10 pin, try standing 35 and bowling 20 with a straightish ball. Again, move three boards right for the 6 pin and again for the 3 pin. For sleepers, adjust with your strike shot to get to the double wood.

This with a few tweaks from house to house will keep you out of trouble. You may not be the same size across the shoulders as me or you may drift in your approach, which will mean some adjustments, but work with it and it will work with you.

Remember, you strike for show and you spare for dough! :)

Hope this helps,
Jason
 
Thanks Jason, I will keep experimenting and your simpler system sounds good. The simpler the better for me eh.
 
You're most welcome. Simpler the better at this end too! ;-)

Re-reading my advice, I realise there's a big error there. I assume you've worked it out, but for the record, it should read:

I stand on the 19th board and target 20 with a straightish ball for a seven pin, then adjust left about three boards to the left (can change a bit with conditions) for the 4 pin and again for the 2 pin. For the 10 pin, try standing 35 and bowling 20 with a straightish ball. Again, move three boards right for the 6 pin and again for the 3 pin. For sleepers, adjust with your strike shot to get to the double wood.

This with a few tweaks from house to house will keep you out of trouble. You may not be the same size across the shoulders as me or you may drift in your approach, which will mean some adjustments, but work with it and it will work with you.

Remember, you strike for show and you spare for dough!

Hope this helps,
Jason
 
Still couldn't hit simple spares last night. Maybe having a spare ball 2 pounds lighter than my strike ball is putting me off. If I practice with just the spare ball I can hit arrows no problems. Might have to grab a heavier spare pill do you think???
 
OH MAN! Yes!

A different weight ball (especially lighter) is too easy to steer. Sparing is all about swinging straight and following through. This is tough to do when you've got a light ball in your hand, unless you have a really disciplined swing, as it affects your timing.

Terry Wenban is about the only guy I know who could switch weights readily and it was a long time ago when he used to do that!

I think you've found your answer. Get a heavier spare ball. Remember any ball will hit spares. I use an AMF Angle made in 1985 for mine. (World's first urethane ball. True! It was on their posters at the time when I couldn't afford one!) It's got about 10 plugs in it and the logo is wearing off! What I'm trying to say is you don't have to spend a fortune. A second hand ball will do the trick. Your pro shop guy may have something lying around from an uncollected plug job. It'll knock over single pins until you save up for something sexier.

Cheers,
Jason
 
There a game I play in practice which revolves around recording the lowest score possible. Hope this make sense to you.

The game is about bowling at 7 and 10 pins solely for the whole 10 frames.
On your 1st ball, going for the 10pin, if it goes in the gutter, you record a strike, otherwise record the number of pins that have been knocked over.
On the 2nd ball, going for the 7 pin, it goes in the gutter or you fail to knock over at least one pin, you show a spare.

The idea is to record the lowest score. any score in the region of 50-70 is pretty good. I found it really helps to build confidence in going for spares. In trying to knock off the 7 and 10 pins alone, without guttering or knocking over any other pins, has really helped me to fine tune my game and helpful with picking up the more difficult splits.

The only pain with this practice routine is adjusting the computer scoring. I now have some paper copies of the score sheet were I record each ball.

I normally start with this game. Then I play 3 normal games of bowling except in the first game I bowl over 1st arrow. Second game, 2nd arrow, Third game, Yep you guess it. Bowling for the highest score possible.
I not too worried about the score, I concentrate more on hitting my marks. This give me the confidence to bowl any part of the lane and not be afraid to move to a totally different line, if I don't like what my ball is doing on one part of the lane.

Hope this is useful to someone
 
The above post was delayed due to minor technical problem.
This post created to bring it back in to main view
 
Hey all,

Is it better to havwe a reactive ball for sparing or a straightball or non reactive?
 
The single best ever piece of advice I ever got for spares.
STRAIGHTER IS GREATER!
Take the lane completely out of play. Take your hand out of the ball, impart little to no revolutions on the ball, and throw it straight across the lane at the pin your trying to get. You can throw the exact same spare shot everywhere. Regardless of whether the lanes are hooking, reverse blocked, tough as all hell or the biggest ditch in the world. You can always stand on board X, hit X and spare. EVERYTIME! Use this for basically anything without Double wood, as Jason said, use your strike ball and usually 3 boards adjustments either way to pick up them little buggers.
Also, I personally find that as a right hander I leave more single 4 pins then single 7 pins. So you might want to throw the 4 pin as one of your key spares to practice, or a 6 pin if your a lefty.

Hope this helps.

Later Da Cowman!
 
This weekend I'll post something that Peter Somoff from Storm showed me that will help everyone with their spares. (I have to draw it up first...) It's a lot of fun too!
 
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