where are u usually standing when u throw at them? more to the middle, right, or the left?

Those 6 and 10's I've been practicing a lot with lately and have actually been fairly decent with being able to pick them up. What I discovered is standing about as far left as I can and angling myself at the six pin and walking in a straight line just left of the target pin. My target board that I am aiming for is right around 22. It will almost always just clip the 6 pin on the right side if I do that.

I will also do the exact same line up to shoot at the 6,10, 7 split.. I have been able to pick that one up 3 times doing this.

For the 10 pin I stand with the inside of my left shoe @ 34-33 and roll the ball over 17-18 at the arrows. I stand approximately 4 inches behind the 12 foot set of approach dots. My ball is plastic with negative side weight so it goes fairly straight with no snap on the end.

Although I don't have the physical game down yet, I've spent some time figuring out my spare targeting as an engineering problem. So when I manage to execute correctly, roll the ball straight and hit my target, I convert the spare.

Assuming a straight ball, you can visualize the path of your shot as the hypotenuse (long side) of a right triangle. The target you choose intersects with this line and determines your angle. Knowing the distances between various spots on the lane, approach and pindeck allows you to figure out how to line up to convert the spare.

For example, the 10 pin sits on the 4 board. I choose to target between the 3rd and 4th arrows (so, let's call it the "17.5 board") and line up at the first dots 12 feet from the foul line.

The distance from the 10 pin to the arrows is approximately 48 feet. The difference in boards between the 10-pin (4 board) and my target (17.5 board) is 13.5 boards.

13.5/48 = 0.281

The distance between where I want to stand and the 10-pin is about 75 feet.

75 (.281) = 21

The 10-pin is on the 4 board, so I count 21 boards to the left of that and determine that my bowling arm should be lined up around the 25 board. In my case, this means that I'll line up my slide foot at the 35 board, since I like to line up with my slide foot 10 boards to the left of my bowling arm. (The width of your stance may be different). I face the target and the pin, deliver the ball across the target and--if I don't pull the shot or otherwise screw up--it picks off the 10-pin.

If you perform this calculation for the 6-pin, 3-pin, etc. you'll find that there's a 3-board increment between them. (Don't forget to account for the fact that the 6-pin is about a foot closer to you, the 3-pin is about two feet closer and so on). So once you've endured the drudgery of choosing a target and figuring out your optimum position for 7- and 10-pins, you can just move right or left in 3-board increments as needed. If you end up with a starting position that puts your slide foot or bowling arm outside of boards 5 through 35, you may want to choose a different target lest you have trouble clearing the ball return.

This is tedious and it's not something you would do in your head while standing on the approach. But it is a process you can use to build "spare systems" to try out at the lanes.

I shoot the 10 from the far left. I shoot the 3,6,10 combo from the 10bd and throw the plastic almost parallel to the gutter, using the gutter as an easy guide line. Added a lil flare if the lanes are drier. Since doing so I'm 99% for anything with the 3pin in there. If I get the 3,10 baby I'll stand 12bd and add a lil more flar so I can cover the gap between those pins. I've tried to shoot if from the left but my hand is so used to swinging out for the 10 pin that I don't like it.

Dave, with that angle on the 10, don't you lose half the width of the ball on the right side?

Similar to jsigone, I stand 30, walk toward the pin, and target the 10 board for the 6. But, stand 8 boards outside of last dot and target 14 for the 10. At that angle, and flattening the ball, I almost have a full width of the ball on either side of the pin. And yes, 3-10's are dead with my 6 pin shot. If I only left 3-10's, I'd have way over 90'% spare accuracy.

I stand about 33-34 for 10 pin and aim 20. 6 Pin i'll stand 30 and aim 20. 3-6-10 ill stand about 25 and aim 18. 3-10 ill stand about 28 and aim 20.

I start at board 36 for 10 pin and work 3 board over but the 20 board target remain the same. Left side I stand 6 board and use the 10 or 15 board as my target. Depending on what is more comparable for me.

It was funny - I was very good at picking up left side spares and all of the sudden, I couldn't hit the ten pin to save my life.

Bowling in a mixed league, a lady gave me some advice. She said to stand on the left side of the lane like normal and turn my body towards the ten pin (face the ten pin basically). She also told me to pretend the foul line is angled differently - same angle that I am standing and just throw the ball straight. It took me a minute to understand what she was stating (I am slow sometimes) but once she walked me through it, my rate of pick up when back up to where it was before - nearly 100% as long as I keep my speed down. If I rush, I pull the ball each time.

If you understand this, this may help. You start out facing your target and you walk towards it a bit - helped me keep my arm swing straight.

stracing,
that's really good advice. I'll have to remember that. I would add to it be saying you should stand about 36-39 and throw anywhere between 15-20 get any spare on your swing side.