Thanks for clearing that up tonx. With that said, a 'soaker' having a wide foot print would theoretically dry out a lane quicker? Or create an early track at least. Could play havoc on your opponents game, whilst reaping the benefits of a ball that doesn't just burn out.
All traffic on a lane will move the conditioner around. Dull balls will generally have a bias to dry the area of play up quicker, while polished balls will tend to push oil downlane. Soaker covers tend to act closer to dull balls, while still being able to control the length of reaction with different surfaces.
All balls burn up when they have used too much rotational energy before reaching the end of the pattern. Skid, Hook, Roll, Rollout is the known motion phase.
Using a polished soaker gives you more chance of retaining some sort of reaction, but ideally isn't suggested on dry or burnt lanes because they are still very aggressive.
A couple of common technique amongst the pros.
Alot of pros will create a burn spot during practise on a television pair. They then create a mini version of the house shot when they move inside that line. The technique is pretty hard to control unless you are very accurate with the line burn. Norm Duke won a tournament on shark playing up the outside, because during practise, burned a ditch in the outside part of the lane.
Alot of pros will use stronger (in this case soaker) coverstocks, and use very weak layouts. This allows the cover to react better to the transition from oil to friction, yet because the position of the core allows a little length before reaching its PSA, being able to "fight the burn" better. Strong balls drilled weak are a very good way for powerplayers to utilise the benefits of a stronger cover like a stroker typically would do naturally.
Hope this helps.
