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General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: 1MechEng on October 15, 2007, 06:57:24 AM

Title: Perfect Scale Hook Rating System
Post by: 1MechEng on October 15, 2007, 06:57:24 AM
How reliable is the "Perfect Scale Hook Rating System" on BowlingBall.com?

I know that hook rate is dependent on drilling/layout, top weight and pin, bowlers revs, ball weight, etc., but is this really a reliable means for comparing balls that may be dissimilar (i.e. - Columbia vs. Ebonite), or is it just marketing hype?
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Dan
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Engineering * Bowling = a fun and practical application of rotational kinematics.

Edited on 10/15/2007 2:57 PM
Title: Re: Perfect Scale Hook Rating System
Post by: MegaMav on October 15, 2007, 03:00:05 PM
Its a marketing ploy, I've seen overseas balls that are identical copies to onshore products with completely different ratings.
Title: Re: Perfect Scale Hook Rating System
Post by: J_Mac on October 15, 2007, 11:20:36 PM
quote:
Its a marketing ploy, I've seen overseas balls that are identical copies to onshore products with completely different ratings.


Care to back up your assumption that those overseas releases are identical copies?  I'm not saying it isn't a marketing ploy, but stick to the facts man.
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Title: Re: Perfect Scale Hook Rating System
Post by: BOWL119 on October 16, 2007, 07:44:42 AM
I once asked this same question. I was told to not take too much stock in hte hook rating.

You still have to drill up the ball to fit you and throw it on your normal oil pattern. How you bowl, how it is drilled and what oil is out there is going to be different.

So there is only one way to tell if you like the ball. Buy it and drill it up. Everyone on here can tell you things about a ball. But the only way you are going to decide is to buy it and make the decision yourself.
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Title: Re: Perfect Scale Hook Rating System
Post by: 1MechEng on October 16, 2007, 07:53:19 AM
Thanks Everyone!

Bowl119, I wish I had the money/time to buy and test a lot of different equipment. Sadly, I am not able to be a ball ho.

What I am interested in is a system that measures the strength of the movement based on core shape combined with coverstock hook potential. This would allow me to make a roughly accurate comparison of balls from different mfgrs. which currently cannot be easily compared.

I would think that such an analysis would be useful for comparing similar types of balls on the same lane condition - i.e. 1 particle ball vs. another particle on THS, 1 dry lane ball vs. another on burnt conditions, etc.
My curiosity was whether or not the Perfect Scale Hook Rating System would accomplish this task for me.

I'm still interested in everyone's opinion on this, as well as any facts that may or may not back up the claim up made by bowlingball.com regarding their hook rating scale.
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Dan
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Engineering * Bowling = a fun and practical application of rotational kinematics.
Title: Re: Perfect Scale Hook Rating System
Post by: dizzyfugu on October 16, 2007, 08:13:52 AM
The gruesome thing about such rating systems, from manufacturers and online shops alike, is, that there is no tranparency about how these ratings are calculated. You have nothing as a benchmark, know nothing about the factors in the background that determine this single figure, and you can even hardly compare one number with the other because everything is boiled down just into one murky number. That's lousy marketing crap, even though the attempt is sensible. But it leads nowhere.

You might take some basic technical figures about a ball and its core (RG, differential, OOB surface prep), but even then I cannot fathom how anyone could compare different coverstock and coverstock technologies, and rate them - and even then it would only make sense for a basic benchmark style or player.

Anyway, a somehow good attempt is IMHO Brunswick's rating, that gives you at least a relative idea of how grabby a ball is, how the breakpoint shape is to be expected at OOB finish and how much (relative) length one can expect. But there's nothing more to deduct from it, and a comparison beyond these numbers can only be made based on subjective impressions.

Maybe, if there'd be a business-wide official standard...? But no manufacturer would hook on this, since it would create lots of pressure to have the "most hooking ball of all time" in the current arsenal, creating too much transparency for the customers.
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Title: Re: Perfect Scale Hook Rating System
Post by: MegaMav on October 16, 2007, 08:51:31 AM
quote:
Care to back up your assumption that those overseas releases are identical copies?  I'm not saying it isn't a marketing ploy, but stick to the facts man.


2 of the same:

http://www.bowlingball.com/Bowling-Ball-1664/brunswick-inferno.html

http://www.bowlingball.com/Bowling-Ball-4247/brunswick-hyper-zone-s---bowlingball-com-exclusive.html

http://www.brunswickbowling.com/uploads/SI/ay/SIayXeBdKz6TVy3QO1HTBQ/Inferno.pdf

http://www.brunswickbowling.com/uploads/yj/Gl/yjGlzEOlOGtytMSLPfncoA/hyperzoneposter.pdf

Just the facts mang.
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Edited on 10/16/2007 9:07 AM