Coach’s Corner Tip

Make That Spare!

(from March 2006)
At the U.S. Open, spare shooting is at a premium. The scoring pace is so low that you have to work hard to make as many spares as possible, and they are often not easy spares. This month I’d like to give you a few tips on spare shooting – particularly in making difficult spares. However, remember that you need to save the “go for it” approach to some spares for the situation when the match is on the line. At other times, it is often wiser to take the best count easily made and move on to the next frame.

The first spare I’d like to talk about is the 2-4-8-10 (3-6-7-9 for left-handers). The way to make this spare is to “slow hook” the ball to the 7-pin spot. If it works, you will clip the 2-pin on the way into the 7, and either the 2 or the 4-pin (also hit by the ball) will take out the 10-pin. This is because the 4-pin will deflect forward (toward you) when it hits the 8-pin, which allows it to take out the 10.

The next spare is related to the one above, because of the pin deflection. The “Greek Church”, the 4-6-7-8-10 or the 4-6-7-9-10 is another spare that is difficult to make. If you want to take the count, you try to put the ball between the two outside pins of the group of three. Quite often, this will also take out one of the two
pins on the other side. For example, if you are shooting at the 4-6-7-9-10 (three on the right) and you move your feet one board right from your 10-pin spot, you have a good chance of making the 6-9-10 and probably picking up the 7-pin. However, you have almost NO chance of making the spare this way. If you needed to
pick up this spare to win a match, you would shoot at the 4-7, sliding the 4 into the 6-9-10 like you were shooting at a 4-9, and the deflection of the 4-pin gives you a chance to pick up the 6-10 – this is your only chance to make this spare.

Third on my list of ugly, but make-able splits is the “super washout” – the 1-2-4-6-10 (or the 1-3-4-6-7 for lefthanders). There are two ways to make this spare. The first is to shoot the spare like the normal washout, but adjust your feet one board to catch more of the head-pin and send it to the 6-pin instead of the 10-pin. My preferred approach is to take a plastic ball, back it up slightly, and shoot at the 1-6 like a baby split. The combination of the deflection of a plastic ball, combined with backing it up, makes this a much easier spare.

Fourth on my list is the more and more common 2-10 (or 3-7 for left-handers). The most common mistake made when shooting this spare is to contact too much of the 2-pin, sending is into the pit to the left of the 10-pin. If you target at the 4-pin, or even SLIGHTLY LEFT of the center of the 4-pin, you have a much better chance to make this spare. Remember, the ball is 8.5 inches in diameter, and the outside of the ball, when contacting the 4-pin, is still very close to or on the edge of the 2-pin (depending on your target line to the target).

Fifth on the ugly spares list is the 2-8-10 (3-7-9 for left-handers). This spare is truly almost impossible, but you do have a slight chance to make it if you move to the extreme left side of the lane and back the ball up slightly off the 7th arrow. This is a difficult shot that takes practice, but with time you can get close and possibly make one!

The trick to making unusual spares it to visualize where the ball needs to be, how to get it there, and to “think out of the box” a little in making these spares. Some lane conditions are so tough that you will need to do something unusual to make some spares. For example, it is not usually recommended to use the 6th arrow as a spare target for left-side (right-side for left-handers) spares. But that was the common approach to spare-making at that tournament. This was due to the fact the a plastic ball encountered more oil as it hooked to the left across the 6th arrow – in effect, this was a walled-up area for left-side spares! 

As a final thought, when you bowl on sport conditions, realize that spare shooting is very different, but more important. Make sure you know how to make all your spares on various sport conditions.