The Ball: MOTIV Thrash Frenzy

The Layout: Traditional Stacked Leverage. 3“ Pin with it set above the ring finger. 1/2 Side and 1/4 Finger with no weight hole.

The Style: Power Stroker. (Rev rate and speed untested since shoulder injury.)

The Conditions: Riverside Lanes in Laughlin, Nevada. 40 FT House and 39 FT Modified Tournament Pattern. High friction environment.

The Plus: Amazing angular read with a controllable breakpoint for high friction environments.

The Minus: May misread the blend on heavier and longer oil patterns.

The Score: 5 out of 5.

The Review: Since joining with Motiv I have been a huge fan of the direction the company has gone in improving their product line in order to accommodate the wide variety of different styles and conditions that bowlers will face in their respected bowling centers. My first year with the company saw such balls such as the Raptor, the Sigma Tour and my personal favorite in a high-friction environment which was the blue QZ2. Unfortunately, I suffered a serious shoulder injury in late 2011 which put a halt to my competitive tournament bowling for a while and put a bigger focus to finding a ball which would be best suited simply for hitting my house shot during my rehab period.

Approximately one year later I was healthy enough to start bowling on a regular basis again and found myself in a situation where I had a bunch of new equipment but unfortunately nothing that would match up between my game and the condition I was bowling on in a consistent way. While I had a great travel arsenal from my 2012 equipment, the majority of it was designed for early roll or lower friction and tournament environments which simply did not fit into what I needed currently. I found myself facing a situation that I had not had to face in a long time which was being a one ball league bowler and needing something simply to overcome my standard house shot. Fortunately for me, the Frenzy filled that void.

Out of the box I knew I was going to be happy as Motiv had built an eye-pleasing ball and went with a philosophy of a stronger coverstock on a traditional symmetrical weightblock which has been a favorite of mine since my days throwing the Hammer Vibe series when I was still a staffer for Hammer. When drilling this ball, I took into consideration some of the changes in my game over the last year. I have noticed a reduction in my revs since sustaining the injury as well as an inconsistency with my ball speed as my series progress. As such is the case, I decided to go with a slightly more aggressive drill to give myself a bit more backend and to really see what this ball could do to help me when it read into the dry.

During my initial testing, I threw the ball on slightly broken down open play lanes utilizing a 40 foot pattern. I found right away that this ball reacted a lot differently than the previous several balls by Motiv by offering a much more distinctive wet to dry read and a smooth skid snap that I hadn’t seen from the earlier equipment. The Whiplash Pearl coverstock reacted very similarly to several bowling balls I had thrown in the past with a strong comparison to the Emerald Vibe by Hammer with the notable exception that it read much cleaner as the lanes broke down. I was actually able to play much deeper than I had expected and lost almost no transition power down lane.

The second time I took the ball out was during my league which was going to be the big test for this piece of equipment. On the fresh, I played a bit more down and in to see if I could remain up the boards without finding that over/under reaction many people come to expect from a symmetrical pearlized ball. The ball reacted like a dream and was just as effective on the fresh as it was on the broken down oil. As long as I was able to lift through my shots I had the same consistent snap on the back end and a strong enough finish where I saw almost no corner pins whatsoever throughout the night. One 783 series later made me wonder if I could play with this ball on another condition as well.

I had the opportunity to play on a slightly shorter house tournament oil pattern which, amazingly enough, yielded the same kind of performance I had seen on the league condition. Playing a little deeper and not being afraid to send the ball right allowed me to open up the lane and score extremely well. A perfect game helped cement this as my new number one house shot ball in my bag.

The Conclusion: The new Frenzy is easily going to become a top seller in a high friction environment and can benefit a lot of bowlers who are looking for a more angular offering from the Motiv line. I can happily say this is my favorite ball from 2012-2013 and I look forward to experimenting more with it as time passes. As of the writing of this review, I am averaging just a hair over 254 with this ball in competition and am very happy with what it has done for my game. Give it a peek and see for yourself the new look of Motiv today.

Dustin J. Markowitz is a Motiv Staffer and the CEO of bowlingevolved.com.