You use plastic which is great and said sometimes you are successful at a high rate and sometimes not. If you make time to practice say 3 or 4 games I would recommend taking at least one game and just shoot 10 pins. Be confident too when you have to shoot them in competition and dont let one miss discourage you the next time you have one to shoot as the hardest opponent when shooting spares is yourself.

I hope this helps!

Biggest mistakes I see people make who struggle with 10 pin spare are not squaring up to the target when the play cross lane at the spare, and trying to throw too hard.  If you are throwing plastic you probably should still flatten your releases a bit but other wise stay on balance and don't try to jack up your ball speed too much. 

Quote from: Gene J Kanak on March 21, 2017, 12:34:53 PM

It sounds like there must be some technique inconsistencies that are causing the up and down nature. Those things only improve with practice.

^^^^^^^^

Agree.  Sometimes I see bowlers not play far enough to the left to play as much cross lane as possible.  If you play too straight at it, then the drier area right and at the end of the pattern will even make a plastic ball hook.

Ideally you would want the ball to be moving left-to-right when it gets to the 10-pin.  The minute it starts going right-to-left then you have a better chance to miss it.

Join a league with friends. Tell them you'll buy them a beer for every 10 pin you miss...

Expert in no time

Quote from: Good Times Good Times on March 21, 2017, 02:25:11 PM

Quote from: Gene J Kanak on March 21, 2017, 12:34:53 PM

It sounds like there must be some technique inconsistencies that are causing the up and down nature. Those things only improve with practice.

^^^^^^^^

Agree.  Sometimes I see bowlers not play far enough to the left to play as much cross lane as possible.  If you play too straight at it, then the drier area right and at the end of the pattern will even make a plastic ball hook.

Ideally you would want the ball to be moving left-to-right when it gets to the 10-pin.  The minute it starts going right-to-left then you have a better chance to miss it.

Agree 110%
Can't tell u how many people I see standing at the furthest left dot, 30 board or playing the 2nd arrow to make a 10 pin (for righties). Crazy!
I mean there are at least 10 more boards of lane and tons more degrees of forgiveness.

To be consistent, I try to stand as far left on the right lane, against the ball return and then stand in the same spot on the left lane. So I play the same angle in every house.

Another hint: sometimes some houses are just bone dry in that area in front of the 10 pin. If you don't have a decent ball speed, even a plastic ball can hook away. You should also learn to flatten the ball out completely without trying to add speed, which can throw off your timing.

I've gone from about a 60% 10-pin shooter to a 95% 10-pin shooter doing the following:
1) Not overthrowing it. Unless your plastic ball is hooking a lot, there's no need to fire it down the lane. Stay balanced and in control at the line and throw a comfortable speed.
2) I determined my standing board and target after much practice and I now stick with it unless the lane tells me otherwise, which almost never happens apart from extreme sport patterns. Get used to being in the same spot on the approach and throwing at the same target and that will always give you a foundation everywhere you go.
3) I always throw at least one practice shot at the 10-pin in warmups. Sometimes you just need to get your eyes re-adjusted to throwing that angle and it's better to whiff your first attempt in practice than in a game.
I'm not saying that these will work for everybody, but they worked for me.