What's working for me on spares and strikes

[jimgilmore]

First off What I'm doing might not work for any body else.
My basic shot is to start with the right edge of my left shoe on the left edge of the first board left of the third dot on the approach. I walk towards my target which is the second arrow. This will almost alway bring me near to the 1-3 pocket. Though may not always be a strike. To hit a 1 ,3 or 5 pin. I can count on this covering them. If I need to cover a 4, 7 or 8 pin i place my left foot 1 board to the right of first dot and again roll at the second arrow. If I need to cover the 2-4-5 I place my left foot in the center between those spots.
All of that is covered with my strike ball.
Most of my problems come shooting the 10 pin . I place my left foot 2 boards left of the fifth dot and walk straight up the approach and throw at 3 rd arrow.I tend to hit 50%.
I have not yet thrown enough at the 6 or 9. To try the strike ball yet.
As far as strikes go I have been working on moving in some to try and improve carry which does seem to help some.

[Tampabaybob]

Jim.... The ten pin spare is pretty much unique to each person, as to how they throw their ball. What you need to do is the exact thing you've done with all of the other pin setups, and that is, to find ONE board on the approach that will be comfortable to you to shoot the ten. You don't mention whether you have a plastic ball or not or if you're using the same ball you do for strikes. Plastic balls are the cheapest and "usually" won't hook as much, so shooting at a ten pin should be like throwing a straight ball at it. The other point is you're walking straight up the approach instead of walking towards the pin. Try walking towards the ten pin and see if that helps. It's OK to do that. The key is to find that ONE spot you're comfortable with and use on every ten pin shot. Good luck, let me know if it works.