advantages of polished balls?

[Etrain]

in my head i always thought traction is a good thing...i know polish is usually for dry lanes but what about a rough surface? woudnt if bite the surface more from the start of your roll? isnt that a good thing?

[eugene02]

in my head i always thought traction is a good thing...i know polish is usually for dry lanes but what about a rough surface? woudnt if bite the surface more from the start of your roll? isnt that a good thing?

from what I know is sometimes the ball bites TOO much that it starts to curve even before it reaches the appropriate angle that it goes into the left gutter(for right hander) or hits the 2 4 7 pins area.. sometimes polishing may help to delay the biting point and goes right into the pocket. however, it depends on individual as well!

[bowl1820]

eugene02 pretty well got it right there.

There's a lot to making surface changes and how it affects the balls motion.

At the simplest level-
A dull ball will hook earlier than a shiny ball, but not as hard.
This is because it sees friction earlier on the lane and starts to lose energy earlier.

A shiny ball will hook later than a dull ball, but will hook harder.
This is because it sees friction later on the lane and retains energy longer.

Then there's all the combo's in between. Thing's like:
Polished with a under laying grit of 500 is different than a Polished with a under laying grit of 2000. etc.

[jaydee]

There's also different types of polish and you can 1 coat or a few coats of polish. Lot of people don't really like using polish (only as a last resort), because it is so hard to duplicate.

[Etrain]

K I'm starting to understand, a ball thats not polished wont hit the pocket hard due to lost energy from the start?

[bowl1820]

K I'm starting to understand, a ball thats not polished wont hit the pocket hard due to lost energy from the start?

That's not right at all, a unpolished ball can hit the pocket hard too. You have to match surface with condition and the bowler for optimum performance.

Now if a ball "Rolls out", (This is when a ball has lost all of it's rotation and tilt and is in a pure end over end roll.) then it won't hit the pocket or it might not hit it at all. But this can happen with dull or polished balls, it just depends on the whats happen at that time.

[eugene02]

K I'm starting to understand, a ball thats not polished wont hit the pocket hard due to lost energy from the start?

it depends on how the bowler throws and how the lane condition is.. i think ... do correct me ..