OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I am sure I am not the only one who sometimes step on a ball that is on the floor during a robot exercise. Sure, the better you get the fewer balls will end up on the floor. But even good players will get balls on the floor as balls sometimes collide mid-air or you hit the robot and it bounces the ball back or you simply hit the net and it rolls off the table. Either way, if you have a huge room perhaps a few balls on the floor is no big deal but many of us have robots in smaller rooms and then balls on the floor are more of a problem. And with practice balls costing close to a $1 each this can quickly become expensive... How do you deal with this? What I am doing now is that if I am aware that a ball is on close to my feet during an exercise I will minimize foot movement during the remainder of the exercise. Not ideal, but it sort of works for now. However, I have been thinking of putting a low powered (computer?) fan on the floor to direct balls away from the area behind the table on my playing side. Has anyone tried this? Any other solutions?

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Butterfly Timo Boll Spirit w/ Butterfly Tenergy 05 on both sides
PowerPong 3001
Joola Tour 2500

It's even worse if you're doing multi-ball...

You need a ball picker-upper. There are lots of ways to make one, the best I've seen involve something like a 2 gallon plastic paint bucket with the bottom cut out and a grid of string (usually something like heavy fishing line or weed whacker line) stretched across the bottom, spaced somewhat smaller than a ball but large enough that when lowered over a ball, the ball will displace the strings and pass through. Attach a 3 foot stick to the side of the bucket so you can use it without having to bend over. This will pick up several balls at a time if the balls are lying together, and will contain several dozen balls before it needs to be emptied (just upend it into the multiball container or the robot's catch bin).

Iskandar

That is very good advice! Picking up balls without a device gets old really fast. And the type you mention here is what I think is the best option by far. I didn't make mine myself but I have the My Ping-Pong Buddy which is a commercial version that is very similar to what you describe.

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Butterfly Timo Boll Spirit w/ Butterfly Tenergy 05 on both sides
PowerPong 3001
Joola Tour 2500

Even simpler is I think a 1.75 or 2 inch Pipe with a strong rubber band glued or tied through the middle of one of the openings ... just jab it over the ball ... and it should pop into the tube but not roll out again ...

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That's good enough for picking up one ball at a time. The bucket thing can pick up a dozen at a time, if they're that thick on the ground. Kinda makes it fun, too.

Iskandar