5 Arsenal Management

5.1 Ball Notes

Ball Notes

Your arsenal is your collection of bowling balls as they exist inside Spectre Stats — not just a list of names, but a living record of each ball's history, surface condition, and performance over time. The more detail you put into your arsenal, the more useful it becomes when you're making equipment decisions at the lanes.

🎱 Adding a Ball to Your Arsenal

  1. From the navigation, tap or click Arsenal.
  2. Tap or click Add Ball or the + button.
  3. Enter the ball details:
    • Ball Name — the manufacturer and model, e.g. Storm Phaze II
    • Brand — the manufacturer
    • Weight — in pounds or kilograms depending on your preference setting
    • Color / Finish — optional, helpful if you own multiple versions of the same ball
    • Purchase Date — when you added the ball to your bag
    • Current Surface — the current grit of the coverstock, e.g. 2000 Abralon
    • Layout Notes — drilling details or pin position if you want to record them
    • Notes — anything else worth capturing about this ball
  4. Tap or click Save.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm the exact fields available when adding a ball, which are required vs. optional, and whether additional fields exist — such as core name, coverstock name, RG, differential, or a photo of the ball.

📋 What to Track Per Ball

Every ball in your arsenal has its own detail page where you can build up a complete record over time. Here's what you can capture and why it matters.

Field Why It's Useful
Ball Name & Brand Identifies the ball clearly throughout the app — in session logs, charts, and oil pattern records
Weight Useful context when comparing performance across balls of different weights
Current Surface Knowing the current grit helps you make accurate equipment decisions and track how surface changes affect performance
Layout Notes Drilling specs and pin position — particularly useful if your pro shop uses Spectre Cloud and has this data already
Purchase Date Helps you track the age of the ball and how much use it has seen over time
General Notes Freeform observations — how the ball rolls, what conditions it suits, or anything your pro shop told you about it
Maintenance Log A running record of every surface change, cleaning, and repair — see Ball Maintenance for details
Oil Pattern Performance How the ball has performed on specific oil patterns — built automatically from your session logs

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether layout details such as RG, differential, pin distance, and mass bias are available as structured fields or only as freeform notes, and whether Spectre Cloud integration can populate these automatically for connected accounts.

✏️ Editing Ball Details

You can update any ball's details at any time — for example, to reflect a surface change, update your notes after a tournament, or correct a field you entered incorrectly.

  1. Go to Arsenal and tap or click the ball you want to edit.
  2. Tap or click Edit.
  3. Update any fields as needed.
  4. Tap or click Save.

🖼️ Adding a Photo of Your Ball

Adding a photo makes it easy to identify your balls at a glance, especially if you own several balls from the same brand or in similar colors.

  1. Open the ball's detail page and tap or click Edit.
  2. Tap or click the photo placeholder or your existing photo.
  3. Choose Take Photo, Choose from Library (mobile), or Upload Image (web).
  4. Confirm and save.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether ball photos are supported in the app and any image size or format requirements.

📊 Ball Performance at a Glance

Each ball's detail page shows a summary of how it has performed across all sessions where it was selected — pulled automatically from your competition and session logs.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm which performance stats are displayed on the individual ball detail page and whether these are available on free accounts or Pro only.

☁️ Spectre Cloud and Your Arsenal

If your account is linked to Spectre Cloud through your pro shop, ball data — including drilling specs, layout details, and spec sheet information — can flow directly into your Spectre Stats arsenal. This means you may not need to enter layout notes manually if your pro shop has already captured them in Spectre Cloud.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm exactly which fields sync from Spectre Cloud into the Spectre Stats arsenal, whether sync is automatic or requires a manual trigger, and whether changes made in Spectre Stats flow back to Spectre Cloud.

🗑️ Removing a Ball From Your Arsenal

If you've sold a ball, retired it, or added it by mistake, you can remove it from your arsenal. Consider whether you want to fully delete it or simply mark it as inactive — keeping retired balls on record preserves the historical performance data associated with them.

  1. Go to Arsenal and open the ball you want to remove.
  2. Tap or click Edit.
  3. Select Mark as Inactive to retire the ball without deleting it, or Delete Ball to remove it entirely.
  4. Confirm your choice.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether an "inactive" or "retired" status exists for balls, or whether deletion is the only removal option. Clarify what happens to session logs that reference a deleted ball — whether the ball name is preserved in those records or removed.

Tip: When you add a new ball, take a minute to fill in the current surface grit and any layout notes your pro shop gave you. It takes thirty seconds at the time and saves a lot of guesswork later when you're trying to remember what that ball was drilled for.

5.2 Maintenance Records

Maintenance Records

Every time you resurface a ball, clean the coverstock, or make a change to its surface preparation, that history matters. A ball that was polished three weeks ago behaves differently from the same ball at 2000 grit — and if you can't remember when you last resurfaced, you're making equipment decisions with incomplete information. The maintenance log in Spectre Stats gives each ball in your arsenal a running record of every surface change and service event over its lifetime.

🛠️ Accessing a Ball's Maintenance Log

  1. Go to Arsenal and tap or click the ball you want to view.
  2. Tap or click Maintenance Log or the Maintenance tab on the ball's detail page.

The maintenance log shows a chronological list of every entry you've recorded for that ball, with the most recent event at the top.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm the exact location and label of the maintenance log within the ball detail page, and whether it appears as a tab, a section, or a separate screen.

➕ Adding a Maintenance Entry

  1. Open the ball's maintenance log.
  2. Tap or click Add Entry or the + button.
  3. Select the maintenance type (see types below).
  4. Enter the relevant details for that event.
  5. Add the date — defaults to today.
  6. Add any notes about the service if needed.
  7. Tap or click Save.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm the exact entry flow and available fields for each maintenance type.

📋 Maintenance Entry Types

Spectre Stats supports several types of maintenance events, each capturing different information about what was done to the ball.

Type What to Log Example
Surface Change Any time you change the grit or finish of the coverstock Sanded from 4000 to 2000 Abralon before a tournament
Polish Applied Application of any ball polish or reactive cleaner that alters surface friction Applied Storm Reacta Shine after a league session
Cleaning A standard cleaning that does not change the surface preparation Wiped down with approved ball cleaner between sessions
Resurfacing A full resurface — typically done by a pro shop — that restores the ball to factory or a specified finish Resurfaced to 500/1000/2000 by pro shop after heavy use
Repair Any physical repair to the ball — crack filling, thumb slug replacement, weight hole adjustment Thumb slug replaced and grip tape refreshed
Baked / Rejuvenated Oil extraction through heating or a rejuvenation service Sent to pro shop for oil extraction after 60 games
Other Any service event not covered by the above types Finger inserts replaced

⚠️ Verify: Confirm the exact maintenance types available in the app and whether they match the list above or use different labels and categories.

🎱 Logging a Surface Change

Surface changes are the most important maintenance events to log consistently — they directly affect how the ball hooks and what conditions it suits. When you log a surface change, Spectre Stats updates the ball's current surface field automatically so your arsenal always reflects the ball's actual state.

  1. Open the ball's maintenance log and tap or click Add Entry.
  2. Select Surface Change as the maintenance type.
  3. Enter the previous surface — the grit or finish before the change.
  4. Enter the new surface — the grit or finish after the change, e.g. 2000 Abralon, 4000 + polish.
  5. Enter the date of the change.
  6. Add any notes — why you made the change, what conditions you were preparing for, or who did the work.
  7. Tap or click Save.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether logging a surface change automatically updates the ball's current surface field, or whether the current surface must be updated manually as a separate step.

📊 What the Maintenance Log Tells You Over Time

A complete maintenance history does more than remind you when you last cleaned your ball — it helps you connect surface preparation to performance outcomes.

✏️ Editing or Deleting a Maintenance Entry

  1. Open the ball's maintenance log.
  2. Tap or click the entry you want to change.
  3. Tap or click Edit to update any details, or Delete to remove the entry.
  4. Confirm your changes.

Note: Deleting a maintenance entry that contained a surface change will not automatically revert the ball's current surface field — you may need to update it manually to keep your arsenal accurate.

☁️ Maintenance Records and Spectre Cloud

If your account is linked to Spectre Cloud through your pro shop, certain service events — such as resurfacing or repairs carried out by the shop — may be logged directly from the pro shop side and appear in your maintenance history automatically.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether pro shop service events logged in Spectre Cloud are visible in the Spectre Stats maintenance log, whether this is automatic or requires a sync trigger, and whether bowlers can see all shop entries or only those the shop chooses to share.

Tip: Log a surface change every time you touch the coverstock — even a light scuff or a quick polish application. Small surface adjustments add up, and having a precise record of what the ball was at when you bowled your best on a given pattern is exactly the kind of detail that pays off when you return to that condition months later.

5.3 Oil Pattern Matching

Oil Pattern Matching

Oil pattern matching is one of the most powerful features in Spectre Stats for competitive bowlers. By logging the oil pattern alongside your ball selection and scores over time, the app builds a personal reference that tells you — based on your own performance history — which balls in your arsenal have worked best on which conditions. Instead of guessing at the lanes, you arrive with data behind your equipment decisions.

🛢️ How Oil Pattern Matching Works

Spectre Stats builds your pattern matching data automatically from your session logs. Every time you record a session with an oil pattern and a ball selected, that data point is added to your history. Over time, patterns emerge — certain balls consistently produce stronger scores on specific pattern lengths or volumes, while others underperform on the same conditions.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm how oil pattern matching is implemented in the app — whether it is a dedicated matching tool, a filter within performance charts, a view on the ball detail page, or a combination of these. Confirm whether pattern matching is a Pro feature.

📋 Logging an Oil Pattern During a Session

Pattern matching data is only as good as what you log. The key habit is recording the oil pattern when you log a session or game — it takes seconds and unlocks the matching feature over time.

  1. When creating or editing a session, locate the Oil Pattern field.
  2. Either:
    • Select a pattern from the pattern library if the pattern is listed, or
    • Enter the pattern details manually — name, length, and volume if known.
  3. Save the session as normal.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether Spectre Stats includes a built-in oil pattern library (e.g. common sport patterns, PBA patterns, house shot descriptions), whether custom patterns can be saved for reuse, and what pattern details can be recorded (e.g. name, length in feet, volume in units of oil, pattern type).

🎱 Viewing Ball Performance by Pattern

Once you have enough sessions logged with pattern data, you can view how each ball in your arsenal has performed on specific conditions.

  1. Go to Arsenal and open the ball you want to review.
  2. Tap or click the Oil Pattern Performance section or tab.
  3. Review the list of patterns this ball has been used on, along with your average score and strike rate for each.
  4. Optionally, filter by surface preparation to see how the same ball performed at different grits on the same pattern.

You can also approach this from the pattern side — looking up a pattern and seeing which balls have produced your best results on it.

  1. Go to Arsenal and tap or click Oil Patterns or Pattern Matching.
  2. Select the pattern you want to look up.
  3. Review a ranked list of your balls sorted by average score or strike rate on that pattern.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether the app supports both the ball-first view (ball → patterns) and the pattern-first view (pattern → balls), and the exact navigation path for each on mobile and web.

📊 Understanding Your Pattern Matching Data

The pattern matching view surfaces several data points for each ball-and-pattern combination.

Data Point What It Tells You
Average Score Your mean game score across all sessions on this pattern with this ball
Strike Rate Your first-ball strike percentage on this pattern with this ball
Sessions Logged How many sessions this data point is based on — more sessions means more reliable results
Surface at Time of Use The grit or finish the ball was at during those sessions — so you can replicate the preparation that worked
Last Used When you last bowled this ball on this pattern — useful context if conditions or the ball have changed since
Venue Where the sessions took place — house shot patterns can vary significantly between bowling centers

⚠️ Verify: Confirm which data points are displayed in the pattern matching view and whether surface-at-time-of-use is tracked automatically from the maintenance log or requires manual entry.

🏆 Using Pattern Matching Before a Tournament

Pattern matching is especially valuable when preparing for a tournament where you know the oil pattern in advance. Here's how to use it effectively:

  1. Find out the oil pattern for the tournament — name, length, and volume if available.
  2. Open Arsenal > Oil Patterns and search for that pattern or the closest match in your history.
  3. Review which balls have produced your best scores and strike rates on similar conditions.
  4. Check the surface at time of use for those top performers — consider whether your ball is currently at the right preparation.
  5. If needed, log a surface change in your maintenance record before the event to get the ball to the right grit.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether the app includes any pattern similarity matching — for example, suggesting comparable patterns from your history when an exact match isn't available (e.g. matching a 40-foot medium oil pattern to similar patterns you've logged).

🛢️ Building Your Pattern Library

The more precisely you log pattern information, the more useful your matching data becomes. A few habits that make a big difference:

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether Spectre Stats includes any pre-loaded pattern names or a searchable PBA/sport pattern library, or whether all pattern entries are user-created.

☁️ Oil Patterns and Spectre Cloud

If your pro shop uses Spectre Cloud, pattern data associated with your drilling specs or past shop visits may be available to pull into your Spectre Stats pattern history. This can give you a head start on pattern matching data without needing to manually build it all from scratch.

⚠️ Verify: Confirm whether oil pattern data from Spectre Cloud is shared with Spectre Stats, and what specifically syncs — pattern names, ball-pattern pairings, or pro shop recommendations.

Tip: Don't wait until you have a lot of data before you start using pattern matching — even three or four sessions logged with pattern information will start showing you useful signals. The habit of logging the pattern is more important than having a complete dataset from day one.