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18yr old professional bowler converts 7-10 split on TV in first time in 30 years
- Flatcircle 6y agoThey call him the Ginger Assassin, Lol
- mlex 6y agoLove the casting here, reminds me of esports (which I guess makes sense given esports casting is influenced by regular sports).
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rossdavidh 6y agoIf I was competing against somebody who actually pulled that off, I think I couldn't even be disappointed; it's quite rare to see.
- busyant 6y agoIn my old league, you earned a "patch" if u picked up a 7-10. I've seen it done once over about 40 years. Our lane went nuts when the guy picked it up.
- jason_slack 6y agoOf course! We were in a league of about 18 people and when a guy made this everyone bought him a shot. I do remember him sharing though and being driven home. It was talked about for months afterwards and the local paper did a story on it.
- lokedhs 6y agoWhat about a 1, 7, 10? That seems to be as though it would be even more difficult?
- uxp100 6y agoNo, much easier. You can deflect off the 1 into the 7 and pick up the 10 with the 1 pin. It’s not bad, for the 10 you might pass the 1 in front of it, but it’s very doable, and not nearly impossible.
- mellosouls 6y agohttps://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_(bowling)#7–10_split https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_(bowling)#7–10_split
- remram 6y agoHow did you get that URL? It redirects immediately to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_(bowling)#7–10_split https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_(bowling)#7–10_split and nothing on Wikipedia would have linked to it. Did you manually type it in?
- A_Venom_Roll 6y agoYou can use the URL in the table of contents (when in desktop view).
- lacksconfidence 6y agoThat's not the same URL though. Those URL's all go to en.wikipedia.org. Where did the link to www.wikipedia.org come from?
- mellosouls 6y agoYes. Experimentation wrt the suffix as the original from the search was ugly. I instinctively replace the "en" normally as well as I am not sure if it is appropriate for every user. Then I test it after posting.
- remram 6y agoOh you mean that it will redirect either to en.wikipedia.org or en.m.wikipedia.org (mobile)? That's clever.
- daxfohl 6y agoI started looking for this story elsewhere and then stumbled across https://sports.yahoo.com/pure-perfection-north-texas-pitcher-hope-trautwein-strikes-out-21-batters-perfect-game-163619075.html https://sports.yahoo.com/pure-perfection-north-texas-pitcher..., which is perhaps even more mind blowing. (Note this is softball, so 21 strikeouts in a perfect game in seven innings.)
- grej 6y agoAmazing! This as well: Shohei Ohtani hit a 450ft homer and threw a pitch over 100mph in the same inning! https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/MLB/2021/04/05/Angels-Shohei-Ohtani-fastest-homer-pitch-baseball/7191617622051/ https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/MLB/2021/04/05/Angels-Shohei... Aside, it’s so nice to have sports being played again!
- elijaht 6y agoAgreed- especially getting a full 162 game season back for baseball. I enjoyed the short season but I follow baseball for the daily rhythm of it
- Nekhrimah 6y agoIf we're sharing crazy rare stuff from other sports I present from international cricket: A bowler achieving a hatrick (3 dismissals in consecutive deliveries - very rare) and also getting hit for 6 Sixes in an over later in the same game. [0] 6 Sixes in an over has only been done 3 times in international cricket. It represents the maximum return for a batter from an over (without no-balls or wides). [0] https://www.cricket.com.au/news/match-report/kieron-pollard-six-sixes-in-an-over-akila-danajaya-hat-trick-sri-lanka-west-indies/2021-03-04 https://www.cricket.com.au/news/match-report/kieron-pollard-...
- mavelikara 6y agoThat was a rollercoaster day for Dhananjaya!
- Guest42 6y agoI’m surprised it never happens because it seems as though the spin of the ball and velocity of collision would send the pin across more frequently than 3 times in 30 years from the top professionals.
- zamadatix 6y agoI'd hazard to guess it's more a factor of "professional bowlers try not to end up in the situation they need to pull off a 7-10 split" over how difficult it is to pull off once they're in that scenario.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoIf you watch the Wired video, note that we can't program a bowling robot to convert the 7-10 split either. So while it's definitely true that professional bowlers will seek to avoid sticking themselves with a 7-10 split, the reason they're avoiding it is that it's impossible to pick up the spare.
- bombcar 6y agoI assume part of it is that top professionals that are being televised are usually getting strikes.
- derekp7 6y agoIf you have a 7-10 split, generally you will want to pick up the one point (almost guaranteed) instead of trying for a trick shot that is almost a guaranteed gutter ball. So unless someone is down and needs to pick up the spare, or unless it is totally by accident, most 7-10 split conversion aren't attempted.
- panda-giddiness 6y agoThis was my impression, too, until I watched the video linked elsewhere in this thread [1]. Frankly, we were wrong. Your reasoning holds for why certain splits aren't converted (eg, the Greek split, as explained in the video), but that's not the reason 7-10 splits are almost never converted. Essentially, 7-10 splits are rarely converted because they're virtually impossible. In fact, the only reason they can be converted is because it's possible for the pin to bounce off the machinery -- it would be impossible for a human to throw a ball such that the pin flew 90 deg from impact towards the other pin. Notice that a rubber (?) mat protects the machinery behind the pins, thereby removing energy from the collision and making the shot even more difficult. So even with skill, the shot still boils down to almost entirely luck. Moreover, the strategy for hitting a 7-10 split isn't much different from just hitting a single pin; the only difference when attempting to convert the split is the amount of force the bowler applies on the ball (apply as much force as possible). The shot really is just that difficult. --- [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26786469 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26786469
- cheeze 6y agoClickbaity title but I highly recommend this article: https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2012/july/the-most-amazing-bowling-story-ever-bill-fong/ https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2012/july/... Also, the 30 for 30 "the bad boy of bowling" on Pete Weber
- elijaht 6y agoThanks for the rec- the article really evoked some emotion in me. Can't imagine the pressure of the last few rolls and the article touches some interesting philosophy
- skunkworker 6y agoHere's a good video by Wired why the 7-10 split is almost impossible. "Why It’s Almost Impossible to Make a 7-10 Split in Bowling | WIRED" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMoSsCDgZys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMoSsCDgZys
- panda-giddiness 6y agoThanks, that was a surprisingly informative video! I'll admit my initial impression when watching the 7-10 conversion was to think "So what? All he did was bounce the pin off the machinery! It was just a lucky shot." My perspective flipped once I understood that bouncing the pin off the machinery is a requirement for conversion. Incidentally, I once witnessed a 7-10 conversion, though the technique was quite a bit different from the technique employed by the professional. Rather than striking one of the pins with as much force as possible, the bowler accidentally launched the ball a few feet into the air such that the ball's quake, upon reunion with terra firma, caused one of the pins to fall over, with the second pin falling when the ball miraculously managed to strike it.
- dogma1138 6y agoThat one technically wouldn’t be legal, the pins must drop by coming in contact with the ball or another pin.
- thaumasiotes 6y agoThe video made me curious about the Greek Church strategy. As described: - 60% of professional frames are strikes. - The Greek Church is rarely converted because bowlers prefer to go for "count", maximizing the number of pins they knock down in the second half of the frame. You can take a basically 100% chance of 3 pins, or a lower chance of 5 pins. - Those 3 pins are worth 3 points, or 6 points if you bowled a strike last frame. - Converting the Greek Church is not unachievable. The robot got it 40% of the time. Assumptions: - If you pick up the spare, you have a 60% chance of bowling a strike next frame, and a 40% chance of bowling a gutter ball for 0 pins. This is worth 5+6 points. (5 for the pins required to pick up the spare, and 6 for the 60% chance of 10 pins on the next shot you take.) - If you attempt to pick up the spare, you have some chance of succeeding, and otherwise, you'll hit 1 pin. - If you don't even attempt to pick up the spare, you always hit 3 pins. Under those assumptions, you're better off trying to get the spare if your success rate is more than 20% (and you didn't bowl a strike last frame), or if it's more than 29% and you did get a strike last frame. And picking up the spare only becomes more valuable if, during the 40% of frames when you don't bowl a strike, you do still hit some pins in the first half of the frame. The professional bowler took 12 tries to convert a Greek Church. That implies a success rate well below where it would make sense to try to convert. But it might also reflect a lack of practice. If practice could get you to double that rate, it seems like people should be converting Greek Churches all the time.
- yborg 6y agoI picked up a 7-10 in birthday party bowling once, it's more or less blind luck, you need a carom out of the pit that happens to bounce the pin into the opposite corner. Also - they still have bowling on TV!? This feels straight out of the 1970s.
- wrs 6y agoIt's a recent and deliberate attempt at a revival. [0] [0] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sport-bowling-edison-feature/edison-reinventing-pba-as-bowlings-new-kingpin-idUSKBN1ZN2FK https://www.reuters.com/article/us-sport-bowling-edison-feat...
- Groxx 6y agoYeah, I've done it once each from both outside the 7 (spin made it bounce in the gutter, managed to jump out just enough to bump the 7, which scooted over to fall onto the 10 and tip it) and inside (like this clip has, bouncing off the wall). I average about 130 per game. Mine were definitely not due to skill, just number of games - I grew up close enough to a $1/game-on-Thursdays alley, and my family went to it a lot for a few years. I'm kinda boggled that this isn't on camera more often tbh. Maybe 7/10s are just a lot less likely for professionals? My rate of them has seemed to go down as I started throwing faster.
- fatnoah 6y agoSame story here. Mostly 140s bowler as a kid, though I did hit 190+ a couple times. My one and only "make" of the 7-10 happened when I kissed the outside side of the (whatever pin is on the right) as my ball fell into the gutter. The pin slid to the left and fell into the other pin, knocking it over.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 6y agoAt a friend's birthday party in the early 90s (10th or 11th birthday, I believe), he picked up a 7-10 split after his dad bet him $50 he couldn't do it. Fortunately dad was smart enough to be ready with the camera to catch the reaction, just in case.
- derekp7 6y agoToo bad that there isn't special scoring in bowling for the difficulty of a shot. Picking up the 7-10 spare should be an automatic win of the tournament instead of just the points you normally get from a spare.
- massysett 6y agoBut then a 7-10 split is worth more than simply taking out all the pins in the first place with a strike. Indeed a strike gets more points than a spare.
- ceedan 6y agoIt would also encourage (rarely) bowlers in unwinnable games to try and force 7-10 splits, so that they have a chance to win on a 7-10 conversion.
- jason_slack 6y agoIt’s easy to leave a 7-10 by coming in either very high on the head pin or chopping it right down the middle at a slower speed. edit: typo
- thelean12 6y agoIt's like golf too. There's a saying: "They don't draw pictures on a scorecard."
- jason_slack 6y agoI grew up in a family of bowlers and have bowled as a hobby and professionally. This is really hard and almost complete luck. I’ve seen the 7-10 made by sliding the 10 pin across left and also deflecting it off the back drop. I’ve never seen it by going after the 7 pin. The physics here is just amazing. There can even be benefit from using a ball that has a high shine or a very hard ball to cut down on the oil reacting with the ball and lessening the hook.
- evanb 6y ago> I’ve never seen it by going after the 7 pin. Is this just a repercussion of most people being right-handed?
- jason_slack 6y agoI’m sure that has something to do with it. But this guy was a lefty and he still went after the 10.
- grensley 6y agoCrazy that he converted a 7-10 split before he was born. It's actually kind of difficult to make this sentence not ambiguous without adding a bunch of words or subtracting meaning. "The first 7-10 split converted on TV in 30 years is by an 18-year-old bowler." is the best I've got, and it feels passive.
- dh303 6y agoThis is real news.
- brailsafe 6y agoFrom the comments: > Bowling is hard on the looks. Harsh, but hilarious.