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.