First Impressions
The new Motiv Supra Sport makes really good sense in that lighter oil benchmark or medium breakdown zone.
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Tamer Elbaga (Lefty)
Style: Tweener
RPM: 365 rpm
PAP: 5 1/8 & 3/8 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium/high
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 4.5 x 45
Tyler Church (Righty)
Style: Power Player
RPM: 425 rpm
PAP: 5 1/2 & 1/2 up
Average Speed: 19 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 5 x 50
Bryan Hoffman (Righty)
Style: Stroker
RPM: 280 rpm
PAP: 4 1/2 & 1 1/2 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: high
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 4.75 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: 44ft, 25.8ml, 12:1 ratio
Sport: TBD
Specs
The Motiv Supra Sport uses the Quadfire symmetric core inside the new Leverage MFS Solid Reactive coverstock.
15 pound = RG of 2.55, diff of .043
14 pound = RG of 2.56, diff of .043
Coverstock finish: 5000 LSS
Tweener’s Take
Alright, quickly let’s cover the technicals on the Supra Sport. It uses the well known Quadfire core which has been around since Motiv’s inception. Surrounding it is the Leverage MFS cover from the Black Venom. The idea is you get the control and smoothness of the Black Venom while taking a little longer to rev and creating more flare. It should still create a control motion but theoretically a bit more oomph. I will say for me, that is 100% what played out. I saw the straightforward clean but controlled look from the cover that allowed me to stay in the track with good pop. That extra pop came with good carry but also the occasional over/under on a highly cliffed house shot. To this point, Motiv says this is really a dream sport shot ball for medium-light conditions as they start to breakdown. From what I saw, I can buy that and we may come back with a sport shot test to prove it. It will be made public at the same time as this video but at the time of this writing, this was the guide. They have the Supra Clutch which is the same core but a very different and aggressive angular cover. Pretty dynamic motion. Above that is the Nebula which we loved. The thing I saw with the Nebula is that while it can be very angular, I can easily change the rev/speed relationship and give it a very controlled shape. So you will actually see it look like it’s going long compared to the Supra Sport. Not surprising since the pattern is playing a bit long and the Sport has a solid cover with a bit earler smoother read. I’m not 100% where it will land but it feels like it overlaps the Black Venom in the chart placement to me.
Power Player’s Perspective
Tyler had an interesting look but not as good as mine. First off, ball shape is what’s advertised. He gets the length from the coverstock finish and that later motion from the higher RG core. The extra challenge is that the house pattern played on the slicker side from the right and he was in a tricky spot where if he stayed open there was under reaction in the oil and not enough to the friction but when square, too much over/under. Nevertheless, you can see the motion it offers. Cliffed house shots many times need something bigger to overwhelm that heavy oil with earlier rolling motion while also smoothing out the drier portion of the lane. In this case, it was a bit exacerbated, too clean and too high an RG to be the ideal ball at the moment. We can’t bring the ideal pattern for every ball we test to make them look good so it is what it is but we can certainly see what the ball is about. The Nebula wasn’t massively different since it’s the same formula more or less, clean cover and a core that is a little later revving.
Stroker’s Stance
Bryan quickly saw he had to really square up, essentially pointing the ball on this slicker pattern. However, there he struck a ton. He was using no head belly at all. Basically going 7-8 at the arrows to about 9-10 at the breakzone. Here, what we saw with where Bryan is able to play was the ability to take advantage of the cleaner cover and that higher RG just kind of sat. It didn’t have much of a driving motion on this pattern, it will need more friction for sure. But it was good to see how it could be made usable for Bryan. He found it very smooth and very arcy. He tried to push it right to the friction downlane but it didn’t react strongly enough to make sense. Quick comparison to the Nebula and you see how much the cover chemistry makes a difference. In the same zone, you can see the ball really react much harder to the friction, creating a more dynamic motion with drive on this pattern for Bryan.
Final Thoughts
I really want to try the Motiv Supra Sport on a sport shot. I think that smoothness and control formula will likely work better as sport shots usually have built in motion downlane, you just have to get it to the spot accurately. So the smoothness may give you more forgiveness with small misses. This kind of fits in Mid Control but for much lighter volumes. I’d call it Mid Late but it doesn’t create enough angle to sit there. I think we will see EJ throwing this ball a decent amount on tour.
Thanks for watching.