What is everyone opinions on this?  Taking a set of balls and drilling them all the same way, letting cover and core be the main factor in reaction rather than using different drills to fine tune the reactions.  I am asking this because I am drilling up 4 new balls this week.  1 Particle, 1 older resin/urethane hyrbid, 1 Solid resin, 1 resin pearl, all with the same pin placements(1-2).  I am still deciding on how to drill these or if I should go ahead and do them all the same way and let the cover and core be my determining factor in the hook shape of the ball and not going leverage on some balls, axis on others to get control.  Let me hear some opinions.
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-D. Marshall
ScratchBowling.com Shirt Staff 2003-2004


Edited on 8/11/2003 9:04 PM

I've found that to be a good practice, especially if you normally see only house-shots. You might want to make SLIGHT variations, i.e. make your pearl resin 'step-down' ball a little bit more biased towards length, and your heavier oil ball slightly more biased towards earlier roll, but except for that it will be easier if they are drilled similar. The balls that get the most use in my arsenal are drilled pretty much the same:

Inferno - Pin touching top of ring finger and CG stacked below.
Reaction Rip - Similar - pin touching right side ring finger and CG stacked below.
Icon2 - Same as Rip
Spirit - very similar layout.
I have other stuff with similar layouts that don't get as much use. I also have other stuff with tamer layouts for tougher shots. But - the above listed equipment gets the most usage, and it's very easy to go from one to the other when the need arises, and there are no surprises when making a ball change.
Now all we have to do is eliminate 'operator error'.

So far I came to this conclusion on my ball layouts. Basically they follow a few article written in Bowling this Month mostly by Denny T.

Know your game.
find my preferred ball reaction. = Arcing
I need to get length through the heads because of my strong release.
I have to have control on the backend reaction.

Drill three balls to have three lengths before they change from hook to roll.

for me a 45 deg pattern is my most versatile at this time.
I like to control the Flair size to about 3". so most of my pins fall between 4.5 and 5.5 inches.

Based on this type of information I have selected my basic three ball with my favorite pin position. pin under ring. and drilled them all the same and adjusted surfaces.

I also have realized that I like weaker balls drilled stronger and stronger balls drilled weaker or polished.


Now to add to the arsenal I just pop balls in between with different ball patterns to fill in gaps to extend the amount of time I can Play the same line.

example:

first three balls to cover all conditions
45 deg layout 4.75" pin under ring.
1. pearl resin
2. solid resin
3. particle( pearl particle)

then if I find dryer conditions I add a 135 deg 5.25" pin above ring high polish pearl resin

to continue from ball 1 to ball 2 I would add another pearl or solid resin polished. I would drill it 105 deg. depending on the strength of the cover stock the pin could be 4.5 to 5". most likely above fingers.

and so on. with six balls I can cover a great deal of conditions.

This advice is working for me so far. it make transitioning from one ball to the other easy. it make purchase decision easy. If I belive one ball transition will help me get to 200 I know exactly what to buy and how to drill it.


this is brief but I hope it helps.












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"deserves got nothing to do with it."
-- William Munny