Spare Shooting Practice

Coach Brian, isn't it amazing? Spares are so important to the this game but we kind of take it for granted. But there are some activities we can do when we're practicing that will help us become better spare shooters. Yeah, not everybody has the luxury of having the pin setters that can set up each individual spare they want to shoot at. So, what we're going to do here is show you a few different ways where you can practice spares by yourself with just shooting at a full rack.

You don't have to worry about getting that pin setter to set up individual spares. Okay. The first one we're gonna look at that though, let's talk about the couple that we are gonna look at. The first one we're gonna do is, you're gonna try to shoot at the six, 10, but not hit the three pin and the ball has to stay on the lane, correct? Yep.

So, we're gonna try and make sure that the three pin stays standing and that the ball doesn't go in the gutter. So, that's getting us practice at the six or the 10 pin. Okay. Now, what we're gonna do is we're trying to hit the three pin and not hit the head pin. So, that will give us a little bit of a practice at the three, six, 10.

Yeah, this one's a little more challenging. When you feel like you've gotten the first one down, then you can move your, move over a little bit left to the three pin to where we're not gonna hit the head pin, but we're gonna make sure we at least hit the three pin. Okay. And we're gonna do this five times for each spare just so be we become a little more accurate. So let's take a look at sparing out of the rack.

Brian's first spare shot is going to be towards the six, 10 not hitting the three pin. He will try and do this five times in a row which helps you become more comfortable with the spare shot activity. This spare shot is a little bit harder. He's going to hit to the right of the head pin. He's going to be aiming for the three pin which will allow him to be practicing the three, six, 10 but he cannot hit the head pin.

Now we're gonna switch sides. Same philosophy here. He is now gonna shoot towards the four, seven and not hit the two pin. He has to avoid hitting the two pin. He needs to keep the ball of the gutter and hit either the four or the seven pin.

Brian is now gonna aim for the two pin without hitting the head pin or throwing the ball in the gutter. This is a great way to practice the two, four, five combination. Coach, one of the things we didn't talk about though was you don't a spare ball to shoot at these spares. So, what do you suggest for the people at home? Yeah, this is for whatever way you normally shoot your spares.

Just a way to practice. Like you mentioned, I personally don't use a spare, spare ball. I just flatten my wrist out and throw my strike ball straight. But if you use a spare ball, then feel free to go ahead and use that. The main part of the drill is that you're trying to isolate the different rows of pins.

So, when you're shooting the right-hand side spares, if you want to get really particular and say you have to hit the six pin and only hit the six pin, that makes a drill a little more a little more difficult. But to start I would suggest just trying to keep the ball right at the three pin and keep it out of the gutter. So whether or not you pick the 10 pin off clean or you hit the six, 10, that both counts when you're trying to add up five times in a row. Go to the other side of the spare sorry, and the same sort of thing. We want to keep it left of the two pin, but out of the gutter, just to make sure.

That's probably the most simple way for people at home to feel comfortable about shooting the spares over and over and over again. You touched on something really important, though. This is a great drill for you to even practice which way you want to shoot your spares. I mean right now, if you shoot your spares with a plastic ball, this gives you the opportunity to practice flattening out that wrist, which actually can give you another option on how to shoot the spares. Sure, well it becomes very difficult.

This is a drill that goes all the way back into my college days from what I remember. And if you'd like to hook the ball at your left hand side spares, this drill becomes very difficult because the ball, it's really hard to miss the two pin to the left and keep it on a lane without a hooking into the gutter. So this is a great way to practice going straight whether it be with use of a spare ball or your strike ball, just flattened out.