straight vs hook at spares

[kahgknow]

i have recently taught myself to roll my ball straight at spares and i was just wondering how many people on here also throw straight? i dont mean just throwing straight at the left side for lefties or the right side for righties i mean all your spares i havent seen too many people who do this i am one of if not the only one on my league of 120+ who does this and i have noticed even pros hook at their spares i have found since i throw like this i am a much better spare shooter i have rolled 2 games without an open since i have taught myself this as opposed to only 1 or 2 before

[10-in-the-pit]

I bowl basically straight at most spares. There are a few times where I'll hook it like when I leave a washout and need to go Brook. I typically use my spare ball for everything else to help take lane conditions out of play and just use speed and angle to take out what's left out there.

[RyanC]

Hooked at all my spares my whole life carried a 210+ avg the last 3 years. Just last week i bought a plastic ball and am starting to go straight

[JaMau24]

I throw a hook at my spares.. I use a regular strike ball and hook it to hit any combination or single pins including pins 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, and 8... For pins 3, 6, 9, and 10 I use a plastic ball. The only spare I have some trouble with is the 10 pin. I probably pick it up 85%-90% of the time and would like to get up to at least 95%.. Every other single pin I'm 99%-100%...

Its interesting you bring this up though because I have been practicing lately to throw my plastic ball at all spares and throw it straight because when doing so, you don't have to worry about the different oil conditions you'll have to face on different patterns. I've seen more pros throw straight balls to pick up spares, but there are still quite a few that hook it as well.

In league, I've yet to spot anyone throw a straight ball to pick up spares. That's probably because we shoot on the same house shot every week and there's no reason to throw it straight when you know the conditions.

[kahgknow]

i agree that theres really no reason to throw straight on a house shot but its alot easier to pick up a spare throwing straight if you make a mistake than if you hook and make a mistake i dont know how many times i have seen my team mate hook at his 10 pin only to drop it in the gutter and yes the pros are starting to lean more toward straight at their spares but there are a few guys out there who would benefit from throwing straight at all of there spares and also you guys say you use plastic to throw straight at spares why? i can easily make my strike ball go straight i dont see the need to buy another bowling ball thats going to cost me 150+ (including drilling) would it be a good idea to get a plastic ball? or is it ok to use a strike ball? i know that may sound like a stupid question but is it going to affect the performance of my strike ball if i use it to throw straight at spares?

[JaMau24]

i agree that theres really no reason to throw straight on a house shot but its alot easier to pick up a spare throwing straight if you make a mistake than if you hook and make a mistake i dont know how many times i have seen my team mate hook at his 10 pin only to drop it in the gutter and yes the pros are starting to lean more toward straight at their spares but there are a few guys out there who would benefit from throwing straight at all of there spares and also you guys say you use plastic to throw straight at spares why? i can easily make my strike ball go straight i dont see the need to buy another bowling ball thats going to cost me 150+ (including drilling) would it be a good idea to get a plastic ball? or is it ok to use a strike ball? i know that may sound like a stupid question but is it going to affect the performance of my strike ball if i use it to throw straight at spares?

It's completely fine throwing your strike ball straight if you can do it. I can do it as well, but since I already have a plastic ball, I figured I'd just use that to start throwing straight at my spares.

No, it will not affect the performance of your strike ball at all to throw it straight at spares.

On a side note, where the heck do you get your balls drilled if it would cost you $150+ including drilling for a plastic ball!? If you are get a plastic Viz-A-Ball that run for $150-$200+ then I understand, but it only cost me a little over $50 for a plastic T Zone Brunswick ball online and the drilling was $60 (funny the drilling was more than the ball) and that was only because I was lazy and didn't wanna drive another half hour because I could have got it drilled for half of that price.

[got_a_300]

Back when I first started bowling back in the early 80's i tried to hook
at all my spares 10 pin included that is until I realized like the old saying
goes straighter is greater.

I would miss probably 8 out of 10 attempts at the 10 pin and 4 pin and
other single pin spares. After I learned to go straight at my single pin
spares I started making somewhere around 95% of them and if I have
double wood I still try to throw straight at them. If I have say the diner
bucket or several pins in a cluster I sometimes hook the ball at them but
I try to throw the ball as straight as much as I can at my spares and splits.

Take Walter Ray Williams for instance he almost always goes straight at
his spares and they don't call him Ol' Dead Eye for missing his spares LOL.

Wow $150.00 for a plastic spare ball I paid I think it was something like
$80.00 for my plastic T Zone with drilling included in the price.

[MFein]

Straight, no debate. I can understand throwing a slight rotation just to give yourself some leeway if you miss right, which is what I do, but I don't need a spare ball to make my spares. I'm comfortable making them head on with any ball I throw because I can make it go straight, no matter what oil pattern it is. It's a very versatile thing to learn to throw it straight, because all it takes is a really short oil pattern and you can do the same thing for strikes, but tweak at the bottom just a tad.

[kahgknow]

i was figuring 100 for the ball and 50 for drilling thats why i said 150 and i agree MFein i am comfortable throwing straight with any ball i throw and i have had a few times when i try to tell someone they should throw straight and they try to tell me that they cant with the ball they have which is not true at all

[resstealth]

It depends, anything on the left side, I use one of my strike balls and throw a hook (right handed). Anything on the 10 side, im throwing a straight ball. Any kind of washout, hooking. Any kind of tough spare, im throwing a HARD straight ball, trying to deflect a pin off the back.