Review Of New Plastic Balls

says bebakhshid.
says bebakhshid.
Well-Known Member
Jun 2012
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I just read this posts on OOAK forum and i think it's better to share it with you:

"Had a chance to play in the recent tournament in South Bend Indiana..
and during the free time in between matches, i was able to play test the new poly balls..

believe me i thought the new balls were going to feel and sound totally different but the simple fact is i really couldn't tell the difference too much..
i was playing 3 events and i was finished with 2 of them, so it was my 7th hour being there already so i couldn't play test the balls long... 2-4 mins was all the time i had with these new
40+ (plus) balls..

inspecting them i did notice some unique things..

- doing the spin test i could see that they were round.
- feeling the ball it felt like a normal ball we are used to feel, grip, texture, etc
- bounce test on racket or table i didn't see any difference..
- looking at the seams.. (DHS, Double Fish ball had center seam line. there was a seamless ball Xushaofa .. not 2 halves put together)
- hitting test was the only thing i can feel different.. might be the table, or me just waking up from my nap, but the ball kinda felt dead, not crisp, but i was being gentle in the hitting as these were the only samples there were and i didn't want to break nor mis hit and send into other matches beside me.
- the ball weight was same feeling, and bounce during the play was about the same as you would expect..
- the sound was different, nor were we hitting the ball hard
- bounce on the hits was as expected, no different

my 2 cents is there won't be much of a difference, and the size of the balls was told to me as 40mm - 40.17mm

i believe the feeling of the new balls is about the difference of you playing a celluloid ball in 80F room and then going to a room that is about 65F room, that is the difference.. that drop in ambient temperature is the only way i can explain, just a touch or less than 1 percent less in power..

the change is coming so i hope all you will make your adjustments and transitions smoothly.. best of luck..! (i personally don't think the change is going to affect our game at all)"

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Another one:

"I was also in South Bend for that tourney and had a chance to hit with the DHS ball. In short. The first thing I noticed was the ball was harder. You could feel it better on the racket. And being a chopper this is something I like. Spin seems to be very and I do mean very close to the same. Sound was the same. Didn't sound like a broken ball. Felt the same in your hand. In the 5 to 10 minutes I hit with it I can safely say I'm not going to worry about the change."

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Sound very promising to me. The prototype balls were terrible.
If the new balls will be like what they tested, which i think is, then we won't need to change our equipment and techniques a lot. And we will be able to adjust quickly.

What do you guys think?
 
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This user has no status.
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Read 3 reviews
There is no doubt the final balls will be better than the prototypes. Already prototypes today is better than 1 year ago when I first tested them.

Also need to note, with the current balls - 3 stars ITTF approved etc, some balls are harder while others are softer too. So already there is some differences between the different brands available
The current balls to be legel is 39.5mm to 40.5mm, where mostly it is 39.5 to 39.8. So the New ones is really just a fraction bigger - at the same weight.
Can't wait for the final balls to come out.
 
says bebakhshid.
says bebakhshid.
Well-Known Member
Jun 2012
1,257
314
2,102
Those are the latest review of plastic balls i read. They were posted March 22.
The last sentences of them were:
"i personally don't think the change is going to affect our game at all"
"In the 5 to 10 minutes I hit with it I can safely say I'm not going to worry about the change."

So there will be almost no adjustment needed for new plastic balls :cool:
 
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