My ball driller likes to have me throw the ball before he punches a weight hole to see if I want to fine-tune the reaction or not. I had him Rico drill an old Storm Eraser Banshee that was sitting in my basement, but when he handed it back to me it didn't have the x-hole, and asked me to throw it before he put one on it. It worked pretty well on the second shift conditions that night in practice. I took it to a tournament with flying backends and a good amount of oil up front, and the ball rolled fine... for about five frames. As soon as the oil started to carry down at all, the ball stopped reacting. It was not flaring enough to really read the pattern well. I had him put the x-hole in it, and have thrown it for a few frames since. The ball reacts much better now -- it reacts like I expected it to. However, I haven't thrown it much since I have little use for the specific reaction it gives me -- it's something I bring to tournaments to use when nothing else works, etc.
Remember, the Rico drill is more than just putting the pin in the palm for a reason -- the x-hole determines a lot of that smooth, hard rolling, continous reaction off the breakpoint.
