DHS Plastic Ball

I think this thread is the last straw.

AgentHEX's summary is actually an extraordinarily accurate picture of what is going on here:

AgentHEX wrote: It's true many people are simply not skeptical and just believe anyone with adequate social currency, and in fact deem it inappropriate to question what in their mind is an authority figure. These are all accurate statements being referred to as "trolling" because the plain unvarnished facts of reality can be upsetting. The only oddity here is I don't post to be elevated by other people, nor fear of what socialites choose to enforce.

NoRema wrote: Why is this thread still here.

Because after the zombie apocalypse, it will be discovered by future generations and serve as a valuable warning about where society's descent into madness began?

Thanks NL!  

NL, Andy, what is the date stamp on your balls?  We should keep track of this because I would imagine they are still working to make them better.

Baal wrote: NL, Andy, what is the date stamp on your balls?  We should keep track of this because I would imagine they are still working to make them better.

I know it sounds weird, but I've never been able to find a code on the box. I have a code on my Yinhe boxes, but not on the DHS which were the very first batch that TT11 were selling.

NextLevel wrote: Look at the bottom.

Nope. Just a barcode.

Yeah, I've given myself a headache just staring at the box.  I just don't think it's there.

The first Butterfly one wasn't perfectly round but I played with it anyway.  Honestly, I didn't risk it in my first league match, but I played with it against a defender at my club who is on break from school.  It didn't play terribly, and I struggle against defense with the slower balls anyways.  Didn't break, still going strong as of now...

Two hour session with the Stiga 40+ last night.

3 hour session with the Stigas last night.

Baal wrote: Yes, Chinese seamed balls can start out playable, more or less, and round, and quickly become unplayable without breaking.

Don't worry Andy!
Stiga 40+ balls are the worst thing I have ever seen from these plastic balls.
With trainings or not - I think I will always play better with the elder IDEAL balls (made in Czehoslovakia in the 80's) instead these ...how to say...innovative products from STIGA.
DHS 40+ balls are definitely the most playable balls from all these I have played to this moment, specially for me.
I have tested : Tibhar, Joola, Stiga, DHS, Palio, XushaoFa(red stamp), Yasaka.
I'll be looking to test Andro, Nittaku and Donic balls soon.

I figured this was the best place to post my observations on our recent Arizona Closed Tournament and our use of the Nexy seamless ball supplied by NexyUSA. We had 57 players participate and 215 matches were played at levels ranging from Unrated to about 2300.

NexyUSA was our ball sponsor and supplied two dozen balls free of charge.  We purchased an additional dozen from our local NexyUSA dealer at his dealer price. As it turned out, we only needed the two dozen.

We made it a point to track the balls and what happened to them.  All told, we still have all but eight balls.  We had a grand total of two balls break.  One was stepped on and the other broke during play.  The other six balls were either lost under the bleachers, or were not returned for some reason. Separate from our Nexy balls, I observed one XSF ball break during warmup.

I received no complaints about playability or ball quality from the players, with the one exception that the tournament referee (who is also the NexyUSA supplier) pointed out that he felt a high number of the balls in the boxes were not round.  I don't have a good enough caliper to check the roundness, but by slowly rolling the balls on my granite countertop, it became clear to me that about 2/3s of the balls have a significant heavy spot.  You can observe them roll in an uneven fast/slow manner and eventually they will roll in the direction of the heavy spot.  I suspect that this is a significant part of the perception of "out of round" balls.  A heavy spot would tend to make the ball wobble when spun depending on the axis of spin.

If the manufacture can improve quality control, I'd pretty much have no complaints with this ball.  As it is, I personally don't really see a problem in play with the "wobble."  But the 3* celluloid balls I have on hand do not have this characteristic.  I also think some players will consider this to be a significant fault - even if the affect on play is more imagined than real. 





Edited by wturber - 05/04/2015 at 4:14am

Tinykin wrote: Something is causing these balls to break. I attended our National cadet masters competition where they used Stag seamless balls. No problems at all. No balls broke. A couple weeks later I was our 'Nationals', Stag again. The balls broke regularly at about 1 or 2 per match. In the semis of an under 21, 5 balls broke. I thought that that was the ultimate. But then in the next match, 6 balls broke. Interestingly, what the senior players told me was that durability depends on how the ball is hit. If the ball hits the table edge or bat (if no rubber overhang, assuming it hits the wood) then immediately it develops a soft spot. One player demonstrated by hitting the ball on the side of his bat. He hit once, no damage to ball. On the 3rd try, the ball had developed a white ring which was soft in the middle. I haven't tried it myself, as I'm too poor.

Which balls are you talking about?  The seamless?  If so, I can agree on the point about edge hits.  But I'm finding it hard to understand how you could average breaking 1-2 balls per match.  If that were the case at our tournament, we'd have needed 200-400 balls. Instead we broke 2 (one from getting stepped on).