Shooting at Double Wood and the Bucket
Scott PohlDescription
When two pins are stacked one in front of the other on a spare shot, it’s known as “double wood” in bowling.
For right-handed bowlers, it is the 2-pin and 8-pin, and for left-handed bowlers, it’s the 3-pin and 9-pin.
The “sleeper” in a “double wood” shot refers to the rear pin (that is, the 8-pin and 9-pin). There is no right or wrong way to make these spares. It really is dependent on what’s comfortable for you.
In this free video, Scott Pohl, owner of On Track Pro Shop, explains how the sleeper increases the difficulty when attempting to fill frames and how to convert it with more regularity.
If You’re Lined Up
Being lined up means the bowling ball is properly matched up to the lane conditions with good ball motion and as a result. You are consistently hitting the pocket. If this is the case, Pohl recommends using your strike ball and moving to the outside part of the lane, utilizing the same release and speed you have been using with your strike shot.
Straight Shot
If you are not comfortable with your line or you like to shoot straight at your spares, Pohl recommends grabbing your plastic ball, flattening your wrist and targeting the middle arrow to convert double wood.
“The Bucket”
The 2-pin, 4-pin, 5-pin and 8-pin is known in bowling as the bucket. The sleeper pin is the 8-pin and this can be a tricky spare to convert.
The same strategy you use to convert double wood should be used when shooting at the bucket. Comfortability shooting at sleeper spares will increase with a strategy that you stick with and can rely on.
Check out our spare shooting library for more ways to increase your average.
Scott Pohl here with the National Bowling Academy. I'm a four-time Team USA member. And I want to discuss a little bit about a spare that has a multiple ways of making it. And it's called the sleepers. Number one for right-handers, it's the 2 and the 8. Left-handers, the 3 and the 9. The biggest challenge of this spare is the pin in the back. We have a couple of ways to attack this. Number one, I prefer when I can, if I know what my ball is doing on my first ball, and I'm lined up to the pocket a lot, I'll use that same ball and hook it and make the spare. Typically, I'm going to move a little bit to the outside portion of the lane, hook the ball in and have a really good chance of making both pins. Some people feel they would rather throw more of a straight shot, more of a direct line to the ball, and how we do that, typically, we're going to move in an area where we're gonna use more of the middle arrow. We're gonna flatten our hand out. You can use either your plastic ball or your hook ball and throw it very straight and still hit both pins. Now another spare that comes up is the bucket, or we call it the 2, 4, 5, 8. This one's even more challenging. I would recommend the same philosophy, whichever way you feel is better for you.
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