Right Handed
Ball weight: 15
Rev Rate: 378
Ball Speed: 18.2
Axis Tilt: 6.67
Axis Rotation: 45*
PAP: 4 1/8 horizontal, 11/16 up
Layout: 3 3/8 x 3

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the Hysteria. I had never owned any of the Nomad series, to which this ball is being compared. I didn’t know what to do regarding a layout. I decided to use an older favorite for symmetric cores and see how it went.

OOB, I tried it on a variety of house patterns, and was a bit disappointed. With that shine, the Hysteria does NOT like any volume. It will skate through the heads, just waiting to find friction. When it does encounter friction, it does not make a hard left, but a very smooth move. If it gets into that friction soon enough, it will get to the hole and carry. If it skates a bit too far, you could be in for some interesting leaves.

Now, that said, this ball has saved my butt on a couple of occasions. It was still new and I had it in the bag, just in case I ran across burn on which it could work. Bowling a team tourney on a variety of patterns, one of which was a modified Cheetah (I am normally pretty terrible on shorter patterns, so I was just going to try to not hurt the team), I started with a dismal 160-something. A teammate, we’ll call Mr. Roberts, suggested making a move and ball change. After discussing what I had in my bags, he suggested trying the Hysteria. After one frame he suggested a feet/target move significantly left. I did this and was able to play 12-out on Cheetah. I have never been able to move left like that on a short pattern, but this ball cleared the heads so well and made such a smooth move that my next two games helped bail that 160-something start. I can’t say I killed it, but the Hysteria gave me the confidence to make good shots on a pattern on which I normally struggle.

My next opportunity was during a 12 game marathon. The last 4 games were tough and this ball’s ability to clear the fronts and make an even move allowed me to climb back into a cashing position when the middles had been totally blown out. The Hysteria saved my butt again!

While having a lull were I wasn’t able to use it for a while, I decided to knock the shine off of it and see what it could do with some surface. I went with about 2000 abralon. This made the ball SIGNIFICANTLY stronger. On normal house shots with volume in the center, I’m able to bump it out to the friction and bring it back and it has plenty of continuation through the pins. As impressed as I was with the OOB finish, I think I really like the look I get with surface even more. It reads the lanes really well, makes a nice move and is quite controllable.

With my use of this ball, I’m considering a second Hysteria just to keep at box finish for the blown out late games on tournament patterns, or any pattern where everything else just hooks too much.

It took some games and help, but I’m sold. This ball is really worth all of the hype you’ve heard.

A great symmetric from Roto Grip!