1. You purchase a ball to fit a particular condition you bowl on, not because the ball looks cool or is pretty, that is marketing hype by the manufacturer to get you to buy a ball. Do not buy a ball because someone else has one, rev rate, ball speed, release angle, and axis tilt determine how much and when a ball hooks, not the ball! So just because someone else has a ball that hooks does not mean you will be able to hook it the same amount.

2. Balls with polished and pearlized covers are not suited for oily conditions. Polished and pearlized cover stocks will skid before going into a roll and will skid further than expected on oily lane conditions to the point they will not recover and get back to the pocket, if they do the carry will be not forgiving resulting in washouts and splits from light hits.

3. Balls with matte or dull finishes are best suited for wet or oily lanes. These cover stock finishes allow the ball's cover to grip the lane sooner thus allowing for a quicker roll and better hooking potential for this lane condition. Conversely a ball with a dull finish or matte surface used on drier lanes will tend to hook too soon, and roll out because the ball will use much of it's energy before it gets to the pocket. These two cover stocks finishes will suffer burning marks on the ball ( white spots ) from execessive friction when used on drier lane conditions.

4. Particle cover stocks are not designed or suited to skid/flip, these ball are typically for wet lane conditions and used for backends that are sloppy and not very clean. These ball typically have an acring motion or heavy hooking motion not a skid/flip movement.

5. Reactive cover stock balls will skid/flip when drilled properly for your game. Most of these balls are used for med to drier conditions, not many are considered for heavy oil. Do not expect any reactive cover stock ball thrown down the middle of a med to heavy oiled lane to be a hook moster, it ain't going to happen. These balls most often will be skidish on sloppy backends and your carry may be irratic at times, especially with a pearlized and polished cover.

6. The greater the hook potential a ball has, the smaller the margin of error becomes; therefore the less effective you may be in scoring. It's nice to throw a big hook, it looks impressive, but the greater the hook the more energy the ball bleeds off, the smaller margin of error, and the loss of hitting power comes into play. Stay within your game when purchasing a ball, buy a ball you can control and thus you'll score better than buying one you can not handle.

7. Balls with a low RG factor will go into a forward roll as soon as they are released, best suited for heavier oil conditions. Balls with a med RG factor will slide a short distance then go into a forward roll, best used for reading the midlanes and beginning to hook after clearing the first 20 feet of the lane,then hooking. High RG factor balls are balls that are going to skid then go into a forward roll, best suited for drier lane conditions, and drilled for skid/flip reaction.

8. Rg Differential- the measurment of a balls core to determine how much track flare a ball will have.

• Low RG Diff- the low number means the ball will have very little on no flare potential. This means the ball will travel over the same area on the track on every revolution the ball will make. A high maintenance factor, the ball will show a significant wear pattern on the track area.
• Med RG Diff- a ball that will have a 2-4 inch flare, the ball will have an oil flare pattern of 2-4 inches, this ball is a better backend ball than the low flare, it is rolling over a different part of the ball on every revolution.
• High RG Diff- a ball that will have a flare pattern of greater than 5 inches. This ball is gernerally considered an even lesser maintenace ball, it has a wider track flare than both balls above and will continue hooking more than the pervious two balls due to it rolling over a cleaner part of the ball on every revolution.

Just because a ball cost $220 does not mean it is better than a ball costing $130. When it comes to scoring I have proved this to myself. Cost is not the determining factor in how good a ball is. Generally the high cost of the ball is due to the amount of the research and development invested in the ball.

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