Johnny Petraglia - Spare Shooting Tips

[bowl1820]

Johnny Petraglia 's advice on spare shooting for league bowlers. Some awesome advice by one of the greats


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7vip2k41Rs

[boatman37]

Exactly what I asked about the other day...lol. And I agree with him about consistent releases. I release the same every shot. No exceptions. My hand/wrist is the same whether it's a strike or 7 or 10. I have always done that. Guys say to flatten your wrist for spares. I can't do that. When I had my old Cobalt Rhino (urethane) I could pick up 7's or 10's just as easy as any other shot. Some days the lanes were a little too dry so I had a Black Beauty for that but probably 97% of the time it was the Rhino. But no matter what my release was always the same.

[mx1alex]

Why do they pros throw it so much harder when going after a simple spare?

[J Anderson]

Why do they pros throw it so much harder when going after a simple spare?

I don’t think we have any pros to give you a direct answer as to why, but I’ll throw my two cents in.

One, they are not throwing harder, they are throwing with more speed.
Two, the speed is faster at least in part because the ball isn’t hooking.
Three, most pros throw with more speed than us amateurs.

Side note from the Brunswick mini-camp I attended: one portion of our time on the lanes was working just on corner pins. They had Jason Sterner demontrate shooting them throwing a moderately agressive ball dead straight. They were not particularly faster than any of his strike shots. The pros were not reccomending that we dump our plastic spare balls, just showing off that they could throw straight with whatever ball was on hand. Their actual reccommendation was that everyone should have a T-Zone, unless they happen to be Norm Duke.