Author Topic: More about Particle balls... (Read 3507 times)

Ric Clint · « **on:** December 09, 2003, 08:21:24 AM »

I've been reading the topic titled, "People just dont get particle equipment. or 'Particles 101'".

I understand, that in general, that Reactives having more backend than Particles. And about all the talk about Particle's being designed for people that throw a more controlled smaller hook... BUT... with the big booming backend Particle's they're making now days, some of these particle's can keep up with the most sharpest turning Reactive's on the market!!!

Balls like the Mass Chaos (yes I know it's old but if you threw one then you know about the monster backend this ball has), Reaction REV, Track Spell, Tornado TPS, Predator RED Sparkle, Green Carbide Bomb, the Angle Extra, Night Hawk SPT, and the Phenom Unleashed to name a few.

And I know that these balls are not Heavy Load Particle's, but are more like medium load or lighter load particle's, but they are still particle.

What I find by using these types of Particle balls is that I get the control and predictability of a Particle ball, but with the booming backend of a Reactive ball.

So I get the best of both worlds!

And most of my Particle balls I keep polished up pretty good so that they get down the lane and store energy. The only time I use a Reactive ball is when there is not enough head oil for even the weakest, lightest load particle to get down the lane by. And then I use a weak Reactive.

I heard a saying one time, and the motto is, "If there is any head oil at all, use particle, even if it's polished up pretty good."

I live by this motto!!!

MY MAIN REASON FOR USING PARTICLE BALLS IS THIS:

I find that when I'm using a polished Reactive like a V2 or Savage or X-Factor, that when the slightest bit of Carrydown occurs I'll go from going flush, flush, bucket... or flush, flush, washout. All because the polished Reactive is scared of any kind of Carrydown!

But if I'm using one of the polished big booming Particle's and Carrydown occurs I might go, flush, flush, 8 pin... or flush, flush, 10 pin. See the Particle still has enough "tread" to still dig in enough to where the CHANGE from one ball's "pin leave" is not as drastic as the one before it. The fact is that these polished Particle balls will handle Carrydown better than polished Reactive balls!

Surely somebody else out there agree's with me on this and loves the BOOMING particle balls more than the Reactive balls.

You can have the best of both worlds with the balls listed above!!!

Oppinions???

Edited on 12/10/2003 0:33 AM

Ric Clint · « **Reply #1 on:** December 10, 2003, 12:32:25 AM »

I agree with you 100% about the Reactive's being sensitive to over/under!!! That's EXACTLY my point!!!

channel surfer · « **Reply #2 on:** December 10, 2003, 05:34:21 AM »

So your saying... Carrydown=Particle, Fresh Backends=Reactive??
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1fife · « **Reply #3 on:** December 10, 2003, 06:16:21 AM »

im started to like the light load pearl particle

i believe it is like having the best of both worlds
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When in doubt-swing it out

da Shiv · « **Reply #4 on:** December 10, 2003, 12:09:48 PM »

I agree with all that's been said here. I'm a big fan of the newer light and medium load particle balls. I use an Inferno as my benchmark ball--a pearl resin. As soon as carrydown starts to appear, the Inferno starts getting me in washout trouble and out come the polished, light load particles. They seem to get down the lane as well as the Inferno--maybe revving up just a bit sooner--but they can handle the carrydown. I use heavier load, duller, particles for heavier oil.

Light load particles--best of both worlds.

Shiv
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Listening to the monotonous staccato of rain on my desk top

Ric Clint · « **Reply #5 on:** December 10, 2003, 01:13:25 PM »

quote:
So your saying... Carrydown=Particle, Fresh Backends=Reactive??

Sort of yes, and sort of no... if that makes sense???

I mean, with the big booming backend Particle's they're making now days, you can have the best of both worlds! You can get the control and predictability of a Particle ball, but with the booming backend reaction of a Reactive ball.

I like the look and reaction of a Reactive ball going down the lane and turning hard, but now they are making Particle balls that do the same thing. And if your using a Reactive and Carrydown occurs, then you usually have to put the Reactive away and go to a Particle... but, if you're using a Particle (or even the lightest load Particle around) and Carrydown occurs, then usually you can stay with the same ball and just move right and not have to change balls because the Carrydown will be LESS noticable while using a polished Particle ball vs. using a polished Reactive ball.

A perfect example of what I'm talking about is 2 weeks ago in league. I was using a Track Spell (let me add that this ball, because of the High RG, it gets great length and stores up energy and has the biggest backend I've seen out of ANY ball in a long while... Reactive or Particle!!!). Okay, I shoot 212 the first game and 279 the second game. Well, when the third game rolls around Carrydown starts to occur big time and I have to move a couple of boards right to be able to get the ball to keep finishing strong and I close out the set with 238 for a 729 series.

This ball kept me in the game. Where as, a while back when I was using polished Reactives (like a V2, Savage, or X-Factor), I would shoot real good the first 2 games and then Carrydown would occur and when I would move right a couple of boards the ball would start to over/under real bad and I couldn't get a consistent reaction. So many times, I'd have 520 or 535 after 2 games, and then when Carrydown happened, I'd be lucky to shoot 175 or 180 the third game just to barely break 700... if I stayed with the Reactive ball.

Where as, I don't run into this problem that much with Particle's, although it can happen, but not usually.

In My Oppinion... a polished V2, polished Savage, polished X-Factor, and polished X-Factor DEUCE are the very WORST when it comes to Carrydown and over/under!!! I've talked to other people that have these balls and they all say the same thing (and plus I know from experience with these same balls before I got rid of them). But they usually never complain when using a polished particle.

And plus, you never really ever hear of somebody shooting a big set or 800 series with 2 different balls, usually they have to stick with one ball to be able to finish off a good set like an 800. So if you like the hard left turn backend of a polished Reactive, then why not use a big backending lighter load polished Particle and let this ball keep you out of trouble in the long run???

Thanks!

Edited on 12/10/2003 2:18 PM

Bjaardker · « **Reply #6 on:** December 10, 2003, 06:55:42 PM »

When I originally wrote the "Particles 101" post we were experiencing a DELUGE of high load particle equipment. It seemed everyone & their mother was buying these super hook monsters & almost everyone was complaining about how their ball wouldn't hook.

You are correct that we are seeing many medium to low load particles that tend to get down the lanes without rolling out much better than the older ones. However the basic principles I was talking about still remain true. You yourself mentioned that you keep many of your particles highly polished to get through the heads.

Regardless, in my personal experience a particle of equal "strength" as a resin will tend to roll out sooner. Rare is it that I see a condition where a resin will roll out as opposed to simply hooking off the lane.

Bottom line, the newest generation of particles is pretty darn user friendly, but for the new bowler the technology is rarely explained very well by many pro shops, and even less of the time by the ball companies themselves. The more people we can teach & light that fire inside of, the better chance we have of saving our sport.

da Shiv · « **Reply #7 on:** December 11, 2003, 09:31:54 AM »

quote:
Bottom line, the newest generation of particles is pretty darn
user friendly, but for the new bowler the technology is rarely
explained very well by many pro shops, and even less of the
time by the ball companies themselves.

I agree with every part of this sentence.

There is an older guy on my team who joined up as a sixth man because he enjoys bowling and because his son-in-law and his son are also on the team. He had an older Messenger ball that I noticed was tracked up terribly and showed no signs of ever having been cleaned, and he was getting nothing out of it on the lanes at all.

To digress for a moment...Even though I am well educated about bowling balls, drillings (and matching both of those up to a style and a lane condition), surface prep and cleaning; I rarely say much about it to teammates or anyone else because, frankly, most of them don't want to hear about it. They seem to mostly prefer to bumble along in ignorance rather than try something that might improve their scores. This is frustrating to me, not only because I know I could help them, but also because it would help my team win games if my teammates allowed themselves to be helped. Unlike around this site, where everyone has a voracious appetite for information that might help their games, most bowlers either want no advice at all or, if they take any advice at all, they take it from the local pro shop operator. In the quote above, Bjaardker was kind to pro shop operators. I have an excellent pro shop operator myself, and I have to drive a bit to get to him--past dozens of other pro shops in fact. I know of some other fairly nearby pro shops that are good too. In general though, I hear a lot of inaccurate, uninformed information given out by pro shops. This leads me back to my original tale as started above...

I told the teammate mentioned above that I thought he'd get a little more help from his ball if he'd let me clean it for him. I had some Hook-It with me that day, and he agreed to let me do it. Having no spinner there at the bowling center, I went at the ball with Hook-It on bar napkins and just worked at it on the settee table. I got lots of black gunk off the ball for the first several go-rounds, followed by yellow gunk. The yellow gunk was still coming out of the ball when it was time to start bowling, so I had to stop and go wash my hands so I could bowl. The ball performed very well for him that night--well enough that it warmed him up to considering my advice generally. I told him that I thought that he really needed to consider getting a new ball. Knowing his game--best characterized as slow stroker--and our lanes--old wood with a light-medium condition that breaks down quickly, I had him figured for a pearl reactive; certainly not a particle ball. I also knew that he was concerned about the expense and was unlikely to consider an expensive ball. His son throws a Blade Solid and his son-in-law (a cranker) throws a Blade Pearl, and one of my regular balls (on nights when the oil is especially light) is a Sling Blade. He's seen a lot of Blades in use, and they're cheap, so I recommended that he consider either the older Blade Pearl or a Sling Blade. I think the Sling Blade would be ideal, but I wanted to give him at least a couple options.

I knew he wouldn't consider using part of his day off to drive crosstown with me to the pro shop I go to, so we went into the pro shop at the center and expressed interest in Blades, with me saying that I thought the ball for him would be one of the two mentioned above. The guy in the pro shop pulled out the new Hammer flyer that we've all probably seen by now, and strongly recommended the Sharp Blade (particle), saying it was the best of the whole Blade line. I'm sure that anyone who has plowed through this post up to this point is seeing the same red flag that went up for me as soon as this guy said that. The pro shop guy doesn't know my teammate's game! He had no business telling him that the Sharp Blade was the "best" of the Blades. We all know that what the "best" ball is is dependent on many things and you simply cannot tell a stranger walking in the door what ball he ought to buy. I put up arguments as to why the Blade Pearl or Sling Blade was really what my teammate needed, and my teammate mostly just stood back and watched me disagree with the pro shop guy. I made my arguments, and after awhile I decided that I had done all I could do without creating a bad blood situation between me and the pro shop guy which would be hard to smooth out; and/or confusing or discouraging my teammate to the point where he'd decide to just stick with his dead Messenger. I left the shop. Later, when my teammate came out, I asked him what had been decided. He said he'd decided to opt for the Sharp Blade. Oh, well. I silently decided that after he got the Sharp Blade and it rolled out on him, I'd talk him into letting me take it home and polish it up for him so that he could hopefully get a good shot out of it.

When he came in the following week and went into the pro shop, to my surprise he came out with a Blade Pearl! He had decided to go and change his order and go along with my advice. I felt pretty good about that. I felt even better after he shot 140 over average that night and won four jackpots to which he is a perennial donator. The pots paid for the ball. Best of all, he was delighted and felt much better about his game.

His bowling would have led us to a sweep of the points that night if yours truly hadn't bowled like a chump in the last game. Knowledge of equipment is a big help, but still doesn't entirely compensate for stupid bowling. It was a good night anyway.

Oh yeah...I almost forgot to say--particles aren't for everybody. As Mr. Natural used to say, "Get the right tool for the job!"

Shiv
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Listening to the monotonous staccato of rain on my desk top

Edited on 12/11/2003 10:33 AM

Edited on 12/11/2003 11:10 AM

Brickguy221 · « **Reply #8 on:** December 11, 2003, 10:19:07 AM »

Count me in with you people agreeing on the light or lighter load particles. I purchased an Angle Evolution Extra when they first came out and still use it today. Since I bought it, I've bought a number of other balls, all Reactive. Every time I would buy a new Reactive, I would put the Extra "in the closet" only to dig it out of the closet again and put it back in my bag, because the Reactive wasn't as consistant day in and day out as the Extra was.

Many a time when I get into a slump and can't shake it, I dig it out of the closet, put it in my bag and go to the lanes and it pulls me out of my slump. If it works well for me, why do I keep putting it back into the closet? Darned if I really know why other than when I want to try a certain new ball, I buy it and to make room for it in my bag, I end up putting the Extra in the closet because it is the oldest ball.

I believe it came NIB 1500 Grit Matte and unpolished. It has worked best on the lanes I bowl on at 1000 wet sanded and polished. Originally I bought two and drilled them different. One was drilled PIN over ring finger and this type drilling doesn't work for my style on any ball, so I gave it to a friend a year and half ago. Wish now I would have kept it and plugged and redrilled different. Especially after my friend forgot and left it on the ball return after bowling and went back 30 minutes later to get it and "it was gone."
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In the old days, they used axes to chop up wood...Nowadays, they use "BUZZSAWS".

MI 2 AZ · « **Reply #9 on:** August 10, 2012, 04:17:36 PM »

Reference

Author Topic: More about Particle balls... (Read 3507 times)

Ric Clint

More about Particle balls...

Ric Clint

Re: More about Particle balls...

channel surfer

Re: More about Particle balls...

1fife

Re: More about Particle balls...

da Shiv

Re: More about Particle balls...

Ric Clint

Re: More about Particle balls...

Bjaardker

Re: More about Particle balls...

da Shiv

Re: More about Particle balls...

Brickguy221

Re: More about Particle balls...

MI 2 AZ

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