My only experience with 9-pin tap is one tournament where it seemed like I either got a real strike or a 7 or 8 count. So will the automatic scorers give you a strike on the 9 drops and sweep the offending pin off the deck or will someone have to change the 9 to an X and cycle the pinsetter?
I would guess that no tap will give you an extra 2-3 strikes per game. The question is will that give you an equivalent increase in doubles and other strings of strikes. After all a strike that isn’t followed by another strike doesn’t count for much more than a spare. Then again you won’t be missing any corner pins so that should be good for at least 10 more pins a game, so maybe that 160 average becomes a 180ish average in 9-pin tap. Maybe a goal of averaging 190 would be reasonable.
You might also try process goals, like staying down on 80% of your shots and working up to 99% by the end of league. Other goals might be based on hitting the pocket, covering both pins of the 4-7 and the 6-10, or hitting your target on the lane.
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