Bowling guides
Learn how to improve your bowling, as well as how Advanced Bowling Tracker's features can help.
Bowling basics
Why track your bowling scores?
Most league bowlers focus on their average and pay less attention to the data behind the scores. Your scores tell you how you did but not how you got there. Tracking your scores shot by shot is the best way to understand your game at a deeper level and where you can focus your efforts to improve.
How to improve your bowling average
It sounds obvious, but the more frames you close (spares and strikes) the higher your average gets. Your average goes up when you stop leaving pins on the lane, and typically most of the pins you leave on the lane are from missed spares.
How to make more 10 pins
The 10 pin (or 7 pin for lefties) is the thorn in the side of most bowlers (including the author). It's often the most common single pin leave, since you can throw a good shot and leave it with the wrong pin action for a variety of reasons. Maybe your ball rolled out and lost too much energy, or maybe it hit the pocket with too much or not enough angle. Left handers will have the same problem with the 7. The fix is the same for both: establish a spare system, practice, measure your results and practice more.
How to build your bowling ball arsenal
Your arsenal is your collection of bowling balls. Typically, most league bowlers have at least a strike ball and a spare ball, but many bowlers will bring up to 6 balls to league and have many more at home. This guide covers what the three should be, what the numbers on the box mean, and how to find out which of your balls is really earning its spot.
How to find bowling leagues near you
League bowling is the reason most bowling alleys are open on a Tuesday night. It is also the fastest way to get better, because it gets you on the lanes every week with incentive to improve. Finding a league is easy, and it's not uncommon for leagues to need additional bowlers even mid season.
How to manage your bowling leagues
Most league seasons are around thirty weeks. For the most part, you can just show up and bowl, but each week comes with some small logistics: which lanes, which opponent, what time, what your average is this week, whether it is a position round. None of it is hard. All of it is easy to get wrong when you walk in at 6:25 for a 6:30 start. This guide covers what you need to know each week, and how to let the app carry most of it.
App feature guides
What is the Middle Arrow spare system?
The Middle Arrow system gives you one target to aim for for every spare. You guessed it, the middle arrow. For every spare, you simply change where you stand and keep your target consistent.
The 3-6-9 spare system
The 3-6-9 system keeps your target consistent. You only adjust where you stand. Three boards for the 2 & 3 pins in the second row, six boards for the 4 and 6 pins in the next row, and nine boards for the 7 and 10 pins. If you are already lined up and tend to play a similar line, this is the fastest spare system to learn.
What is the Triax spare system
The Triax spare system gives you left side mark and a right side mark to aim at, and a board to stand on for each spare. You throw a straight ball at either your right side mark or left side mark depending on the pin.
How to check your bowling rev rate
Your rev rate is how fast your bowling ball spins when it leaves your hand. Advanced Bowling Tracker can estimate it from one video of a throw, in about a minute, with nothing to attach to the ball.
Add your bowling scores to your livestreams
Do you want to stream your league nights, tournaments or practice sessions with a live scoresheet that you control? Advanced Bowling Tracker gives you a browser source link that works with popular streaming software to embed your live scoresheet on the stream and updates as you record each shot in the app.
How to add your frame by frame bowling scores to a video
Bowling videos are better and easier to follow with scoresheets, but building the scoresheets by hand can be tedious and don't always look very good. Advanced Bowling Tracker can make it easy for you with instant exports of each frame or shot that you can quickly drop into your video.