1. Drills
  2. Bowling
  3. Spares

Three-Six-Nine Moves

Use the 3-6-9 system: move your feet 3, 6 or 9 boards for spares.

By Coach Evan Waechtler Youth coach (U11, Cache Valley, Utah) and founder of SSTracker Updated October 30, 2026

Set up

Start from your strike position and target.

Core: Three. Beat your own best spares.

Ages
11 and up
Time
15 min
Players
Just you
Space
Gym or court
Bring
Bowling ball, lane
Level · skill
Developing · Spares

The steps

How it works

  1. Start from your strike position and target.
  2. For a pin one step over, move your feet 3 boards the opposite way.
  3. Two steps over, move 6; three steps over, move 9.
  4. Roll 3 at each move and count makes.

Coaching point

Move feet, keep the target.

Safety: Never step past the foul line; the lane is oily and slippery. Wait for the pinsetter to finish before you bowl, and never go down the lane.

Make it fun

Play it, don't drill it

Game version

Pin-pick game: pick a spare leave and aim for it. The pair keeps one total of spares made and tries to top its own last session.

Challenge

Pick a leave: Less (two pins), Core (three), More (a split you choose). Beat your own best spares.

Story

You are a detective cleaning up the last pins one by one.

My best

Beat your own count

Beat your own best spares. Only your own number counts: today against last time.

Practice makes progress

Print it now, or save it free

Free for families and teams

Save this drill to your child or team, free

Sign up and the free bowling week for this age opens in your child's planner, kept to healthy limits. A coach can send this drill to the whole team as homework, and parents see every session logged.

14 days free for a family, no card · Running a team is always free

Does your child's coach know about this?

An email from you to the coach, with the words ready. Nothing is tracked and nobody is rewarded.