Chitown,
While certain variations of balls can be very helpful on conditions such as you describe, Sometimes, many time, drills have to be varied with the surfaces as well.
In the reverse block you describe, it is often unusual for an RB to allow one to have th eball goes a far outside as 8. The Nationals often play like an RB and the breakpoint often has to be around 11 or 12.
In these situations, (which you probably know by now) instead of keeping the pin around the ring finger area, not only might a ball surface of 2000 grit (or even 4000 grit, it depends) be useful, instead of the normal gloss polish, but placing the pin over the bridge and kicking the CG out slightly coudl give you the slight backend needed to succeed on an RB.
In this sense, I can see carrying a polish Toxic with a "normal" drill and a matte finish with a 4000 grit finish and length+ reduced backend drill.
In general, if the cores and the coverstock are identical on 2 balls, a solid and a pearl resin, if drilled the same and surface finished the same, the pearl will usuually go slightly longer due to the stiffer cover tension provided by the pearlization. At times this can be helpful, but usually only on tricky tournament shots or PBA or SPort patterns in leagues. This could be what your facing.
Again, in summary, manipulating ball design, alternative drills and coverstock preparations can be very useful but is a complex balancing act of many, many factors, including your own release and ball speed consistency.
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"None are so blind as those who will not see."
