Well this was my first week on the "Cheetah" oil pattern on my Wednesday PBA experience league and I had such high hopes. I still shot my average (173 this week, 170 over all) but this time I did it with two good games & two bad games - all based around spare shooting.
The first game I only double struck once, threw the only split of the night (7-10), & swifted 3 other easy spares for a dismal 158.
The second game was much better with two doubles & all closed frames (a three count in the 4th due to lazy wrist) finishing with a 204.
The third game I had only one double strike and 5!!! easy opens. Most of my leaves all night were 4's or 7's or 5's. In my defense, (no real defense) I've changed my line-up for shooting the left side and I'm not quite there yet. That game ended with a double dismal 141.
The forth game I had a double & a turkey, but still 2 easy opens for a respectable 190.

The bottom line is that I felt I was throwing a good first ball at the two board but still leaving a lot of single pins. The parallel move then angular move I practiced on did work even though I needed to execute it better. That trick of pre-squeezing than relaxing the hand felt great and is going to work great for me.
I sucked at my spares during league even though in the morning I was awesome at them at practice. I played a low game of about 40 - picking off the 10 pin then the 7 pin only three frames in a row.

Still had lots of fun, but I do hate chocking on single pins.

The Cheetah is a short pattern and the only way to keep from missing your spares because the ball over hooking is to throw straight at your spares.

Spares are as important as strikes and deserve the same, if not more, attention as strikes. Often when the strikes are not forthcoming, making your spares can turn your night into a so-so night rather than a disaster. Just think, if you made one more spare per game you'd be a 180 bowler. One of the things I think of when shooting a spare is that if I miss this spare I will have to get two strikes in a row to make up for it.

ijohn83:

Do you use a spare ball for your spares?

Spares are the reason I am averaging 162 rather than 182. What is most frustrating for me is missing one pin spares by the smallest of margins and they seem to pile up at one point during the night then the rest of the time I am o.k.

Scott, I am in a similar situation. I go through streaks where I miss single pin spares. Then I have nights when I never miss a one.

Through much trial and error (and some coaching), I have discovered a few things that help.
1) I have to remember to follow through on my swing after release.
2) I have to keep my ball speed similar to my strike shot. If I get over-cautious and slow down, I tend to miss.
3) I give my spare shots a slight loft, and completely relax my hand on release.

If I can remember to do those things I am usually much better off.

Brett

I do throw a plastic spare ball. I have just recently started throwing it at almost all my spares, not just the right or left side. I also have changed to going a little more direct at the 7 or 4. I've also shorten my approach about 12" so I can put my slide foot toe exactly on dots. I've got the right side down (6, 9, 10) but my left side has been suffering. I need to settle on the dots I want to use for that left side.
Spares use to be my strong suit and will be again with more practice.
Thanks Brett for the 3 tips. I'll keep those close by during practice to remind me.

~ John

i feel your pain, i'm a righty, and almost never miss a 3,6 or 10 pin, show me a 4, 5 or 7 pin, and i'm off it an inch. drives me nuts!

It sounds like if you guys are having trouble with your left side spares and you are trying to go straight at your spares, (as you should), that you are getting to the line with your body square to the foul line and pulling the ball across toward the pin you are aiming at, instead of walking and being square to the pin/arrow you are aiming at.

I had a problem with missing left handed spares before too. What coachjim said rang true i was more lining up with the foul line instead of lining up with the pin and arrow i was aimming for. Once i corrected my spare percentage rate increased.

In my case I think I am just a dork that worked real hard on the right side and took the left side for granted. My next time out to practice I am going to decide where I am going to shoot & aim at for my singles and do it. My problem stems from me wanting to simplify what I have to remember "less is better". I want to stand on the left front dot and shoot the 6, 9, or 10 with a little aim adjustment. Then I want to stand on the dot next to that dot (second left front dot) and shoot the 4, 7, or 8 with a little aim adjustment. I don't seem to have any problem from taking the smaller steps to do this.
One spare I missed I glanced at it and lined up for a 4 pin threw a perfect ball and missed - the pin was an 8 not a 6. - just a dork. Once in a while I pitch one way out side that looks like a straight strike but I think it is when I am not relaxed patient and start to help/push on the ball.

~ John

ijohn, from what you said, spare problems are not your target, it's your aim.

I think everyone hates missing easy spares - course if it was really that easy, none of us would be missing.

Yeah, just came home from bowling tonight and I feel everyone's pain. I was having a good game and then I missed a 5 pin by a hair and then things started to go south. I don't know whether missing the pin messes up your mentality and throws you off completely. What's worse is when you miss those easy ones you feel like a total idiot.

I wish there was some way I could recover mentally from missing those easy ones.

Tastey, you should only be thinking of one thing, your next shot. What happened in the past, you should learn from. What your opponent does, you can't control. The only thing you can focus on is your very next shot, and that alone.

You can't get a double unless you get the first one. That is the strike you focus on, not the second.

Hi Dennis,

Would you follow-up a little more on what you mean "it's not my target it's my aim" because that sounds right to me. I can move all around the boards to pick-up leave combinations I don't practice with my spare ball - yet choke on things I do practice. Also, I bet I make more single pin spares in a night than the better bowlers. Where they have 7 or 8 strikes in most of their games, I have that many single or double pins spares to succeed or fail with.
I also think what Brett said rings true to me about lofting the spare ball a little more. I know I naturally loft the ball (look at pins and arrows) on the unfamiliar spares, now that I think about it, but on the ones I am more comfortable with, I set the ball down a little earlier more like my strike ball. Maybe my aim & target issues become a factor. I.E. - On my strike ball I aim 1 1/2" boards right of the board I want the ball to roll over, yet I've always aimed right at the board to roll over on the spare shot.

I’m, once again, anxious to hit the lanes to work out my problems.

Thanks for all the fresh ideas everyone.

~ John

Missing a single pin, really doesn't make a lot of sense. When you think of it you have the widest margin of error on a single pin. The pin diameter is 4 1/2". And you can hit it on the left or the right by the width of the ball which is 8 1/2" on each side. So, you have 21 1/2" of a 41" wide lane to hit the pin. Seems impossible to miss it.

Multi pin spares require much more accuracy and a narrower margin for error.

Discounting speed as an effect, If your target is the correct one, and you have compensated for your ball hook, if any, the most common thing that is the problem, is your arm and its armswing. Again, if your target is correct, and hook is taken into account, all you have to do is hit it. Missing left usually indicates your arm is coming in front of you at the release. While missing right usually indicates your arm came behind you in the backswing. In either case, your armswing is not straight. A straight armswing and a release pointing directly at your target is imperative. Pulling across is common on 7's, and bringing around the back is common on 10's.

If you say your arm is straight, and you hit your target, your target is wrong.

If slow speed is the problem, and your ball hooks past the pin, adjust your target or roll your spare ball faster. Most more accurate bowlers, roll their spare ball faster to minimize the hook effect.

This calculation was just in the BTM as well. It's wrong, because it's measuring from the left side of the ball if you just glance the pin on the left, to the right side of the ball if you just glance the pin on the right.

A more accurate figure would be how far the part of the ball touching the lane can be off to still hit the pin. In this case, you'd have the width of the pin, plus 1/2 the width of the ball on either side, or 13".

Don't let that get anyone's confidence down or anything. That just bugged me when I saw it in the national publication, and I had to vent somewhere

Just a followup, the boards are basically an inch wide, so that still means you have 13" at the deck, which translates to an area of 3-4 boards at the arrows. That's a good bit of room.

One more followup, on 7 and 10 pins, you'd only have the pin plus one half of the ball, or 8 3/4", which is about 2-3 boards at the arrows. So, you still have room.

Heh, I lied, a final followup. This got pretty heated in the chat room, so I wanted to post this image that shows the different between what Dennis was talking about and what I was talking about. Dennis was measuring from the outside edges of the ball. I was talking about how much room you actually have on the lane.



Thanks to GP for the beautiful base graphic, complete with Storm balls.

Thanks for the great numbers. May I add, correct me if I'm wrong, the reason you attack the corner pins at an angle is to recover some of that lost 4 1/4" on the gutter side.

~ John

Actually you have an even bigger leeway to make that spare although I "may be splitting hairs". The maximum diameter of a bowling ball is 8.59 inches, not 8.50 inches.

johnw1: indeed, but haven't you ever gone by a pin and touched it, but not knocked it over? Also, the pin will deform over time, so depending on how it is sitting on the lane, you may have more or less room that way. I think serial numbers are carved 1/32" deep on the ball (could be 1/16" though, not sure), so by the time it's almost ready to retire, from resurfacing, it could be 1/16-1/8" narrower in diameter than when it started. If the ball flares enough to migrate the axis to either the fingers, thumb, or a weight hole, there would be a tiny reduction in diameter as well.

Fun

Is there any wind factor for us fast ballers?

haha, probably. A ball with some sort of non-rolling spin (axis tilt) would probably have a slight advantage on those brush-by hits as well, but I'll take the accuracy of a freely swung, rolling ball any day.

Only if you use a tornado...haaahaaachoke screeeeeeeeech CRASH O&A fans will get that one.

Funny thing about the circumference of a ball, the smaller the ball the more revs and striking ability. Ebonite took 3 identical balls except for circumference and gave them to several pro bowlers and had them bowl with each one an even number of shots and the ball with the smallest circumference had the most strikes and was easiest to control.

It would lower the RG, so that makes sense

Remember when I posted this? Was I wrong? No, I think I nailed it.

Poster: Dennis Michael
Subject: Re: Bowling and GEEKS II

I've noticed something lately, and have wondered if there is any correlation between the Sport of Bowling and people who work in the Computer Industry?

Given the fact that the American Labor Pool has taken a major shift from production line factory employees to professional office workers, I seem to find a growing percentage of the bowlers I run into coming from one business segment more than others. The Geeks; those people who work with, on and around computers.

Is there something in this correlation? What is it that attracts the networkers, data base managers, software engineers, and technical support people to this sport?

Granted, most of these jobs didn't exist when I previously bowled over 25 years ago, but, I think it is much more.

The Sport of Bowling has evolved over my absence to a technical level that many I grew up with would not understand. Heck, all we knew was to repeat the necessary bodily control required to roll a rubber ball consistently on lanes that were wooden, at the correct speed and targeted in the proper direction.

Today's ball technology of asymetric and symetric weights, the chemical make up of coverstock, materials used in ball construction, internal weight distribution and ball reaction has turned this game into a science. It is further complicated by the scientific applications of angles, rotations, control of an axis, and the reaction driven from those. It is not only geometry but physics as well.

balls used to be drilled, centered over the company label. They looked pretty. Today you have to know the PAP, the Val, distances from certain points cause differences in the performance of the ball. Things are much more complicated today and to those geeks, much more interesting.

Combining the material technological advances, with the applications of weight distribution, leverage and compounding those with the geometry of angles and axis control, then complicating all of this with the physics of thrust, inertia and deflection, make this Sport a really appealing one for the technical mind of the GEEK.

To them, it is much, much more than a Sport. It is the challenge to understand all of the interrelationships of the above, how they can be manipulated and managed.
The inquisitive mind set, curiosity, unending drive to improve and control of the GEEK fits in this sport. I cannot think of another sport where technology has advanced as much in 25 years, just on the ball used.

Oh, Louisville Slugger would like you to think they are technologically advanced too. Come on, I've been there. Computers now run the lathes. But, that piece of wood is still a piece of wood. And, a pigskin is still a pigskin.

I can't imagine what the next what the next 25 years is going to bring to this Sport with the GEEKS so intimately involved.

Heck, one of the Mods on this bowling site proves my point. His name isn't Slick, Big Ern or Lebowski, or anything bowling related. It's usrbingeek.

Just my thoughts at 2 am.

Somehow the first one didn't post. So, I did it again. But, it is now 3 am.

My work is computer based, I bowl ... I am not a geek - or am I? LOL!

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

Writing down your scores frame by frame is a great idea for figuring out where your problems started and where you need to make changes and what parts of your game you need to focus on fixing.

Single pin leaves = 10
single pin spares = 5
single pin spare % = 50% = 55 from your score at 11 per miss

multi pin leaves = 15
multi pin spares = 8
multi pin spare % = 53% = 77 from your score at 11 per miss
total missed from score = 132 or 33 from your average because of missed spares if you made your spares your average for the night would be 169 + 33 = a 202 average for the night. Subtract from your total the number of spares that were splits, nobody expects to make splits, and you didn't mention, so I figured they were all makable spares.

Strikes for the night = 16
number of total possible strikes per game = 12 x 4 games =48
strike percentage for the night = 16/48x100 = 33%

Everyone makes bad shots, you seem to have run into problems in the second game in frames 2-5 where you left a string of multi pin spares, what happened, was the ball going high or light what leaves were they?

I also saw a couple of 3 counts I take it you missed to the outside and the ball picked off the corner pins here?

Was the ball flaring back over the thumb or starting over the thumb and flaring away from the thumb? If it is starting out over the thumb (most likely) your fingers and thumb are in line with each other, try keeping your index finger in line with your thumb and getting your thumb out quicker should get the Track off the thumb. You can still throw the ball with forward roll without pulling the Track up over the thumb, try your regular release but following through with your thumb at the two o'clock position instead of letting your thumb go all the way around to 12 o'clock.

You are very close to taking your average up at least 20 pins have you looked into getting a coach?

Hi CoachJim,

Its funny looking at the pattern on game two now that you mention it. I don't remember (I will keep better notes) exactly the location of my misses. Very few of my 1st balls all night were high or "Brooklyn" they were light.
One multi-miss combo that was driving me nuts, I know, was the 1-2-5 leave. This would happen when I would not keep my wrist firm but relax it along with my ball speed. I was trying to remember not to throw too hard all night long and once in a while the wrist would ease off also - and the ball would miss to the right. On the spare pick-up (or lack there of) I went with my strike ball and would not hit the head pin. I kept thinking about the long "Shark" oil and moved my target in to the 10 board (instead of my regular 7 board), standing on the 20th board (center), throwing a regular release (not heavy forward roll) and the ball would curve and miss left. (I always center up on my second ball if I have center pins - I don't throw the outside strike line at them.) My back row multiple pin leaves I was making with no problem.
The 3 counts were extreme bad release examples of old habits I forget still exist in me - fast & straight (off thumb & fingers at the same time - knuckle ball)down the targeted 3 board with no rotation knocking down the 6,9 & 10. I was, (along with slower ball speed and forward rotation - no side roll) remembering to keep low at the foul line & follow though to the pins not the ceiling at release.

I don't know if the oil rings on the ball were starting at the thumb or flaring to the thumb. I just kept noticing it but did not want to shift out of game mode to analyze it. On my 1st ball release (wish I could call it my "strike release") I had brought my index finger in & my pinky out symmetrically for the night and rolled strait up the back of the ball not, rotating my wrist at all.

I would love to be coached. I don't know of any coaches in my area that understand my hard throwing forward thumb pitched style. I brought my Video camera to practice today, unfortunately; the new tape I thought I grabbed was an old full one – maybe this weekend.

On a side note: I did get selected today to sit on a jury trial for a month. So it will be interesting working at night, court by day and wife, kids, bowling, dog walking, eating & sleeping in the free time.

~ John

It sounds like you have a lazy wrist. There are a couple of drills you could do to try to cure this, I don't know how you bowl so I don't know what to tell you, other than to focus on keeping your wrist in position all the way to the release point and project the ball to your target with your fingers.

As far as missing the 1,2, 8 goes you move your feet 3 boards to the right,and keep you target the same. Do not move your target 3 boards to the left, if you move your target in, it may hit fresh oil or a dried spot and cause the ball to hook too much or too little. If you are going to hook the ball at that spare you need to play off of your strike line so you know what type of reaction to expect.



That statement tells me you would rather keep doing what you are doing and aren't willing to try anything that will help you improve. You can make any style work if you have the time and patients to practice enough games, look at the Traber Brothers or Roger Bowker or Rick Lawrence, Ryan Shafer and mostly Walter Ray Williams, they all deviated from a traditional approach and had success, but they all practiced like obsessive compulsive crazy people to achieve the success they had.

Try to post a video and I will see if I can help you.

I knew when I wrote that statement "I don't know of any coaches in my area that understand my hard throwing forward thumb pitched style." it didn't sound right. I've been in the process of changing and trying all things to improve.
What was on my mind as an example was when the Coach I did see had me spread out my right foot so I was in a more "stable" position then I read in the book "bowling Execution" that the feet should be 3" or less together, at some point you have to decide who you are going to listen to.
I've been reading and listening to your advice on this board with thumb pitches and such (because it seems like you know what you are talking about) and rebuilding my game from the ground up. Now if "you" see me bowl on Video and you say "[censored] - slow it down" then I work on slowing it down. But all I know now is if I slow the ball down I get more splits and I'm not throwing faster than the pros, therefore there must be a way to bowl well with speed and something else is the problem with my bowling.

PS. I do focus on keeping my wrist in position all the way to the release point and project the ball to your target with your fingers. A wrist drill recommendation would be good - will bring a Hammer to my work and strengthen my wrist soon - now that I think about it.