What are the best ways to Practice?

[Keithalw]

I know that everyone usually practices at some point through the week but is there any practice excercises that I can do when I am? I know practice isnt about score I mean yeah I wanna shoot high but one guy toldme I have aproblem picking up the ten pin and said I need to shoot least one or two practice game just trying to hit the ten to get better and I agree with that but other than that i was wondering if there is anything else I could do. Thanks

[Ball99999]

You can bowl each ball aimed at the 7 pin and then the 10 pin the next etc.

So far I've been practicing my footwork by only looking at my feet and correcting... then practicing to see where my followthrough is... then only looking to see my axis of rotation/release angle. Then you can focus on seeing if your swing plane is straight or not.

[Hot_pocket]

im not a big fan of it but try shooting spares with your plastic ball straight on. If you dont have a plastic get a feel for it using your regular ball.

[bowl1820]

Here's a article that can help:
Click for How To Improve Your Bowling: Practice With Purpose (http://www.bowlingball.com/BowlVersity/how-to-improve-your-bowling-practice-with-purpose)

[billf]

Identify your weaknesses and spend at least 15 minutes of your practice working on each weakness. Another thing I personally do is practice different lines playing from the 1 board all the way over to the 40 & sometimes further. At times I will even spend 4 or 5 frames lofting the gutter.
Another thing that has helped me tremendously; helping the youth bowlers. You go through the motions so often to teach them that your own form improves and saying the correct things out loud, it begins to sink into your own head.

[striker12]

if you want to learn how to hit your spares better u can go to the bowling allie and ask them to set up sertin pins for me i normaly have them set up the big 4 but i never go for it i do that cause it helps me work on hittign the 7 pin the 4-7pins and the 10pin and the 6-10pins those are my main pins i have problem shooting at but know i can hit anything on get left side with a streght ball or a hook ball took time i can hit the 6pin 80% of the time but the 10pin 50% of the time but chalange with leaving those 4 pins up try to hit the 10pin singlely with out knocking over the 6pin thats how to do i was told if u can do that then u will beable to hit 10pins more often.

[Zothen]

My method for 10 pin is I stand on the 3rd board past the last dot on the left(I'm right handed) I then slightly angle myself toward the 10 pin,I line the ball up with the 15 board(3rd arrow) and then I bowl. If everything is done correctly my hand will be pointing toward the 10 pin and the spare is made.

The rule of 10 pin pick up for a righty is 5-10 boards to the left of were you stand. It is advised to get a plastic ball for spares,because your regular ball my hook at last minute.

Zothen

[striker12]

well zothen theres a trick to throwing agressive ball at 10 pins if you take your middle finger out then u will put abit of backspin on the ball but even with the little backspins its not enoph to make it hook alot maby 2-4 boards somone tought that to me and i have done it abit its jsut takes awhile to learn cause it feels too weird cause your soo use to having your middle finger in the ball.

[Keithalw]

I shot the ten pin tonight. That has to be my biggest weakness... In fact I know twice it has costed me a 600 series which I have never shot. Literally twice in two months I shot a 599 and I missed a 10 on each one of those. Other than that I know I have toi work on my ball speed.. I know if I shoot over 13.50ish I tend to maybe hit the pocket but leave some stuff up. I need to work on my release and follow through for sure... I guess I didnt think hard enough bout the practicing thing lol... I knew if I asked I would get good responses to the question.... Btw Bowl1820 thanks for the link to that article

[Tokes]

When I practice for spares I go for the 10 pin or the 7 pin first before I try a strike ball. Or I just go for the 10 first and the 7 second. I learned those in Dick Webers how to bowl video. Don't worry about your score to much.

[TheSheibs]

I use a simple approach when it comes to practicing. I will spend a couple games just trying to throw the ball a little different to see the reaction. Since the amount of oil on the lanes is different each time, I like to see how the ball reacts. If the ball is curving a little too much, I'll move to the right(lefty here) and see just how far to the outside I can throw it and how much it will come back. If I am not getting enough curve to hit the pocket i will move right or left depending on what side of the pocket the ball goes to and if I go "brooklyn" or not. After those two games of changing my starting position and also hand position, I will then spend one game getting back to my original starting point and hand position. After that I spend the next three games throwing just like I would during league games. This way i re-enforce the muscle memory of how I need to bowl during league games. I will also spend the first two games trying new techniques, hand positions, starting positions, etc. I don't practice specific spares, only the ones that come up. I also spend the first two games trying different ways to pick up spares.

[Keithalw]

I told my buddy who I bowl with and is a team mate bout me asking this question and he had the idea far as picking up spares is he throw first and I pick up his spare and then I throw and he picks up my spare... Spares was my weakest point but I got to where I have been picking them up but its that damn ten pin... I ha d a friend who came back for college this fall and he saw me miss the ten and looked at me and asked wtf I said what he said you missed and I said yeah I know I miss the ten a lot. He even said the ten use to be an automatic spare for me but I guess I suck at it now cause that is one of my weakest parts of bowling

[billf]

The idea your buddy had is a good one picking up each other's spares. Makes for some fun while practicing. However, I would spend at least one game of practice picking up the ten pin off the full rack if it's that much of an issue for you.

[Keithalw]

I have a feeling the 10 is going to be even more difficult for right now since I am trying to change my approach... Yay lol...

[wdc1987]

I find the best way to practice is

1. Bowling win very busy (Open Bowlers) helps me concentrate better at league!

2. bowling with team mates during the week for extra help that way i see what they are doing wrong and what i am doing wrong!

3. Bowling during the extrem bowling (Black Lights) helps me with my line.

4. playing 1 game of nothing but shoot at the 10 pin.

5. Also have some one throw the strike ball and then trying to pick up what they left for a entire game then switching it up.