| Welcome to the Kinipoolparty Bowling Tutorial! The purpose of this tutorial is to improve your game. Whether you're an established bowler, or just starting out, this tutorial will help you to bowl well consistantly. | |||
| GETTING STARTED | The hardest part of Pogo Bowl, is finding a shot that's right for you. There are so many options... should I start on the left side, or the right? Should I throw it harder or softer? Should I curve the ball or throw it straight? It's no small wonder people take a long time to find a 'comfort zone' where they throw the same ball all the time. This tutorial, is going to try to eliminate that by giving you an easy to throw ball that will score high consistantly. A lot of good bowlers spend far too much time 'tinkering' with their shots, and not enough time making a single shot consistant. The hardest part of the ball thrown in this tutorial, is learning NOT to tinker with it, but to leave it alone and let it work. The reason for this is simple... the more 'tinkering' you do with your shot, the more you increase your chances of doing something wrong and ending up with a split (or worse). We want to eliminate as many things that can go wrong as possible and we do that by keeping the shot as simple as possible (K.I.S.S.). The ball you will learn here is as simple to throw as it gets. There's no mucking about with it, it's just aim and throw, and the best part is, it works! | ||
| THE SHOT | |||
| Pogo Bowl places the ball in the exact center of the lane for you at the beginning of every shot, this is perfect for us, because we're not going to move it a single bit! That's right, this ball is thrown from dead center of the alley, exactly where Pogo Bowl puts it for us (I told you it would be easy). All YOU have to do, is aim and let go! Your aiming for the space between the headpin and the first pin on it's left. Keep in mind, you're aiming for the space itself, and NOT at any particular pin. Don't worry about how long it takes you to aim at this spot, how fast (and therefore how hard) you throw it is irrelevant. A ball that is thrown harder has to be more perfect to work, whereas a ball thrown more slowly creates more pin action (pins bouncing around) and has a greater chance of working properly dispite being a little bit off it's mark. This is not to say you purposely want to throw the ball slowly, just that you should take your time in the aiming portion, to ensure you're throwing the ball exactly where you want it to go. Click on the 1st image below to see where you should be aiming your ball. You'll notice the aim arrow is targeted directly between the headpin and the first pin over to it's left. This, is your 'sweetspot' and where you want to throw the ball every new frame. The 2nd image shows you exactly where the ball should contact the pins, this is your 'sweetspot' and where you want the ball to first contact the pins on every new frame. The 3rd image, shows you what should happen if you've done it correctly. | |||
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| CORRECTING PROBLEMS | |||
| So now you've thrown the first ball in the frame, and you didn't get a strike, what happened? The pins remaining tell you what you did wrong. If you left anything more then a single pin on either corner, then you missed your sweetspot and you need to correct where you're aiming. If you left two (or more) pins on the same side, then you aimed a little bit too far away from the headpin and didn't make contact in the space between the two pins. If you left 2 (or more) pins in a split situtaion, then you hit too much on the headpin and need to move over a little closer to the pin on the left. This ball, when thrown properly, will NOT leave anymore then a single pin, usually on one of the corners (7 pin or 10 pin). If you have any other result or any other combination of pins remaining, then you did not hit your sweetspot (or you curved the ball). The only exception, is if you get a ghostpin (a pin which is inside of another pin, or goes through another pin, without knocking the other pin over). The below images show you the pins by their proper number, as well as a ghostpin. | |||
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| MAKING THOSE SPARES | |||
| Not every ball is going to be perfect, because no one is perfect. Mistakes are going to happen, but it's how you handle those mistakes that determines whether or not you can still score high. With the exception
of the 7-10 split, there is no split situation that is overly difficult to make. Too many people underestimate the importance of making your spares. Each missed spare is a potential 20 pins off your final score.
Often times, the difference between a good score and a poor score, and the difference between winning a match and losing a match, is who best made the most of the shots that were not perfect. You absolutely want to
make at least a spare every frame and avoid any open frames. Some splits may look daunting, but don't be worried, they ARE makeable with a little know how. Most are pretty straight forward. There seems to be only 2 splits that give people problems on a regular basis, so we'll discuss how to make those splits and I'll provide images so you'll understand. The most important part of making any split, is to understand it can be done, and it doesn't take a miracle to happen. If you try to make a split thinking you're not going to make it, you probably won't make it. Tell yourself, I can do this, I know how it's done, I need only do what I know will work. 6-7-10 This split looks difficult, because the 7 pin is so far away from the other two pins. Most people just settle for hitting the 6 and 10 pins when it's not necessary. The reason this split is makeable, is because the 6 pin is still standing. That 6 pin is what allows you a fairly simply way of hitting the 7 pin way over on the other side of the alley. Like our first ball, we're aiming at a space, in this case, the space between the 6 pin and the 10 pin. The only difference is, we're not going to throw the ball from the center of the alley. We want to move the ball to the right so it is directly in front of the space we're going to aim at. When you aim, you should be aiming exactly straight ahead, to hit the space between the two pins. The image below shows you the path the ball should take into the pins, where the ball should contact the pins, and what should happen if you've done it correctly. *** NOTE *** This same strategy works for the 4-7-10 split, just do the exact same thing on the opposite side. |
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| 5-7-10 Again, too many people give up on this split as unmakeable and settle for hitting any two pins. While this split is slightly more difficult, because it requires a little curving of the ball, it is by no means unmakeable. With a little practise, this shot becomes as routine as any other. We start by moving the ball to the far side of the ally (I will use the right side in this example, but the same prinicple applies if you move the ball to the far left side of the ally). Once you've moved the ball, you're ready to aim. You aim spot is simple, directly at the 5 pin. Notice, I did not say off to either side of it, you want to aim right at it, the center of the 5 pin is your target. Line your aim arrow up directly at the center of the 5 pin and let it go. This next part is a bit tricky, and requires a little practice, but is by no means hard. Once you get it once, you'll get it everytime. What we want to do, is wait until about 1/2 a second before the window changes to the 'close up' view. At that time, we want to press down and hold down our left click button on the mouse. This causes the ball to curve and changes both the contact point on the 5 pin, and the direction the ball travels afterwards. This is necessary in order to make the ball travel over to hit the 7 pin. It's a bit tricky, and requires a little timing on your part, but it isn't difficult, you can do it! The image below shows the aiming line, the contact point, the pathway of the ball, and what should happen if you do it correctly. |
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| RESULTS | |||
| It seems easy, because it is! Using this simple ball, you should be able to bowl 200+ games on a consistant basis. You will rarely leave more then a single pin (an easy spare), which means all you would need to push your score above the 200 mark,
is one single strike! How many games have you had at least one strike in, and not reached 200? Now, you will. Stick with it, it's a very simple ball to throw and won't take you any time at all to learn and master. Again, the hardest part is not
to 'tinker' with it. This ball works perfectly well on it's own, once you've aimed it correctly, it requires nothing else. While the temptation to add a slight curve to make it a 'perfect shot' is tempting, resist the urge and let the ball do it's job.
You'll get far better scores by leaving it alone, then you will by trying to make it better by curving the ball. For those of you still in doubt, I've pasted a few images for you to look at. Remember, these were accomplished using the exact same shot described in this tutorial. Good luck, and happy bowling! |
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