Starting Monday I will be starting my first Sport Shot League after over a decade away from the game. My previous league average was 200, and I've been averaging about 205 the past two months in Open Play.

My goal is to finish the season with a +180 average, and I have no idea what the patterns will be. I'm just looking for general tips you may have picked up in your experiences.

I already throw pretty straight up second or first arrow so I'm hoping I wont have the trouble the higher rev players experience. I know a lot of guys on tour use a lot of surface on flatter patterns, and was just wondering if that would be something to explore.

Current Arsenal (all OOB finish) -

Black Widow Dark Legend / pin up
Smokin' Inferno / pin up
Heat / pin down
Spare Ball

Any surface recommendations would be appreciated, as well as ball recommendations. I bowl with medium-low speed, 250-300 revs, low-medium tilt.

Thanks for any advice.

I maintain to this day, my plastic spare ball is the most important ball in my bag.

I agree with that, although my shoes are probably more important. 

On a sport shot, using plastic for spares is a good tip.  Even for leagues, I see too many miss easy spares because their strike ball hooked by the pin they were trying to cover or it stopped hooking and skidded past.

Another thing I would suggest to anyone starting to use a plastic or urethane spare ball is to develop an attack plan for common spare combinations.  There are good ways and bad ways to approach each spare and many people don't understand or know the better ways. 

For instance, the below are commonly left spare combinations on sport shots (for a righty):

*  Don't hook the ball into the 3-6-10; instead ensure your ball is going left to right (or straight) when it gets to the 3-6. 

*  For washouts, approach them from the left side of the lane and throw to the Brooklyn side of the headpin.

*  Attack the bucket by going straight down the lane and not at an angle.

There are other combinations many bowlers do not approach correctly, but as long as you have a plan of attack for each combination you will increase your chances of making the spare.

Know what board you stand on and what board you hit.  Write it down and work on it and take the paper with you to refer to when bowling.

Quote from: spmcgivern on May 08, 2018, 08:10:45 AM

Attack the bucket by going straight down the lane and not at an angle.

This one depends on each bowler. The full bucket 2-4-5-8 I play the same as double wood. Half bucket without the 8 I use plastic and just make a small adjustment off my normal 4 pin spare

I tried going straight at the bucket for a little bit but was never as comfortable with it and even missed a couple.

I should have prefaced a bucket without the sleeper.  I understand how one can visually see the spare better from an angle or it can be more comfortable.  However, you introduce the chance of chopping the spare when you add angle.  I do agree though that if after practice you can spare it with a higher percentage with angle instead of straight, then do so.  But I feel bowlers should practice the method that provides the most room for error first.