If you are selecting a ball for an important competition here are the things to look for.

Competition Ball

Egg or Ball Bearing

To check if the ball is round you can place the ball on the table and spin it around using your thumb and forefinger. Watch the ball from above to see if there is any wobble in the spin. Try spinning an egg around and you will see what I mean. On the other hand if you spin a ball bearing you will see a difference. A Table Tennis ball should look like a ball bearing when spinning and not like an egg.

You need to spin the ball on two axes. Once with the seam on the top and once with the seam on the side. A ball may be round when spun on its seam but not when spun the other way.

Firmness

Press the ball to see if it caves in . A good quality ball should be able to stand a reasonable amount of pressure with the fleshy part of your thumb. Press it as firmly as you would massage your fingers to check if it is firm enough.

Consistency

You need to check the ball right around on several points, not just one. You will find that some balls have a soft spot. Even one soft spot will greatly effect the consistency of bounce.

Training Ball

Of course you can use a slightly lesser quality ball. Here though do not fall into the trap of selecting a ball that is of such bad quality that it greatly effects the strokes you play and learn.

There are a good range of quality Training balls around. Do not select a ball with a ridge around the seam.

Press the ball gently and see if it caves in. If it does… reject it.

You don’t need to be as fussy here as if you were selecting a ball for competition but you still need something that will allow you to practice effectively.

I use the Yasaka Training Balls and find them to be good value and good enough quality to train with. The lower price allows me to buy them in bulk and therefore helps with multi-ball training. The price of trying to do this multi-ball training with all 3 Star balls would be prohibitive and unnecessary.

Watch our video on selecting a ball: