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Author Topic: Thoughts on Reviews  (Read 2630 times)

The Stroke

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Thoughts on Reviews
« on: January 22, 2010, 03:02:45 AM »
I don't know if I am all alone on this thought but I am quite sick of reading reviews on this site.  As a regular league bowler I find these reviews either way too technical, all about FIGJAMing some scores, or downright putrid with no information except "it hits like a truck".  But I do find one common theme among them, they all praise the ball on how good it is.

Now, wouldn't some people feel that a negative ball review would be just as good as a praised ball review?  Say I am a tweener with a 4 1/2" PAP and wanted to buy Ball "A".  I went and bought it and I didn't have success with it.  I would be slightly upset.  Now if there was a ballreview by someone that was a tweener with a similar PAP that said Ball "A" didn't work for him, wouldn't you find that just as helpful as a review by someone who said "ball is great, hits like a truck, its a must have."  Helpful in the fact that you would search for a ball that would be a better option.  

If you listened to people on this site, you would think every ball was great.  We all know that is not the case.




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Toodles
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NoseofRI

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #1 on: January 22, 2010, 11:11:18 AM »
Excellent point made in this post.  

One thing you forgot to add is the typical "When I get this ball right it hooks back to the pocket, and yet when I pull it, it holds to the pocket and strikes.  This ball offers so much miss room"  No, that is not the ball, that is bowling on a wall.  

And honestly WTF with the mini reviews?
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scotts33

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #2 on: January 22, 2010, 11:19:24 AM »
Try this site.  http://72.228.19.50/  BowlingBallVault.com
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Scott

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Scott

The Stroke

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #3 on: January 22, 2010, 11:23:58 AM »
quote:
Try this site.  http://72.228.19.50/  BowlingBallVault.com
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Scott



I pulled up three reviews.  Balls were all good and one was a FIGJAM by somebody who loves to FIGJAM in reviews here.  Shocker.
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Toodles
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pinspeaker

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #4 on: January 22, 2010, 12:02:42 PM »
Yeah, it's hard to know whether reviews are worth a darn or not.  Staffers are never going to say anything bad and half the people on here don't drill very many balls a year for them to give fair reviews.  There are also many people who will suck up to one company because they think they will get on staff.  Pro shop owners/workers don't want to get backlash either from the reps who may read their reviews.

Then there are people who will rip you for giving a bad review.  I get it, there are always going to be people who match up to a ball.  But it doesn't mean there aren't bad bowling balls made.  Whenever you see someone criticize a ball its always, "Well how did you lay it out?", "What kind of surface do you have?", "I think you need a hole."  One of the pro shop owners in town ordered a case of Striking Motions when they first came out and he still can't get rid of them.

That's why I just stick with my pro shop.  They know my game and see so many of the ball reactions that they can point me in the right direction.  That's also another reason I will never buy a ball from an internet site.

Its just too hard to filter through all of the bad reviews on this site.
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mainzer

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #5 on: January 22, 2010, 01:10:36 PM »
Should be a Standard template for reviews
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"His Loyalty couldnt be bought at any price
but it could be rented remarkably cheaply"
-Inquisitor Allendyne-

Founding Father of the BR Inquisition

MainzerPower
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scotts33

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #6 on: January 22, 2010, 01:23:37 PM »
quote:
Should be a Standard template for reviews


There is one on BowlingBallVault.com
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Scott

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Scott

trash heap

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #7 on: January 22, 2010, 01:50:28 PM »
quote:
"When I get this ball right it hooks back to the pocket, and yet when I pull it, it holds to the pocket and strikes. This ball offers so much miss room"


That's not the ball. That's the oil pattern. When I see things like this, I stop reading. No value.
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OddBalls

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #8 on: January 22, 2010, 02:00:01 PM »
If you'll notice, they (reviews) are pretty much done by staffers hyping their own sht. This is pretty much why I take them all with a 5lb bag of salt..

Well, except for lane#1 reviews..they're all TRUE and they all hit like TRUCKS (:rolls eyes
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Yes. it's I, the Inverted One..

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dukeblue87

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #9 on: January 22, 2010, 02:28:31 PM »
In my opinion the only thing ball reviews do are confuse people, including myself.  If you really want to be competitive in this sport, it is best to just drill a bunch of different balls.  I'm not talking about averaging 230 on a house shot and winning the doubles pot every week, I'm talking about consistently cashing in scratch tournaments with demanding patterns.  Keep the balls that roll good and sell or trade the ones that don't.  If you don't have the money to drill a lot of equipment, maybe the demo days can help.

A lot of what makes a ball good is how it matches up to YOU.  Not someone with the same rev rate and PAP.  Everyone throws the ball differently, everyone targets differently, everyone has different "tools in the bag."

For example, my buddy and I both love the Hy-Roads.  We each have several that we throw often.  I drilled a Furious and didn't have much success with it.  It was OK, but I always had something better.  I gave it to him and he has 300 the first game on our scratch league (not a house shot, there might be 3-4 people in the league averaging 200).  The C-Sytem is phenomenal for both of us.  The point is, you really don't know how good a ball will be for you until you throw it.

There are so many variables that it is impossible to reliably predict what a ball will do for you based on what it does for someone you have never seen bowl.  Additionally, I'm not going to even get started on the fact that 90% of the people on this site do not understand ball motion.  So why even read their reviews?  Find someone who knows what they are talking about (hopefully a pro shop guy that is a competitive bowler and isn't trying to sell you the most expensive ball he wants out of his inventory), someone who frequently sees you bowl, and have them recommend some equipment.
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NoseofRI

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #10 on: January 22, 2010, 03:31:44 PM »
quote:
In my opinion the only thing ball reviews do are confuse people, including myself.  If you really want to be competitive in this sport, it is best to just drill a bunch of different balls. Keep the balls that roll good and sell or trade the ones that don't.  If you don't have the money to drill a lot of equipment, maybe the demo days can help.

A lot of what makes a ball good is how it matches up to YOU.  Not someone with the same rev rate and PAP.  Everyone throws the ball differently, everyone targets differently, everyone has different "tools in the bag."

There are so many variables that it is impossible to reliably predict what a ball will do for you based on what it does for someone you have never seen bowl.  Additionally, I'm not going to even get started on the fact that 90% of the people on this site do not understand ball motion.  So why even read their reviews?  Find someone who knows what they are talking about (hopefully a pro shop guy that is a competitive bowler and isn't trying to sell you the most expensive ball he wants out of his inventory), someone who frequently sees you bowl, and have them recommend some equipment.
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Two Hands are better than one!!


Well I have to disagree with your very first point here.  "Just drilling a bunch of balls" is no way to be competitive.  There's a reason companies give the tech numbers on every ball.  If you're trying to bowl a lot of tournaments and do well, you need to set up an arsenal, and drilling stuff just to drill it isn't any where near the best way to do this.  It is partially true that you can't know EXACTLY what a ball is going to do til you throw it, but there is plenty of information just from the ball company itself that should allow you to set up balls that both work well and compliment each other.  

That all said I do fully agree with you on your point that probably 90% of people on here have no idea how to read ball reaction.  Reviews can be helpful but it is sad that something like "This ball is awesome.  Just drilled it and went 730+ plus with it" is an actual review on this website.

Also lets not bash on ALL staffers, because even though a lot of times they won't say a ball is bad, there are some out there that give straight forward reviews explaining what the ball does and what its good for.  

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txbowler

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #11 on: January 22, 2010, 03:52:40 PM »
Some good points here.

Have a question.

I am your typical house hack.  I admit it.  I average 215-220 on the easy conditions I see in league every week.  The tournaments I go to all put out variations of THS.  So I have equipment for those.

Now my question:  Once a year, I venture to nationals, where I am presented with a much tougher pattern than I ever see anywhere else.  I struggle to reach 1800, but average 190+.  But it seems I should bring different equipment for that tournament due to the volume of oil.  

Since I do not bowl tougher conditions on a regular basis, nor will I.  How should I use this site to make equipment choices for nationals?

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NoseofRI

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Re: Thoughts on Reviews
« Reply #12 on: January 22, 2010, 04:19:49 PM »
quote:
Some good points here.

Have a question.

I am your typical house hack.  I admit it.  I average 215-220 on the easy conditions I see in league every week.  The tournaments I go to all put out variations of THS.  So I have equipment for those.

Now my question:  Once a year, I venture to nationals, where I am presented with a much tougher pattern than I ever see anywhere else.  I struggle to reach 1800, but average 190+.  But it seems I should bring different equipment for that tournament due to the volume of oil.  

Since I do not bowl tougher conditions on a regular basis, nor will I.  How should I use this site to make equipment choices for nationals?



Short Answer: you shouldn't

Slightly more detailed answer: The problem with using a bowling website to make a ball choice is that noone on here has EVER seen you bowl.  So anything suggested just turns into a list of bowling balls that everyone personally likes for certain things.  Something different works for everyone at Nationals.  The best thing is to talk with people in your area that know your game, and hopefully have also been to Nationals.  That way they can suggest might work for you over what has worked for them (like everyone on here does).  

I think what The Stroke was getting at when he started this thread (or at least what I get out of what he/she said) is that reviews on this site are pretty much useless.
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