Winning Them Over

Just like in the bowling industry nationwide, my job is to win bowlers over to the Motiv Nation.  The difference is, I’m dealing with an audience of less than 100. 

Each week is a new challenge.  This week is a major.  Major patterns are easily the most difficult of the lot.  Imagine the over/under you see in league exaggerated and flipped so that the hook is inside and the hang is outside.  That is the Tournament of Champions pattern.  Of course, it should be that way if the top prize is to be one quarter of a million dollars. 

Furthermore, the bowlers are spending half of their qualifying on fresh oil and the other half on leftovers from the previous squad.  As a result, there are two difficult patterns we that must be tamed.  On the fresh oil there is a huge hang spot with a playable area just inside of it.  This is not really a hook spot is the issue; it’s just an area with less hang.  Higher rev players can play further into the spot than lower rev.  Therefore, there is an interesting situation occurring.  Higher rev players can be further from the pocket while lower rev players must be closer.   

The dry is easier for many of the bowlers as long as the heads don’t get too burnt and they keep up with the transition.  Higher rev players are dominating this week because they can throw their ball over or through the dry in the front of the lane and get the ball to recover from places further down lane than other players.  This is, in many ways, like the World Series of Bowling on the burn squads. 

Given this pattern, I have been dealing a lot with the Thrust core the last few days.  The TR2 appears to be the ball of choice for Motiv players on the fresh while the Primal is a great option for the burn.  The next ball in line is the SR2.  Because this is such a versatile ball, we see it used on both squads.  In fact, there is a very well known player using two different SR2’s; one on the fresh and the other on the burn.  However, there is one PBA hall of famer who chose to use the Cruel on the fresh to play in the out of bounds. 

The PBA National tour is being won over one big M at a time and it is a lot of fun to watch.  Hopefully we can get one of these beasts on soon!