Bowling Guy

To Spare Ball or Not To Spare Ball, That is The Question.

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On bowlingboards there is a message thread that talks about the use of spare balls. I was part of the discussion there on using spare balls or not. I was taught at a young age not to try so much for a strike but to focus on picking up the spare. this meant changing my start position to allow my ball to curve back to pick up the spare or hit the pins just so to pick up the spare. With thinking about this topic, I decided to take my Brunswick Ambush(12lb) ball with me to my latest practice session.

In the first game I started with just my Columbia 300 Freeze Hybrid only. I did this for the first three frames. I ended up with a split and only picked up one of the two remaining pins. The next frame I did the same thing but no split and I picked up the spare. On the third frame I got 9 with the first ball and missed the spare due to the ball curving too much. This is where I started to use the other ball I mentioned (Brunswick Ambush) for my spare shots. I got a strike in the fourth followed by two spares where I was able to make the ball go straight for most of the lane only to make a very slight, barely noticable curve to the pin I was aiming for. Unfortunately I was only able to record up to the 8th frame due to coping it down wrong and not being able to see it again. Just to be clear I use the app Bowling Score on my iPad to record the scores and recorded it to the wrong category. While transferring it manually, I wrote down only 8 frames before deleting it but wrote down the correct score. So the 9th and 10th frame are missing. I finished the game with a 161. Please note that this game was not included in my total calculations for the days session due to missing two frames.

I was still not sure about using a spare ball so I started the second game with using a second spare ball. With this game I had 9 spare chances and only got 6 for a 66.7% of picking up spares. I also had two strikes towards the end of the game. I had so many spare shots due to making a lot of different adjustments to see how the different starting positions that I use, depending on lane conditions, do during practice in warm weather conditions. I think I picked up some of the spares due to the spare ball. I had a split with two remaining and was able to go between them with little to no curve on the ball. The other one that surprised me was 6,9,10 pin that I picked up by lofting over the opposite side gutter and having the spare ball that I was using slide all the way down the lane and hit the 6 pin dead on. In the 7th frame I left two and learned that I need to make sure that when two pins are next to each other, to aim for between the two pins just a little more. I finished this game with a 167, and made me see that my game might be at that stage where I need to use a separate ball for spares.

So I decided to use the Brunswick Ambush for all my spares. In the third game I had 6 spare opportunities and converted 3 for a 50% ratio. I also had 4 strikes and my game ended with a 166. I was also focusing more on hitting my mark and my strike ball then I was on picking up spares. I wasn't to happy with only 4 strikes and knew I could do better.

In the fourth game, I started to move my starting position a lot. I ended up with 8 spare attempts to convert only 3 which put me at 37.5% for the game. I also only had two strikes. I finished with a 133 for the game. The fourth game still had me trying to find that "sweet" spot for getting strikes and I was still trying to figure out why my ball was only curving a little bit. I also realized that I need to be able to dissect the lane conditions a little faster.

In the fifth game my first ball left 4 standing, the 3,5,6,9. I used my "spare" ball and was able to hit the 3 dead on and picked it up. With my final move on my starting position leaving me starting with left foot two boards over from the third dot, things started to really connect for me. I threw 4 strikes in a row followed by a spare. I was doing really good and really happy with this starting position. I threw two more strikes for a total of 6 and only had 4 spares to put me at 100% for picking up spares. Also I left 8 after getting a 9/ in the tenth. I don't think that counts as making or missing a spare since the game was over when I got the 8. I finished the game with a 232 and was feeling great. I found the "sweet" spot for the day and the next two games after this became my best three games in a row.

The sixth game had me leaving four pins standing, again. I had two strikes, a spare, three strikes, and three spares to end the game with a 9 and a score of 221. I picked up all 5 spares out of 5, 100% in this game. This game made me feel good and I was on a roll. This is the first time I threw 2 200+ games in a row. I really didn't know what to expect next but I had the whole spare ball thing figured out and also found the "sweet" spot for hitting the pocket.

The seventh game is not really much to talk about. I threw 7 strikes in a row! Yes, that's right 7 in a row! Only to have it come to a fitting end with a two pin split, the 6, and 7 pin split. I was only able to get one of these pins due to my "spare" ball not getting over to the right enough to knock the 6 pin into the 7 pin. I then had a 53 in the 9th which meant two opens. I knew I could still end with a 244 if I got three more strikes. However it wasn't meant to be. I finished the game with 9/9. I only picked up one spare and my percentage was 33.3%. BUT I did finished with a 233 which made me happy. It was the first time I threw THREE 200+ games in a row. The next game I was determined to keep this going. Which is porbably why it was what it was.

The start of the eighth game still had me feeling a rush from the 7 strikes in the previous game. I did pretty bad in this game and it was the second time I had a 133 this day. I only had 4 spares out of 9 chances for a 44.4% for this game. I also only had 2 strikes which made me feel kind of disappointed. With that game behind me, I was determined to finish this session strong.

Going into the 9th game I was able to increase my spare percentage to 62.5% by picking up 5 out of 8 attempts. I also had three strikes, one was to finish the game. This is were I usually stop but I was feeling pretty good at this point and my knee and thumb was not hurting like it usually is by now. I decided to do three more games.

The tenth game was much better and I had 5 strikes for a 50% rating. I also only picked up 2 spares, two of which were splits that I screwed up on due to over confidence. I finished with a 40% for spares and a score of 179. Still a good game and I was happy with that score. This is where I was starting to find myself getting tired.

The eleventh and twelfth games were just as good. I had 2 strikes but really focused on my spares. I had 7 out of 8 spare attempts made, which gave me an 87.5% rating for the game. My score was also a 180, which made feel better for that 133 after three 200+ games. The last game, game twelve, made me leave the bowling alley feeling pretty good about myself. I had 4 strikes, 5 spares and only one open frame due to a split. The split was a 4, 10 and I missed the right angle to knock the 4 pin over to the ten by, maybe, two boards at most. By that I mean I hit the 4 pin to much towards the front and not enough on the side. When I saw it heading over I really thought the 4 pin was going to slide and take out the 10 pin but it didn't. I finished this game with a 83.3% spare rating and a score of 191.

So my average percentage for picking up spares for the day was 59%. I believe this is a little better than what I did the week before without a spare ball. My conclusion is that I will use the Brunswick Ambush as my spare ball and see if I see scores in the 160-230 range again. This practice session left my practice/open bowl average at 150. I might get another round of practice in before my league Monday but it's hard to say. As always my the strikes be with you.

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