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Building an effective arsenal – Part 1
Posted by Tye on May 14, 2013
With CNC’s just around the corner, and several conversations relating to this topic in the last few days, I felt like it would be a good idea to put down in writing a lot of what I say when it comes to selecting equipment. Of course, not everyone is a pro shop owner or sponsored by a ball company with (almost) unlimited balls to choose from, but that’s when this type of decision-making is even more important. With limited budget to buy bowling balls, you need to be smart about your decisions.
First, the dominant thought that ball surface dictates reaction. It does. Ball surface will account for between 50 and 80% of ball motion, depending who you talk to. That being said, ball surface really has 2 different characteristics: its chemical composition and its surface roughness. You can’t change its composition, but you can change its surface with abralon, polishes, etc. That makes ball surface a variable. What is constant after you drill a bowling ball is its core dynamics, which are dictated by the original numbers and the layout used. For this reason, it’s more important to pay attention to dynamics inside the ball, than the out of box (OOB) surface when looking for a bowling ball. What you want is a variety of ball motions dictated by core and layout, and then use surface to fine tune.
The core and layout helps determine the shape. Strong early revving cores and layouts will want to create an arcing motion versus cores and layouts designed to lope and respond more quickly to friction. Since left-to-right hook is greatly affected by the surface, what you want to pay more attention to is ball shape. Granted, some balls with similar shapes will hook too much for certain patterns, because of the surface composition, which you’ll remember is constant. This is why it’s a good idea to get a few similar shapes, with different hook potentials, to give you the most possible coverage of conditions. This all sounds very theoretical, but I promise I’ll clear it up. Let’s start with fresh oil.
Typically fresh oil has a very defined back end motion. The ball goes from being on oil to being off it and will generally respond accordingly. For this reason, smoother, early rolling shapes are usually better on fresh conditions. They will smooth out the backend motion and create control on patterns when they are at their most volatile. Then you consider volumes. Obviously a smooth shape that hooks too much or too little isn’t much help to you. This is where you should make a decision to have at least 2 balls with this shape. If you are playing on short oil as well, then a third (probably urethane) should also be considered. The key once you achieve this shape is to match up the left-to-right hook on the pattern.
For example, bowling on a medium pattern with a strong revving, big-hooking ball, might look good to start. But it will only look good from inside. The problem here is that your angles are open and you are forcing yourself in to the flat part of the oil pattern, where the shape is undefined and you will actually be hurting yourself in the long run. It’s a mistake most young bowlers make, especially higher-rev guys. Using a ball that gives a good shape and allows you to stay right (and straight) in the slope of the pattern will both give you better area and more favorable transition. Staighter is greater, in more ways than one.
As the lanes transition, you start to need balls that respond later and quicker. This sounds funny, but it is true. Later implies having more skid in the front part of the lane, and then a faster transition from skidding to roll, which we refer to as being ‘quick’ off the spot. Faster response balls are better when you are trying to get the ball to create a good shape on longer patterns, and especially from inside angles. As patterns that break down and force you left, and even on some fresher long patterns, you will require pin-up type drillings. Again, the idea here is to set up your bag with an eye to what the core wants the ball to do, and then adjust surface to match up to the lanes. A pin up ball doesn’t need to be shiny, so pin up tanks are what I’m referring to for an option on fresher long patterns.
Before going any further, it’s important to note that you can have higher pin layouts and relatively smooth shapes because of a strong cover and dull surface (These are generally good on fresh long patterns). The idea here is that all other things being equal, these general rules apply. If you take two of the same ball and drill them differently, you’ll see the differences I’ve described. In an effort to keep this relatively brief, we’ll talk about core types and surfaces later, but for now, the basics on getting shapes from layouts is this:
Early Rolling (slow response) – lower core angles, and higher VAL angles, AKA pin down, cg kicked out.
‘Skid-Flip’ (quicker response) – higher core angles, lower VAL angles, AKA pin up.
Finally, the key thing to always remember: Shape is more important than Hook.
Posted by Tye on May 14, 2013
With CNC’s just around the corner, and several conversations relating to this topic in the last few days, I felt like it would be a good idea to put down in writing a lot of what I say when it comes to selecting equipment. Of course, not everyone is a pro shop owner or sponsored by a ball company with (almost) unlimited balls to choose from, but that’s when this type of decision-making is even more important. With limited budget to buy bowling balls, you need to be smart about your decisions.
First, the dominant thought that ball surface dictates reaction. It does. Ball surface will account for between 50 and 80% of ball motion, depending who you talk to. That being said, ball surface really has 2 different characteristics: its chemical composition and its surface roughness. You can’t change its composition, but you can change its surface with abralon, polishes, etc. That makes ball surface a variable. What is constant after you drill a bowling ball is its core dynamics, which are dictated by the original numbers and the layout used. For this reason, it’s more important to pay attention to dynamics inside the ball, than the out of box (OOB) surface when looking for a bowling ball. What you want is a variety of ball motions dictated by core and layout, and then use surface to fine tune.
The core and layout helps determine the shape. Strong early revving cores and layouts will want to create an arcing motion versus cores and layouts designed to lope and respond more quickly to friction. Since left-to-right hook is greatly affected by the surface, what you want to pay more attention to is ball shape. Granted, some balls with similar shapes will hook too much for certain patterns, because of the surface composition, which you’ll remember is constant. This is why it’s a good idea to get a few similar shapes, with different hook potentials, to give you the most possible coverage of conditions. This all sounds very theoretical, but I promise I’ll clear it up. Let’s start with fresh oil.
Typically fresh oil has a very defined back end motion. The ball goes from being on oil to being off it and will generally respond accordingly. For this reason, smoother, early rolling shapes are usually better on fresh conditions. They will smooth out the backend motion and create control on patterns when they are at their most volatile. Then you consider volumes. Obviously a smooth shape that hooks too much or too little isn’t much help to you. This is where you should make a decision to have at least 2 balls with this shape. If you are playing on short oil as well, then a third (probably urethane) should also be considered. The key once you achieve this shape is to match up the left-to-right hook on the pattern.
For example, bowling on a medium pattern with a strong revving, big-hooking ball, might look good to start. But it will only look good from inside. The problem here is that your angles are open and you are forcing yourself in to the flat part of the oil pattern, where the shape is undefined and you will actually be hurting yourself in the long run. It’s a mistake most young bowlers make, especially higher-rev guys. Using a ball that gives a good shape and allows you to stay right (and straight) in the slope of the pattern will both give you better area and more favorable transition. Staighter is greater, in more ways than one.
As the lanes transition, you start to need balls that respond later and quicker. This sounds funny, but it is true. Later implies having more skid in the front part of the lane, and then a faster transition from skidding to roll, which we refer to as being ‘quick’ off the spot. Faster response balls are better when you are trying to get the ball to create a good shape on longer patterns, and especially from inside angles. As patterns that break down and force you left, and even on some fresher long patterns, you will require pin-up type drillings. Again, the idea here is to set up your bag with an eye to what the core wants the ball to do, and then adjust surface to match up to the lanes. A pin up ball doesn’t need to be shiny, so pin up tanks are what I’m referring to for an option on fresher long patterns.
Before going any further, it’s important to note that you can have higher pin layouts and relatively smooth shapes because of a strong cover and dull surface (These are generally good on fresh long patterns). The idea here is that all other things being equal, these general rules apply. If you take two of the same ball and drill them differently, you’ll see the differences I’ve described. In an effort to keep this relatively brief, we’ll talk about core types and surfaces later, but for now, the basics on getting shapes from layouts is this:
Early Rolling (slow response) – lower core angles, and higher VAL angles, AKA pin down, cg kicked out.
‘Skid-Flip’ (quicker response) – higher core angles, lower VAL angles, AKA pin up.
Finally, the key thing to always remember: Shape is more important than Hook.
