OOAK Table Tennis Forum

As there are quite some differences between the current plastic balls perhaps it's an idea to have a topic for each brand.

As I wrote in another topic I will be playing in the national championships soon and there the tibhar plastic ball will be used. My plan was to practice exclusively with this ball for 5 weeks. However this plan was quickly discarded after I broke 3 balls in 2 evenings of play. Besides the fragility of the ball I really did not enjoy playing with it. The championship is in about 2 weeks so I started practice again.

I tried pretty much all the pips I had lying around and while some performed less bad than others there was no rubber I was really happy with. Some pips that performed above average for me(with the endless amount of variation in equipment and playing styles this is of course highly subjective, all tested on vkm blade with genius optimum as inverted rubber):

-dhs c8 with 1.5 sponge, very good all-round, especially good for attacking and ball stays low
- dornenglanz ox, used to this rubber but difficult to play balls close to the end line
- agenda 1.0 sponge, similar to the c8 but a bit more reversal
- akkadi l1 0.8 sponge, very safe to play and decent wobble

In general I think the plastic ball will be the end of chopping away from the table. No matter how good the chop, even with inverted, by the time the ball reaches your opponent much of the spin is lost. Speaking of spin, while testing we made an interesting observation. Spinning, chopping and serving does in fact create lots of spin even with the plastic ball. However..... the rubbers currently on the market are hardly effected by the spin it seems. You can easily test this: 1 player attacks, the other chops. The attacker can keep attacking almost effortlessly. But, if the attacker doesn't hit and lets the ball the floor it will return to the chopper because of the backspin. Of course not as extreme as in the classic neubauer video but at least on par with a good backspin chop with celluloid.

I'm not sure why this happens but my theory is that the current rubbers only have decent grip on the ball when hitting with decent force/speed and at a certain angle.

All in all I'm still not happy with the plastic ball (I tested pretty much all available brands by now, xsf seamless is the least disliked). I was 100% satisfied with my equipment and playing style, now I will have to change my playing style and probably equipment as well. I will most likely start playing closer to the table hitting the ball closer to the bounce. I feel the best way to use long pips with plastic balls is actually very close to playing with frictionless pips(which I also tested with plastic, this played terrible). Maybe a faster blade is the answer, maybe new generations of rubbers will bring something better.

A final observation on the tibhar balls, every time we felt a ball played somewhat decent it turned out the ball was far from perfectly round.

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Competition bats:
Win-tec power def Tibhar 5Q sound Power Update 1.8 * Spinlord Agenda ox
TSP Balsa 3.5 Tibhar Genius+Optimium sound 1.8 * Grass D-tecs ox

Put to rest:
Galaxy T10 Bluefire M2 2.0 Palio Ck531a ox
Victas Koji Matsushita Tibhar Genius+Optimium sound MAX * Spinlord Dornenglanz ox
Donic Defplay Senso Tibhar Aurus Sound Black max * Grass D-tecs ox

Check out my quest for my new blade here: http://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=23241
Current standings:
Butterfly Matshushita powerdefence * Joola Chen Weixing * Nittaku KVU * Nittaku Shake defense* Tibhar stratus power defense * Victas Koji Matsushita * Yasaka Sweeper * Win-Tec power defence

I haven't had to change either playing style or equipment, but had to make some adjustments for sure. I've had to work on serves a bit and I needed to adjust my timing. It is now all normal.

But I have pretty much ruled out playing with Chinese seamless balls, which would have a bigger negative impact I think.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

I've not tried the Tibhar, but it's probably the same ball as the other German brands I suspect.

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I couldn't see any difference at all from it and Joola or DHS.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

Baal said:



I hope you really mean Chinese seamed balls in this quote, given everything else you have said about XSF 40 + seamless balls & Nittaku 40+ Premium balls here on OOAK and elsewhere.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74