My feel and thoughts on the balls since 2013

says Australian 2xOlympian. Highest Men's World Ranking: 61...
says Australian 2xOlympian. Highest Men's World Ranking: 61...
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Someone in my Skool Community asked "Ball of choice - or does it matter"?

I thought I'd share my experience and thoughts being on the pro circuit and hopefully this gives you guys good insights to the ball change since plastic balls arrived in 2014

"In the past, nittaku has been known to be of the best quality. Even today, its ball uses a more premium plastic compared to the rest. I'm not sure how much the other brands have developed or not, they seem to be quite good.

When the plastic ball first came out in 2014, they SUCKED! broke very easily, wobbly to play with, not very solid or consistent. Even from 2015-2017 those exact same model of balls improved. From 2018-2022 when I finished off the final years of my career, and on the international stage of Table Tennis, the balls dramatically became more consistent amongst different brands. I still felt nittaku was somewhat different to the rest of the other brands, but noticeably felt improvement in the double fish and DHS brand balls, with the rest being average and not great.

Is that still the case today? I'm honestly not sure and couldn't tell you".


At the end of the day, business is a huge part of sports and the sponsor of the event will get the pleasure of being ball host. I'm curious though, what has your experience been with balls?
 
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Nittaku has been making balls for over 100 years.
they did it before they become a proper table tennis company.
not many people know this.

I had my first sample of 40+ balls 1.5 years before it came out. It indeed was horrible.
at first, seamless balls was the better of the group of bad
then ABS became the leader
Now, it is ABS 2.0 if we can call it that and is what dominate the pro circuit.
funny enough, Nittaku doesn't care about WTT, so you won't find nittaku balls on the pro circuit. Maybe Japan, and that is it.
 
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says Australian 2xOlympian. Highest Men's World Ranking: 61...
says Australian 2xOlympian. Highest Men's World Ranking: 61...
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Nittaku has been making balls for over 100 years.
they did it before they become a proper table tennis company.
not many people know this.

I had my first sample of 40+ balls 1.5 years before it came out. It indeed was horrible.
at first, seamless balls was the better of the group of bad
then ABS became the leader
Now, it is ABS 2.0 if we can call it that and is what dominate the pro circuit.
funny enough, Nittaku doesn't care about WTT, so you won't find nittaku balls on the pro circuit. Maybe Japan, and that is it.
their balls are fucking tremendous I have to say. Quality, it makes sense they've been making balls for centuries
 
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I can almost feel no difference between Nittaku premium and DHS DJ40+. Next time I buy I will try Double Fish. I think being used in an Olympics must mean something. My expectation is that they will be like Nittaku and DHS.

My club is sponsored by Donic and is of course using Donic balls. The 3* works fine but I do like Nittaku and DHS better, Mostly we are using the training balls and they are really sub par. However training with balls that are not perfect I think is sharpening Your senses...

Cheers
L-zr
 
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says Australian 2xOlympian. Highest Men's World Ranking: 61...
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I can almost feel no difference between Nittaku premium and DHS DJ40+. Next time I buy I will try Double Fish. I think being used in an Olympics must mean something. My expectation is that they will be like Nittaku and DHS.

My club is sponsored by Donic and is of course using Donic balls. The 3* works fine but I do like Nittaku and DHS better, Mostly we are using the training balls and they are really sub par. However training with balls that are not perfect I think is sharpening Your senses...

Cheers
L-zr
yes you definitely want to have the ability to adapt to any ball

What if you get a match that suddenly goes back to celluloid (an extreme example haha but that is legit what happened when I played german league in 2016)

Good to see the've closed the gap between what the balls are like since I stopped in 2022. DHS was starting to get better and better and for you to say its similar to premium, they must be getting very solid
 
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yes you definitely want to have the ability to adapt to any ball

What if you get a match that suddenly goes back to celluloid (an extreme example haha but that is legit what happened when I played german league in 2016)

Good to see the've closed the gap between what the balls are like since I stopped in 2022. DHS was starting to get better and better and for you to say its similar to premium, they must be getting very solid
I actually do play with old 38mm celluloids every once in a while. Its a lot of fun...

Cheers
L-zr
 
Agree. Nittaku balls just feel "more solid." I don't know what else to describe it.

The worst 40mm ball I have played with so far is Butterfly. Their fist or second generation plastic balls were horrible. The balls had this glossy feel to it straight out of the box (like a Nittaku ball that has been used for wayyyyyy too long but the players are too cheap to buy new ones). I am not sure how this generation of Butterfly balls feels but I refuse to play with Butterfly balls after such a bad experience a few years ago. My club was and is still sponsored by Butterfly so Butterfly balls were the only ones sold by the coach a few years ago. Then I discovered TT11 so I order almost exclusively from them nowadays.

Recently LA Open (just like 1 month ago) was sponsored by Joola so a couple players brought their own Joola 3-star balls to the round robin event at the club to get familiar with it. And they sound like they are "cracked" but obviously they were not. So I did not like the sound of it at all. That "cracked" or "broken" sound really hurts my ears.

I have a few DHS balls from a couple years ago. They play very very well. I really would say they are on par with Nittaku balls. But at the club, if you pull out any balls other than Nittaku, people do not want to play matches with it so here we go back to Nittaku balls again.

I took 8 years off from table tennis so I did not know anything about the first set of plastic balls that came out. I skipped from where people were speed gluing on a daily basis (or twice a day on the day of the tournament) to all the way where Tenergy and Tensors became the norms. When I went back to the sport again, I was still playing with Mark V. When the club coaches switched me to Tenergy 05 fx on the forehand and Tenergy 64 fx on the backhand, along with a Viscaria blade, I almost had a fit. Since then I have settled on a carbon blade that is fast but not too fast, along with H3 on the forehand and soft ESN rubber on the backhand side, I am much happier now.

A couple months ago, I bought some double fish Paris Olympic balls. from TT11. But at the moment, they are for collection only. If I pull out the Double Fish ball, my clubmates would throw a fit. I am curious to see if the balls are any good. But it must be decent if it were used in the Olympics, right?

Weirdly enough, our club uses Joola training balls for multi-ball purpose and they play just fine. So I don't know why I hate their 3-star balls that were used in the LA Open. On rare occasions, a player or two (and myself) are too lazy to pick up a single Nittaku ball throughout the match so we would use Joola training balls (club balls that lay around everywhere) for matches and I like it just fine. The Joola training balls feel lighter but the sound and the rest of the feelings are fine to me.

Funny that @Lazer talked about playing with 38mm celluloid balls once in a while. I just put in an order on TT11 (literally tonight) to get some Yasaka 3-star 38 mm celluloid balls for nostalgia's sake. Once the shipment I arrive, I plan to bring a couple balls to the club to mess with some clubmates. Many of the clubmates are adult students who only started playing 3-4 years ago. When I tell them, the game and the spin were way different back then with 38mm celluloid balls, they did not believe me. So I plan to do a test run on them once the balls arrive here.

As for most local tournaments, they are largely sponsored by Butterfly so there is no choice other than Butterfly balls. I barely play one tournament a year so that is not an issue. I believe last year's (held in Ontario, CA) and this year's upcoming US Open (to be held in Las Vegas) use Nittaku balls so I am happy about that.
 
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I can almost feel no difference between Nittaku premium and DHS DJ40+. Next time I buy I will try Double Fish. I think being used in an Olympics must mean something. My expectation is that they will be like Nittaku and DHS.

My club is sponsored by Donic and is of course using Donic balls. The 3* works fine but I do like Nittaku and DHS better, Mostly we are using the training balls and they are really sub par. However training with balls that are not perfect I think is sharpening Your senses...

Cheers
L-zr
i was told by DF staff that for the PAR40+ balls, they actually have a human test involved, so the consistency for roundness is very high.

I wasn't a big fan of DF balls until I was given samples to test.
In fact, due to the "not a fan", I avoided the samples for probably over a year.

DHS, DF and Nittaku are 3 of the big ball makers,
so they are indeed some quality.
 
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You are talking brand names. how many separate factories are there actually making plastic tt balls. In the case of rubber there are relatively few big rubber companies in the world making the rubber for the different tt companies.
the science involved in designiing tt rubber assists in development of car tyres for instance
I suspect there is one big factory, maybe. in china or japan, responsible for producing for different brand name
 
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Agree. Nittaku balls just feel "more solid." I don't know what else to describe it.

The worst 40mm ball I have played with so far is Butterfly. Their fist or second generation plastic balls were horrible. The balls had this glossy feel to it straight out of the box (like a Nittaku ball that has been used for wayyyyyy too long but the players are too cheap to buy new ones). I am not sure how this generation of Butterfly balls feels but I refuse to play with Butterfly balls after such a bad experience a few years ago. My club was and is still sponsored by Butterfly so Butterfly balls were the only ones sold by the coach a few years ago. Then I discovered TT11 so I order almost exclusively from them nowadays.

Recently LA Open (just like 1 month ago) was sponsored by Joola so a couple players brought their own Joola 3-star balls to the round robin event at the club to get familiar with it. And they sound like they are "cracked" but obviously they were not. So I did not like the sound of it at all. That "cracked" or "broken" sound really hurts my ears.

I have a few DHS balls from a couple years ago. They play very very well. I really would say they are on par with Nittaku balls. But at the club, if you pull out any balls other than Nittaku, people do not want to play matches with it so here we go back to Nittaku balls again.

I took 8 years off from table tennis so I did not know anything about the first set of plastic balls that came out. I skipped from where people were speed gluing on a daily basis (or twice a day on the day of the tournament) to all the way where Tenergy and Tensors became the norms. When I went back to the sport again, I was still playing with Mark V. When the club coaches switched me to Tenergy 05 fx on the forehand and Tenergy 64 fx on the backhand, along with a Viscaria blade, I almost had a fit. Since then I have settled on a carbon blade that is fast but not too fast, along with H3 on the forehand and soft ESN rubber on the backhand side, I am much happier now.

A couple months ago, I bought some double fish Paris Olympic balls. from TT11. But at the moment, they are for collection only. If I pull out the Double Fish ball, my clubmates would throw a fit. I am curious to see if the balls are any good. But it must be decent if it were used in the Olympics, right?

Weirdly enough, our club uses Joola training balls for multi-ball purpose and they play just fine. So I don't know why I hate their 3-star balls that were used in the LA Open. On rare occasions, a player or two (and myself) are too lazy to pick up a single Nittaku ball throughout the match so we would use Joola training balls (club balls that lay around everywhere) for matches and I like it just fine. The Joola training balls feel lighter but the sound and the rest of the feelings are fine to me.

Funny that @Lazer talked about playing with 38mm celluloid balls once in a while. I just put in an order on TT11 (literally tonight) to get some Yasaka 3-star 38 mm celluloid balls for nostalgia's sake. Once the shipment I arrive, I plan to bring a couple balls to the club to mess with some clubmates. Many of the clubmates are adult students who only started playing 3-4 years ago. When I tell them, the game and the spin were way different back then with 38mm celluloid balls, they did not believe me. So I plan to do a test run on them once the balls arrive here.

As for most local tournaments, they are largely sponsored by Butterfly so there is no choice other than Butterfly balls. I barely play one tournament a year so that is not an issue. I believe last year's (held in Ontario, CA) and this year's upcoming US Open (to be held in Las Vegas) use Nittaku balls so I am happy about that.
I stopped playing in 1975... When I started again in 2021 I didn't even know the ball was gonna be different,, :)
I also got my 38' from TT11. They look discolored but mine are round enough. so enjoy...

Cheers
L-zr
 
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I actually prefer the DHS balls (D40+) to the others, because they seem to spin better, which is something most important to my game. The Nittaku do feel more solid, and I do like that feel, but I just don't seem to get the same spin from these balls.
The Double Fish ones feel rougher on the surface (you get a ton of dust on your rubbers when you first use them, unless you wash them first), and they do also feel quite solid, but again they just don't seem to spin as well.
 
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I actually prefer the DHS balls (D40+) to the others, because they seem to spin better, which is something most important to my game. The Nittaku do feel more solid, and I do like that feel, but I just don't seem to get the same spin from these balls.
The Double Fish ones feel rougher on the surface (you get a ton of dust on your rubbers when you first use them, unless you wash them first), and they do also feel quite solid, but again they just don't seem to spin as well.
I know what you are referring to.

solid or hard, some players don't like it.
in fact, some did tell me DF Par40+ is too hard and more difficult to spin the ball (level around 2400 usatt)

myself - I prefer more solid/hard than one that is light and soft.
 
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I dont remeber I ever cared about that ball I played. Then came the plastic ball...

I missed the initial transition on amateur level because I wasn't playing at the time. So I haven't played alot with the first balls that would sound like they were broken from that start and brake after hitting 1 edge.

The 1 star balls are a no-go! Maybe they work for multiball, but you can't play proper rallies with these.

Like I said I never looked at balls much before the plastic ball, but I just can't help to notice when the ball is bouncing in directions its not supposed to. Then when I look at the ball and I only see 1*, Im like "allright lets get a 3* ball so we can actually play".

There is 1 brand of 3* balls that seems very populair, as they are relatively cheap compared to other brands: Hanno.

I had never heard of this brand before, but alot of clubs play with these. And I can't really explain whats wrong with them, but the ball path is a little dodgy when there is no spin on the ball. It just floats weirdly through the air. And this might just be in my head but I can literally tell whenever we are playing with a Hanno ball.

I honeslty don't know which I would prefer. We use Tibhar 3* and these are fine. But I do know which ones I hate lol.
 
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yes you definitely want to have the ability to adapt to any ball

What if you get a match that suddenly goes back to celluloid (an extreme example haha but that is legit what happened when I played german league in 2016)

Good to see the've closed the gap between what the balls are like since I stopped in 2022. DHS was starting to get better and better and for you to say its similar to premium, they must be getting very solid
Whenever DHS applied some actual good QC to their newer gen ABS balls in 2021 or 2022, they were simply outstanding, better in nearly every way to the Nitakku 3 star premium.

Felt heavier and more solid at impact... bounced consistent, did not crack so easily, and did NOT get all glossy/slippery after a game or two.

Early gen plastic balls were for the birds you had to be crazy to use them. Some company's products of those balls would drive you insane playing them... BTY G40+ in front of a huge crowd in that aspect.
 
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Similarly to Lazer, I stopped playing in 1973 and didnt restart until 2022. Now fwiw, I was (ok, still am) something of a ball snob. Nittaku is the Only One in my world. Or was way back in the 38 era. And yes, I played them smooth until they broke- mainly because I couldnt afford to buy bunches of them when i was young.

Now in my old age where ball money isnt a concern, I still believe Nittakus are the best, but I have been very happy with the top DHS balls. I have no experience with any other brand's top of the line balls.
 
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Nittaku is the Only One in my world. Or was way back in the 38 era. And yes, I played them smooth until they broke- mainly because I couldnt afford to buy bunches of them when i was young.

Now in my old age where ball money isnt a concern, I still believe Nittakus are the best, but I have been very happy with the top DHS balls. I have no experience with any other brand's top of the line balls.
Same here. All the clubs used Nittaku almost exclusively in the eighties/nineties because they were the best, but these days they use a variety of balls, the DHS the most common.
 
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my international umpire friend gave me these balls - one from Houston and one from Weschester WTT i think
the Houston ball was played by Mima Ito - i hit with it for a bit and there is no big difference between that and the ones we can buy
 
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