Seadrive and Joe,
If I get you mad at me, will you two stop arguing over what I think you actually agree on?? Ok, here goes my 2 cents.
We all build an arsenal with ball whose characteristics we believe will allow us to deal with a certain range of oil patterns/lane conditions. Notice I use the word range. I {i]BELIEVE[/i] a ball and its drilling should handle a range of conditions because if each ball covering the next higher and next lower range does not overlap to a small degree, we would have gaps in our coverage.
Does that make any sense?
Let me give an example of two of medium-light thru medium thru medium heavy oil patterns. (I eliminate dry and heavy for the sake of simplicity.) Ignore for the tie being drillings or surface preparations for different styles of bowlers.
1:
Medium-heavy: V2 Strong
medium: V2 Sanded
Medium-light: V2 Pearl
The V2S cover medium-heavy but also extends its operating range down into the medium range so that when there is a lane transition, you will have a chance to recognize some leaves that (should) tell you change balls. For righties, these signs might be 4 pins or even worse 6/10s. Then you know to move deeper with your feet and target, OR if you're already too deep, change to the V2 Sanded.
The V2P covers medium-light oil. It should also cover a tiny bit into the medium range, which it would normally be able to do. If you start leaving pins that (should) indicate that there's carrydown, like weak 10 pins or 2 pins, AND maybe you are already to far outside to move further, then it's time to change to the V2S.
Example #2:
Medium-heavy: Dyno-Thane Element
Medium: Thing Returns
Medium-light: Vendetta Pearl
The same scenarios, that apply to the V2 series above, apply to these Dyno-Thane balls.
EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE:
There are balls that can be used over wider range of conditions. There are many and various factors that contribute to this ability, as well as the bowler's ability and the lane conditions. If I may be so bold as to specify me as an example in only one case, Please see my post in the Dyno-Thane forum re: Praise for Soaker Coverstock, which is really praise for the design of the Element. (This is not meant as an advertisement!) I am not an especially good bowler, but I was able over a shocking 3 week period to use an Element over a huge range of medium-light to true heavy oil patterns. No one was more shocked than I was and I did use some alternative release, by necessity, only because the appearance of these conditions was a shock to me.
Anyway, such balls, ones that are more generic, are usually capable of covering medium to medium-heavy, like the Element, or medium-light to medium, like the Fire Quantum and the Thing Returns. Generic drilling are, of course, those without unusual pinpoisitons, like pin on the axis or pin over the middle finger hole.
JOE FALCO,
Your Golden Nugget, as we had talked, for your release & delivery style, would be more generic with a slightly stronger drilling, but since the cover of the GN is relatively stronger than the core, it should, IN GENERAL, still cover medium-heavy and extend enough dow into the medium range to be fairly useful to you.
Now, be mad at me; not at each other, as my opinion differs from y'all's. I below in overlapping ranges. Yet I still use balls more than I use hand releases to adopt to changing lane conditions, although I do move feet and target a lot more than either of the other two changes.
Enough! My fingers and brain are still tired from Christmas.
Oh, and Merry Christmas, again.
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"Just because you can do something does not mean you should do it."
