Which plastic ball should I buy?
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Topic: Which plastic ball should I buy?
Posted By: Rhainur
Subject: Which plastic ball should I buy?
Date Posted: 11/28/2015 at 8:24am
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On Oct 1, my box of 72 Tibhar 40+ SL arrived, and between me and my practice partner sharing the box, today I am down to 6 balls remaining. Overall, I've been pretty happy with their quality, but I've been told by a couple of much higher level players that Nittaku is much better and more durable, and I'm also seeing Butterfly balls at my club. I've tried XSF, Yasaka, DHS and some other plastic balls as well (coach uses a mix for multiball) and I'm quite frustrated by the fact that there's significant differences and inconsistencies in the way they bounce (DHS 1 star being the worst in this regard). I'd like to invest in whichever ball is closest to being considered the "standard" plastic ball, but I'm totally confused as to which one that is. Can anyone clarify the situation and recommend a specific ball? If there's no particular winner, I'll just go with the Tibhar again since it was pretty good. On a side note, can I just say how incredibly annoying it is that any player should have to make a post like this? It's bad enough that there are a bajillion rubbers and blades out there with so much marketing and hype associated with each one, but on top of that I have to actually research which ball I buy as well?!! |
Replies:
Posted By: asifgunz
Date Posted: 11/28/2015 at 8:47am
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lot of people have found gambler poly as a good alternative to the pricey poly balls. But I have seen them break left and right at my last NCTTA. Perhaps they did fix them in the recent batches, who knows. xsf imo is up to standard. I have seen one break after idk 10 15 hours of play. double fish is the worst. Broke a couple per hour and we don't even play that hard at practice. -------------  "I do not have any idols. I am my own idol." - Zhang Jike Feedback: http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=71761&PN=1#905629 |
Posted By: The Canadian Bacon
Date Posted: 11/28/2015 at 8:59am
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practice: butterfly easy ball tournament: butterfly G40+ |
Posted By: gatz
Date Posted: 11/28/2015 at 9:11am
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On the cheaper ball xsf is way better than the DHS and Double Fish ------------- Blade: ZJ SZLC, Garayda 5000 Matador Texa Rubbers: FH::Symmetry SP BH: Tenergy Hard, FH: MoristoSP ax BH: Tenergy Hard,FH:Desperado 2 BH: Omega 7 Asia |
Posted By: The Canadian Bacon
Date Posted: 11/28/2015 at 9:30am
also remember it's been re branded into other brands like Yinhe 40+ which is slightly cheaper but the same ball. colestt has a box of 6 for $7USD |
gatz wrote:Posted By: Lestat
Date Posted: 11/28/2015 at 9:44am
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I would go for the XSF 3 star. It's arguably the best ball amongst the plastic balls, which means it won't feel weird to transition from that to any other plastic ball. Nittaku premium is in a league of its own. I tend not to use it unless I'll be playing it in a tournament or something. I know it sounds counter intuitive but Nittaku is just too different to the point it becomes irrelevant how good it is. If every other manufacturer raised their game to that level, that would be another matter.
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Posted By: Rhainur
Date Posted: 11/29/2015 at 5:12am
I played with the XSF 3 star plastic balls 3-4 months ago and I feel like Tibhar's seamless balls are better. Has XSF released a new version since then? |
Posted By: Tinykin
Date Posted: 11/29/2015 at 5:48am
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Buy and practice with the ball that you'll use in competition. Here in England, no league or tournament specifies the Nittaku even though it's generally regarded as the best plastic ball. So players practice mostly with XSF (and it's offshoots including Joola) and the Butterfly G40. The DHS seamed balls seemed (  ) to have disappeared as I know of no one that uses them.------------- Blade: Darker Speed90 Rubber Fh and Bh DHS Hurricane 3, 39/38deg Delusion is an asset |
Posted By: Lestat
Date Posted: 11/29/2015 at 5:59am
Yes, in terms of bounce, consistency and especially durability. I play with Tibhar too and I don't find them that great. Just good enough to get some play going. That said, get a pack to see how you like them first.
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Posted By: yogi_bear
Date Posted: 11/29/2015 at 9:49am
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Nexy, xsf and nittaku premium ------------- Independent online TT Product reviewer of XIOM, STIGA, JOOLA, SANWEI, GEWO, AIR, ITC, APEX, YASAKA and ABROS ITTF Level 1 Coaching Course Conductor, ITTF Level 1 Coach |
Posted By: Leftyy
Date Posted: 11/29/2015 at 11:41am
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I still like the old ball more, but the Nittaku is good. Pretty similar to the old ball. I think Butterflys got a little to high bounch, is this just me? |
Posted By: Rhainur
Date Posted: 12/11/2015 at 11:40pm
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I ordered a couple of packs of the Butterfly G40+ and while I had no problem with the bounce, I was really disappointed with the quality control. I've opened 2 packs of 12 so far, and in both packs I found 3-4 balls that were clearly, visibly not round in a simple "spin on the table" test. Two of the coaches at my club tested out all the balls for both roundness and hardness and were pretty disappointed at the quality for how much is being charged for these balls. Out of the 24 balls they tested, they rated 2 as being perfect, 13 as being playable and 9 that should not have been stamped as 3-star. Personally, while playing with them, I was really unhappy with the durability. With the Tibhar 40+ SL balls that I owned previously, the main way their lifespan ended was due to a tiny crack appearing somewhere in the surface, usually due to an edge shot. Whenever this happened the sound of the ball changed pretty quickly and it was easy to spot. I've gone through 10 of the Butterfly balls so far (in around 6-7 days  ) and every single one was lost due to the same reason. At some point during play, an edge shot managed to leave a slight dent in the surface. The really annoying thing about this is that I have to check the ball every time there is an edge shot (which can happen a lot during practice) because there's no change in sound, and I only found out about it the first couple of times because of weird wobbles in the spin and weird bounces off the table.While I guess a dented ball can be recovered by reheating (sort of, anyway) it's not really going to be the same again, and it's extremely frustrating to practice using this ball because of this issue. The Tibhar ball lasts way longer and you don't have to be paranoid about checking it's surface after every hard contact. Overall, I'm really unhappy about this purchase because of the cost. The balls were pretty good to play with when they were round, but this is the sort of quality control I would expect if I was paying medium-low prices to a Chinese company, not 1.6 EUR per ball to the most famous table tennis company in the world. |
Posted By: Baal
Date Posted: 12/12/2015 at 12:37am
All seamless balls come from the same factory and I have never found any difference based on the label among ITTF approved ones (and I have tried XSF, Palio, Nexy and Yinhe). They are good. As you say, they fracture catastrophically if you hit an edge hard, but in general they are durable. As for your original question, there is as yet no "standard" plastic ball. At this point there are basically four different classes of plastic balls. Seamless, Nittaku Premium, G40+, and Chinese seamed balls. They each have their own unique features, they are a lot more different than celluloid balls were. But there is a consensus that seamless, Nittaku Premium and G40+ are a lot better than the Chinese seamed balls, and which among those three you choose is probably a question of taste. Seamless is definitely the best price. For purely playing features I like Nittaku best (definitely the closest to celluloid) but other people have different preferences. I have not had a problem with G40+ not being round or breaking, but they sometimes slide strangely on the table. |
Posted By: rocketman222
Date Posted: 12/12/2015 at 3:35pm
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XSF or Xiom ------------- http://www.bladesbycharlie.com/models/hinokighost" rel="nofollow - BBC Hinoki Ghost http://mytabletennis.net/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=74126&title=feedback-rocketman222" rel="nofollow - My Feedback |
Posted By: CraneStyle
Date Posted: 12/13/2015 at 2:44pm
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Such varied feel and response from different plastic balls... Is it really worth swapping out the old balls for plastic balls in the robot..? I am genuinely not sure if it is worth it...  ------------- 1. Mizutani Jun ZLC, FH T80, BH T05 |
Posted By: Baal
Date Posted: 12/13/2015 at 2:54pm
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Is it really worth swapping out the old balls for plastic balls in the robot..? Maybe or maybe not. Are you going to be seriously competing in events that use 40+ balls, or do you mostly play using 40+ balls when you play with people as opposed to the robot? Also, can the 40+ balls work in your robot without getting stuck? Here is why I would recommend making the change. Without question, all 40+ balls require some adjustments if you are used to playing celluloid. They are ALL a little bigger, heavier, and their trajectory in the air requires some changes in timing compared to celluloid, and it only becomes automatic by playing with them. So if your more "serious" matches are all going to be with 40+ balls, you really do need to be training with at least one kind of 40+ ball. This is true even though the 40+ balls are not as homogeneous as celluloid used to be. My thought is that the Butterfly Easy Ball 40+ might be a good choice for this kind of training, you can get a box of 120 from Megaspin for about $90. |
Posted By: CraneStyle
Date Posted: 12/13/2015 at 3:23pm
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Yeah... My robot has a variety of celluloid balls that have some miles left in them... Local leagues most use XSF, but sometimes Stiga, Joola and DHS show up, since the home team chooses the ball... Tournaments so far: Butterfly (and that ball will be updated), Joola & Kinsomething One club trains with Xiom training balls and now switching to new Butterfly training ball (a lot of swapping and changing)... I just feel that I can always buy 6 of the "tournament" ball to play with before the tournament... I feel to leave the robot as is till the balls are all shiney and done, to be honest... I may go for the Butterfly G40+ in an attempt to use the middle of the road plastic ball... ------------- 1. Mizutani Jun ZLC, FH T80, BH T05 |
Posted By: Baal
Date Posted: 12/13/2015 at 3:33pm
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It took me a full six weeks before I felt perfectly comfortable with 40+ balls (meaning I didn't have to remind myself consciously about where to expect the ball to go or how it behaves). You want this kind of thing to be unconscious and automatic. Once you understand one type of 40+ ball, it is not that difficult to adjust to another, even though there is some adjustment. It takes me 30-60 min go switch from one 40+ to another type. Another question is, how much do you rely on the robot for training, and for what? If you mostly train with people it may not matter. Kinsomething is probably Kingnik, which is a seamless ball, a rebranded XSF (as is Xiom). Butterfly actually sells more than one kind of 40+ ball, the good ones are made in Germany. I don't think one could say that any particular 40+ represents the "middle of the road". I would choose the one that is most frequently adopted in competitions in your area. Even if all four classes of 40+ ball are used, there must be one that is even a little bit more common. |
Posted By: CraneStyle
Date Posted: 12/13/2015 at 4:00pm
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Hey Baal, I think if you look in the archives you'll see that I was one of the first XSF ball reviewer/ promoter... I already play with the 40+ balls for matches and non robot partner training... I was/ am a fan of the TSP celluloid training balls which were typically harder than 3 star celluloid balls... What is the best plastic training ball that is head and shoulders above the rest (TSP don't have one yet), if I eventually change... BTW It's a Butterfly Amicus Advance robot. I think I've got my settings to realistic...  ------------- 1. Mizutani Jun ZLC, FH T80, BH T05 |
Posted By: Baal
Date Posted: 12/13/2015 at 4:16pm
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Excellent. Best robot ever made. OK, so the best training ball that is sold as a training ball? Butterfly Easy Ball 40+ is the best. I also like the Nittaku 2-star Japan 40+ but last I looked those were a lot more expensive and not widely sold. Maybe they have come down. The seamless 1-stars are really bad. |
Posted By: CraneStyle
Date Posted: 12/13/2015 at 4:50pm
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Nice one Baal... Thanks for the recommendations...  It may be time for me to find a deal and make that switch... ------------- 1. Mizutani Jun ZLC, FH T80, BH T05 |