A one-pin spare is roughly a 23-inch target.

This statement may come as a surprise to many low-average bowlers who seem to let a one-pin spare setup "buffalo" them. Let me explain what I mean.

To begin with, that pin standing out there on the lane has a diameter, at its greatest width, of approximately 5 inches. The ball with which you intend to hit the pin has a diameter of approximately 9 inches, which, in effect, gives you about 14 inches of space in which to hit the pin on the left. But, to make it even better, you might also hit it on the right, which gives you nearly 9 inches more, or a total of approximately 23 inches of room in which to succeed in toppling the pin.

Even in the case of the 7-pin or the 10-pin, this holds fairly true. For instance, in shooting for the 10-pin, you still possess your original 9 inches of the ball on the left side, plus the 5 inches of the pin itself, plus a large part of the 9 inches on the right, for, on many occasions, a ball just dropping into the gutter will graze the 10-pin enough to topple it. The same, in reverse, is true of the 7-pin, granted in both cases that you are playing these spares from the correct angle... [Chapter Incomplete]

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