Well its not the bowler. Without manipulating my hand I don't tend to see smooth very often. I get around the side of it quite a lot, have high speed and rev rate and have skid-flip tendencies even with solid covers and much lower RG balls.

I have the ball drilled with the pin 5" from my PAP and just above the fingers, very small CG swing (makes no difference because no weight hole). This is typically a skid-flip layout for me, hence why I asked the question. I would say the differential is the factor, however I have tropicals and jolts that flare less and have a much snappier reaction shape.

Riggs -

Thanks for your concise response, I trust your judgement of the balls and that tells me all I need to know. This reaction is something different for me and I can see it being very useful when I don't want much angle through the pins (snappy backends, shorter patterns, twister pins etc)

Is the solid as smooth as the pearl? How much oil volume can it handle? I've only thrown the pearl on 2 conditions and it looked quite weak compared to other balls I had with me.

Do you use either or both Street Rods and what do you use them for?

I left my SR SOLID box finish and have not had much opportunity to use it in regionals this year as every pattern but SHARK has played like a version of CHEETAH and the SOLID provides too much early hook with all the dry to the right. (And we haven't bowled on Shark since April.) In other words, SOLID can handle oil. And its move is similar in smoothness. With the hook this year in regionals, my SR PEARL has gotten a lot of use. Actually, though, it was best for me at the NRPC where the lanes were much tougher and scores were much lower. Smooth roll = control. The easier patterns I have found myself using balls like my PARADIGM that I often use on house shots. Word is they are going to toughen up patterns this month, though.