There are no hard and fast rules to it. The idea is just to look
at your current arsenal, and find out which type(s) of lane
conditions are not tackled. The next ball should
fill those gaps. Then when it comes to picking a ball, simply pick
one that is suitable for that condition. Here's an example:
You have a ball for blocked lanes and medium/short oil patterns,
but none for floods (wet) or toasted (dry) lanes. So you have two
voids to fill. Which are you more likely to encounter? Let's say
you decide on a ball for drier conditions.
Thus your next ball should be one that is generally meant for that
lane condition. For instance, with high RG (more length), low
differential (tame backend reaction), and mild coverstock (to
conserve energy, as opposed to
low RG, high diff., and an aggressive shell.
Based on this, the appropriate layout is selected - if you don't
know, your driller should. A good one, anyway.
That's how I select a ball. I'm don't think there are "balls for
certain types of bowlers only". All one has to do is to match the
proper ball to the conditions one is up against.
P1
Don't take to heart what was said of your shockzone. There's no
such thing as a layout that won't work. If that were the case, why
do spinners bother to drill balls designed for heavy ball
bowlers?
There's always a condition out there for your ball. I have a chaos
(heavy, heavy oil ball) drilled with a 7" pin position with
negative side weight and a heavily shined cover and I use it as my
control ball on clean backends. I can carry well on those
contitions, but not much else - but that was not what the ball was
drilled for, was it?
Drilling is simply a way of tapping the potential of a ball.
Whether or not that potential is reached is also a factor of lane
condition matchup.
Finally, my personal opinion is that a stronger layout on a weaker
ball would seem to bring out more potential than a weaker layout on
an aggressive ball. But it's always a balance with certain
trade-offs. I have a lot of strong balls with weak layouts because
I desire the stronger cores of these performance balls. If I got
weaker balls with stronger drillings, their weaker cores would mean
that on most conditions, I would have to create angle to the pocket
to carry a strike. Thus, I prefer to play tighter lines with
control than a wide hook in order to obtain carry.
