Breaking the 220 Average Barrier

[The German Shepherd]

I have been hovering between 215 and 220 all summer long. I REALLY want to break the 220 barrier for an average and have been working hard to do so -practice, fine tuning equipment, more practice, etc. So far this Summer, my low series has been a 550 and everything else above 600, but I am still below 220 and wondering why...that is, until yesterday. In my "Oldies But Goodies" league I started off with a 222 and no open frames. Game 2 was a 225 with one open, and that coming from a pocket split. Then came game three. I switched to the Marvel Pearl and was really liking the reaction I was getting. But I threw 9 strikes in games three and barely broke 200 (202). How do you get a 202 with 9 strikes in a game you may ask? Simple - you miss all your spares. I left a 2-8 and missed. This was followed by more strikes and two more opens (both blown 10 pin leaves).

If I had picked my stinkin' stankin' spares, I woild have had a much better series. So, what did I learn from this? If I want to break the 220 barrier, I had better start picking my spares!

Want to raise your average and easy 10 - 15 pins without much fuss? Pick your darn spares!

Jay ()

[GeoLes]

Are you aware that the person who complains about missing the bus and having to wait a hour for the next one has little sympathy for the guy complaining that the A/C in his Mercedes is broken

[The German Shepherd]

Lol!

[classygranny]

So...if I pick up ALL my spares, I will average 220? or 190? Just a thought - LOL

[got_a_300]

So...if I pick up ALL my spares, I will average 220? or 190? Just a thought - LOL

You will need some strikes to go with those spares classygranny to
get that 220 average. LOL!!

Yep like the saying goes makes your spares and the strikes will take
care of themselves.

[billf]

And just when you think you have your spare game going strong a night comes along where you hit the pocket 11 times, miss the majority of your spares and barely break 200. At least I did that on a sport shot. That's what I get for not practicing what I preach, didn't use my plastic ball.

[vdubtx]

If I had picked my stinkin' stankin' spares, I woild have had a much better series. So, what did I learn from this? If I want to break the 220 barrier, I had better start picking my spares!

Want to raise your average and easy 10 - 15 pins without much fuss? Pick your darn spares!

Jay ()

Been where you are at and practiced spares(specifically the 10) like a mad man. Now pick that up 90%+ of the time.

Last year or so I have been having trouble hitting the pocket as consistently as I used to. Working on that part of the game now to get myself back over 220 and closer to 230's.

[HughScot]

I use an app on my iPhone called PinPal and it tells me what my average would have been if I'd picked up my single pin spares. It's always about 10 to 15 pins higher. It really makes you want to work on spares.

[The German Shepherd]

I went to the lanes for some practice yesterday. I was determined to have a day of 100% spare shooting. I worked hard on accuracy and concentration as I wanted to do away with careless mistakes and lack of focus. Well, since my lanes do not allow practice/warm-up balls during open bowling, it took me about 5 frames to warm up. Frame one was a solid 10 pin that I missed. HOWEVER, that was the only true spare I missed for the 5 games I practiced. I say "true spare" because I left a couple of splits in game one and failed to convert them - ending up with a 179. My next four games were a 237, 225, 237 and 278 - all clean games. I left a total of 5 x 10 pins in the four games and picked them all. So, after a game of warm up, I was 100% in spare shooting. I am not tooting my horn here, I am just contrasting these scores with the first in this thread. Picking spares is sooo important....

Jay