Why It’s Almost Impossible to Make a 7-10 Split in Bowling | WIRED

my parents split when I was between 7 & 10

It isn’t that hard. I hit those kinds of splits all the time.

When I was a kid I managed to get a gutter ball with the lane’s bumper setting on. I’m kind of a big deal in bowling.

One HUGE thing about converting the 7-10 you failed to mention is the walls beside the pins. If you are bowling on Lane 1 the wall left of the 7 pin is a solid wall. The wall right of the 10 pin is hallow because of the ball return. This plays a HUGE roll in converting the 7-10. You should ALWAYS shoot at whatever pin is closest to the solid wall. Or in other words if you leave the split on the left lane, you want to hit the right side of the 7 pin. Hitting it as hard as possible into the solid wall causing a much stronger ricochet. I grew up working in a bowling alley, and noticed this myself when working on the pin decks. I have converted the 7-10 twice, both in league play but once on the left lane hitting the 7 pin first and once on the right lane hitting the 10 pin first. Ironically the first time I converted the 7-10 it was on lane 15 just like it is shown in this video at 3:15 notice he hits the 7 pin just right of center and into the solid wall. I can guarantee you if that exact shot was replicated on lane 16 he would not have converted it.

When a professional has only done it 3 times in his life and you have all these people in the comments saying that they've done it. Tells you how much luck has to do with it.

When I’ve gone bowling, I never hit 7-10 split but I always gone through the middle, calling it a “field goal”

He keeps saying that the Greek Church can only be converted by hitting the two pins. But at 9:21 we see an example of a spare converted after hitting the three pins first.

As a high school bowler, I hit a 7-10 split once during regionals. My teammate freaked out when it happened. I can agree that it is difficult and the ball would have to hit one of the pins hard enough. Just enough to fly and hit the other.

I saw a 16 year old girl make the 7-10 during league play in pocatello idaho, tough guy lanes, late 80's. She had a sub 100 average, totally luck shot, but the most magical thing I've seen while bowling

It's always possible for Matt on Wii Sports

I picked one of these up when I was really young. Maybe like 7 or 8 yrs old. I had NO idea what I had done, but everyone was freaking out. I threw at the 10 pin and my ball went into the gutter just before the pin. The curvature of the gutter caused my ball to roll back toward the 10 pin just enough to bump it and make it wobble. It fell, and rolled across the lane, taking out the 7 pin. I got awards, patches and whatever else they gave for league play and I had no comprehension that what I'd done was nearly impossible until years later. I was just having fun, bowling with friends on Saturday mornings, lol! Truly luck.

Roy Munson hit it back in ‘96 at the championships in Reno. He had been out of the game for 20 years and had this epic come back going head to head with the “Muhammad Ali of bowling” ‘Ernie McCraken’. Unfortunately Munson came up short in the epic match but he did hit the 7 10 split during competition. He did all this with a rubber hand over a hook mind you. He’s definitely the 🐐

There's something appropriate about the probability for a 7/10 split being seven-tenths of percent. :-)

Worked an alley for 3 years. Bowled on leagues that entire time. I've seen a 7-10 cover twice. One of which, was the first one the gentleman had ever gotten in almost 40 years of bowling

Robbie, great video. I'm in my early 70's. My Dad was a huge bowler and I was able to go to the lanes back in the 1950's to watch him bowl in leagues. I did set pins in Buffalo, NY (Grant Street Lanes - above Molin Taylor Motor Parts) in the early 60's but was clueless as to how the machines operated after the mid 60's. Really enjoyed your presentation. I have seen the 7-10 picked up as well as 'box-cars' split. Bowlers today are insane! Also, never knew 'Earl' existed but very cool indeed! TY!

I've been bowling since I was four, and I somehow made this spare when I was seven. The ten pin bounced right off the back of lane (black part) and came back to hit the seven pin. I've never been able to do it again and it's been 10 years.

I hate to be that guy but I did it once. The guy working at the alley said he'd never seen anyone do it before. One of the most proud moments of my life

"Nobody on earth can hit a 7-10 hit" Me who plays WiiSports: my intelligence is almost frightening

I got one totally by accident when I was with my best friend at his Birthday party; I was around 13/14 years old. First time ten pin bowling, I just chucked the ball without a thought about what was going to happen, but the thing I remember more than making this shot was the people in the lane next to ours that were all wearing those bowling gloves and decked out in their kit just stopped and all four of them started clapping. I had no idea why until years later lol For anyone in the U.K it was at Bitterne Bowl in Southampton.

Seems like you have to do one of two things to have any chance, especially with the newer curtains: 1) Instead of aiming for a glancing blow on the outside where you'll land in the gutter, you should aim for a glancing blow on the inside of either pin instead, which is even more achievable since you can use spin to curve it in, the idea being to bounce the pin hard into the wall on the side and causing it to ricochet back, all in order to avoid the pin hitting the curtain and losing its kinetic energy there. 2) Hit the pin straight on with a fast throw, the goal being to achieve a double bounce as mentioned in passing in the video, where the pin hits the ball a second time after colliding with the curtain, regaining kinetic energy and bouncing unpredictably in one of any number of directions.