How do Tretorn X balls feel in hand?
 

My experience with other pressurless balls is that they feel to soft in hand and result in a ball that feels dead to the hit. How much do they give when you squeeze them in hand?

Thanks,

Josh

They feel much harder than regular balls.

Even harder then a Dunlop Grand Prix just removed from a can (Which I love)?

Very hard in your hand, even harder when you try to hit them. Tennis elbow is in your future if you use them for any prolonged amount of time (aside from them shooting out of a ball machine). I agree with you zerojoshua about the Dunlop Grand Prix & Tretorns are even harder.

rock - hard

Ditto +1. Very hard.

They are hard when new and they stay hard through their lifetime.

I had a weird batch recently where some balls were popping (white foam exploding out) when using them to practice my serve.

hard and heavy

I don't think they are that much harder than 'regular' balls. I bought 108 of them in 2010 when I bought my ball machine and used them exclusively in it for two years hitting for probably at least 1 hour per week. I never had any arm or elbow problems from that. They are somewhat harder than pressured balls but they aren't like hitting rocks as some people are implying. The only reason I don't use them is that the outer felt finally wore off and they're pretty expensive to replace. I created a system to repressurize regular balls and now use it to keep my ball machine supplied with good balls.

I had a bucket of them with my ball machine, and I found them slightly firmer than regular tennis balls, but I would not describe them as "rocks" by any means. They hit pretty much like new firm balls.

For the tennis ball machine, I like these because they throw consistently vs balls with varying levels of compression.

And, I think I've felt more elbow pain when I've hit dead balls than I've felt from the Tretorns.

Warmed up with some new Micro X balls today ... my partner and I agreed they played like they were slightly heavier than a regular ball, but nothing that bothered us. We were hitting with new Penn ATP's at the same time for comparison. The Micro X's might have bounced slightly higher off the hard court (or maybe the ball has greater spin potential) but the difference was subtle.

From a static weight viewpoint, all these balls weigh the same. Out of the can, the Tretorns varied from 2.00 oz to 2.05 oz. The Penn ATP's varied from 2.00 oz to 2.10 oz.

I think that any player perceptions that the Tretorn's are slightly "heavier" or "harder" has to do with differences in the elasticity of the ball and differences in how they deform on impact. Would be interesting to watch a high-speed video to see if there are any visual differences.

My elbow can be a bit sensitive so only time will tell whether the bag I'm about to order will mess with my arm after some machine sessions.

Feels like a rock, also hits like a rock.

How durable is the felt on these compared to regular balls? Do they bounce well when its really cold (like in the 40s)?

I ordered some and will let you know
 

We will see sometime this week. I will post the results.

My previous comments were for play at around 60F.

Temperatures
 

My test will probably be around 40 deg F.

The "hard" responses in this thread reaffirm my observation that many people here -- mostly the barely post pubescent -- speak of what they do not know. You have to be out of your M'fing mind to describe these as "hard as a rock". Or more likely, you have never used Micro-X balls, or have zero experience with other "pressureless type" balls. Typical TT.

You could be right there. I have used a lot of preasureless balls over the years and the biggest complaint I have is the felt seems to wear off faster and you and up with really light balls. I have not really gone the Tretorn route yet as they are sooooo expensive. I did test some maybe 10 years ago but it was around the same time as we were testing the oversize rally ball and I dont remember much about the tretorns.

Still...if they last a long time they would be worth it in the long run. My concern is the felt going like it does on preasurless balls. I dont even mind if the balls are a little heavy. If they dont bounce in the cold forget it. We play in the rain and snow around here.

If you're going to be stocking a ball machine for a year's worth of practice, I'd like to hear if anyone has a better solution than the Micro X balls.

I can't imagine using cases of regular pressurized balls, they'd cost a lot more than the Tretorns over the course of a year.

And I've played with the Penn Pressureless balls. IMO they don't come nearly as close to acting like regular balls as the Tretorns do.

I completely agree that the Micro-X are not "rock-hard". However, they are definitely harder compared to normal pressurized balls.

Gotta be clear here, are we comparing the Micro-X to other pressureless or normal balls.

I have always used the Micro-X with my Lobster until recently I switched to these Wilson Trainer pressureless balls. They are much cheaper at approx USD65 for a bag of 60. They don't lose their bounce and they are softer than the Micro-X.

IMO, these Wilson Trainer balls are the closest thing to a normal pressurized ball. However, I'm not sure if these Wilson Trainer is available in the States.