Plastic balls cost more than tennis balls now.

You nailed it! This ball change is ridiculous on top of being a technical failure! Crazy that the table-tennis community has not reacted to it, and everyone is following as sheeps...

I totally agree with you.

This plastic ball is a genuine failure and is quite a cash money grab for sure! I have been playing table-tennis at a fairly high level for over 20 yrs, and this is the worst move ever!It's basically like playing with kid's toys table-tennis set... Would be nice to launch a poll to have a real overview of who believes it is a real advancement for our sport.

I've been testing / using Nittaku and Tibhar plastic balls, and they all break so easily. Really it's pure bullshit. 2-3 nittaku balls even broke after 1 min of warming up. I know that those may be dudes but still, selling people shit, me and others are moving back to celuloids. As goes for me and my league, we'll be buying celuloids until they go extinct, much more value in them than in this plastic failure.
And yeah, it's a disgrace that we as community accepted those balls so easily.

/edit - i meantioned i used nittaku balls, but i did not even try that fantastic SHA40+ variation, so this opinion goes towards premium ones

Minisprince said:

I totally agree with you.

This plastic ball is a genuine failure and is quite a cash money grab for sure! I have been playing table-tennis at a fairly high level for over 20 yrs, and this is the worst move ever!It's basically like playing with kid's toys table-tennis set... Would be nice to launch a poll to have a real overview of who believes it is a real advancement for our sport.

Click to expand...

Obviously there are always many sides to the story.
ITTF clearly did not plan the "time to market" correctly, but from a manufactoring processing point of view, this is a good move from a humanely perspective.
Unless you think it is wise that while we enjoy playing table tennis with celluballs, that the factory workers must put they lives at risks?

I know all these "western" countries that want to boycott inhuman activities, but while they complain, they are also beneficiaries of such acts.

I am happy that table tennis balls has finally moving away from celluliod materials. It is the best "humane" part of table tennis rule change ever.
But sadly, the R&D of plastic balls - which has been nearly 20 years if I'm correct, is still not where it used to be. I'm sure you as a 20 year long veteran of the sport should know all the ins and out of why this change is necessary - it is all over the Chinese media, but somehow not in the west.
And on another note, lots of these companies are looking at profit - ie even ITTF and ITTF's TMS, who charges a fortune to have ITTF approved equipment.
But if the volume - price index can be true in this case, sooner or later, the plastic balls will become more affordable, but then again, these TT companies rather want more revenue and more profit....

So, if you want to rant, make sure you rant in the right direction.
Unless you want the old balls back, and factories getting burnt, illegal for celluball to go on planes, and a huge logistically nightmare to fly celluballs around the world

ranniely said:

I've been testing / using Nittaku and Tibhar plastic balls, and they all break so easily. Really it's pure bullshit. 2-3 nittaku balls even broke after 1 min of warming up. I know that those may be dudes but still, selling people shit, me and others are moving back to celuloids. As goes for me and my league, we'll be buying celuloids until they go extinct, much more value in them than in this plastic failure.
And yeah, it's a disgrace that we as community accepted those balls so easily.

Click to expand...

I think you must not use these "seam" balls, rather go seamless

We had a local "fun" tournament"
12 brand new Tibhar balls was used, inside 2 or 3 hours, 5 broke.

And we are not even talking about high level of play

Then another tournament, 12 Yinhe was used, and only 2 broke. Funny enough, those 2 that broke wasn't new, it was ones that I used for quite a few sessions already.

As community members, many people have moved over to plastic, some even haven't used cellu for months.
And some have fork out lots of money to test all brands of plastic balls, conclusion - go seamless
So that is my advise as a community member to another

Hi Tony and thank you for your insight and rational analysis. I understand the "humane" standpoint. However, I cannot believe they launched such a poor product so quickly, which to my opinion, truly denatures the game: less spin, less speed, irregular bounces, fragility,etc.

They should have waited a real viable alternative before taking such a radical decision. It is my personal opinion, but we're sson in 2015, and I cannot believe they couldn't find better material than these plastic balls.

I have played African and Commonwealth games, French National division and currently play top league in Finland.

Tony's Table Tennis said:

Obviously there are always many sides to the story.
ITTF clearly did not plan the "time to market" correctly, but from a manufactoring processing point of view, this is a good move from a humanely perspective.
Unless you think it is wise that while we enjoy playing table tennis with celluballs, that the factory workers must put they lives at risks?

I know all these "western" countries that want to boycott inhuman activities, but while they complain, they are also beneficiaries of such acts.

I am happy that table tennis balls has finally moving away from celluliod materials. It is the best "humane" part of table tennis rule change ever.
But sadly, the R&D of plastic balls - which has been nearly 20 years if I'm correct, is still not where it used to be. I'm sure you as a 20 year long veteran of the sport should know all the ins and out of why this change is necessary - it is all over the Chinese media, but somehow not in the west.
And on another note, lots of these companies are looking at profit - ie even ITTF and ITTF's TMS, who charges a fortune to have ITTF approved equipment.
But if the volume - price index can be true in this case, sooner or later, the plastic balls will become more affordable, but then again, these TT companies rather want more revenue and more profit....

So, if you want to rant, make sure you rant in the right direction.
Unless you want the old balls back, and factories getting burnt, illegal for celluball to go on planes, and a huge logistically nightmare to fly celluballs around the world

Click to expand...

Butterfly ball are indeed expensive, but after a training the hall is covered with balls broken in two ! Also the robots wreck the balls much faster than the older ones ? WHy ... no idea, but very expensive

The plastic ball, I did not like the idea at first. One positive thing I can say though, I am seeing some better rallies where both players are having trouble ending the point. It also seems work to the advantage of a player like Jun Mizutani who backs up a lot and does a lot of lobbing. In those types of rallies he seems to be able to get back everything.

I don't like that they break so easily. And the quality so far does really suck plain and simple. The XSF ball seems to be decent and lasts well. The Nitakku Premium plays way better than everything else but I don't know how well they hold up. The rest are all really low quality.

But as far as price, I think Table Tennis is a pretty inexpensive sport. Anyone who complains about racket prices and rubber prices should just by less expensive equipment.

A Galaxy 896 blade is $16.00 and is fairly decent. If you are using something more expensive then that is because you chose to. Dawei 2008XP is $8.00. H3 (commercial) is about $20.00. $44.00 for a pretty decent setup is not expensive at all and if you paid something like $120.00-180.00 for a blade that is fancier which is from an expensive brand like Butterfly or Nitakku then you are choosing to use the most expensive stuff. Which is okay. I feel like it is okay to treat myself to fun new toys. But a good basic setup does not have to be expensive.

I would just say I have no reason to by Poly balls until the manufacturing of the product is up to snuff. Because most of them are really bad and break way too quickly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk