Have Xushaofa balls been banned?

They are still listed under the equipment section on the ITTF page so it must be a severe case of false gossip.

if they are banned from international competitions, why isnt there any official announcement about it?unless its an "off the record" ban. I dont know even with the celluloid ball if any international tournament was played with xushaofa, almost all of them was with butterfly dhs and nittaku

Question should be if you want to start a conspiracy theory. "why does Butterfly and Nittaku have a strangle hold on international competition? " :)

...XuShaoFu not banned from international competition....just those two have been the balls used like FOREVER :)

It's consistency players at that level need so one or two brands with proven consistency have been used...this was decided a long time agao when there were few players to begin with BUT now although brands have multipled somewhat and choices based on whatever reason we personally choose balls...the recognized brands as "the go to" remains to maintain consistency.

How the modern consumer of TT products views that should be based on one's history of all aspects of the games...if we all thought alike there would not be this forum ;)


Edited by thatguy - 11/06/2014 at 9:07am

I know there is bad blood between XSF and DHS because originally the seamless ball was supposed to be a joint venture between DHS, XSF and Palio, and DHS dropped out (and as an act of desparation ended up making seamed balls, using what is basically their existing process with a new material).  I also know that DHS has a deal with ITTF.  So at an unofficial level, this sounds plausible to me.  The XSF ball is vastly superior to the DHS ball.

Nittaku was also the ball for the European Team Championships.  DFish was the ball for the North American Championships.

popperlocker wrote: Baal wrote: I know there is bad blood between XSF and DHS because originally the seamless ball was supposed to be a joint venture between DHS, XSF and Palio, and DHS dropped out (and as an act of desparation ended up making seamed balls, using what is basically their existing process with a new material).  I also know that DHS has a deal with ITTF.  So at an unofficial level, this sounds plausible to me.  The XSF ball is vastly superior to the DHS ball. Yes, this. I remember years back, there were planning on ALL of the balls being seamless. (There were videos of Adam Sharara talking to Chinese reporters). Then there were patent issues, maybe the patent owners wanted too much money for each ball.  All in all, OP's friend could be digging up old news.

There were also quality issues reported with the problem being a lack of uniformity in wall thickness for the seamless balls.  I don't know how much of that was true or how much of it was exaggerated to perhaps cover other motives, but that was an issue.  I think the ITTF published a paper showing the issue with early batches/prototypes.  It is good to see that the seamless ball has evolved and is now one of the highest in quality.  Does it still sound "broken?"

Baal wrote: Sound is very much improved and is pretty much like other plastic balls. Durable. Round. Nice bounce. Slower. Less spinny. Vastly superior to DHS.

So where is the best place to purchase?  I have no intention of continuing to pay the price for Nittaku Premium 40+ balls - even if the drop to the approx. $2/ball of the celluloid premiums.

I brought a bunch of Xushaofa balls to the club tonight.  Everyone loved it!  I think it plays better than the Japanese Nittaku polyballs and I was not the only one who thought so tonight...
I think it should be the standard ball for table tennis.  Seamless balls for the 21st century, yeah!

Xushaofa 3 star and Xushaofa Sport 3 star are 2 different balls and both approved ITTF balls.
Just FYI

Xu = Shhhhhhhhh (like asking kids to be quiet in the library)
Shao = Add a "S" in front of the word owl, so "S-owl" and say it strongly
Fa = Like F#uck but remove the "ck".

So Shhhhh - S-owl! - F# 

roundrobin wrote: Xu = Shhhhhhhhh (like asking kids to be quiet in the library) Shao = Add a "S" in front of the word owl, so "S-owl" and say it strongly Fa = Like F#uck but remove the "ck". So Shhhhh - S-owl! - F#

Thanks.  Is there actually an "l" sound in the middle "S-owl" section?

wturber wrote: Thanks.  Is there actually an "l" sound in the middle "S-owl" section?

No "I" sound, just straight "S" (not "Sheee" but "S" like in "Sit" without the "it").

roundrobin wrote: wturber wrote: Thanks.  Is there actually an "l" sound in the middle "S-owl" section? No "I" sound, just straight "S" (not "Sheee" but "S" like in "Sit" without the "it").

I should have used a capitol "L" in my follow-up question.  Part of the problem, of course is that Chinese and English phonetics are different and only similar in some ways.

Either way, the original explanation was very good and I have a good sense in my mind about how it should sound.

roundrobin wrote: I brought a bunch of Xushaofa balls to the club tonight.  Everyone loved it!  I think it plays better than the Japanese Nittaku polyballs and I was not the only one who thought so tonight... I think it should be the standard ball for table tennis.  Seamless balls for the 21st century, yeah!

Who are you buying the balls from?  I don't want to end up with some of the old seamless balls which were pretty bad.

roundrobin wrote: Pingpongdepot.com Got mine in 5 days. I think you get a break in shipping on orders over $60...

Thanks.