Pratam 
n
That's it... i was sitting on the fence about my reply beause i
knew in the back of my mind i wasn't quite right. Thanks for
setting things straight 
. I've not heard much about axis leverage, though. Care to explain?
wouldn't the reaction be flatter? I'm trying to extropolate the
ball reaction in my head, but it doesn't come out right. 
Airgrinder
*pat on the back*
I've personally been through that message erased hell. I hate it
too. Many of my more detailed replies have been lost because my
brain cannot make two exact duplicates. In fact, my earlier post in
this thread suffered from that too. sad fact...
on a brighter note 
1) yes, playing with more roll in the release makes for a generally
flatter ballpath because there isn't a sudden burst of energy as
when the ball comes out of a spin; but it all depends on the lane
conditions. 
on oil, the 'roll'
will hook more than a typical release which has elements of both
roll and spin. Friction determines this. On regular house (blocked)
conditions, a rolling release will cause the shot to burn out
very quickly because there
wouldn't be enough oil midlane to delay the release of energy -
resulting in a roll-out after the turn or a weak impact
(ringing/flat 10s for righties and 7s for the southpaws).
2) despite what some spinners like to whine about, i believe that
spinners do perform better in oil. For one, spinners rely on ball
deflection a lot because there is less inherent energy in a spinner
release than that of a hook - that's why spinners require pin
action to strike while heavy balls can carry all 10 pins.
So a lane with oil will lessen friction and allow less energy loss
from contact with the lane than a dry lane would. This would be
important to spinners with high ballspeeds because their ball has
to carry the pin 5.
Spinners with lower ballspeed
usually thrive on a low pocket of the opposite side because their
shot backs up a little. The 1 pin will take out the 2, 4 7; 3 will
hit the 5 and 8; and ball will take 6 and 10. The 9 pin will be
taken out by the 6.
But high ballspeed spinners hit high pockets so their ball will not
deflect as much or they'll leave a 5 standing.
Therefore, it depends on what type of spinner they are, and
generally, the level of friction available doesn't affect spinners
too much unless they are relying on the back-up action in their
shot to take out the pin 5 (only slow spinners).
3) One can play a wide hook several ways. As usual, each has a
condition that will and will not allow it to work. So, let's just
assume that when i speak of one type of shot, the conditions favour
it. 
when there is a lot of roll (very little axis tilt) on the ball,
the cover bites the lanes very hard almost from the start. on a
lane that has enough oil, this would mean that while other balls
cannot hook, such a shot can grip, turn and devastate the deck with
sufficient angle when most regular shots cannot even get enough
angle to carry the full deck. this can be done even if the axis
rotation is very small, say 20 degrees. I'd say perfect examples of
such bowlers are chris barnes and michelle feldman.
or
a release that has larger axis rotation, like 45 or even 90
degrees, but little axis tilt could bite moderately through the
midlane to provide a predictable reaction, whilst only turning when
it runs out of lateral momentum could cover many boards. Its like a
car tyre spinning at an angle - the moment the car runs out of
momentum sideways - the car would violently surge in the direction
the tyres are facing. Bowlers who use this sort of release include
tim mack and robert smith. As you can probably tell, to pull this
off you need tremendous ballspeed
to avoid burnout and sent a ball so far out while countering the
forward momentum its grip is giving.
or
there is a release that imparts a lot of axis tilt (spin) to create
area on the lane. Such a release is invented in the urethane-era
because it was THE ONLY way to hook balls then
(right, prata? 
). The ball would
skid down the lane until it run out of tilt - usually aided by the
weight block - and started to roll. Because no energy is used in a
spin, the sudden release of energy during the roll creates a very
sudden change in direction and can cover boards. Parker bohn III
anyone?
These 3 are only the more definitive ones - every other release is
a combination of some or all of these three. So in a way, you are
right in observing that tilt and rotation affect the 'look' of the
hook. Just remember: each shot can only work on certain given lane
conditions.
p.s. My hook's no longer big! apple (aka bubbles), Titan, jae all
play more area than i do now. ANd you forgot about prataman.
