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

[Hammer]

I was watching a few pro tournaments from 2015 on youtube. I noticed on certain spares they would hook it to pick the pins up. Corner pins seemed to be picked up with plastic balls thrown straight. You can see this for yourself by watching a few tournaments on youtube. Do you hook sometimes on certain spare leaves to pick them up?

[Blomer]

I was watching a few pro tournaments from 2015 on youtube. I noticed on certain spares they would hook it to pick the pins up. Corner pins seemed to be picked up with plastic balls thrown straight. You can see this for yourself by watching a few tournaments on youtube. Do you hook sometimes on certain spare leaves to pick them up?

I'm not. A pro for sure, far from it, the only spare i throw straight at is the 10! Everything else I hook at it.

[ep1977]

I throw plastic straight at the 6,9,10 and any combination of those pins.

[zacks]

I just got my first plastic ball, and now I'm throwing it only at the 10, the 6-10, or certain splits like the 4-9. Everything else I hook with my strike ball. If I start to do tournaments on real patterns, I'll likely start practicing throwing straight for single pins and some multi-pins just to take the oil variable out of it. On a THS, I don't miss any single pins (10 excluded) with a hook.

[zacks]

I also believe it to be a better shot to throw a hook when you have something like a bucket (2,4,5,8) or a sleeper/double wood (2-8).

[RobLV1]

I just published and article on BTM entitled "Playing the Percentages." It's about developing a spare shooting system. Personally, I use my strike ball to hook at the 2-8, but have a much higher make percentage at the 2-4-5, and the 2-4-5-8, using plastic going straight up the fifth arrow. It's just too easy to chop something hooking at those two spares.

[collinwho]

I try to throw straight at all the corner-ish pins (4,6,7,8,9,10). I throw a smaller hook at the baby splits on the corners (3-10, 2-7) because it is easier for me to cover both pins with the ball that way. I also throw a hook at any leave that would have me targeting the same spot as the baby splits (3-6-10 for example). I also usually throw a hook at buckets and sleepers because they are just easier to cover that way.

[JerseyJim]

I pretty much throw straight at everything. If you can dig it up, find the Rolf Gauger's article on "Triax Spare System".

[J Anderson]

My pet theory is that since the typical house shot is designed to funnel a hooking ball into the middle of the lane, it's counter productive to hook at any pin right of the 3 pin or left of the 2 pin. I spend about a quarter of my time bowling on sport patterns, so I tend to shoot straight at almost all spares. The exceptions are the 5 pin, the 2-8, and the 1-2-4-7.

[bowl1820]

I pretty much throw straight at everything. If you can dig it up, find the Rolf Gauger's article on "Triax Spare System".

For those interested in the Triax System heres Rolf Gauger's "Up your Average" 2 part article from bowling news where he tells about it. Also I added Triax chart to the pdf.

http://home.earthlink.net/~litefrozen/downloads/Triax_spare.pdf