Ball Info

Better balls are harder (within reason), rounder, more uniform (no soft spots), and last longer.

Stars

Balls are classified from zero to three stars. Three-star balls are tournament quality.

Bulk Balls

Players, clubs, or coaches sometimes buy balls in bulk to make it easier to give lessons (without having to retrieve the ball every time someone misses) or to do multi-ball drills or for use with a robot. A multi-ball drill is a drill where a coach rapidly (one at a time) feeds the player balls that the player attacks. The coach just stands there taking the balls from a basket.

Nittaku Balls

Nittaku makes two different three-star balls: Premium and Super-Select. The box for the Premium says, “Premium”, and the ball says, “Made in Japan”. The box for the Super-Select does not say “Premium” and the ball says just “Japan”. The latter balls are made in China and are inferior to the Premium balls. The only Nittaku balls that we sell are the three-star Premium balls.

38 mm Balls

In 2000, the sport changed from 38 mm balls to 40 mm balls. The idea was to make the rallies a bit longer and more attractive to spectators. We do not list any 38 mm balls on our website, but if you need them (e.g., for an old robot that you haven’t converted to 40 mm), we can get them for you if you contact us.

[Up: Buying Guide. Previous: Net Info. Next: Shoe Info.]