Something I've been thinking about

[Aslan]

Aslan: Let me save you some time and money. One of the balls in my current arsenal is a Brunswick Mastermind Genius. It is drilled 55 X 4 1/4 X 45 to complement the layout on the Mastermind which is very strong. It just so happens that my coach and ball driller drilled up a second Genius for me: 40 X 5 1/4 X 65. The layouts look like this: 1. original - pin drilled out in the ring finger with the mass bias approximately 1/4" to the right of the thumb hole. 2. new layout - pin below the middle finger with the mass bias kicked out about 2" to the right of the thumb hole.

Did you tape it? Why am I not watching it on youtube right now?? All I can think is, that is it's the same ball driller that I met when I was out there...that he looks so much like the guy that stars on that show "Once Upon a Time" on ABC that he's scared to be on camera because people will mob him. Rob! If you're going to steal my awesome ideas...at least TAPE THEM!!

Not sure how it saves me money. Let me clarify...I want to have them both drilled up differently to essentially give me two different balls and expand my arsenal. The only difference is I was going to tape it because while there are a lot of videos on ball drilling...and a couple on drilling the same ball differently...I haven't seen any where an amateur guy like me has balls drilled differently and then sees if there's a noticeable difference. I saw a video where Mike Fagan did it..but;
A) I didn't much of a difference.
B) It's Mike Fagan....so that has about 2% relation to my game.

I tried both balls this morning for the first time with the same surface. The differences were obvious. The original Genius goes medium/long with a fair amount of flare, and is smooth, tending toward angular on the back end. Then new Genius starts up very early (the mass bias being kicked out lowers the drilling angle which makes the ball start up quicker), shows much less flare as a result of the longer pin to PAP distance, and is much more arcing in terms of the transition. While the differences in the layouts are not radical, the resulting ball motion is totally different.

Interesting. That is actually quite encouraging. I imagine even with my lower revs, if I add in surface changes...I might be able to see an even bigger difference.

By the way, from what I've read, 0.01" difference in low rg equates to approximately 2 1/2" in length down the lane.

Really!? Thats actually amazing. I would have never guessed 0.01 would have that much of a result.

Also, I must mention...that one of Mike's challenges..probably his biggest challenge in this experiement is that at the end of the day he needs to make both balls "useable" for my game as it is currently. If that were not a restriction...he could just go bat**** crazy and make 2 balls that are radically different and both would be useless. So he's tasked with making them react in a noticeably different way (so I don't have two of the same balls in my bag) BUT while making them both of value to the bowler (me).

[fortheloveofbowling]

In my opinion for the every day bowler who is trying to get better they should find a drilling they like and stick with that mostly. Then buy different strength balls and change them with surface. Most of the guys on tour have a similar drilling on 4-5 balls and then a couple of trick drillings for certain extreme situations. I have messed around for years with all kinds of pin distances and weight holes and alot of times i end up with different balls that do basically the same thing. A lot of knowledge is a tremendous tool and a little knowledge is a very dangerous thing when it comes to layouts on a bowling ball. For the guy who is just trying to improve you are better off not chasing that magic layout.

[RobLV1]

Aslan:

No, I didn't tape it, though I've done the same thing before with pin up and pin down Zero Gravities. This will save you money because, regardless of what others may tell you, the two different drillings will not give you the same effect as buying two different bowling balls. Each time I've done this myself over the years (probably five or six times), I've always ended up with one ball that I use a lot, and one ball that I rarely use at all, and end up giving away.

Yes, it's the same ball driller that you met, Mike Tucker, at Southpoint.

ForTheLoveOfBowling: I agree completely which is why I have long recommended that bowlers find a couple of layouts that work for them and stick with them. In this way, bowlers learn much more about what actually affects ball reaction, rather than try to overly manipulate balls by using layouts that try to make the ball do somehting that it was not intended to do, ie., "Take this overly-aggressive bowling ball that is designed to roll early, and drill it to go long and snap."

[MICHAEL]

Aslan:

No, I didn't tape it, though I've done the same thing before with pin up and pin down Zero Gravities. This will save you money because, regardless of what others may tell you, the two different drillings will not give you the same effect as buying two different bowling balls. Each time I've done this myself over the years (probably five or six times), I've always ended up with one ball that I use a lot, and one ball that I rarely use at all, and end up giving away.

Yes, it's the same ball driller that you met, Mike Tucker, at Southpoint.

ForTheLoveOfBowling: I agree completely which is why I have long recommended that bowlers find a couple of layouts that work for them and stick with them. In this way, bowlers learn much more about what actually affects ball reaction, rather than try to overly manipulate balls by using layouts that try to make the ball do somehting that it was not intended to do, ie., "Take this overly-aggressive bowling ball that is designed to roll early, and drill it to go long and snap."

VERY GOOD point Rob! I have never give it much thought in regards to pin placement fitting the type of ball! With that logic drilling a say, mastermind to go long and flip, would be defeating its purpose, and design!
Where as a say, byte drilled pin up and even kicked out above the ring finger would suit its design!

GOOD POINT I will remember that excellent point!

[RobLV1]

The layout has to suit not only the ball, but the bowler's style as well. Personally I have a lot of trouble with some pin down layouts lately because I have very little axis tilt, so that some pin down layouts cause my bowling balls to start tracking over the thumb hole. To figure out before hand if a particular layout will work for you, draw a line from your PAP through the intended pin position. This will tell you where the bow tie will be. Because of my high track, that line on a pin down layout can cause the bow tie to be below the level of the finger holes which then brings the thumb hole into danger of hitting the track. Since I sometimes use a wrist brace, I've noticed that the wrist brace lowers my track ever so slightly which gets the track off of the thumb on pin down layouts. Because of this, my concession to getting the benefit of a pin down layout is that I know that I have to use the wrist brace when I throw that ball.

[Aslan]

This will save you money because, regardless of what others may tell you, the two different drillings will not give you the same effect as buying two different bowling balls. Each time I've done this myself over the years (probably five or six times), I've always ended up with one ball that I use a lot, and one ball that I rarely use at all, and end up giving away.

It "would"...but I already have both balls.

Thats kinda the only reason I'm doing the experiement (besides my own entertainment), due to a rather odd situation...I ended up buying two of the same balls at the same weight...and figured it would give me the opportunity to "play" with them. But I agree, normally I would buy different balls for different reactions...not do different layouts. This is a special case because I bought 1 of them at a really nice price...then another person showed up who heard I was looking for that ball and offered it to me for an even BETTER price. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. I figured I'd use one, get good with it, then use the other one down the road...but then I ended up with a closet full of bowling balls and decided I didn't want to use the same ball for 2-3 years.

I anticipate, the reaction difference will be minimized by my style...and that I'll probably end up using one drilling WAY more often than the other. But I'm okay with that. Maybe I'll even just give one away...but I doubt anyone will want it since it's a 3 year old model at 16lbs already drilled.