Importance of an anchor

[Blomer]

I'm on a team of Mostly older bowlers. I'm 38, the next youngest is 43 and then we have one in his mid 60's and toe in their 70's. I never really expect our team to compete too much, but I think we can surprise some teams. Our current anchor averages in the 160's. It's frustrating cause there has been several times he could win it for us, but end up 5 pins short or so and he just waves it off. Seriously, this guy usually gets 3-4 opens in the last half of games. He doesn't think where the better bowlers bowl in the line up. How can I convince him it does? Or does it?

[mishatx]

If it's just team score vs team score, then mathematically it doesn't matter who bowls where. But it certainly "feels" better if the anchor is the guy who can get 22 pins in 10th to bring it home.

[RobLV1]

The usual philosophy has the highest average bowler bowling last, the second highest first, the third fourth, etc. The one element that sometimes changes this is the anchor man's ability to perform in the tenth frame. Often the highest average bowler, when faced with converting the ten pin in the tenth to win the game, will fold like a cheap suit. In this case, this guy shouldn't be going last. He will add much more to the team by leading off.

[Tony]

Rather than highest average why not put the guy who's most reliable with punching out the 10th, yes in many cases this will be the highest avg guy. On one of the teams I'm with it's not, the highest avg guy is 3rd the 2nd high avg guy who even more often punches out games is last.
Thats a total score league.
In another league that uses head to head scoring the typical team has high ave last, 2nd high first, if you want to stay competitive you pretty much have to follow suit.

I personally don't bowl with that many teams where the highest average guy folds like a cheap suit and misses 10 pins in the 10th frame....how do those guys get to be your high avg guy bowling like that anyway ?
However we did win league a few years ago where the top guy (235 avg) needed to double to win and went up with all the confidence in the world saying "we got this guys" and threw a split .......but I've way more often seen the same guy come up and bury 3 strikes to finish a game, that's why he is a 235 avg guy.

[J Anderson]

As Mishatx put it your team score is just the sum of the individual games bowled it really shouldn't matter in what order those games are bowled. However when both teams are close in score it helps to have an anchor with the right personality. In serious team bowling, like at the college level, you want your lead bowler to be the one who can best communicatewhat he or she learned from their last throw. Your anchor should be the guy who just listens to the others about how he should adjust for his next frame.
My own preference is to put your wild card first. You know, the one who can from 30 pins over average to 40 pins under, then back to 10 overin one set. Then you put the rest in order from lowest average to highest assuming the highest average one is consistent and doesn't mind pressure.

[fordman1]

The anchor is the guy who is probably the highest avg. Not always, they could be the person who has the confidence to say give me the ball I can do it. You don't want someone who doesn't have Maple moxie. Just make sure they aren't just full of them self.

[got_a_300]

It seems like all of the teams I've ever bowled with always wanted me
to bowl anchor and I always hated to bowl in that spot because of all
the extra pressure of having to bring it home for the win for team but
I always did it and never said anything about it to them.

Well this season we had a new bowler come in mid season that wanted
to bowl in the anchor spot and I gladly gave it up and let him have as it
took a lot of pressure off of me and I moved up to bowl in the 3rd spot
and I've been bowling a lot better since the switch.

[bowl1820]

As already stated it technically doesn't really matter what position the bowler is in. If everyone is doing their best, The scores will all add up the same.

In a league setting player positioning is more about the mental part of the game and how it affects the player (and their resulting performance) in a particular position.

Now if you are talking about a Tournament or a college or world team challenge type setting, There can be a like more strategy involved in player placement. Mainly because your wanting your players to get reads off the person ahead of them and/or maybe coordinating the players so their lines help breakdown the lanes in such a way to help the others on the team that type of thing.

For example:
The Lead off would be a person who the rest of a team could get a really good read off of lane condition wise and was ultra consistent.

2nd Place would be either a lefty with the same quality or a guy who was for lack of a better term the weak link.

3rd Would be a guy who could make sure to put together a strong game and set things up for the set up and anchor bowlers. Also must be a good spare shooter.

4th would be the second strongest bowler and a bowler who could really put up some numbers. Great spare shooter an and clutch bowler for the 9th frame.

5th The most consistent and talented player who could make shots under pressure and also read what the other guys are doing and make quick adjustments.

As for how can you convince him? All you can do is talk to him.

If he's the captain, it's his decision where everyone plays and if he doesn't want to change that's it. If he's not, then you have convince the captain to change positions.

The thing is do any of the other players want the spot? also unless he bowls better in another spot, changing position probably won't help assuming the others are doing their best.

One thing to remember it is a "team" effort, Yes if your down the anchor could pull it out for a win. But if he doesn't, that doesn't necessarily mean he lost it for you either.

[foreverincamo]

I say it does matter. It doesn't have to be the highest average bowler either. And it should be fluid. Put the hottest bowler as anchor.

[Stormed1]

I've always used the theory that you put your best spare shooter anchor. More games are won/lost in the 10th off a misse spare than a strike