First Impressions
The Motiv Pride looks to be just about the right fit in the benchmark slot.

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Tamer Elbaga (Lefty)
Style: Tweener
RPM: 375 rpm
PAP: 5 & 3/8 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium/high
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Layout: 4 x 30

Sean Jensen (Righty)
Style: Power player
RPM: 475 rpm
PAP: 5 1/2 & 1/4 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 15 Pounds
Layout: 5 x 50

“Keep in mind that coverstock accounts for 70% of ball reaction, but the core creates the dynamic shape of the reaction. Your driller will alter the shape to suit your game.”

Pattern
THS: 40ft, 23ml
Sport: TBD

Specs
The Motiv Pride uses the Dominion Asymmetric core inside the Coercion™ UCS Solid Reactive coverstock.

15 pound = RG of 2.50, diff of .042, int diff of .010
14 pound = RG of 2.52, diff of .043, int diff of .011
Coverstock finish: 4000 grit LSS

Overall
I gave you a strong hint about my thoughts already and I would say most of the making video comments apply. So let’s get into the Motiv Pride. Given where it sits in the Motiv ball guide, it should almost be a goldilocks type ball. Not sure it’s truly truly a goldilocks but I can say it definitely fits in the benchmark shape. Cover has a good amount of strength and it has a torquey core. That means it reads the midlane mid to late and gets into a roll not too early and not too late. I was thinking yes, I can throw this ball direct but it does overhook if I’m not careful. I can be deep but if I’m not on it, I can leave flat leaves. In the middle, basically just right of the track, it works pretty well there. It responded a good amount to hand position changes so in some respect it didn’t blend say the way a Jackal would.

Here’s the thing, on house it can be difficult to truly make out what distinguishes a ball from others. But having another ball side by side makes it crystal clear and what I can say is that Motiv did a great job creating this shape to slot here. Throwing the Venom Shock with it, you can without a shadow of a doubt see a weaker, slightly longer and more angular shape. So basically the lower ball is used for lower volume and booms more. The Ghost or Legacy will shape when there is more volume. The Pride is right in between, being more evenly balanced between cover and core strength. Really quickly, the Pride fits in a sort of strong control (-) or mid control (+). If you have a Forge Flare, then you slot the Pride underneath as a benchmark. If you have a Shock, slot it above. The one sort of gripe I have is the asymmetry. I may come back with a comparison to the Rogue Assassin but I kind of feel like I prefer a symmetric in the benchmark a bit more. It’s a small gripe but I feel like the Dominion core stands up just a touch whereas the Sigma core continues more. That medium strength asymmetry is just noticeable enough to notch this below the Rogue Assassin if I had to choose to fill the slot between these two. With that said, the Pride is a really nice offering. You just have to figure out where you want to slot it based on which other balls you have.

Power Player’s Perspective
Sean is our higher rev tester. Hopefully you’ve already caught the primary video where I discuss the details on how the Motiv Pride rolls. In this case, it’s probably pretty pertinent to avoid replicating what I said. Overall, it’s pretty even on the lanes. It has a good amount of midlane read with a medium amount of backend. It has that benchmark type look I described. Sean can play it pretty direct and you can see the even shape that is a bit stronger downlane than a banana shape. When he does slow it down, you see a big increase in angularity which again speaks to it’s ability to respond to hand and speed adjustments. You can clearly also see the differences between the Pride and the Venom Shock. Even though the Shock has a strong cover, it still gets downlane and has a bit boomier move downlane being a moderately weak symmetric core. It’s hard to say where this would fit exactly for Sean. The Venom Shock can probably play the benchmark role which it did for a good amount of time for him. But then he jumps to a ball like the Proton Physix which may seem insanely strong but helps blend lots of tough sport patterns. For the simplicity he keeps with his bag, I honestly think he wouldn’t slot this anywhere. But that’s more of a personal way he creates his bag. He prefers to work more with his skill than a ball. With that said, at least you get to see how Motiv Pride looks for a higher rev style which is pretty good.

Stroker’s Stance
Now we have Bryan testing the Motiv Pride. Again, this is an opportunity to see if this ball properly fills the slot where the Rogue Assassin used to fit. Bryan has an original Forge that he really likes in the Strong Control slot in the arsenal. He also has a Rogue Assassin as the Mid Control ball. So theoretically, the Motiv Pride should be on top of or replace the Rogue Assassin. It’s a bit of an interesting conundrum to be honest. If you are setting up for a 6 ball arsenal the way I recommended, you’ll have to make some tough choices because depending on your game, some balls fit just above or just below that specific slot. But anyway, the Assassin and Pride are not strong enough for Bryan to be Strong Control so they would compete for mid control. Bryan needed to be a little more direct than expected for a house shot but then quickly realized that’s the same story with the Rogue Assassin. From direct, the ball reads the midlane and sets up, walking heavy to the pocket. He had a pretty good look as you can see. Misses in held nicely. Misses out did not really recover. He had to have a pretty tight line to the pocket. You can see when comparing, the Assassin is a bit more continuous making it a little tricky from that direct. He tried from a little further in and it can work but a little tricky. That bit of asymmetry has the ball stand up a bit so drive isn’t quite there. At the end of the day, the symmetry of the Rogue Assassin makes it a bit more of an ideal fit in this slot but the Pride acquitted itself reasonably. This maybe an opportunity to drill the Pride more neutrally to reduce the asymmetry actually.