Timo Boll struggling with new plastic ball?

Its not Timo's fault, butterfly is yet to supply him the stock for practice plastic balls

It's not that. Timo is just getting old, you can see his footwork and more passive game then few years ago.

TTHopeful said:

Aha I have yet to try Butterfly plastic balls. It seems DHS is most popular, they are using DHS in the Mens World Cup.

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Butterfly has not yet come out with their competition balls and from what I hear tha that there is a big shortage of balls in World Cup . the German team barely has enough for their players to practice. BTW, also heard that DHS balls are sucking big time and everybody is complaining.am

Timo's entire game is built on spin, so if you take that away, of course doubts creep into the mind and hence the weird positions he was getting into.

If you are a working horse as a player at a younger age,by the time we reach 31 our superhuman reflexes are getting slow thou antisipation on the ball is still there.. why? We tend to look think and feel some pain and possible injuries..that we prevent

Thou we can still cope with explosive skills while we play..it tires us more than a 25yr old cow.

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I don't think that the balls are the problem. They are professionals, they train so many hours that they can adapt to all kind of things. In my opinion the problem is the age, Timo Boll is an incredible player, but he can not be like that forever. And now he is losing some skills and the others are getting better than him.

I know this is off topic, but look how big a thing table tennis has become in portugal!

time has started to catch up to timo...

Timo Boll has always been a spin orientated player.
I and many had predict that Timo will be one of many to suffer from the "lesser spin" plastic balls.
Thus, we are not surprised that Timo is struggling.

I am seeing the same thing as Ma Lin post speed glue ban - who also relies heavily on his spin.

Regarding Team Germany don't have enough plastic balls to train - lol
They can visit me, I have plenty of them to use, and I'm basically a no body....comeon, meaning some of you don't have access to these balls, doesn't mean Team Germany doesn't.

Also, regarding DHS, the 3 star at world cup is much higher quality. Regarding the DHS balls, make sure you compare the batch number. Earlier batches are known to break, newer ones are so much better. But I still prefer the XSF factory balls

tony, I heard from someone who is playing there

Tony's Table Tennis said:

Timo Boll has always been a spin orientated player.
I and many had predict that Timo will be one of many to suffer from the "lesser spin" plastic balls.
Thus, we are not surprised that Timo is struggling.

I am seeing the same thing as Ma Lin post speed glue ban - who also relies heavily on his spin.

Regarding Team Germany don't have enough plastic balls to train - lol
They can visit me, I have plenty of them to use, and I'm basically a no body....comeon, meaning some of you don't have access to these balls, doesn't mean Team Germany doesn't.

Also, regarding DHS, the 3 star at world cup is much higher quality. Regarding the DHS balls, make sure you compare the batch number. Earlier batches are known to break, newer ones are so much better. But I still prefer the XSF factory balls

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ttmonster said:

tony, I heard from someone who is playing there

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wow, can't believe that is serious

I know of many clubs in the world that have migrated to plastic balls already.... can't believe number 2 country in the world has a shortage of balls
Someone should get fired for that.

Tony's Table Tennis said:

Timo Boll has always been a spin orientated player.
I and many had predict that Timo will be one of many to suffer from the "lesser spin" plastic balls.
Thus, we are not surprised that Timo is struggling.

I am seeing the same thing as Ma Lin post speed glue ban - who also relies heavily on his spin.

Regarding Team Germany don't have enough plastic balls to train - lol
They can visit me, I have plenty of them to use, and I'm basically a no body....comeon, meaning some of you don't have access to these balls, doesn't mean Team Germany doesn't.

Also, regarding DHS, the 3 star at world cup is much higher quality. Regarding the DHS balls, make sure you compare the batch number. Earlier batches are known to break, newer ones are so much better. But I still prefer the XSF factory balls

Click to expand...

Tony, the only DHS balls I have played with were made in June (XFAD stamp on box). They are not good, bounce low, break, roundness issues. Do the more recent ones at least have a higher bounce?

I heard the new balls are terrible

I dont think plastic balls are THE factor for timo's losses. He isnt moving so fast as he used to, and he said that once he reached 30-31 years old he would like to have some more quality time with his family (i.e. his wife) and perhaps having a child. He played very good with ovtcharov today. Dont forget that the plastic ball is the same ball for the opponent with less spin and speed. Losing from calderano was not a suprise for me Hugo is a very talented and well trained player with strong attacks from both wings. Boll has lost many matches from players he has never played before (kishikawa for example) so I dont think it is mainly a ball issue.

If it was because of the ball he wouldnt destroy Ovtharov today who is also a great two wing attacker (well his tactics today were very smart also). Timo's form the past 1 year is not as it used to be, he lost several times to Dima, he lost from freitas and even in the Bundesliga he was struggling to win against much lower opponents with the celluloid ball. In the end I think he will adapt like all players.

I believe tha plastic ball will shorten the gap between extremely good pros and very good pros. Less spin and speed means easier serves to return and the rallies will be lengthened. In the other hand this is just pure theory, we will have to wait and see what happens. Shararah said that the new ball must be supervised for 1 whole year in order to make it better. So dont rush to make any conclusions people, its a new start for TT

one more thing, ru guys seriously believe that the no2 country in TT has not enough plastic balls to train?Get serious please, the Germans never make such kind of "mistakes" . Thats why they are called Germans! lol P

They organize everything with a program and they are not likely to leave something out of consideration. Im pretty sure they made huge orders for training balls so that they can be ready for the new ball. China made some training and national team trials with the plastic balls 6-7 months ago (before the final WTTC trials) so there is no way Germany would not have enough balls to train

okay, so let me clarify for once , I did not participate in the world cup , so this is not first hand information, however, I have heard this from somebody who played there in the first round. Also, I did not say German team does not a supply, I said "barely has enough" which means just enough.

And now coming to Timo's plastic ball , definitely there is an issue for Timo, because his entire game is built on spin. Its probably even worse for obtcharov , thats why he was in trouble with Achanta Kamal and went till 7 th set deuce and then got beaten by Timo 4-0 . Surely, both will adapt , thats why they are great players.

... and if you notice almost everybody whose game is built on spin and european rubber has come down a few notches. As always, the Chinese players are much stronger and more better prepared so they are adapting better. however, when you come up against somebody who is physically blessed as Aruna Qadri , you see that even he is adapting well because of his natural power. Case in point , see how Ma Long mauled Kenta Matsudaira ... it was never this bad before !!

I believe, this change is going to make it more lopsided to the chinese who are more athletic and who drive the ball more than the average european player.

Let us just say from
38mm- 40mm - 40+mm
Players adapt in time..
New technique/style be developed
Some do left behind..

Its just a start of a new era..


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ttmonster said:

okay, so let me clarify for once , I did not participate in the world cup , so this is not first hand information, however, I have heard this from somebody who played there in the first round. Also, I did not say German team does not a supply, I said "barely has enough" which means just enough.

And now coming to Timo's plastic ball , definitely there is an issue for Timo, because his entire game is built on spin. Its probably even worse for obtcharov , thats why he was in trouble with Achanta Kamal and went till 7 th set deuce and then got beaten by Timo 4-0 . Surely, both will adapt , thats why they are great players.

... and if you notice almost everybody whose game is built on spin and european rubber has come down a few notches. As always, the Chinese players are much stronger and more better prepared so they are adapting better. however, when you come up against somebody who is physically blessed as Aruna Qadri , you see that even he is adapting well because of his natural power. Case in point , see how Ma Long mauled Kenta Matsudaira ... it was never this bad before !!

I believe, this change is going to make it more lopsided to the chinese who are more athletic and who drive the ball more than the average european player.

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Its too early to say that spin oriented players have problem with the plastic ball. I believe we will see that in the future, freitas and apollonia are also spinny players but they play almost the same as before and maybe better.