A Terrific Sparing System

The importance of developing your own spare system cannot be emphasized enough. I have written about it before from the standpoint of the 3-6-9 or 2-4-6 methods taught in coaching classes and seminars. I have also mentioned that while they are good to start with, you have to eventually adjust, modify, or develop your own based around those systems. Ultimately, there are bound to be, literally, hundreds more out there as our knowledge of the bowling world covers the international spectrum.

Ask any of my beginning students and they will tell you that developing a sparing system is one of the key pieces of coaching that they will receive from me. If you think about it carefully, the difference between a 150 average and a 170 average is two spares, count them, two spares per game. The world-renowned "Coach of the Pros" and Hall of Famer, John Jowdy has been quoted as saying, "Strike for show, spare for the dough." Then there is the old bowling cliché, "Throw for the spares and the strikes will come."

If you have been following my exploits over the past year-and-a-half or so, you will have seen me lament several times about missing so many single pins and blowing some potentially high games or series because of those open frames. Well, two things have happened over the past couple of months: (1) I changed my spare ball because I was using an old plastic ball drilled back in 1995. It had reverse pitch in it thereby quick-releasing the ball and dropping it most of the time; and (2) I re-discovered a sparing system I read about over seven years ago - the late-Rolf Gauger’s TRIAX sparing system.

Rolf’s passing a little over two years ago, was a great loss for the bowling community. He was a great writer and a fantastic coach. According to his own writings, he developed the TRIAX methodology in early-1999 and published it in Bowling This Month magazine.

Anyway, I am having great success over the past month with his sparing system, once I got it refined into my game. I have missed only splits for the greater majority of my errors in this recent period of time. The beauty of his system is the simplicity of it. You use two marks that you find yourself, and a total of six standing points based on what pins you leave regardless of the different combinations that are possible - mathematically calculated at 1,023. In actuality you may never see a full one-third of them because of their high improbability. But, of course, that still leaves a fair amount of them that you could conceivably have to shoot for.

One caveat here is that you will have to try to throw as straight a ball as possible so a plastic spare ball is a necessity. Keep in mind, however, that the system has a margin of error built into it so that even it the ball does hook a little, you will still convert the spare. And so here is the “Choc-List” for the Rolf Gauger TRIAX spare system (I am pointing out where I am currently aiming and you will have to experiment to find your exact board.):

1) For the right side spares, I am aiming at the 15 board (3rd arrow) and stand at 29 board for the 3-pin, 32 board for the 6-pin, and 35 board for the 10-pin. (For right-handers you should use your left foot for where you stand and left-handers use the right foot.)

2) For the left side spares, I am using the 12 board (between the 3rd and 4th arrows) and stand at 21 board for the 2-pin, 18 board for the 4-pin, and 15 board for the 7-pin. (For right-handers you should use your left foot for where you stand and left-handers use the right foot.)

3) For different combinations of spares, you will have to experiment yourself; but, I stand at 32-1/2 board for the 3-10 split and 19-1/2 board for the 2-7 split. Other combos such as the 4-5 and 5-6 splits are based on the missing key pin (the key pin in spare combinations is the closest pin to you).

4) For two pin “sleeper” shots (the 2-8 or the 3-9) using the spare ball is statistically better. For the 3-6-9-10, stand at 32 board (similar to the 3-10 split but a half board further right). Lefties for the 2-4-7-8, reverse the aiming situation. (A further note of caution if the 5-pin stands with any of the “bucket-like” combinations, use a straight ball aiming at the key pin.)

The temptation to throw your regular hook at any spare combination is always there; however, remember that the varying oil conditions across the middle of the lanes are a major cause of bowlers missing so many spares nowadays. The old “cherry” or “chop” shot is very common and pervasive with the 6-10, 4-7, 2-4-5, and 3-5-6 combos. You just do not know when your reactive ball will hit a dry spot down the lane.

Again, the important thing to remember is that, like anything new, you have to practice and experiment to get the system working at a comfortable level for you. As I mentioned above, you do not need to be deadly accurate with this system because a slight miss will still convert the spare for you , bad timing and terrible miss-execution of the shot notwithstanding).

A Hui Hou! (See You Again!)