DHS Plastic Ball

Another player (2000+ chopper) I play with on a regular basis just bought a new DHS plastic ball and wanted to give it a try for our match. I've hit with the Joola plastic balls, but I've not played a match with any of the plastic balls.

AcudaDave wrote: Another player (2000+ chopper) I play with on a regular basis just bought a new DHS plastic ball and wanted to give it a try for our match. I've hit with the Joola plastic balls, but I've not played a match with any of the plastic balls. So we warmed up a bit and played a match and all I gotta say is it was terrible! It felt like we were playing with a 1-star practice ball. It was much slower and spin was quite a bit less. It was so funny how he would do his normal chops and I would just hit through them like they were nothing. Normally when we play with the celluloid balls I have to respect his underspin returns and loop them or push them back. The first ball he chopped back I decided to see if I could open my angle a little and hit it and it had so much less spin that I was able to hit it like it was nothing.  Needless to say he didn't like it at all as I won the last game at 2! I've heard a lot of you saying that you just gotta adjust, but damn, it felt like I was playing with a recreational ball. I hope the other plastic balls play better than the DHS ball cause it was definitely taking a big step back in our game. I just can't imagine anyone in charge of our organization allowing this to go on. Please tell me there are better plastic balls to play with.

Edited by lineup32 - 03/23/2015 at 7:22pm

AcudaDave wrote: Another player (2000+ chopper) I play with on a regular basis just bought a new DHS plastic ball and wanted to give it a try for our match. I've hit with the Joola plastic balls, but I've not played a match with any of the plastic balls. So we warmed up a bit and played a match and all I gotta say is it was terrible! It felt like we were playing with a 1-star practice ball. It was much slower and spin was quite a bit less. It was so funny how he would do his normal chops and I would just hit through them like they were nothing. Normally when we play with the celluloid balls I have to respect his underspin returns and loop them or push them back. The first ball he chopped back I decided to see if I could open my angle a little and hit it and it had so much less spin that I was able to hit it like it was nothing.  Needless to say he didn't like it at all as I won the last game at 2! I've heard a lot of you saying that you just gotta adjust, but damn, it felt like I was playing with a recreational ball. I hope the other plastic balls play better than the DHS ball cause it was definitely taking a big step back in our game. I just can't imagine anyone in charge of our organization allowing this to go on. Please tell me there are better plastic balls to play with.

The XSF will bounce higher but spin and speed are basically the same. The general differences to cell are in the ~couple percentiles (as implied by surface area diffs for aero, etc) but may seem more at first when swinging out of habit.

For def the slower balls also take some speed out of loopdrives which makes them easier to get to, even if the spin is less. In aggregate YMMV, but depending on personality many consider disadvantages to themselves first.

Dave, I feel your pain.

I've had a box of DHS 40+ in my bag for months, and I've been avoiding sinking much time into them until I really need to. My first experiences with them were awful, and match up with your findings. I now have 3 weeks to prepare for a seamed 40+ tournament so I have to spend some quality time with them. Had a 2 hour session tonight and they remain a terrible product. They are an early batch, so I can only hope that recent batches have improved, but it's very disheartening. I have some Stiga 40+ on the way, so fingers crossed that they play better.

Sometimes, I have a brief moment of relief when using them and a reasonable rally appears from the rubble. But then a series of shockingly low, skiddy bounces occurs and it becomes a total distraction from the game. Incredibly unenjoyable. And this isn't about habitual swinging - I'm talking about the ball sharply dropping below my start position during a totally innocuous rally. I haven't even started my swing.

I also had a brand new ball break within 15 minutes of use - huge crack at 90 degrees to the seam.

There are some elements to these balls which are obviously just things which require adjustment. The feel on impact is dull and slightly disconnected, for example, especially at low speeds. The reduced spin and grip has lots of implications. But the poor durability and sometimes surprisingly skiddy events are just garbage.

Andy, the balls don't bounce per se. You need to get lower, take the ball later and attack earlier than your opponent so that the lower bounce affects him first. Get used to having to hit lower or on the side of the ball. Do not mix with cell or seamless during practice. Unless you practice a lot, push over the table. Don't banana flock without lots of practice. You will net a lot of balls because the ball does not bounce.

As always, the more you use the balls, the better it gets. But they will break often and violate your expectations on bounce at least twice a match because they deform.

NL - I actually don't mind the 40+ in general. There's lots to like! I find the seamed balls to need more effort than the seamless due to the lower overall bounce, but it's definitely not a total disaster. But the dhs ones I've had are awful. It's like playing with a live grenade, and you have to hope that nothing weird happens on your side of the table.

For some balance - another club member has been using the Cornilleau seamed 40+ for a few months now. He's a mad slappy kind of player - always smacking the ball at totally inappropriate moments. He had his first breakage 2 weeks ago, which must be at least 20 hours of use, which is good IMO. In the odd match I've had with him, nothing strange ever happened with the ball - just the usual reduction in speed and spin. Now, I've never drilled with him or spent hours with that ball in isolation like I did with the dhs tonight, but I've enjoyed that experience.

Could it just be bad QC? Or is that my wishful thinking?

AndySmith wrote: At this point, it feels pretty random. There always seem to be similar characteristics to the event though. It tends to be when a harder drive is coming in long. Everything else seems OK to me - pushes, chops, loops (this is me on the receiving end). I happened to be playing against a hard hitter tonight and I was getting 2-3 each game skid through to me. Now, that said - this was the match I had the breakage in. Perhaps it's when the ball is starting to go. It actually does have the hallmarks of how a cracked cell ball feels, but without the sound giving the issue away (or anything appearing on the ball until it's totally gone). Anyway, I only have 3 of the 6 balls left now. Marvellous.

Edited by wturber - 03/23/2015 at 8:24pm

wturber wrote: I believe that we are going to find that the plastic in DHS balls deforms more on high impacts and that this is making the effect of the seam more pronounced when the ball lands on and or spins onto the seam.    I have no proof and only very sketchy evidence.

Edited by AndySmith - 03/24/2015 at 5:28am

AndySmith wrote: NL - I actually don't mind the 40+ in general. There's lots to like! I find the seamed balls to need more effort than the seamless due to the lower overall bounce, but it's definitely not a total disaster. But the dhs ones I've had are awful. It's like playing with a live grenade, and you have to hope that nothing weird happens on your side of the table. For some balance - another club member has been using the Cornilleau seamed 40+ for a few months now. He's a mad slappy kind of player - always smacking the ball at totally inappropriate moments. He had his first breakage 2 weeks ago, which must be at least 20 hours of use, which is good IMO. In the odd match I've had with him, nothing strange ever happened with the ball - just the usual reduction in speed and spin. Now, I've never drilled with him or spent hours with that ball in isolation like I did with the dhs tonight, but I've enjoyed that experience. Could it just be bad QC? Or is that my wishful thinking?

Hey, they should find that ball and reproduce it. If only I was that lucky - all my 40+ Chinese balls are gone with matches, multiball and serving practice. The state tournament is coming up so I need a new set.

I do hear that the newer balls have better quality control. So it ultimately comes down to how much better its getting. The differences between the balls is pretty significant and the longer this lasts, the more likely it is that the seamless ball will go nowhere.

If I didn't have to use the Stiga 40+ at a tournament in a few weeks' time then I'd stay as far away from seamed plastic as possible.  Of course, my next league season will be crazy with each team choosing whichever balls they want to, so each week could see seamed, seamless or cell.

Which seamless balls should I buy, and where can I buy them here in the US? I guess I'll give them a try...but as for playing with the DHS plastic seamed balls as Jack Nicholson said in one of his movies "I'd rather stick needles in my eyes".

Colestt.com has Yinhe variant - and I think at 7$ for 6 it's the best deal right now. 

According to the most recent expreiences that the people around me have with the seamless balls, they do last longer than most seamed ones. I spoke with an umpire whose team plays in the top league with XSF and they have had periods when they broke three or four in a team match. At other times they managed to play all of the matches without breaking one. Their general observation is that most seamed balls crack at a crazy rate.

I have a friend who occasionally practices with junior kids and they use seamed balls exclusively. Last time he was down they used Joola and Donic exclusively. Everybody there was of the opinion that the Donic ones are not good and when they started playing practice matches, all of the kids wanted to play with Joola. My friend was completely happy with the way those Joola balls played and is sure that they have made a lot of improvements to them. As I said in one of the other topics on the balls, we have some DHS seamed from the very first series and they play horribly. My friend even said he likes the Joola seamed better than celluloid.

tabletennis11 wrote: Unfortunately breakages are common among all the brands of plastic balls, hopefully they are working hard on increasing the quality across all of the plastic ball production companies. It is difficult to adjust to the new balls but once you have put in a reasonable number of hours you will find some comfort in being able to play with them, even though we all dream of playing with the celluloid ball again. We reviewed the DHS ball and also use it for all of our equipment reviews and our equipment expert has a good handle on playing with it now. As we say, it does take some hours to adjust to the plastic ball and some have different properties to others.

This is true if one considers the seamed 40+ balls.  However, breakages among seamless are equivalent and probably better than celluloid and vastly superior to all seamed 40+ balls.  Breakage among DHS balls and the brands made by them is very high.  Similarly, adjustment to a seamless ball, while required, is much easier than DHS.  Not just my experience, it is what now is revealed by the vast majority of mytt members who have commented on it. 

It is good to see you are selling XSF now among the various others.

This whole situation is akin to say switching the morning coffee at work to bit different brand/blend. If it just happens some people might notice, but sometimes there's an announcement/email-to-all and riots ensue.

Those who've witnessed & considered enough of these situations in life come to realize the reaction generally has almost nothing to do with the quantities of the change and everything with the circumstances and people involved.