Is anyone going back to basics?  After looking at my long list of equipment and taking notes of gaps in what reactions I needed and was looking for I came to realize that just about everything is a bit too exotic, layout wise.  I am revamping everything I have for the fall season.  The only two balls I am keeping from last season are a Rush and Classic Zone which both have the same type of layout.  I'm staring at 4 balls that I have to punch before next week when leagues start and I think I'm just going to go back to basics instead of trying all the fancy mumbo jumbo.  Anyone else going back to basics(ex. label leverage no x-hole, pin over bridge, pin near axis)?
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- DP3
Hoss Central Inc.
Respect the Game

DP3,

My philosophy has almost always been that ball designers do not design balls so that you need to drill it with the PAP at 5" or at 2". If a ball overreacts when you put the pin at 4" or so from your PAP, then you bought the wrong ball.

Somewhere around 4-7 years ago, ball reps began suggesting that the Pros use their company's strongest (therefore their most expensive, therefore their biggest moneymakers, therefore their best balls) balls and put the pin at 6" from their PAP solely so they could them on the short, light oil that the PBA put out. Somehow this strange method caught on at the pro shop level and seems to have become the norm:

Drill the strongest ball you can super-weak and use it on the lightest oil you can.

Hey, virtually anything works for the bowler's with great games; We lesser skilled mortals -- not so much.

I say, buy the right ball for the condition on which you intend to use, for your style. Drill it with your favorite drill. Have one other drill for alternatives. Then bowl already.

We will all make mistakes in choosing the wrong ball once in a while. We will all want to try some fabulous new ball and force it to fit in whether or not it really does. Then you can try some exotic drill to make the ball usable for you. Otherwise, stick to basics.

Yeah, it's a bitter pill to swallow - buying only those balls suitable for your release/style/ballspeed plus your lane condition, but a sadder and wiser man am I.
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"None are so blind as those who will not see."


Edited on 8/22/2006 2:58 AM

Hmmm, concerning league/tournament I am conservative, too. I find myself bagging those balls that work best for me and which yield the most stable/predictable reactions.
For medium conditions, pin 1" above the ring finger and CG/MB stacked works pretty well, on almost any ball so far.

I had my Sahara and Vicious Attack set up this way in my bag 2 weeks ago when I joined my club's championship, and these balls bombed me all the way to an obverall 3rd place in my average group with a total average of 190 through 16 games. Worked so well because I could switch between these balls (and my sanded Pure Hammer which has become a nice, arcing Sahara alternativ) at will and play lines between 2nd and 3rd arrow, adjusting to the changing lanes. It was just great and worked out the way I had planned it!

I think it is important to set up competition balls in a conservative fashion. It is a consolation to have balls at hand of which you know that they work for you, and how, on a wide range of conditions. Specific drills can[/] be a  good thing, but for a tournaments with so many unpredictable factors at hand (especially in a foreign alley), the more "simple", the better IMHO.

This is also a mental thing, and that's at least 50% of knocking down all 10 pins again and again.
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DizzyFugu - Reporting from Germany
Team "X" website & more about me: http://web.mac.com/timlinked/iWeb/X/Thomas.html
"The Future's So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades" - PatMacDonald

i've been doing this for years. i use two(2) different drilling patterns on my equipment: both have the pin right next to the ring finger. the balls for heavier oil have the cg and/or mass bias stacked, and there is a hole down near the right thumb quadrant. the other balls have the cg swung towards the grip center to avoid a hole. i then rely on the surface preparation of the coverstock for the rest. i think bowlers( and some pro shops ) are making this way too complicated.

Edited on 8/22/2006 10:32 AM

What about the notion of drilling your strong balls strong and your weak balls weak?  I agree that buying a strong ball and killing it with a 6" pin-to-PAP distance and eight coats of polish seems silly given that a lot of other balls naturally suit that condition.  

But what about drilling a ball to enhance it's built-in characteristics?  Balls that are designed to be long and strong (a la the Xception or X-factor), give them pin-up drillings with strong MB placements.  Balls that are early and arcy like the UI, give them pin-down, MB-towards-VAL layouts.

SH