Everyone knows they need to practice, however not everyone knows how to correctly practice. Besides not practicing during non-league events the first mistake bowlers make is their focus while practicing. Bowlers quite often lace up their shoes, bust out there favorite ball, line up and focus on shooting a perfect game. This absolutely should not be your focus when practicing. No professional in any sport practices the sport, for example, focusing on hitting home runs or scoring touchdowns. They practice particular portions of the sport and more specifically, they practice their weak aspects of the game. What we are trying to say is do not go practice and strive for a perfect game, rather disregard any means of scoring and at first do not practice throwing strikes. Yes, we know striking makes us all feel great, but if you truly want to improve your game you must focus on other aspects than striking. Because the reality of it is that no matter who you are you will never throw a strike every time you are up at the line. Therefore, to improve your game focus on converting spares, your approach, your timing, your back swing, or focus in on any other one of your weak area(s). Notice we said one because focusing in on more than one aspect at a time can hinder your improvement.

Here is the method we would recommend if you would like to practice on converting on corner pins (the 10 and the 7-pin). You should try this method with a full rack targeting the 10 or 7-pin, which ever happens to be weakest. The most important fact would be to use a plastic ball or what many refer to now as a "spare" ball to practice picking up those annoying corner pins. The reasons for this are that it will take the lane conditions out of play and the ball will not hook nearly as much. For right-handed bowlers who would be shooting at the 10 pin should start from the extreme left edge of the approach and target the fifth or sixth arrow or you could also consider moving right on the approach and using the third arrow as the target making for a shorter distance to the pin and therefore less room for error. By practicing your corner pins the next time you are up in league and you do not strike then you should be more comfortable converting your spare and ultimately increasing your chances of higher scores. Another nice byproduct of practicing your corner pins is overall improvement of your targeting accuracy.

Your approach is fundamental to your game. The best method to practicing your approach is to make sure you are feeling relaxed. If you are not very relaxed, try doing some stretching or taking a quick breather. Line up like normal, but instead of focusing your target on the lane strive for a nice smooth, controlled, and paced approach with a nice release. Do not worry about the ball or where it ended up. Take a second to evaluate your approach and what you can do to improve your approach. Then go back and make adjustments accordingly. Your approach is something that you might want to have a friend or your local proshop evaluate to see things you may not be able to notice.

By honing in on the individual aspects of the game, you should easily be able to piece together all the portions of bowling. You will also notice improvement in the feel, comfort level, score, confidence, and all other aspects of the game when you practice correctly by focusing in on one aspect at a time and not solely, on whether or not you strike while practicing.