New Balls Vs Robot

[olvarox]

Hi everybody.
My club is seriously considering buying a table tennis robot.
Does anyone expect difficulties with the introduction of the new balls? Will the robots be able to handle them well?

In addition, has anyone got experience with the Donic 'Newgy' 2050 robot or with the Tibhar Robopro Genius?
What do you think of these robots?

Thanx, and happy New Year to all of you...

 

[T!Christian]

I don't think that any robot will have problems with the new plastic balls.
A robot for a whole club is a good idea, specially for younger player because they get motivated and play a lot of balls.

When buying a robot you should not cut money, since qualitiy is essential!

 

[XIII]

The new balls are out?
A guy said good luck for me trying to get plastic balls so I gave up.

 

[T!Christian]

The new balls are out?
A guy said good luck for me trying to get plastic balls so I gave up.

They are not out yet, only few people have them

 

[XIII]

They are not out yet, only few people have them

Oh, he said this so I thought:

Does anyone expect difficulties with the introduction of the new balls?

 

[T!Christian]

Well some people and retailers have them and maybe he got some beforehand!
Or he just thought for the future

 

[irellence]

When training by yourself, the use of a table tennis robot can be of great benefit, provided that you use it properly and avoid a couple of pitfalls waiting to trap the unwary. So let's take a look at how to get the most out of your table tennis robot.

 

[olvarox]

Anyone having any thoughts on the thread itself, though?

 

[Pongfinity]

I have some experience of Donic's Newgy Robo-Pong. It's a cool machine and it's good to train with. It's easy to train technique and safety with it because you get so many repeats. That's the good thing with robots. It's also funny to play with it someone who has never seen/used a tt-robot before. I defnitely recommend to buy it for your club, it's a great way to motivate kids. I don't think there will be any problem with new balls fitting in the old machines. When buying a tt-robot you should buy a good one; there is huge different between them.

 

[RIPPER]

A robot is good but because you know where the balls are coming you just have to make sure that you keep moving and dont just stand there hitting the balls...you should be ok with the new balls but I dont know for sure

 

[Baal]

The truth is, we don't yet know

We don't know how the new balls will behave with existing robots. So far, only a small sample of prototype balls made by DHS have been made available to a few players. Those balls are seamless, unlike current celluloid balls. All reports are that they play differently, how much depends on who you read. This prototype seems to be slightly larger, which is something BoD allowed in their report. This could be a problem for robots. How the actual balls we will eventually buy will compare with the prototypes is also not clear. We are now told by ITTF President that some companies are experimenting with plastic balls with seams. How this will affect play is unknown. The polyballs will definitely be smother on the surface than celluloid. That is in the nature of the materials. This could present a different problem for robots, and it will have significant affects on the way the balls play.

The fact is, we just don't know how robots will behave with new balls. We don't know much about what the new balls will be like, or when they will actually become available. The ITTF says 2014, some time, but it is not clear that technical issues in their production can be solved by then.

Personally I would not invest much in a robot until I see how some of this is resolved.