I watched this last night myself.  It is insane how much of a difference the right hander had in this video after they soaked it. Think he had to move two full arrows from where he was before they soaked it.

Why do this at all?  Just makes urethane react like a strong, solid cover resin ball.  Just throw a resin ball at that point.  Plus, the bowler still has to find a line and repeat shots.

The whole ball hardness thing is totally overblown.  It may introduce a little more wiggle room for errors, but so does reactive resin.  I don't know, just seems like much ado about nothing.

I've bowled in plastic ball tournaments where bowlers sand their plastic balls with 320 grit sandpaper.  Gives them a urethane type of look on the lower volume condition.

Why do this at all?  Just makes urethane react like a strong, solid cover resin ball.  Just throw a resin ball at that point.  Plus, the bowler still has to find a line and repeat shots.

The whole ball hardness thing is totally overblown.  It may introduce a little more wiggle room for errors, but so does reactive resin.  I don't know, just seems like much ado about nothing.

I've bowled in plastic ball tournaments where bowlers sand their plastic balls with 320 grit sandpaper.  Gives them a urethane type of look on the lower volume condition.

On a flatter pattern, you would probably see more of a difference. Solid resin can get a little too clean and quick when the pattern is flat and heavy. A softer urethane with a wider footprint will blend the lane front to back better than a resin will.

It's all about trade offs.  As pointed out urethane blends out the pattern allowing you to keep the ball in front of you on flatter patterns.  However it also creates carry down which can make adjustments tricky.  The longer the pattern the tougher the adjustments.

What I have found funny is how much of this information has been LOST since the introduction of the Turbo/X and XCalibur to now, as if this info is so new to people that they consider it cheating to throw urethane to create carrydown.

BL.

I remember when resin balls first came out. PBA Hall of Famer Don Johnson in an interview said, "These new balls really hook. The only problem is that you never know WHEN they are going to hook."

It was a different world during the urethane era..  the 80s featured shorter lower volume oil patterns with lower viscosity oil than is typical today. Even when resin first came out 32 to 36 foot patterns were predominant.  Resin balls hooked way more than urethane on those conditions.  Oil volumes and viscosity steadily increased during the 90s up until today.  However resin blows up patterns very quickly in the hands of today's high rev players.  Urethane is a defensive option on the flatter demanding patterns like we see in the Open