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[varghese]

There are so many brands other there who manufacture table tennis balls. From $.25 to $5 per ball, there are so many. How do we detect the quality of a table tennis ball? Does a ball costs $5 mean it has the highest quality?

[ejunkie]

One thing to check is spining the ball on a table and see if the ball is centered and stay at one spot and not travel about. This tells you about the trajectory of the ball in the air. A ball that's not evenly weighted will wobble. A ball that's too light will have movements due to air currents or other elements and doesn't spin well. A ball that's just right will spin and behave well in flight.

[varghese]

Good information.

I have seen the players testing the balls on the table. Whether this test can apply to the used balls like 2 to 3 days also? I have tried this on the new balls only.

To do this test, I think we need a very good control in our hands while rotating. With out hand motion, the ball can rotate to the side. I have to do twice of thrice to make this work.

What kind of technique you use when you test the rotation?

[729 fx]

A good method to check if the quality of the ball is good as described by ejunkie is true in most cases unless the balls can be measured by a calibrating machine as found in the manufacturing plant.

Other than the methods explained by ejunkie, I will also check for hardness of the ball. For example Ball A & Ball B, if the sound of the ball hitting the bat or the floor differs, say Ball A has a higher pitch, I would say the wall of Ball A is thinner than Ball B, thus Ball B is harder.