I have a friend that bowls basically up the boards with about 16.5 mph. What solid ball has the fastest response to dry on a fresh house shot ? Just trying to get some ideas to help him. Thanks

Depends on rev rate and if he needs an asym or not.  At 16.5 MPH; that would mean he is closer to 18.5 - 19 at release. What is he using now?  This will give us a baseline to go off of.  So the two things we need are his rev rate and what he is currently using. Without knowing those two things and only ball speed for which to base this from we would be looking at something like a DV8 Hellcat (asym) or new Knock Out Bruiser, Phaze 2, Dark Web or Cuda (symmetrics).

16.5 downlane isn't extremely fast and 275-300 revs aren't that low. With a Proton and Exotic it seems odd that he doesn't see enough response off the spot. Unless those balls are way too strong for the conditions/where he's playing or his release is very much up the back.

16.5 downlane isn't extremely fast and 275-300 revs aren't that low. With a Proton and Exotic it seems odd that he doesn't see enough response off the spot. Unless those balls are way too strong for the conditions/where he's playing or his release is very much up the back.

Thinking about this a little bit, I'm thinking since the rev rate isn't that low with average to lower speed and a THS, the ball might be burning up downlane.  The Proton comes at 2000 grit OOB.  That is quite a bit of surface to work with.  Mix that in with having a lower RG core and a medium-high differential and the ball is designed to have a little length but still be early overall.  Then the Exotic has a low RG core and high differential with a Nano cover.  This means it will still be early.

My thought is that if he wanted to stay with asyms on THS that he should look to surface changes first and probably add some compound or polish.  This will let the ball skid more through the fronts and help store some energy for the back.  Another option potentially is to look at weaker layouts.  In either case, try surface changes first as that is one of the most important things to look at.  The lower the RG value on the core means that the earlier the hook.  Higher differential means higher flare potential.  This combination on THS can be tough to use on a consistent basis.

If the balls simply don't match up, I would look more towards a symmetrical solid/pearl/hybrid and then adjust surface as needed and/or use in combination with a pin above layout based on PAP.  Also, I would potentially look at moderate to higher RG numbers for the core and then medium differential as this will help give easy length, store enough energy to react downlane, and not overly flare.

Balls that typically fit this realm would be the Storm Phase V, Storm Hy-Road, Roto Grip Idol Cosmos, Brunswick Knock Out Bruiser, Hammer Dark Web, Columbia 300 Cuda, Motiv Ripcord to name a few. 

These are all general suggestions.  However, I would encourage him to talk to his PSO to go more in depth.

Thanks TommyBoy and Two-handed for taking the time to assist him. I'll suggest for him to lower his speed by lowering the ball in his approach for starters. It takes discipline and focus to stay with that approach. I'll pass it on to him. Maybe weaker balls may be the answer on the fresh house shot for him. I'll keep you posted. Thanks again. Carlos

It sounds like you’ve got a solid plan in place. Lowering the ball speed could definitely help him get more reaction on the fresh house shot, as it allows the ball to properly read the lane and store energy for the backend. It might also be worthwhile for him to experiment with different ball layouts and surfaces to find the best combination. Let us know how it goes, and if he finds a setup that works, it’d be great to hear about the results!

Hopefully he’s gotten this worked out in the last year-and-a-half.