New Ball for 2014 Confirmed (ITTF Study)

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This week the ITTF have announced that from July 2013 on wards there will be the introduction of the new 'poly' balls to be used in all ITTF competitions. The ball will replace the present celluloid ball.

A recent study by the ITTF which was approved by BoD2012 have been testing the new 'plastic' balls in comparison to the celluloid balls and found both are very similar from a scientific and player perspective.

The recent poly ball study looked at how much spin could be imparted on the ball using both types of balls.

The full results can be found on the ITTF website here

What do you all think?

ballpoly.jpg


Source: ITTF and ETTA
 
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when they will use this ball for international competitions? July 2013 or 2014?

According to the paper July 2014.

What is the difference between this balls and our "old" balls?

Made of plastic instead of celluloid, different production process, different sound, higher rebound, less spin, bigger size, lighter weight, higher volocity loss in the air.


I personally don't really trust this study, I think it's as always, a company assigns an other company to get the results they want to get else they reassign it to another one.

The task of this study from the view of the ITTF was to state that the new balls are not that different from the old ones, to point out that all testing players were able to adapt quickly and state that they had no significant problems with it. The last aim was to affirm that new balls have the same quality and a working production process with the same error rates.

All above mentioned points were confirmed by the study therefore I guess the ITTF got their will. End of my negative point of view ;).
 
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Hi guys, does anyone know how recent the balls are in the test of this study? I have a plastic ball from William Henzell that I want to review in the upcoming weeks. But I have had it for a year now and perhaps this ball is now out dated and they have other products and newer balls in place??
 
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The balls were tested on September / November 2012 as stated in the report with the newest balls given at that time as far as I know.

Unfortunately I don't know how the development evolved since then but I linked tests of the ball below from April 2012, October 2012 and December 2012.

Maybe many of the tests below are even from the same ball charge since WLQ gave some balls to William Henzell at WTTC in Dortmund and he gave them to Youtube User Pathfinder Pro. If you also get / got them from him it would be nice to know if this assumption is true.


The tested balls in the study shouldn't be that more developed / different from the tested version below:




Another interesting analysis might be (3 parts, just one embedded):




Earlier test ( April 2012 ):




Longer sound example at the Spanish Open ( April 2012 ):

 
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Tom

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I'm gutted to be honest, the fact we keep having to change things in our sport :( I'm unconvinced that the new plastic balls will be the same, I'm sure there will be a lot of adjustments from us the players who actually play with the dam things! Not happy or looking forward to it at all, but can't do anything about it, so lets just hope the companies can improve the new balls and make them very similar to the current ones!
 
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Dan

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Dan

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It could either go in two directions I think. The game will become a lot slower and hopefully attract audience. Or it just becomes very difficult to play and a lot less spectacular shots occur. I mean a lot of good tt shots have gone viral lately boosting the awarness of our amazing sport.

Hopefully the new ball won't be to much difference after all.

Sent from my S2 using Tapatalk 2
 
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It could either go in two directions I think. The game will become a lot slower and hopefully attract audience. Or it just becomes very difficult to play and a lot less spectacular shots occur. I mean a lot of good tt shots have gone viral lately boosting the awarness of our amazing sport.

Hopefully the new ball won't be to much difference after all.

Sent from my S2 using Tapatalk 2

I believe a slower ball that bounces higher and spins less will make it easier to attack and play offense because you will not even need as fast a reset for you next shot since the ball slows down faster, the incoming spin will not effect you as much since it is harder to generate spin with the new ball, and if the bounce is consistently higher and more predictable than a celluloid ball, then offense will be easier against defensive shots and short game will be more about flipping than touch on short pushes.

I believe the new ball may end up being a total nightmare for defensive players.
 
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Dan

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I believe a slower ball that bounces higher and spins less will make it easier to attack and play offense because you will not even need as fast a reset for you next shot since the ball slows down faster, the incoming spin will not effect you as much since it is harder to generate spin with the new ball, and if the bounce is consistently higher and more predictable than a celluloid ball, then offense will be easier against defensive shots and short game will be more about flipping than touch on short pushes.

I believe the new ball may end up being a total nightmare for defensive players.

Yeah I see exactly what your saying here Carl. The Chinese players are ultimate in the short game. So perhaps, this new ball may make it harder to win in the short game such as the serve/receive creating a closer gap. And for sure defenders will have a harder time.

p.s I really struggle against defenders hehe :) Jkz. The TT world will be very interesting once this ball has been finally released.
 
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