The lost art of spare shootng!

This blog is not going to be about poker, but the other game that I have spent most of my life involved in bowling. This weekend my wife and I drove to Milwaukee to watch our son Kyle bowl in his 1st collegiate tournament in two years. It was a big tournament with 70 teams participating. His team did very well placing 7th out of 42 teams. He finished 8th out of almost 300 bwolers. The format consisted of 9 games of regular team bowling where each player bowls their own games and 10 games of baker bowling, which is a game with each player throwing 2 frames. What was very noticeable was the lack of skill in the spare shooting part of the participants, except for the top few bowlers. Bowling has become a game that due to technology a person is able to throw more strikes then in past because of the way new equipment, mostly bowling balls, hook more with little effort from the thrower. Most of the kids that are bowling on college teams now grew up in a time when they have learned how to make a bowling ball hook as much as possible to get the best angle into the pocket to create the best chance to strike. When it comes to spare shooting, they don't worry about it as much as they know that they will get more strikes to make up for it and still have a good game. This means the biggest difference between the good bowlers is their ability to pick up spares. Picking up spares requires a lot of practice, something the average bowler doesn't do any more. In the tournament that I watched, if each member of a team picks up one more spare per game over the course of the tournament it would be an additional 50 pins per game plus 10 for the baker games. This totals 550 extra pins in the tournament. For a team like my sons, it would move them from 7th place to 1st or 2nd place. I am not sure as I have not seen the final totals. So, is spare shooting an important part of bowling. Hell yes! It is a lost art form that the youth need to realize is the difference between winning and losing. So next time you are practicing the game of bowling make sure you spend an equal time shooting at spares as you do throwing strikes. It will make you a better player.