New Ball suggestion

[Tony]

Tony be careful with thinking there are huge differences between balls just because the proshop or manufacturer say it's a hybrid or pearl. The Nirvana, Warrior, Grudge are all high performance, strong balls, intended for medium/heavy to heavy oil. You can manipulate the surface on any ball to make it more of what you want regardless of cover stock type. If you put the same surface on any of these lines they will all roll within a board or two of each other at the most. Don't buy into the hype as you add surface (go to a lower number grit) the ball will have additional traction in oil and hook more overall. As you remove surface (higher number grit or polishing) the ball will handle less oil and hook more on the backend. You can't make a very aggressive ball less aggressive just change where the hook happens.

Don't be too worried if what you said was correct my wife is a higher speed low rev down and in player and she can use her original Nirvana just fine on most medium conditions, Me on the other hand I can go coast to coast with the least aggressive ball anyone makes with my lower speed delivery. To give you an idea she's about 14.5 to 15 on the monitors I come out at about 11 maybe 12.5 on a good day lol.

I recall some past conversation about surface changes and how many of the balls are but a minor surface change from another ball. For me I have done some experimenting with surface change but would rather try and get a ball I can use with the OOB finish and maintain that, I didn't keep a very good record of the changes so after a while I forgot what I had done to change a particular ball. In this case what I fear is that these balls will be stronger than what I need, I really didn't think I had above average speed, I think I'm in the 13 to 14 area, will check the display tomorrow when I bowl and see. I don't want to be ending up moving too far left. I think if I analyze my own approach the problem is I tend to wander a little more to the right instead of staying on my starting path.

[Amyers]

I recall some past conversation about surface changes and how many of the balls are but a minor surface change from another ball. For me I have done some experimenting with surface change but would rather try and get a ball I can use with the OOB finish and maintain that, I didn't keep a very good record of the changes so after a while I forgot what I had done to change a particular ball. In this case what I fear is that these balls will be stronger than what I need, I really didn't think I had above average speed, I think I'm in the 13 to 14 area, will check the display tomorrow when I bowl and see. I don't want to be ending up moving too far left. I think if I analyze my own approach the problem is I tend to wander a little more to the right instead of staying on my starting path.

Monitors are different so your 13-14 may not be the exact same as ours. Try to look at just not what the monitor says but to what the average seems to be between yours and other bowlers. Here in ether of the houses I bowl at 13-14 would be average to slightly below average especially among the top tier guys. You can still be speed dominate and if your lower revs those balls would be useable for you on a medium or heavy medium house shot but I wouldn't be surprised if you needed to switch ball around the middle to end of the second game.

The core in the Warriors is very asymmetrical (.20) and the cover on the Grudge is extremely strong. I think both of these balls are really good and have a place in a multiple ball bag but I wouldn't consider either as my bench mark ball that I was going to use all the time but my game is very different from yours. When my wife who's game is probably closer to yours than mine really started bowling seriously she did use the original Nirvana as her benchmark as her game and release have improved through working with her coach she finds a lot more use from her Mastermind Braniac than she does the Nirvana but the Nirvana still gets a lot of use. Hope some of this has helped.

[Tony]

Monitors are different so your 13-14 may not be the exact same as ours. Try to look at just not what the monitor says but to what the average seems to be between yours and other bowlers. Here in ether of the houses I bowl at 13-14 would be average to slightly below average especially among the top tier guys. You can still be speed dominate and if your lower revs those balls would be useable for you on a medium or heavy medium house shot but I wouldn't be surprised if you needed to switch ball around the middle to end of the second game.

The core in the Warriors is very asymmetrical (.20) and the cover on the Grudge is extremely strong. I think both of these balls are really good and have a place in a multiple ball bag but I wouldn't consider either as my bench mark ball that I was going to use all the time but my game is very different from yours. When my wife who's game is probably closer to yours than mine really started bowling seriously she did use the original Nirvana as her benchmark as her game and release have improved through working with her coach she finds a lot more use from her Mastermind Braniac than she does the Nirvana but the Nirvana still gets a lot of use. Hope some of this has helped.

I took a closer look at the speed indications on 2 different pairs and found I was a bit off in recalling my speeds. I was running in the high 14's up to the mid 16's on some shots, I think this makes a little more sense why he said above avg speed, maybe just slightly above average. According to the guy who sets up cleans and repairs the oiler he is setup for a heavy oil house shot, that's pretty much all he will say ....

[Tony]

Talked to the PSO today, he bowled wed on the lanes next to me and was watching my release, speed and ball selection, I was using my Hy Road and he suggested that he still thought the best fit would be the Warrior Elite, by a slight margin over the Grudge Hybrid, so I had him put one on the order.
I decided for once I will try the ball the guy who's an expert on balls selects instead of picking my own ball or picking one that's similar,( in my opinion) to what he suggests.
Thinking back the last time I had a Ebonite ball was the Grey Wolf, that was quite some time ago.

[Amyers]

The warrior seems to be a good ball. It's hard to beat good qualified first hand advise from a PSO. I'm sure it will be a good ball for you

[Tony]

The warrior seems to be a good ball. It's hard to beat good qualified first hand advise from a PSO. I'm sure it will be a good ball for you

I'm hopeful, in talking with him and some other guys with a lot of bowling ball knowledge I've come to idea that the brand of ball I've been using the most in recent years Storm/ Rotogrip actually seems to make primarily balls that have more of a skid flip, or hard turning motion. It seemed great when I first got one and found throwing more of a hook to help with scoring and look better. One of the few other balls I tried, the Brunswick Gold Rhino that really turned hard when it hit the dry wasn't the ticket to being a good ball for me or the teammate I traded it to until I used your suggestion and changed the finish, now the ball is back to a gradual consistent hook condition and he loves the ball. I recently traded the Hypercell Skid to another teammate and he is going to change the drilling and surface with the help of the PSO to try playing a more inside line. The warrior is a totally different type of ball from what I have been throwing and I am thinking it should give me a little more margin for error without leaving as many difficult or impossible spare shots.