Advantages and disadvantages of both? Personal preference?

Advantages and disadvantages of both? Personal preference?

There are times I prefer one and times for the other.

Also keep in mind, that this philosophy is not a cut and dried situation. There are all sorts of degrees between a dull urethane-like controlled breakpoint and extreme skid/flip balls like the Violent Eruption and similar balls.

PLUS some people's release CAN tend to force skid/flip balls to be controlled, and other people's release CAN tend to force even control balls to be skid/flip.

I like a long, late breaking  strong arc.  almost skid flip, but not quite the unpredictable flip.

love control after skid/flip,patterns and transitions generally dictate when and how.

skid flip advantage-play just inside track with straighter line,high scores
disadvantage - hard to control when the pattern blows up.
control - can grind out a game where skid/flip would be a disaster.
conn- I generally don't score as high with a control ball.

I tend to favor control balls more. I like smooth, controllable pieces where minor tweaks with my hand release will give me great, continuous rewards in the long haul.

Skid/flip pieces come in handy as well. On a pattern where I am not as concerned with control......I am just concentrating on keeping my speed up......and then reaching the dry, breakpoint area so the ball will react! That's when you get a lot of high games and "trust is a must".

Skid/flip translates to both high risk and high reward! See DMonroe's descriptions below.

Generally for me:
Skid flip: Advantage Better angle, more carry.  Disadvantage More splits and washouts when breakpoint becomes erratic.
Control: Advantage fewer splits and washouts, more pocket hits.  Disadvantage Less carry on good shots.

With more skid flip, I have brought my house avg up to 226, but my sport and non-easy house shot has suffered greatly.  Sport shot 178.  This is not acceptable to me, so with my inconsistencies, I am going back to my safer, stroker type shot.

For one, it depends on the pattern and lane conditions.  Typically, though, when playing straighter, control is better.  When moving deeper on the lane, I prefer skid/flip as I need that extra entry angle to carry the corner pins.  When playing straighter near the track, skid/flip gets too unpredictable/uncontrollable which is why I much prefer balls with surface and a control layout.  When playing deeper on the lane, the control pieces have very little entry angle.  So I leave corner pins like crazy.  Thats when I go to the more angular pieces.

I certainly seemed to be throwing a lot better first ball by going back to control