Urethane

[santos314]

After watching a bunch of recent finals on YouTube and reading articles, is urethane getting more popular with the pros? With all the monster balls out there i was surprised to see the pros throwing more urethanes.

[panbanger]

Seems to me like it is! When I think urethane, I think of the black Rhino I had back in the 80s. I think that one just had a plain pancake core though. Nothing like the urethane balls of today. It's funny though, suddenly I see lots of Pitch Blues and Pitch Blacks in league

[ALazySavage]

Urethane is definitely becoming more popular with the pros. Also as panbanger said, I am seeing a lot of Pitch Blues and Pitch Blacks in league (which is great if you are not on their team). Pros have higher rev rates and can split hairs on the lanes, thus they don't need/want equipment that creates more miss room but rather equipment that they can easily predict what is going to happen. In league we typically don't have the hand and almost certainly don't have the accuracy so the effectiveness of urethane isn't really there; I would venture to say 90%+ of league bowlers that use urethane would be better off just using a reactive ball.

[JasonNJ]

If you look at the pro tour, the guys who are successful with urethane are the big rev guys and two-handers. Urethane tend to read early and have a smooth arcing motion to the pocket and they need the predictability that urethane provides. You never see Norm Duke, Walter Ray or most of the women on the PWBA throw urethane. I own both the Pitch Blue and Pitch Black and I'm a low rev guy, 250 revs or so but both balls are really good balls on the right condition but I don't normally use them on a house shot.

[Amyers]

You guys are correct. People seem to get this idea in their heads that urethane is for wood lanes or light oil and neither are true. Urethane has use for high rev players when the lanes get jumpy and the backends are flying this is not light oil or wood. If there isn't adequate oil upfront or the ball is rolling out urethane will not help.

[santos314]

That makes sense, I think it was the two handers that were using the urethanes. If they're throwing that many revs they might as well use plastic...lol.

[Amyers]

That makes sense, I think it was the two handers that were using the urethanes. If they're throwing that many revs they might as well use plastic...lol.

A two hander with one of the cored plastic balls (Widow Spare, Track Spare +) could be a dangerous thing. I've never seen one use either though.

[JasonNJ]

A two hander with one of the cored plastic balls (Widow Spare, Track Spare +) could be a dangerous thing. I've never seen one use either though.

I was thinking the same thing and I think the answer is most of the two-handers on TV are Storm and they don't have one yet. It'll be interesting to see when the Hot Cell comes out, how'll they'll do with it.

[RobLV1]

When Belmonte first started on the Tour, he would often throw plastic. Once he got really good, he went to reactive.

[LyalC52]

I always chuckle when guy pull out the urethane late in the series (burned up lanes)