Thomas Keinath tests new plastic balls

[TTHopeful]

Just found this article over at forum.tt-news.de where Thomas Keinath tested the new plastic balls with the German National team.

We trained with Tibhar ballls, each ball seemed to have a lot of variation, each ball was different. In each training session around 15-20 balls broke. But in the future the balls properly will get better. I think every player will have a big change with the new ball.

Players will hit the ball more on the edge or miss the ball completely in a top-spin vs top-spin rally. I have the feeling the ball stays more in the air within the service and receive. Also in the service the balls are not going as long any more and bounce lower within the service, so the game will be more decided in the service and receive area.

In the rally's the ball is hard to control and with the block the ball is going often into the net or over the table. You have to play more forward if you have to ball right in front of you. Every player is trying new blades and rubbers out. Everything is not clear yet and the rubbers die earlier because of the plastic ball.

It seems Thomas is very uncertain about this new ball. Time will tell...

What are your thoughts? Do you agree.

 

[anchorschmidt]

Players should be the ones making these decisions. ITTF officials are just armchair table tennis players.

 

[TTHopeful]

Players should be the ones making these decisions. ITTF officials are just armchair table tennis players.

Yes, I wonder how much players had an input of the development of the plastic ball.

 

[agold]

I'm afraid to buy anything with so many changes being made. I will just sit and wait

 

[cakezxc280]

I tried the DF 3 stars seamed balls last week.

First impressions: Serves have became much weaker in terms of spins, the ball sounds broken and it indeed stays in the air longer than the old balls.

I dont think the serves and returns are going to THAT big a part of the game as the guy said in the article but it certainly will play a factor because there are a number of ways to return serves other than chopping, pushing and the back hand flick that has became relatively easier to execute now than they were before and thus we should be seeing a lot more 2nd ball attacks now, rather than just the banana flick.

What struck me the most as to how the new ball impacts the game is the top spins and counter top spins.
As they do stay in the air longer due to their larger 40+mm size as opposed to the older 39.5~40mm I found it much easier to execute counter topspins and thus this means that we will see more forehand to forehand rallies.
This is both good and bad for me personally. On one hand my game is no longer bounded to the first 5 balls (used to heavily emphasize 3rd ball attacks after serves, as preached by my chinese coaches) and I can pull of exciting rallies one after another. Definitely a joy to both watch and play. However, with these continuous rallies becoming more common, its actually a lot more demanding to my stamina and I actually got a bit tired just after 3 games of BO5s. Guess I have to step up my stamina a bit hahaha....

However it is worth noticing that the ball actually falls downward faster than it would due to the slower speed it has and thus I had to add a bit of a pull upwards to my strokes to keep the ball from going under the net, and thats pretty hard to adjust to for me.

 

[Baal]

I tried the DF 3 stars seamed balls last week.

First impressions: Serves have became much weaker in terms of spins, the ball sounds broken and it indeed stays in the air longer than the old balls.

I dont think the serves and returns are going to THAT big a part of the game as the guy said in the article but it certainly will play a factor because there are a number of ways to return serves other than chopping, pushing and the back hand flick that has became relatively easier to execute now than they were before and thus we should be seeing a lot more 2nd ball attacks now, rather than just the banana flick.

What struck me the most as to how the new ball impacts the game is the top spins and counter top spins.
As they do stay in the air longer due to their larger 40+mm size as opposed to the older 39.5~40mm I found it much easier to execute counter topspins and thus this means that we will see more forehand to forehand rallies.
This is both good and bad for me personally. On one hand my game is no longer bounded to the first 5 balls (used to heavily emphasize 3rd ball attacks after serves, as preached by my chinese coaches) and I can pull of exciting rallies one after another. Definitely a joy to both watch and play. However, with these continuous rallies becoming more common, its actually a lot more demanding to my stamina and I actually got a bit tired just after 3 games of BO5s. Guess I have to step up my stamina a bit hahaha....

However it is worth noticing that the ball actually falls downward faster than it would due to the slower speed it has and thus I had to add a bit of a pull upwards to my strokes to keep the ball from going under the net, and thats pretty hard to adjust to for me.

Exactly the same for me. Actually, with the Nittaku Japan 40+ ball I got to use for awhile, I was having a lot of fun.