Pros don't always throw straight at spares.........

[zacks]

The classic definition of a "Chop" or "Chopping" is:

"knocking down only the front pin of a multi pin spare leave"
For the 3-6-9-10 leave in this case the true chop would be hitting just the 3 and leaving the rest.

And to be considered a true chop the ball should hit in the middle of the pin. (not left or right of the middle)

A slightly more modern variation is "To knock down one pin of a multi pin spare leave"

In the case of the 3-6-9-10 leave here, picking off just the 3 or 9 or 10 could be considered a "Chop".


Leaving only the 9 pin from the 3-6-9-10 leave, would not be considered "Chop" in any case.

I'm not sure what the original term was meant to include and I'm sure there are many different definitions you could find, but I agree with most of what everyone is saying. I do however consider missing the 5 off of a 2-4-5 a chop. It's not much different than the 2-5 leave and chopping the 2 off the 5. So I do believe you can chop more than one pin off of a leave.

Leaving the 9 off of the 3-6-9-10 I would consider "not covering" rather than "chopping".

[foreverincamo]

I've heard the pros say " straighter is greater ", but they can't throw dead straight at everything. Just doesn't work.

[J Anderson]

I've heard the pros say " straighter is greater ", but they can't throw dead straight at everything. Just doesn't work.

When I've heard this it's usually been from Randy Pederson. He always trots this phrase out when Walter Ray Williams makes the finals, but also uses it when referring to players who used to throw nothing but a gigantic hook and didn't have much success until they became more versatile. He is usually talking about how on many PBA patterns it's necessary to start with as direct a line as possible to leave as much room as possible for lateral adjustments.