What do you think is the best tournament ball?

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Our club is currently using XuShaoFa balls for tournaments / league, but we are looking for a new ball, as they break too often.

My current opinion on different balls:
XuShaoFa balls play very well, but break often. Not that expensive.
Butterfly balls are too hard IMO. Also not cheap.
Nittaku balls are very good in the first few sets, but after some time they are completely smooth. Also too expensive.
DHS balls are sturdy and play well, also very spinny.
Joola balls are not only good, but also not that expensive. (I hate Prime because they are too hard and not seamless, but I love Flash)
Donic balls are very weird to play, they are unpredictable and very different to others.
Gewo balls play well but are not error-forgiving. One slight technical error and the point is over.

What tournament balls can you reccomend and what are your opinions?
 
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We are going back to Xushaofa after a season of Butterfly. I personally like the XSF better and are good value - even if they break more. The Butterfly ones don't spin as much I think.
We tried the Nittaku ones - there nice but feel quite solid and are expensive - so we are back with Xushaofa.
 
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Our club is currently using XuShaoFa balls for tournaments / league, but we are looking for a new ball, as they break too often.

My current opinion on different balls:
XuShaoFa balls play very well, but break often. Not that expensive.
Butterfly balls are too hard IMO. Also not cheap.
Nittaku balls are very good in the first few sets, but after some time they are completely smooth. Also too expensive.
DHS balls are sturdy and play well, also very spinny.
Joola balls are not only good, but also not that expensive. (I hate Prime because they are too hard and not seamless, but I love Flash)
Donic balls are very weird to play, they are unpredictable and very different to others.
Gewo balls play well but are not error-forgiving. One slight technical error and the point is over.

What tournament balls can you reccomend and what are your opinions?

If you like XuShaoFa, you may like Tibhar 40+SL. This is what our club uses. XSF feels lightest to me from all, Tibhar SL is tiny bit closer to the others, but closer to XSF than to say DHS D40+.

I also like Joola balls, but only some of them. Not sure about the naming, blue, blue-black, both good, red-black (those are harder sturdier in the direction DHS). DHS balls, not bad, but I only use them in the robot.
 
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We've used XSF, and also experienced their relative fragility. Looking for alternatives, we first tried a few batches (a dozen boxes or so) of the DHS D40+ ball (the one with Ding Ning on the box). Consistency was not all that; a sizeable portion felt as mushy as a deflated balloon.

Then we went for the Stiga Perform 40+ threestar. Maybe a little less spinny than the XSF ball, but all balls are nice and round, bounce and hit well, and don't break (or even shatter) nearly as often. Happy with them.
 
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NDH

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We are going back to Xushaofa after a season of Butterfly. I personally like the XSF better and are good value - even if they break more. The Butterfly ones don't spin as much I think.
We tried the Nittaku ones - there nice but feel quite solid and are expensive - so we are back with Xushaofa.

Not that I think anyone will say anything (in fact, I'd be amazed if they even knew), but did you know the XSF balls are no longer on the approved ITTF list?

Here's a statement from TTE - https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/reminder-about-approved-balls-for-leagues/

For anyone else, do you know *why* they were removed?

TTE says:

Some leagues may be interested to know that the Xushaofa 40+ 3* ball is no longer on the ITTF approved list.

 
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Not that I think anyone will say anything (in fact, I'd be amazed if they even knew), but did you know the XSF balls are no longer on the approved ITTF list?

Here's a statement from TTE - https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/reminder-about-approved-balls-for-leagues/

For anyone else, do you know *why* they were removed?

TTE says:

Some leagues may be interested to know that the Xushaofa 40+ 3* ball is no longer on the ITTF approved list.


Good point. I didn't know they are no more approved. I lived in the opinion they are discontinued - no more produced.
 
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Not that I think anyone will say anything (in fact, I'd be amazed if they even knew), but did you know the XSF balls are no longer on the approved ITTF list?

Here's a statement from TTE - https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/reminder-about-approved-balls-for-leagues/

For anyone else, do you know *why* they were removed?

TTE says:

Some leagues may be interested to know that the Xushaofa 40+ 3* ball is no longer on the ITTF approved list.

Probably didn't pay the ITTF tax. Doesn't matter since Joola Flash is the same ball so it has nothing to do with the ball itself.

 
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Not that I think anyone will say anything (in fact, I'd be amazed if they even knew), but did you know the XSF balls are no longer on the approved ITTF list?

Here's a statement from TTE - https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/reminder-about-approved-balls-for-leagues/

For anyone else, do you know *why* they were removed?

TTE says:

Some leagues may be interested to know that the Xushaofa 40+ 3* ball is no longer on the ITTF approved list.

I didn't know that - i will pass it on!!!! Thanks for the heads up. Im sure one team would bring it up with us so we would have to forfeit

 
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I agree! Both excellent balls and equally good but not identical regarding play.

Same here. We play with Nittaku balls in our club but in our region there are several other balls played like andro, Gewo, Tibhar and some other crap.
Right now i have serious issues performing the same way with different balls.
The main issue here is that you are capable of producing decent amount of spins with the Nittaku balls. Especially with an hard attacking playstyle as mine you need the spin to get the ball back on the table. If it lacks spin it doesnt create the parabola needed to get itself back on the table. This literally lost me several matches in a recent tournament because i was unable to hit my dangerous fh topspins. Even players way below my level were capable of blocking them which otherwise would never happen.
To prove that point i even won against the winner of that tournament 2 weeks later in a championship match. Afterwards we talked a bit and he was really confused of how big of a difference it felt for them to play against me with that setup.

Dunno if i am kind of retarded but if i remember correctly we didnt have that high amount of differences with the celluloid balls back in the day.

But to summup my experiences - the best balls i played with are the Nittaku, Donic and Sanwei balls (in that order).
On the other hand the biggest crap balls imo i played with :

Andro lacks serious amount of spin after the first contact with the table. Really well to open up but as easy to block. Ball is quite light and feels oddly slow.
Tibhar Syntt NG is probably one of the worst balls of all plastic balls i ever played with. Even some 2star balls have better characteristics. The ball doesnt create much spin right on the hit, is slower than better balls and is weak, so that it gets easily dents and therefore behaves damn odd often times.
Gewo plays pretty much the same but has better initial spin but that falls flat fast, so if you let the ball fall a bit further it is often empty.

 
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If BB was here he’d be REALLY disappointed in All of you!🤣
Is there really that big a difference between brands? Even bigger difference than new and old balls? For example, people say “heavier” or “lighter”, but I’ve weighed 6 brands of balls and they all average 2 grams, with minuscule difference. As per standard.
I feel like this is one of the things where there might be a difference, yet it’s not big enough for us to feel.
 
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The most balls of 40+ i liked were XSF and DHS, and followed by like GEWO and Tibhar
The worst or most hated balls i played with were Nittaku Premium and Joola a model i don't remember and don't want to remember.

Honestly speaking, balls are almost close with some few changes, like two or three brands making them almost more bouncy or projected for spins, for example i hate Nittaku Premium balls because they are the most noisy balls and kind of i feel them not smooth like silky as XSF for example, i can define the balls from their bouncing sounds alone, so i try to choose the ball that i feel comfortable with more, and funny like 99% of players prefer Nittaku itself.
 
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If BB was here he’d be REALLY disappointed in All of you!🤣
Is there really that big a difference between brands? Even bigger difference than new and old balls? For example, people say “heavier” or “lighter”, but I’ve weighed 6 brands of balls and they all average 2 grams, with minuscule difference. As per standard.
I feel like this is one of the things where there might be a difference, yet it’s not big enough for us to feel.

LOL. Hey PBB, it really is a kind of discord here. My logic says: no, impossible, no difference. My feeling says: what?, day and night.

When I used the word "lighter" or similar, I didn't really meant the weight. I just feels somewhat ... what? the best word I can find is lighter.

You're right, if I had to, I'd play with DHS, or with red-black Joola, no problem, absolutely, really, no problem. But if I can, I pick Tibhar SL or blue Joola. And I am not alone. And I do NOT know why. But some people do prefer red-black Joola.

Pls try XSF and soon try DHS D40+ (I didn't try DJ40+). For me, these are on the 2 sides of the spectrum.
 
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Nittaku premium and nothing else. Some other balls are playable by now, but the majority of the playerbase in my region prefer the nittaku ball. But many people underestimate how big the role of different tables and even the gyms are.
 
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If BB was here he’d be REALLY disappointed in All of you!🤣
Is there really that big a difference between brands? Even bigger difference than new and old balls? For example, people say “heavier” or “lighter”, but I’ve weighed 6 brands of balls and they all average 2 grams, with minuscule difference. As per standard.
I feel like this is one of the things where there might be a difference, yet it’s not big enough for us to feel.

""""""""

2.7g The official rules of table tennis state that the ball shall be: spherical, with a diameter of 40mm and. weigh 2.7g and. be made of celluloid or similar plastics material and. """"""

If all 6 balls weigh 2 grams they are all rubbish and underweight. 😁
I suggest your scales might be rubbish instead. 😁


I play in 2 clubs and they both use the seamless STAG balls from India , but of course made in China.
In the 3 years I play in the clubs and the tournaments I have never seen one cracked in half. There is the odd one
that will develop a small crack of course but that is rare.

Final impression of these balls is : They play like a bloody table tennis ball. 😁
 
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I like the DHS DJ40+ balls the best, plays really well and durability is much better than the Nittaku balls imo. The Nittaku balls becomes slippery after a few days, while the DHS ones don’t. Also, I’ve got three different versions of the DJ40+: Tokyo Olympic, Busan Championship, and the normal WTT tour balls, they play the same, but the price differ quite a bit, I’d say just get the cheapest ones you can find.
 
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