OOAK Table Tennis Forum

I've been curious about there poly balls and just ordered 2 packets of 3 star and one packet of 2 star Nittaku premium from tt-japan. Had planned to order from ttnpp but they were showing out of stock. It came to including post a total of €22 and thankfully the Euro figures advertised matched the paypal transaction. €22 is the limit for our customs where once you exceed this figure your exposed for VAT. Hopefully I wouldn't have to wait too long before I get them.

The ITTA announced that for all future events for the coming season they would be using the 'newly revised' Butterfly 3 star poly ball claiming that they would be much better than the earlier version. Yesterday I ordered 12 of these from Teesport which are advertised as being at an introductory price. Even at that it works out at €2 a ball after the post and sterling to euro conversion.

I have been playing with the XSF ball over the last few weeks but had difficulties initially adjusting after using the Joola poly ball. To be honest I found that the Joola ball despite constantly breaking or sometimes playing poorly if it had a little crack easier to play with than the XSF ball.

I have advocated possibly from your efforts to promote the XSF seamless to use it in the league that's run locally starting from next October.

What I can see is a mix of the seamed & seamless balls being used for the coming league. Get the feeling that the 'haves' could end up using premium seamed poly balls and the 'have nots' using the seamless poly balls. Either way one will have to be able to adapt quickly before a match to play with either ball (have not managed to do this yet). At least with the tournaments you get about 3-4 weeks notice as to which ball they will be playing with.

I've got my Nittaku's today. They are from July this year (XGAE). I'm quite curious how they'll play.

As a side note: I've played two tournaments in Belgium. Both were using XSF. My two clubs I'm in also use XSF. I think XSF is starting to be advertised as the best ball, at least by one (and almost certainly two) Belgian distributor(s).

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My blog on being a LP defender beyond 2000 USATT and the pips discrimination that comes along with that

This is good news!

I find the NP40+ balls to be most strikingly different in color (not as bright white) and in serve. It bounces and feels very different when I go from XSF balls to NP40+. It takes a game or so to adjust.

I just got a dozen of these dated June this year. All my player friends are looking forward to testing them out this weekend. We have been playing with DHS waiting for these to come in.

You could make a very strong case for XSF when you consider everything: price, availability, playing characteristics, durability, and visibility. They beat NP40+ on pretty much every one of those except for possibly playing characteristics, and certainly the XSF is not at all bad in that respect and also it's to some extent a matter of taste and what you are accustomed to. With that said, I am playing more with NP40+ these days because I have a bunch and I do like the way they play.

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

Are these already available from Teessport? I only saw the ones that are made in China on their website - not the new German-made ones.

How much are you guys getting these for?

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Mine cost 7,50 EUR for 3 balls (+-8 USD; +-11 AUD). They were more expensive in the past, if I remeber correctly (8,90 EUR).

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There's always stuff to improve!

My blog on being a LP defender beyond 2000 USATT and the pips discrimination that comes along with that

Many thanks for highlighting this. They are the ones made in China so I've ordered the wrong ones.
Teesport said that they would have the revised ones at the end of August.
Unfortunately my order has been dispatched so I'm stuck with them.
I've been assured that they are not as bad as the ones that I played with in January this year.
I've also informed the ITTA who are gong to revise their website where they said that the new ball is available early August and can be got from Teesport.
http://www.tabletennisireland.ie/news/a ... ing_season
Their home page is mis-leading - they advertised the ball as New - Out now !
http://www.teessport.com/

Reckon that we should be using the seamless XSF / Stag in the upcoming tournament until the German made one comes available.

€6.35 for a pack of 3. On a back order. No idea when I'll get them.

The ball situation is becoming a horrible fog of misinformation. Yuk.

TeesSport had that "New Butterfly Ball" banner up a few months ago for the arrival of their Chinese Seamed ball, which was late to market when compared with Stiga, DHS, Joola etc. They've left it there since then, and have then sent out the "wow - new german ball" email to everyone, which I suppose is a new-new ball in comparison with the new chinese ball. What a mess, and when combined with the vague ITTA post it becomes a mess-mess. Once TessSport put up their "New German Ball" banner then we will be at defcon mess cubed.

I got a box of the Butterfly chinese 40+ last week - the Liverpool Grand Prix will be using them, so I need to get adjusted. They do seem a bit better than the first batches of chinese seamed balls, which is good news, but I haven't used them for long enough to comment about durability and consistency of bounce (which are the main issues with the chinese seamed IMO). I will say that I had a league match last night with XSF (which went fine - no odd bounces, no breakages, all good) and at the end I had 5 minutes with the Butterfly ball for a laugh, but the change in bounce height made the whole thing a joke really. Switching between the two requires adjustment time for sure.

Yes, fine mess indeed!

We should also not forget how much more we're playing for these new balls, and what we've come to accept as normal.

I don't think we can blame the manufacturers for this (although no doubt there will be some profiting from this), as there is so much uncertainly in the market, and some would have invested their time and reputation in getting decent balls within the specs of the ITTF.

I place the blame with the ITTF on this mess.

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

Let's fire the ITTF........................................ Oh wait: we can't. We can ridicule them, though.

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There's always stuff to improve!

My blog on being a LP defender beyond 2000 USATT and the pips discrimination that comes along with that

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OOAK Table Tennis Shop | Re-Impact Blades | Butterfly Table Tennis bats
Setup1: Re-Impact Smart, Viper OX, Victas VS 401 Setup2: Re-Impact Barath, Dtecs OX, TSP Triple Spin Chop 1.0mm Setup3: Re-Impact Dark Knight, Hellfire OX, 999 Turbo
Recent Articles: Butterfly Tenergy Alternatives | Tenergy Rubbers Compared | Re-Impact User Guide

after having played with the premium, i can safely say the following: they definitely are the most durable. they feel much harder than other polyballs and the coating is different...very "furry" at first and they never get as "slick" as the other polyballs..

that being said, this all comes with a big downfall: compared to other standard polyballs (donic, nittaku sha, joola, tibhar, double hapinnes) they most definitely generate the least spin compared to other polyballs...its crazy..i would say 50% less...

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