Ball selection before a social match

G

Gary Williams

New User
I am really interested in your views on how you choose balls to play with before a game and would really appreciate your practical help if you can take a few minutes of your time. I know this is a common discussion point at the club I play at and wondered if this was a wider issue. These are few questions I have but you may have other views you could share.
Thanks for any views but maybe its just me who has an issue.
Gary

1. How important is it to you ,when playing a game, to have all the tennis balls of a consistent pressure ?
2. Do you use new tennis balls before every match? or if no how many matches or hours do you play with a set of balls ?
3. How do you currently decide whether a tennis ball is fit for play ?
4. How do you know when to stop using your tennis balls and what do you do with them when they are no good
5. Do you think your game and your performance is affected by the ball pressure/quality
6. Is this a discussion point at your club?
 
socallefty

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
1. How important is it to you ,when playing a game, to have all the tennis balls of a consistent pressure ?
Very
2. Do you use new tennis balls before every match? or if no how many matches or hours do you play with a set of balls ?
Yes
3. How do you currently decide whether a tennis ball is fit for play ?
Open a new can for every match. Play two sets of singles or three sets of doubles. Open a second can if singles goes to a third set
4. How do you know when to stop using your tennis balls and what do you do with them when they are no good
After two sets of singles or three sets of doubles. Use them for practice afterwards till they stop feeling hard when you squeeze them.
5. Do you think your game and your performance is affected by the ball pressure/quality
Yes
6. Is this a discussion point at your club?
No
 
G

Gary Williams

New User
Thanks for your reply, I think you must play at a much higher level than me but it is clear ball pressure is very important to optimising your game . Thanks again.
 
socallefty

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
Gary Williams said:
Thanks for your reply, I think you must play at a much higher level than me but it is clear ball pressure is very important to optimising your game . Thanks again.
Click to expand...
With premium balls like ProPenn, Penn Tour, Dunlop ATP, Wilson USO in their Extra Duty version, the change in bounce gets noticeable on hard courts in singles about halfway through the 2nd set when it becomes slightly tougher to hit winners including on serve - with doubles you start noticing it later in the 3rd set. With the cheaper Championship XD balls or regular duty premium balls, the change in bounce starts becoming noticeable after 5-8 games in singles and maybe less than a couple of sets in doubles. The change in bounce gets noticeable quicker in slow conditions like cold weather on hard courts. I think that the ball bounce lasts throughout a 3-set match much better on clay where you typically use Regular duty (XD picks up too much dirt in their heavier fluff) balls. I play generally against high 4.0 or mostly 4.5 players in singles and 4.0/4.5/low 5.0 players in doubles.

Some old guys who like a low contact point because they use slice as their weapon or like a slower ball to be able to handle returns and big shots better sometimes will bring non-premium or regular duty balls on purpose as they like slower pace rallies with lower bounce.

I think it is just the etiquette in private clubs where I live (Southern California) for people to open new cans for matches and I notice that even those relatively new to tennis seem to do it. I don‘t think that they have big enough serves or shots to notice the ball bounce change during a match. At lower levels, players will typically make less errors with old low-fluff balls that won’t fly out as easily and so many players might prefer them especially since serves are not weapons.
 
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am1899

am1899

Legend
1. How important is it to you ,when playing a game, to have all the tennis balls of a consistent pressure ?
Critical.
2. Do you use new tennis balls before every match? or if no how many matches or hours do you play with a set of balls ?
Yes.
3. How do you currently decide whether a tennis ball is fit for play ?
Open can, check firmness. If there are any balls that feel “soft” open another can (which is very rare). Also, there are several brands and models that to me are inferior, which if given the choice I would refuse outright to use. (Sometimes that’s not an option, though).
4. How do you know when to stop using your tennis balls and what do you do with them when they are no good
When the match is over, I retire game balls to my bag for “warm-ups” or balls for practicing serves or hitting on the wall. Eventually they lose their bounce and I then put them in the donate bucket at the club.
5. Do you think your game and your performance is affected by the ball pressure/quality
Absolutely.
6. Is this a discussion point at your club?
Not really. Any discussion about balls at the club is usually complaining about the price. Club sells USO’s and the price has gone up a fair bit (understandably so).
 
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S

Slicehand

Guest
Bambooman said:
If you can still practice with balls then they are good enough to play with.
Otherwise what are you practicing with them for?
Click to expand...
not really, you can get reps with sub optimal balls, because at trainning, you dont care about your ball doing a lot of damage or not, just about getting the mechanics and repetitions and having a good feel on the strokes, in a match, you want your spins and your bounces to be as good as posible, and you get that with pressured balls, when a ball has pressure its easier to hit winner with it or do damage, which you dont care for in a trainning
 
B

Bambooman

Hall of Fame
Slicehand said:
not really, you can get reps with sub optimal balls, because at trainning, you dont care about your ball doing a lot of damage or not, just about getting the mechanics and repetitions and having a good feel on the strokes, in a match, you want your spins and your bounces to be as good as posible, and you get that with pressured balls, when a ball has pressure its easier to hit winner with it or do damage, which you dont care for in a trainning
Click to expand...
Really? It's the training that lets you hit those shots. That's when you practice them. Logically one should be able to hit just fine in a match with older balls since that's likely what most of your practice is done with.
 
S

Slicehand

Guest
Bambooman said:
Really? It's the training that lets you hit those shots. That's when you practice them. Logically one should be able to hit just fine in a match with older balls since that's likely what most of your practice is done with.
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i didnt express myself good or you didnt understand, what i mean is: the same shot is gonna do more damage with new balls than with old balls, at trainning you dont really wanna do damage, you mostly want to keep the rally as long as posible to get repetitions in, in a match, you want the ball to respond well to the energy you put in it so it gets difficult for your oponent, the more pressure the ball has, the better it responds to any spin or power you apply into it, good shots do more damage, everybody would train with new balls if it wasnt a lot of money, thats why you keep that pleasure to matches
 
S

Slicehand

Guest
Bambooman said:
You're both playing with the same balls. That's a level playing field. People worry too much about little details when they are not pros.
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new balls are not a little detail, its basic, if you dont know that maybe you dont play a lot, in which case i agree, why spend money on balls if you dont feel a lot of difference? if you have a decent level, its a basic thing, i play tournaments here in spain just below national level, no one here would agree to play a match with used balls, the tournaments in fact usually provide new balls for each match, you dont have to be a pro for that, pros change each 4 games, im talking about new balls for a full match, and even then in the second set you feel the drop in performance, some years ago i wanted to save money by not restringing as often, now its the same, if you go to a match with a dead poly your gonna have a big disadvantage, some things i agree people obsess a lot with and might not be so important if youre not a pro, but balls are not one of those things, its basic, only reason to play with old balls is to save money, but in a tournament you would never want to play with old balls, i havent seen that even in lower level tournaments
 
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B

Bambooman

Hall of Fame
I wouldn't care and I play a lot. It's just like basic conditions. You gotta deal with them and should be able to.

Both players would be dealing with the same thing.

If you feel older balls disadvantage only you that's a hole in your game.

eta: also note the thread title. Social is the key word.
 
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Rosstour

Rosstour

G.O.A.T.
I would prefer new 100% of the time, but I will play with once-used or twice-used balls in a friendly match as long as they are all consistent.
 
McLovin

McLovin

Legend
Call me a Prima Donna, but I’ll go one step further on the “open a new can of balls each match”, and say I hate when people mix old & new during a warmup. This is a trend almost unique to doubles, but it drives me absolutely nuts.
 
am1899

am1899

Legend
McLovin said:
Call me a Prima Donna, but I’ll go one step further on the “open a new can of balls each match”, and say I hate when people mix old & new during a warmup. This is a trend almost unique to doubles, but it drives me absolutely nuts.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I personally like having a few extra balls to help facilitate the continuity of the warm up - not having to shag balls constantly throughout.

My issue is rather when people refuse to open the new can at all for the warm up. Then you warm up with old balls and the new can is opened prior to the start of the match. Then obviously, everyone is forced to adjust to the freshness of the new balls in the first game or two.

Funny, this scenario just played out in a match last weekend. When my partner and I won the toss, I pulled rank and elected for us to receive. My partner gave me a look like we should not have - my serve being a strength. But as I told him, invariably, in a scenario where the “game balls” are not opened until the conclusion of the warmup, I will almost always elect to receive as it can often be harder for the server to adjust to the new balls - than the receivers. The exception of course would be if the server has a cannon. Then I probably would have elected to serve.

Anyway. I respect your opinion. Just my 2 cents.:)

Edit: the obvious counter point to my opinion is not lost on me, “You’re a former collegiate 4.5 player. 1 or 2 balls should be plenty for you to facilitate a warmup.” And on its face that is absolutely true. But IME, in reality, it doesn’t always pan out that way for one reason or another - the opponent I’m hitting with is trying to “win” the warmup, one or both of us can’t keep the ball in the court, unbalances levels - especially in mixed, etc.
 
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speedysteve

speedysteve

Legend
Yes, prefer consistency.

If opponent offers balls, and they don't look new enough, I do the squeeze test.
If they fail that, I'll show them a drop test Vs my balls.
If they bounce less high from drop of 6'
and they don't agree to ditch their balls in favour of mine, were gonna have a problem, and I don't back down!

Tennis is hard enough without sub standard balls!

I use Babolat Academy Gold.
They pretty much bounce the same their whole life.
Excellent in ball machines, coaching buckets etc.

Pressure balls are a curse of the current wasteful society. Should be banned.

The only balls I find are hard work are Wilson Trinity on hardcourts. They are just too bouncy.
Golden Retrievers use them as they can think they run them down before the 2nd bounce :-D
 
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RyanRF

RyanRF

Professional
  • In warmup/hitting we'll use whatever as long as they are not dead
  • For practice sets we try to find 3 balls that are similar in bounce but doesn't need to be new
  • For official sets it's only new balls, and preferably something better than Costco Penn.
 
E

eah123

Professional
At my club I am the intraclub league manager and I require everyone to play with a new can of balls for their league matches (8 game pro-set), and used balls for warmup. That way nobody has to worry about all of those things. For social matches it seems like people play with whatever they have and only open a new can if their balls are obviously dead.

Personally, I’m fine with any ball that isn’t completely dead; just happy to play tennis!
 
smboogie

smboogie

Semi-Pro
I think it matters and is better for your arm/elbow to not play with dead balls. In general if you hold a ball up above your head at arms length and drop it, it should bounce bast your waist. If not it's got low pressure. That being said if I'm just hitting around with friends or family I'll use an opened can of balls, as long as they are not really bad.

For your questions:
1. How important is it to you ,when playing a game, to have all the tennis balls of a consistent pressure?
- For just hitting around I don't care too much as long as they are not really bad.
2. Do you use new tennis balls before every match? or if no how many matches or hours do you play with a set of balls ?
- For match play it's only fair to always open a new can.
3. How do you currently decide whether a tennis ball is fit for play ?
- See above with ball drop test
4. How do you know when to stop using your tennis balls and what do you do with them when they are no good
- You can tell when a ball is really dead, mostly by how it bounces or the sound of the racket. Just pressing on them in your hand you can tell.
5. Do you think your game and your performance is affected by the ball pressure/quality
- Yes, to a degree when it comes to spin/pace.
6. Is this a discussion point at your club?
- For casual matches, no. But USTA the Club provides cans of new balls for every match as well as sells cans for members to grab if you need one.

As for brands I like WilsonUSOpen the most but I typically play with Dunlop ATP and AO. Costco Penns are also not my favorite but just fine for rec and hitting around stuff. I agree that for singles 2 sets max and doubles some can go 3 full sets and they are ready for the practice bin.
 
T

Tennis_Slapper23

Rookie
For any match or hit with someone new break out a fresh can. I personally will bring a Costco Penn for a casual hit or match. If someone cares enough about the ball they can buy them and at most clubs sell cans behind the desk.

My thoughts have always been if we are just playing a new can should last us the session. I’ve played 3 set match’s before with Dunlops top ball and it changes the quality of the ball but it is nothing that will kill your game.
 
S

SpinControl

Rookie
Rosstour said:
I would prefer new 100% of the time, but I will play with once-used or twice-used balls in a friendly match as long as they are all consistent.
Click to expand...
I was in a summer friendly get together (met a few times).

Mostly used old balls with good fuzz and bright color.

I bust out the new can of Penn Championship, and people pick the old Wilson or Dunlop balls.

Penn aren't that bad. Wondering now if they didn't like the older balls bc of less bounce and more control? I'd say most were 3.5 players; some 3.0.
 
1HBHfanatic

1HBHfanatic

Legend
-a match is played with new balls, if at all possible
-a routine hitting practice session is played with day or two used balls
-but i always aim for the same bounce/brand/type
-i try not to mix brands (penn/wilson/gamma etc), as that produces different bounce
 
Fintft

Fintft

G.O.A.T.
socallefty said:
1. How important is it to you ,when playing a game, to have all the tennis balls of a consistent pressure ?
Very
2. Do you use new tennis balls before every match? or if no how many matches or hours do you play with a set of balls ?
Yes
3. How do you currently decide whether a tennis ball is fit for play ?
Open a new can for every match. Play two sets of singles or three sets of doubles. Open a second can if singles goes to a third set
4. How do you know when to stop using your tennis balls and what do you do with them when they are no good
After two sets of singles or three sets of doubles. Use them for practice afterwards till they stop feeling hard when you squeeze them.
5. Do you think your game and your performance is affected by the ball pressure/quality
Yes
6. Is this a discussion point at your club?
No
Click to expand...
And use Dunlop Fort Clay on that surface.
 
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