If my ball is 8.50 inches, then I could sure use an 8.59 incher for spares. I cant count the number of times I've been off by less than 1/10 inch!

I know in golf they make balls which are smaller and they go further ... Do any companies make a larger "illegal" bowling balls for that very reason? (Just curious I dont want one)

I dont know if you could find a ball that bigger in that. I dont think most companies would make a ball that is illegal and not certified by the USBC.

I've been having a hell of a time with my spares lately. Haven't had a clean game in nearly a month. Thursday after league I got extremely frustrated and bowled til closing time trying figure out what was going on. Before my 6 year hiatus I never missed single pin spares. I thought it was a timing issue, so lately I have been devoting all of my practice time working on that. It turns out it was my stance that was screwing me up.

I throw absolutely dead straight at my spares. In fact I used to use my strike ball for spares until I got chastised for putting to many hours on a ball that wears out over time. Nonetheless, I threw it straight as an arrow on any condition. Anyway, I realized that in my stance I stood up straighter and put the ball closer to the center of my chest when throwing straight. I have no idea why I began doing that, but as soon as I started throwing my spares in the same stance as my strikes it all clicked again. I hit dead center on my target and everything felt nice and smooth and effortless.

As an added bonus, my timing has gotten a thorough and fresh tune up! I can't wait to watch my average start going up again!

Whenever I begin to have accuracy issues, it's because I begin to twist my upper body in an effort to add speed. All my adult bowling life I was told I would be much better if I added speed. So I subconciously add speed at the bottom of my swing sometimes. Sometimes this causes me to turn my upper body past square. If this begins, I just remind myself to aim with my chest. This keeps me facing the target. Combined with my balance arm this keeps me on target. I don't miss too many non split spares, but when I do, I am much more upset about the miss than I am about not striking. usually it's a 7 pin and not a 10 pin.

The only time I have seen a ball that was larger than the legal limit was many years ago when my uncle showed me a ball that was made in Europe. He claimed it was larger than the balls made here in the US. Dick Weber had a ball out on the market that he claimed was right at the legal limit.

Well - I averaged my 170 again (171). This time with one bad game, one good game & two average games.

1st game 165 (2 easy misses & 1 split)
2nd game 144 (4 easy misses)
3rd game 170 (3 easy misses)
4th game 206 (clean game, 5 strikes [only 1 double], and only 2 non-9 counts)

As far as my spare shooting goes, I am throwing my plastic ball at all spares now. I have a little mental voice going off inside of me that says "You can get that easy with your strike ball" that I think hurts me. I need more practice to be confident with my plastic spare ball.

My shot all four games was aiming at the 1 board (rolling over the 2-3) with a little added loft with my BW Bite standing with the inside of my slide foot on the 7-8 board. A powerful pocket strike - just had to make sure my wrist didn't get lazy or I didn't lay the ball down too soon (Brooklyn). I did not move my feet the entire night because I was leaving makable spares (to bad I'm still missing them) and it depended all on my Execution.

My only real question is about my game 4. All my shots were in the pocket. When I would be a little high, my single pin leaves were the 9 or the 6. The 1st oil ring on my ball started about 1/8" from my thumb hole. Should I have modified my release to lower that first oil ring to carry my 9's & 6's?

This was the last night on "Cheetah". Next week is "Shark" - all advice welcome!

~ John

Ideally, you would make a move inside a few boards to get in the pocket to get the 6 pin since thats usually not going high, but rather through the nose and the 9 is from the ball still hooking as it hits the pins, or your line was a little tight. The Cheetah is normally dry outside of 5, so most bowlers would be at 5 or deeper at release and target until further down the lane at the breakpoint which is really a little past the end of the pattern but outside of 5 to take advantage of the friction out there.

As for using plastic for all spares, I beginning to start using mine again. I put it up because I had the hardest time trying to us it for spares, predominantly the 10 pin, I kept missing inside but had trouble with others as well. So I learned to flatten out my strike ball, and went from somewhere around 50-60% to closer to 85-90% on 10 pins. I could get most of my equipment going straight at it and hit it. My plastic I didn't change my release with and the ball always ended up left of the 10 pin. So now I should be able to hit it squarely as long as I'm accurate, same thing with all the right side spares which I miss due to bad alignment and not hook since I didn't hook at them. My issue has been the left side, mainly 4s and 7s since thats what I leave more of. Before and after the plastic I would have issues even though I was throwing straight, this was alignment. I kept trying to come across the lane which led to pulling the ball most of the time. I now try to go more with the boards for the left side. I did this Tuesday and hit every pin I went for on the left side, still modifying my release, so the ball is completely end over end and no side rotation.

It sounds like your house put the Cheetah pattern down so it would play the way it does on tv.

The house I bowled in last summer didn't come close in any of the three times they put it down, the first time it was a short version of the house pattern as the lane man didn't understand what shot he was supposed to put down, this played harder than the cheetah since the break point on the cheetah is off the 4 board and the house pattern is dry outside the 10 board, the ball would hook long before it got to the break point. The second time they put the cheetah down, if the ball got outside of the 5 board it would pick off the 10 pin, or slide off into the ditch, again no playable break point. The last week they got the pattern right and didn't have the volume right, so I got to sort of play the shot the way it is supposed to be played, but with max speed at least for me. Rant off, I'm just jealous.

John, if you are leaving the 9 or 6 pin the ball is driving too hard on the back end and you should have moved inside farther to give the ball more room to burn off energy. Adjusting the release so the Track lowers would cause you to have even more backend unless you took revs off the ball too.

The Shark pattern can be played from outside off the first arrow and cross the 7 at the breakpoint so you are playing closed to the pocket you need more end over end type roll on the ball. The other way it plays is off of the 12 board, start standing on 19 and cross the 14 board at the arrows and let it go out to the 12 board at the end of the pattern and back to the pocket from there.

Well - I averaged my 170 again (169). On the Shark pattern.

1st game 186 (2 easy misses) - X X 9/ X 8/ X 63 90 X 7/ X
2nd game 152 (3 easy misses) - X 53 7/ 7/ 7/ X X 7/ 90 81
3rd game 184 (2 easy misses) - X X 9/ X X 8/ 9/ 90 61 9/3
4th game 152 (4 easy misses) - X 8/ X 72 90 35 90 9/ X 8/8

As far as my spare shooting goes, I was throwing my plastic ball at single & double leaves. My single pin misses were 4's or 6's (perfect 10 pin or 7 pin throws trying for the 4 or 6).

My biggest problem was the middle pin pick-ups! I wanted to be conservative and throw my BW Bite at anything in the middle with more than two pins - and kept missing left!

I'll not waste anyone’s time, but I actually felt good about my first 3 games. I took CoachJim's recommendation - "The Shark pattern can be played from outside of the first arrow and cross the 7 at the breakpoint so you are playing closed to the pocket you need more end over end type roll on the ball."

I had a good shot all night long - just had to deliver. I was releasing the ball smooth with lots of forward roll. I do have one question: For the first time ever my ball's oil rings were flaring over my thumb hole. Is that a problem? Didn't bother me.

No splits in any game.

I did tabulate my closing of frames for my 4 games:

1st frames 0 opens
2nd frames 1 opens
3rd frames 0 opens
4th frames 1 opens
5th frames 1 opens
6th frames 1 opens
7th frames 2 opens
8th frames 2 opens
9th frames 2 opens
10th frame 1 opens

I have found my video camera & its battery so I am going to try to post a video for visual help from you guys/gals).

Have a great day,

~ John