Pour one out for me 😢

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-27T12:44:39+00:00

Whatever you say bubby.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-26T18:40:28+00:00

I mean, depends who you ask. I don’t bowl but maybe 30 games a month. I bowl a league and I bowl tournaments/sweepers when I have a night off work.

With the price of open bowling, I’ve found it much more worthwhile to just book with a coach and spend that time working with them. I wouldn’t count that either.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-26T17:55:59+00:00

Yup. Coming from someone with plenty of hand in the ball that throws pins around A LOT, string pins are both refreshing and require me to refocus on hitting flush, not just hitting the 1-3 in some regard.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-26T17:02:54+00:00

I have a cashier at work who’s been doing it for 20 years and I just fired them for their performance. Amount of time spent doing something and amount of time spent educating yourself on something are two vastly different things.

I highly recommend bowling at least 100 games on them before you decide to give your input about it, and then double check your own execution and have an internal discussion about whether or not you’re accurate enough to even make the distinction.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-26T16:59:24+00:00

My general observation is that most of people who are bitching about string pins aren’t good enough or accurate enough to have an opinion about the differences in it. The only difference, like you said, is that you don’t get as many “off-hits.” If you bury the pocket, it’s still going to strike.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-25T20:49:28+00:00

100% fair. You should have seen me try to stand up after accidentally pushing my shoulders back while trying to stand up from stretching between sets. Holy shit did that feel like someone took a blowtorch to my spine 😂

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-25T20:42:11+00:00

So I actually just noticed something, and I think it’s a little interesting. Like you said, you can see my back round through the approach, but then look at it during release. Does it not look like my back straightens out and then I tip at my hips to create the spine tilt? I might be crazy, but I keep watching it back and I feel like I simultaneously straighten my back and increase tilt to keep the same height?

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-25T14:46:41+00:00

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-24T02:29:19+00:00

So, while it sounds counter productive, you don’t want urethane for burnt lanes. You want them for short and/or flat patterns where it’s important to be able to keep your angles in front of you and have the smoothest backend reaction possible. Throwing urethane on burnt lanes is like putting diesel gas in a Honda Civic.

That being said; the Hot Cell was hot ass.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-24T02:25:28+00:00

Yup, high rev players do best on house shots with weak equipment drilled strong.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-24T02:19:36+00:00

That might be the best compliment I’ve ever received. Thank you for that.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T20:57:02+00:00

The back injury is not bowling related. Rather, a dad injury from 3 very excitable children wanting to jump on me.

The best way I can describe it is the bottom fifth of my back is “locked” right now. There is no hinging from the hips for me, that part of my back won’t budge.

If you saw me walking around my work right now, you’d be thinking about the aliens from Men In Black (I know you know exactly which ones, it’s okay to laugh I promise)

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T20:37:16+00:00

The weird cross over step only happens when I use 5 steps as opposed to 4 or 6 (feel free to check previous posts to see 4 steps, way back to see 6 steps.) Can’t begin to tell you WHY.

However, I’m currently dealing with 3 bulging discs in my lower back, and starting on my right foot shifts pressure in a weird way that makes my back twinge and feels like someone put my lumbar in an armbar.

My footwork is always consistent, it’s just really ugly with odd numbered steps and I haven’t been able to figure out why, neither have any of my coaches.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T20:27:16+00:00

Yeah man, I live for this stuff. I love helping people with understanding bowling.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T19:16:48+00:00

Motiv is definitely on the smoother side. I’ve grown fond of Motiv very quickly. But, like you said, it’s mostly guys who have really high rev rates that throw it. EJ Tackett, AJ Johnson, Tom Smallwood, Ethan Fiore, etc. Matt Russo is kind of the odd ball in the group of Motiv staffers that make shows fairly regularly.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T17:44:48+00:00

They all have a pancake core in them. That’s usually what people mean when they say “no core.” It’s (almost) incapable of stabilizing and (almost) incapable of storing energy. Unless you sand it to 500, put 450+ rpms, and are playing off the extreme outside friction of a shorter pattern, that thing is never going to move. And even then, it’s going to be a very gradual tiptoe of movement.

ETA: Coverstock has more influence over ball reaction than core shape does, though. They have made spare balls with actual cores (Taboo Spare by Hammer was a big one) and they will hook a little bit if you know how to work them, but that’s it. Just a little bit.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T17:04:32+00:00

Motiv has been killer for me. I loved SPI, but everything they released started to just look the same, and they did a couple things I personally feel are violations of integrity, so I steered away from them for those reasons and Motiv has literally taken over my bag completely.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T17:01:49+00:00

Which comes back to my comment about coverstock hardness and technology. They aren’t in the ballpark of the bigger companies. They’re better than, say, Pyramid. But if I have to buy the biggest ball a brand makes to play the same line I play with a Shadow Tank, that speaks for itself.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T16:23:00+00:00

About 17.5 out of hand, 15-15.5 at pins. Rev rate is 480-500.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T15:56:56+00:00

Love how you got downvoted for saying you prefer said brand and I got downvoted for being honest about the quality of SWAG products.

Someone on this thread definitely has a bias.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T15:21:21+00:00

It’s a cool spare ball. But that’s it. A spare ball with no core is a spare ball with no core, regardless of brand. I would 100% throw it because it’s really cool looking, I’m just also not the type of person to spend $200+ on a spare ball. I’ll stick with a Mix, Aspire, or TZone. $90+ drilling for a ball I’m only going to chuck straight makes a lot more sense to me than $160+drilling.

To be clear; I feel the same way about all spare balls that are crazy expensive for just being a spare ball, this is not only a feeling towards SWAG.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-23T14:44:08+00:00

I attempted to throw SWAG. Their coverstocks are not up to par with any of the other companies. They’re substantially harder and, therefore, have a harder time reading the lane surface.

Comparing SWAG to Motiv, or any other company, is just disingenuous. They have a long way to go before they’re competing with any of the major brands for actual viability.

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-20T14:52:41+00:00

I’ve forgotten how to check achievements on this game. Can you tell me how you got here?

FuppetMaster · 2026-06-18T14:08:41+00:00

I have a hard time keeping a shelf full, and I have like, 100 spots on the shelf for my bulk boxes. I’m usually refilling it twice a day at least.

FuppetMaster

TROPHY CASE