Well got the Radical Slant HD drilled up today, Kevin really took his time for me today discussing and explaining and setting everything up. We was at it like a hour and half with everything before I got on a lane with it.
We started with the grip, he had some new info on doing pitches and stuff. So we changed all the pitches, went from forward finger pitches to reverse and changed the laterals. Thumb went to 1/16th reverse and 3/16 lateral. Also Did the centerline transfer drilling on the grip.
I thought my grip felt good before, it's in the butter zone now! The ball is really laying nice and flat in my hand now. The pressure on my finger pads is very even now.
The ball is rolling off my hand so much cleaner now. I didn't realize how much I was grabbing the ball before, I can feed the ball outside so much easier now. I didn't pull the ball anything like I was before, That was a problem I had.
I only tugged it twice the whole night in league and that was because the approaches were tacky tonight and I stuck slightly a few times.
So the grip changes was time well spent.
Next we started on the layout, We started with the layout suggestion to start with. But Kevin thought with my rev rate, that it might burn up too fast for me. Then the info started to flow, I needed a tape recorder.
He explained it all to me, about angle's, pin's, the PSA and the stuff they found using the Blueprint software about holes, dry flares etc. etc. (That Blueprint software is something else! and he has it.)
Amazingly I understood most of it! Thanks to reading ahead of time about a lot of it.
Once settled on a the direction of the layout, we threw it on the determinator and spun it up. Here's a picture of what it showed.
Next do some laying out, rechecking weights back and forth a couple times double checking.
Settled on the layout of 85* X 4" X 65* for total angle sum of 150. With the pin at about 4 oclock to the ring finger. With a angled baby weighthole kind of between a P2 & P3 location.
As for the ball itself, I won't make a full review yet till I've bowled some more games. I've only had 4 games with today, one practice game to check the grip and 3 league games.
The practice game was at the house where the pro shop is, about 40 miles from my house.
Afternoon leagues was starting to fire up, but the guy's at the desk got me one lane in between two leagues to fire off one game to try my ball out.
The first five frames was junk, throwed my "normal shot" stand 21, shot 2nd arrow. Missed left a little and the ball just set in the oil went right at the nose. Four splits and one spare.
6th frame made a change, moved left 5 boards to 26, cocked my hand some with a slight cup and stroked it the 2nd arrow again.
X X X X X X 9 for a 199 game! not bad for a cold start with a new ball and several grip changes. Thought well that might work.
Now it's time for league, anvillanes with fresh oil. So I set up like I had during the practice game, I thought the ball being a pearl might go kind of long but would turn okay. My mistake!
That ball hit 2nd arrow and went out to about 5. It started making the turn and lined up on the pocket. That ball looked like a boulder rolling down hill into a herd of cows.
1st game frames 2-3 tacky approach got me, 8th frame I got careless threw it out to the 2 board (all most got back to the pocket. 10th was afraid I'd over hook it and threw it flat.
2nd game frames 1 & 5 little mistakes on my part, 9th just a little fast, 10th Tap!
3rd game lanes was getting pretty dry, but was surprised the ball made it all 3 games. If I had changed my rotation a little I would have carried the back row on frames 5-6-8.
Frame 4 tried a down and in, it went brooklyn. But if I had backed of on the cup a little, it would have been a great down and in shot.
That gutter in the 10th was me hitting my leg!
Thoughts on the ball: The ball had surprising power coupled with control with the Slant HD using the O.O.B surface on our house shot. It made it through the heads nice and had a very strong roll into the pins after it made the turn.
Can't wait to throw it some more! Wish they had a some more around here I could watch in action. Some body had a Slant at the shop getting it de-oiled while I was there.
