What do you consider a pocket shot?

A shot that knocks down, for a righty, the 1-2-3-5-and 6 pins, by hitting the 1-3? Is it more subjective than that? What if you get a bucket crumbler off the wall? If I leave a 4-9, was that a pocket shot? What if it was high, but less angle, vs. deep in the pocket, but with too much angle? What about an 8-10?

Discarding brooklyn strikes, is there a way you can say "These pins were knocked down, therefore it was a pocket hit"? Or better yet, is there some way to say "This pin is up, therefore it was not a pocket hit"?

WOW - I was thinking about this exact same thing earlier today! I guess after seeing all the debate about entry angles and what not I wanted to know - what the perfect strike looked like so that I would know when I hit one and know what to strive for.

I was searching for "prefect strike" on utube wanting to see it in action.

Most of what I found was a bunch of junk, but this one didnt look too bad.



As for the term pocket shot - I always thought if I hit between the 1 and 3 I was in the pocket. more of the 1 I was high more of the 3 I was low ...

Here's the example I brought up to CG to begin this -

Last light I left a lot of 3 pins. The ball got back enough to not leave a 9 pin, but it was still light enough to leave a 3. What is that considered? Pocket or no?

If you hit your respective pocket (1-3 righty or 1-2 lefty) that is considered a "pocket" shot. It doesn't matter if you come in behind the head pin, as long as you hit the 1-3 (righty) pocket, it should be considered a pocket shot. You either miss the pocket,hit light, hit solid,or hit high.

I think that as long as the ball makes contact with either the 1-3 for a righty or a 1-2 for the lefties, you did hit the pocket, but, as we all know, there are just different ways to hit the pocket. Also, as we know, some definitely work better than others. The goal, of course, is to hit the pocket flush because it does give the best strike percentage, so we adjust to try to get that flush hit knowing that carrying light or high is a bit of a good break and won't happen every time we hit the pocket that way.

It's like a baseball player who hit a pop-up or slow grounder and manages to not get thrown out. He still hit the ball, but not as good as he would have liked to; he wants to hit the ball square in the same way that we want a flush pocket hit.

Mark

I and many others consider a pocket shot as when the ball makes contact with the 1,3, and has enough power to take out the 5 (1,2 and 5 for lefties).

Light pocket strikes that carry the "Dick Weber wall shot" where the 4,5 and 7 fall or a "bucket crumbler" where the 2,4,5 and or 8 get taken out by the head pin and 7 pin are still considered pocket shots because the ball hit the 1 and 3 but still struck even though the ball didn't take out the 5.

I can't think of many multi pin leaves that aren't splits that are pocket shots. I don't consider a 6 pin for right handers or 4 pin for left handers being left by a pocket hit unless there is a freak occurrence where the pin mysteriously stands for some reason, but by and large these pins and combinations 6,10 or 4,7 are left by flush headpin hits where a split was narrowly avoided.

so Jim, you'd say, for a righty, a shot where the 1, 3, 5, and 6 pins are down is a pocket shot? (as long as it wasn't brooklyn

Like many others, I believe "hitting" the pocket is hitting the 1-3 for righties and 1-2 for lefties and then there is the quality of the pocket shot. Depending on where the ball makes contact with either the 1-2 or 1-3 and the pins left standing I might not consider some hits on the 1-3(for myself) as a pocket shot. If I hit extremely low, or extremely high, I won't say it was a pocket hit, even if I carried the whole rack, or broke up that split I almost left. Like Jim said, if I leave a 6 pin, which is extremely high and just barely catching the inside of the 3 thats not pocket.

You could hit dead on the head pin and take all of those out too.

Had a nose shot that took out the 1-2-5-8 only two weeks ago. Wanna talk about a bad leave.