The ball changed but the equipment does not

exort04 said:

The tournaments have already begun and the new plastic ball already being used ...
From what we have seen in videos and photos no player switched equipment for the use of plastic ball ...
marketing?

Click to expand...

Every one thinks jean Michael Saive will use airoc though.

It's too early to judge.
It will take about 2-3 years for all the implications for tactics, equipment, training, ball quality/characteristics to settle down.
Remember, we haven't seen anything from Butterfly as yet.

Because you dont need new equipment thats made specially for the new ball...

The new ball doesnt have less spin but its grippier and because the new ball is has more grip the ball slows down on when it bounces and it loses spin earlier, new rubbers cant change this and I dont think butterfly will release new rubbers. Tenergys will always be the most populair rubbers.

I have also heard that Saive uses Airoc! Currently I am also playing with Airoc and the plastic ball and for me it is working very well

Recently I was training in a TT camp and there was a well know Top100 player as a main trainer of the camp (I don't want to give his name cause I don't want him to have problems for the information that I gonna share).

He say that Butterfly have to new rubbers ready for plastic ball but they don't want to put in the market yet because Tenergy are working well with the new ball.

Moreover I think in the next months we'll see better quality in the balls (sphericity, hardness maybe...) and also balls of different plastic polymer (I hope that balls will have more friction and we can apply more spin to our game, otherwise the game will lose much of his esence).

Josep, sorry to tell you but the aim of the ITTF is for the game to lose much of its essence. That is, it wants to slow the game and remove much of the spin.

Thanks Tinykin, I know it but I don't understand why (and don't lose the faith).

After looking the videos of Czech Open plus my personal experience with the new bal this is my conclusions:

- The game it's easy so it's easy to control rival spin. But it's easier for all.

- Players with good technique are benefited. Say bye bye to those great and rare players like Schlager or Maze without a great technique but with some kind of magic.

- The game becomes more physical and the talent lose value.

- Players with good backhand are benefited (and good balance between forehand and backhand).

- Chinese players will continue being better because he train more and better. So I wish that they let table tennis as it is now.

Conclusion: the game will have less styles of playing and less variety. Maybe if they paint the plastic of yellow and put hair on the bals we become more popular... who knows!

It would not surprise me if some people eventually make some equipment changes, but it makes no sense to rush into something until you have had plenty of time to play with these new balls, especially since they will need to make them a bit lighter over the next few months. Some of the effects of this extra ~0.4 mm of ball diameter are going to be there regardless of what kind of rubber or blade you use. The new seamed balls remind me of how it feels when you kick a football that is only half inflated.