Or if anyone could post a video of how to read a ball's reaction throughout the lane, that would be perfect too!

Good article.  http://www.bowlingthismonth.com/article/el-dorado-and-el-diablo/

Most of the time someone on your team will have to advise you when the heads are burnt, but this is correct, head burn almost makes it look like the mids are going, but if you know what it looks like when the mids really are going, then you will be able to differentiate between the two.  If the mids are going, you usually see a sharper jump at 30ish feet, give or take.  If the heads are going, usually the motion is smoother and it looks like the ball just hooks too early rather than making a defined move anywhere to you, but teammates could be able to see the ball jump right when you lay it down. 

Heads always track or burn first, even though the heads have the highest volume of oil initially.  However we don't really pick up the rotation of the ball ourselves till it gets to the mids.  Therefore usually we see the ball seem not to push quite as far before it starts to hook.  To my eye it would appear that the mids are going, but the ball has started to burn off energy earlier than that even if we don't see the result.

Lots of interesting points in this thread.  Being an old school stroker, I probably don't understand, nor am as sympathetic to the high rev power players, but here are a couple of thoughts. 

First different styles have different options on how to attack a pattern.  Power players first and foremost need head oil combined with some down lane friction.  Except on the new very long patterns ( over 45 feet ) they can find this combination quickly and create the out angle to put them in a comfort zone.  Straighter players can take advantage of their lower rev rate to create some hold area in the mids that would be unavailable to higher rev players.  In shorter formats or early in a round, this can give us straight guys an advantage. 

As for guys moving left, and lofting the gutter cap, this started with the tour players a few years after the introduction of resin balls.  The resin balls basically allowed high rev guys to stand left and throw right now matter what the pattern.  Most of the top guys on the mega buck circuit in the mid 90s attacked the super flat patterns of those tournaments in that way, and as more young power guys graduated to the tour in became a real problem.  Lane men were complaining that they had no way to use the pattern to make guys play the lane in the manner intended. 

Today we see  high volumes of high viscosity oil applied much longer than in the past.
Watch the guys like Rash and Belmonte this summer and you see guys playing very straight initially with much less axis rotation on fresh long patterns.  What Valenta did in the Badger tournament was an intentional strategy to force everyone else to loft the gutter cap along with him.  In past years that was the what happened quickly as most of the guys moved in right away and were forced in the lofting strategy quickly.

Even us low rev guys burn a hole in the pattern pretty quickly, but by starting around 10 board we have a long way to move as the shot breaks down.  I have noted for several years that seniors score higher than the kids on the same tournament patterns, because we don't blow the shot up for ourselves by moving in too quickly.   

This was really an informative post. Being a two handed bowler, most people assume I am just a one trick pony. However, I have the ability to lower my speed and rev rate drastically. As avabob said, a lot of college bowlers are lofting the gutter cap early because they burn a hole in the pattern too fast.With this in mind, I destroy the pattern with those guys at first, and then I can switch my role to play right with the best of the strokers. Honestly, I feel they never had to bowl on enough of the short/dry patterns where they are forced to still play to the right and need less revs and axis. I guess you can sat I am a teo-hander with an old school mindset.

This was really an informative post. Being a two handed bowler, most people assume I am just a one trick pony. However, I have the ability to lower my speed and rev rate drastically. As avabob said, a lot of college bowlers are lofting the gutter cap early because they burn a hole in the pattern too fast.With this in mind, I destroy the pattern with those guys at first, and then I can switch my role to play right with the best of the strokers. Honestly, I feel they never had to bowl on enough of the short/dry patterns where they are forced to still play to the right and need less revs and axis. I guess you can sat I am a teo-hander with an old school mindset.

I think you are a liar, period.