While working in a proshop the last 15 years I have often seen the typical house bowler with an arsenal(using the word loosely) of balls that all basically react the same.

They come in and want an oil ball. So you find one that works for them, give it an aggressive oil drill and they go out and throw it and it hooks off the lane and they are happy at that moment. But in reality they want to use that ball on their league condition. The next thing you know they have put on a spinner and/or the luster king machine and polished it up like a diamond in a goat’s behind. It now hooks about the same number of boards as all their other equipment. Oh yeah it might arc more than skid flip but it doesn’t do what they initially bought the ball for.

Don’t fall into this trap. You should have some balls in your arsenal that you seldom if ever use. They are for extreme conditions that you seldom see and help you get by your weakest condition (be that oil or mediums or dry). Having two or three balls with the same amount of overall hook with different hook shapes is fine but don’t make them all the same.

Good post but some bowlers dont want balls with a different reaction.  

Case in point, last season I noticed one of my teammates had only solid reactives in his arsenal and they all had a similar reaction.  I watched him bowl many times thinking that this was a time he could use a pearl so when I had a pearl that I no longer used, I gave it to him to use.   He used it a couple of times, then when I next noticed it, he had sanded it down so that the ball would be more similar to his other equipment!

That's why I maintain the average house bowler (Read: AMF / brunswick zone) needs nothing more than a solid reactive, a bottle of polish, a scotchbrite pad, and a spare ball.

98.5% of the time they will never see enough oil to use a hook monster.

There are a few exceptions, higher rev players may want a pearl or something weaker, and lower rev might want a lighter particle. But in general the THS caters to a solid resin.