Mark O's Bowling Scores

[Mark O]

Nice shooting Mark O.

I always get atleast 1 shot at 10 pin while warming up, usually it's my last shot in our 10 minutes.

Thanks man, I always try to practice 1 on each lane as my last two shots of warm up, I just chose not to last night and it cost me.

And that's impressive Mike, I always try to pick just the 10 whenever I shoot at it in practice and I try to throw that exact same shot whenever I leave a 6-7-10, big 4, or greek church. Haven't made the last two yet but I have gotten 3 of 4 and 4 of 5 a bunch of times!

[vdubtx]

Thanks man, I always try to practice 1 on each lane as my last two shots of warm up, I just chose not to last night and it cost me.

And that's impressive Mike, I always try to pick just the 10 whenever I shoot at it in practice and I try to throw that exact same shot whenever I leave a 6-7-10, big 4, or greek church. Haven't made the last two yet but I have gotten 3 of 4 and 4 of 5 a bunch of times!

Having been coached by Susie Minshew in the past, she always told me to not just shoot at one pin.

One of the best ways I know to conquer sparing ills is to never shoot a spare alone. By this I mean that regardless of what’s standing up, you are shooting at something else.

If you leave a lone 10 pin, shoot at like the 6-10 are standing. It is pretty hard to regularly chop either the 6 or the 10 when both are standing up.

This has really helped me over the last year. Have picked up 4% points on my spares over all and most importantly 4% more single pins spares in part by using this system. Another piece of my improvement is due to targeting the pins and not a spot or mark I want the ball to hit to get to the pin in question. Think it was RobM that mentioned that tip some time ago to someone else and I tried it and it worked great.

[Mark O]

Having been coached by Susie Minshew in the past, she always told me to not just shoot at one pin.



If you leave a lone 10 pin, shoot at like the 6-10 are standing. It is pretty hard to regularly chop either the 6 or the 10 when both are standing up.

This has really helped me over the last year. Have picked up 4% points on my spares over all and most importantly 4% more single pins spares in part by using this system. Another piece of my improvement is due to targeting the pins and not a spot or mark I want the ball to hit to get to the pin in question. Think it was RobM that mentioned that tip some time ago to someone else and I tried it and it worked great.

Awesome, that makes a lot of sense and I think I remember seeing Rob mention it before but I never thought to implement it myself. You're living proof it's effective haha and I'm definitely willing to give it a shot! Thinking about it now, most of my misses come with me still hitting my target but the ball is on the wrong path through the target. So I'm not missing what I'm aiming at but I'm missing the actual thing I'm trying to hit. Thanks for the advice!

[Mark O]

Started off my night last night with a 6-7-10 split which I missed and then was clean for the next 29 frames. And with those 29 out of 30 clean frames I shot a monster 584 series!!! 203-192-189 which made for a wonderfully frustrating night where I just couldn't find a way to knock all 10 pins down with one ball. The only plus I took out of it was that I tried shooting my spares by looking at the pin instead of the arrows and I didn't miss all night, silver lining to an otherwise poor night.

[vdubtx]

Started off my night last night with a 6-7-10 split which I missed and then was clean for the next 29 frames. And with those 29 out of 30 clean frames I shot a monster 584 series!!! 203-192-189 which made for a wonderfully frustrating night where I just couldn't find a way to knock all 10 pins down with one ball. The only plus I took out of it was that I tried shooting my spares by looking at the pin instead of the arrows and I didn't miss all night, silver lining to an otherwise poor night.

29 of 30 is great. You had a good spare shooting practice night. Good to hear that targeting has helped you.

[Mark O]

29 of 30 is great. You had a good spare shooting practice night. Good to hear that targeting has helped you.

I didn't get a chance to bowl last Wednesday or this past Tuesday due to other obligations but I was back at it last night and I have to say I'm in love with the new targeting method! I consider myself to be a decent spare shooter and my percentages were already at 80+ percent for the 6 pin, 10 pin, and 6-10. But with the new method I feel like unless something goes terribly wrong I'm never gonna miss again and I guess that's the confidence you should have when shooting spares! It's a small sample size but my past 2 trips out I've shot at 22 combined 6s, 10s, and 6-10s and I haven't missed one!

As for my scores last night I once again had 29 of 30 clean frames but the only difference this time was that the strikes were a plenty! I did my best Vdub impression and shot 221-243-244 for a really nice 708 series! It was my second 700 and my second highest series only behind the 727 I shot last season...I'd say last night was a good night!

[vdubtx]

That is awesome Mark! Keep at it.

[fortheloveofbowling]

Started off my night last night with a 6-7-10 split which I missed and then was clean for the next 29 frames. And with those 29 out of 30 clean frames I shot a monster 584 series!!! 203-192-189 which made for a wonderfully frustrating night where I just couldn't find a way to knock all 10 pins down with one ball. The only plus I took out of it was that I tried shooting my spares by looking at the pin instead of the arrows and I didn't miss all night, silver lining to an otherwise poor night.

Nice spare shooting, you are setting yourself up for quick improvement. I don't care what era were in spares are still the name of the game and the strikes will come. Good job.

[Mark O]

Nice spare shooting, you are setting yourself up for quick improvement. I don't care what era were in spares are still the name of the game and the strikes will come. Good job.

Thanks guys. I've always been told that and I'll always believe that. Every time out my goal isn't a particular score or series but it's to have as close to 30 clean frames as possible. I consider myself to be a relatively good spare shooter but I've been on another level entirely as of late. Ever since I implemented the new system where I target the pin instead of the arrows I haven't missed a "makeable" spare and that continued last night.

Game 1 - I couldn't buy a strike. I only had two and left 4 10 pins, an 8, a 9, and two big splits which I failed to convert for a lowly 171.

Game 2 - Started with a 10 pin and ended with a 10 pin but I found a couple strings in between and shot 225 clean.

Game 3 - I left a 10 pin in the 2nd and a 10 pin in the 7th while the rest were all strikes and I ended with a really nice 259.

171-225-259 for a 655 with 28/30 clean frames. Left and converted 8 10-pins last night and in my last 3 outings I have 86 out of 90 possible clean frames with all 4 opens being big splits. I'm hoping to keep the good times rolling tonight and will let you all know how I do!

[vdubtx]