BallReviews
General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: bcw1969 on October 25, 2018, 03:08:31 PM
-
In another thread Avbob said this ......
"Todays environment rewards high speed and high revs."
I am neither one...a little over a year ago kegel training center clocked me at a 196 rev rate, and I don't have much speed and I have somewhat short arms and not a big backswing, but I do have quite a bit of side rotation. For the most part it seems that the ball companies these days are catering mainly to the player I am not. It seems that lately I am "fighting" to still be me in an environment that is not making it easy to do so.
can anyone else relate?
Brad
-
Similar boat rev wise except have pretty decent speed and a ton of axis tilt. I can make virtually any reactive go straight on conditions I see if I want (newer synthetics with decent oil). Grateful for reactives though because I have a hard ceiling in the 210s with anything else. Accepted playing third arrow is deep for me and straighter is greater is how its going to be. I don't blame ball makers for my hook phase mostly being front to back though, as their tech gives me what little swing I have.
-
Its always been an environmental game that has rewarded different styles over the yearsm. When I started in the 60s lower speed and end over end roll were optimum. Then came the era of the cup wristed power player who could open up the lane on the short patterns of the 80s. The more aggressive shells of the resin era cause lane patterns to blow up muc more rapidly thus making msking higher ball speed an advantage.
-
I understand where you’re coming from. The very things that used to make me a quite formidable opponent, now serve to make me an old “also ran†wannabe.
That nice medium 14-15 mph speed, that cupped wrist, and that late release on the upswing just don’t work like they used to.
But, I came along with that style, just about the time the “old farts†of my era, with their full rollers, were being phased out by the newer urethane lane surfaces and urethane balls. I beat them like an old drum.
He is correct in his assertion that the game has evolved into a game of speed and revs. Take two identically weighted balls following the exact same path, one going 15mph, and the other going 18mph. Given that power = mass X speed, and the faster ball will deliver more power to the pins, giving the person throwing it a slight advantage for carry.
Time passes, and things change. It has always been that way, and always will be. It is the natural progression of things. We don’t have to like it, but we DO have to face it. Now, it is my turn to take that beating I talked about earlier.
Getting old. It sucks. :-\ :'(
-
The ironic thing is that the resin ball initially allowed lanes to be attacked with multiple styles to a degree not seen in the past. Then the ever increasing aggressive shells began to blow up patterns forcing us to more speed and power at higher levels
-
I took 7 years off and now bowling is fun again to me because these new balls make my mediocre game look way better than what it really is.
-
I took 7 years off and now bowling is fun again to me because these new balls make my mediocre game look way better than what it really is.
I KNOW THATS RIGHT. 8)
-
Where lower rev players, lower tilt/rotation players suffer is when they have to move off 10/2nd arrow. The days of urethane/rubber/plastic with making minimum moves is long gone. Lanes are oiled where high levels of friction are on the gutter making it worse.
It requires bowlers to move in and open up the lanes. It doesn't require 400rpms but it does require a change in release. I've seen a lot of bowlers get help in feeling this by using gloves that allow the bowler to put their wrist in position to increase tilt and rotation....... Instead of trying to buy a ball and use a layout to keep from moving off of 2nd arrow.
Revs and speed doesn't equal scores. Today's house conditions can make it appear that way.
-
Lower rev/tilt players can definitely become better at playing deeper by making changes in their release (and speed), and I always encourage my students to make the effort.
However in today's game, the power players have a very distinct and clear advantage over the lower rev players as the shot migrates inside. This generally holds true regardless of the lane condition at hand. There is rarely any equivalency between these 2 contrasting styles, especially when playing deep inside. Here, the power player
has a huge advantage.
-
That's was and still is my situation to an extent. For a number of years, after having come back to league bowling after a 3 1/2 year break back in 2003.,.,the center I was bowling at always played "oily" .,.,they didn't strip the lanes regularly so it always played longer than they really were. The way the lanes were was perfect for my game.,.I could just square up and stroke it straight up the 2nd arrow with pretty aggressive equipment and not get an early or overreaction. That was the only league/center I bowled in for about 5/6 years. in the 08/09 season..by mid end January my average in that one league was up to 219. My downfall came that January as my home center changed hands twice in a month. The shot drastically changed in that I could no longer square up and play down and in a stay on the left side and score. After the change I was a lost cause.
I never had learned how to move inside and throw it left away from the pocket. Until then I never had the need to do so. When the lanes broke down I could simply switch balls and stay in the same place and I was fine,. or if I had to I moved left to the outside I could still stroke it over the 1st arrow and be effective.
Since then out of necessity I have learned more about adjusting various things such as hand position, the pointer finger spread or right next to the middle finger, and also spotting closer or further down the lane. Those things do help a lot, but I must admit it still is a struggle at times.,
Brad
-
Even in the 60s and 70s I use to get in to 15-20 in tournaments. The difference today is that you have to play so much out snd back from those angles partly because guys are lofting gutter caps on frsh patterns. It use to be that the entire track moved in. Not uncommon to play 20 out to 12 at the breakpoint. Those tighter angles allowed lower rev guys like me to still have energy on the ball as it entered the pocket. Sometimes you still see it on real long patterns if the high rev guys dont go super deep right out of the gate.
-
When I started in the 60's I was pretty high speed for the time, fortunately I threw a heavy rolling ball so that even with hard rubber of the era I still had some reaction.
But I was always trying to slow down some.
As I aged my feet got slower, my back swing lower and my speed has gotten slow.
I've been on the wrong end of it in both eras. :)
But I had a pretty good run in middle before balls got so aggressive.
-
Just the opposite with me. I was a low speed stroker who totally struggled on the short patterns of the 80's. When oil got longer I started bowling good again, then resin really put me back on top of my game.
-
Bowling gets me out of the house and some exercise which is nothing but good health wise. Everything else is gravy.
-
My first good ball was a Vector One. Then reactives took over. So the sport kind of changed a lot while I was trying to learn it :P
I just confirmed that my blue Triton pretty much is best thrown straight up the dry around 7 or 8, much like in 1997. I expect once I do finally buy new equipment I won't know how to throw it and my scores will be way down again ;D
-
Blue Triton was a real innovation when introduced. First super low rg core. As for new equipment, dont over think it. Todays balls run the gamut from super strong shells and cores to stuff not much different than your triton. Find a ball that matches your game on conditions you normally see, dont try to change your game to match some hook monster ball that you dont match up with.
-
I say we go back to short oil and shotmaking.
Could you imagine the "power players" of today being forced right of 10? I chuckle to think about it. The 230 average "house pros" would all of a sudden be shooting 450's.
I always felt the short oil days rewarded all styles... "Crankers" could move in when required and the straighter players could use their accuracy to play near the gutter. I felt that era was the most "equal" .. but that's just me.
Hand position changes, 1/2 board adjustments, whatever it took to get the corners out ... I miss those days.
-
Sorry, but we remember short oil a bit differently. 80s were the era of crank to the bank one hit wonders on tour. If you cupped your wrist enough spares were irrelevant. At the local level I vividly remember bowling a 6 game sweeper where I missed cashing by 50 pins despite only 4 opens in the set. A couple of guys who cashed had at least 10 opens. The carry advantage for crankers was almost insurmountable over more than 3 or 4 games.
-
No one will ever admit this, but Bill Taylor was right.
-
Sorry, but we remember short oil a bit differently. 80s were the era of crank to the bank one hit wonders on tour. If you cupped your wrist enough spares were irrelevant. At the local level I vividly remember bowling a 6 game sweeper where I missed cashing by 50 pins despite only 4 opens in the set. A couple of guys who cashed had at least 10 opens. The carry advantage for crankers was almost insurmountable over more than 3 or 4 games.
Just to add, one of the best examples of a "crank to the bank" style player is Bob Vespi. I seem to remember one week where he missed 17 ten-pins over 42 games but still LED the tournament. YIKES!
-
Bill Taylor was brilliant, and right snout many things. However his major arguments were against the double voided laminated pins. He calked them pinettes, and argued that it allowed weaker deliveries to carry where they would not have on the solid pins of an earlier generation. I think evidence would show that scoring did not go up much on the newer pins, and the reason for the emergence of straighter players was more about lane surfaces. You can make a strong argument that changing lane surfaces dictated the major style changes that have evolved over the years. Pins are more lively today, and certainly have had some impact because of the way they accelerate. However some of that is offset by them going airborne quicker causing more ringing hard tens.
-
Holman once said that he couldnt blow enough 10s to miss a cut on most of the conditions he hit during the 80s.