What is the difference between practice tennis balls and regular

If they are packaged with a box or mesh, they are usually pressureless. One other significant difference you will find in tennis balls is between regular duty and extra duty balls. While the difference in feel will not be nearly as noticeable as the difference between pressurized vs pressureless, the main difference will be regarding how long the balls will last.

Extra duty tennis balls are made with more nylon than wool, while regular duty ones are made with more wool than nylon. Extra duty balls will feel fluffier than regular ones, which means that they will move a little slower and will last longer on hard courts. Regular duty balls are less fluffy and move a little faster, which makes them a good fit for softer surfaces like clay or grass, which do not wear out tennis balls as fast as hard courts do.

Finally, the last important distinction between tennis balls that you should be aware of is between professional vs championship tennis balls. Professional balls usually give the player a better feel, but they are more expensive and will not last as long.

For those reasons, they are usually the choice for professional tournaments. Championship tennis balls are more affordable and durable, and they are the ones you can find in most stores. Now that you have a better understanding of the differences between tennis balls, we will go over how to decide which tennis balls you should choose.

Before you purchase tennis balls, it is extremely important to consider who will be using them. A 5-year old kid will have very different needs than a pound professional tennis player, so you need to choose the appropriate equipment. The great news is that tennis ball manufacturers are aware of those different needs, and they make different kinds of balls that are targeted to different players.

If you are looking for tennis balls for young kids or kids who are just starting to play tennis, it is important to choose balls that will both facilitate the learning process and keep them away from injuries.

Thankfully, you can find tennis balls that are specifically made for kids of different ages. First, you can find foam tennis balls, which are larger than regular balls and significantly slower, which means that they are the easiest balls to make contact with and the least demanding ones.

They are perfect for beginners and kids under 8 years old. Second, you can find red felt tennis balls that are specifically made for kids between 6 and 8 years of age. Orange felt balls are a great fit for kids aged between 9 and The final stage for kids before reaching the traditional tennis balls is the green felt.

Now there are two types of practice balls. Practice or coach balls still come in a can, but are usually just a tad lower in quality. The second are pressureless balls. They do not play like a regular ball but last longer, as they are harder and much denser. The surface you play on will also determine which ball you should use. Maybe you could improve that kick serve or your rallies with your friends by just changing what ball type you use!

Visit our site to see the full list of tennis balls that we carry, including the brand new Wilson Triniti Tennis Ball that is sure to blow up this year. It is one of the best, new balls on the market and sure to change the tennis environment. Going… Going….. As a result of the thinner air, and the pressure difference between the inside of the ball and the air surrounding it, balls generally fly much faster and bounce higher.

To counteract the effects of high altitude, these balls are less pressurized or are pressureless to help bring you a more normal ball bounce and playing experience. The categories these balls fall into are all based on hand-eye coordination level and age. Foam Balls are designed mainly for ages , as these are the largest and slowest in their category.

Red Balls mean a bit firmer feel more pressure inside and slightly smaller size compared to foam balls. Orange Balls , which are designed for ages , have even more pressure in the ball, and the circumference will be smaller as well.

Green balls are designed for players aged When looking deeper into the parts that make up a tennis ball, there are three main components: felt the yellow fuzz , core rubber and air or gas pressurization. Image below: Rolls of tennis ball felt. The felt is a key component in how the ball performs. The material used and the way it is constructed are key factors that separate a premium ball from an entry-level or budget ball.

Most of the balls on the market majority of the ones sold at Tennis Warehouse have a blend of natural wool and synthetic nylon fibers to comprise the optic yellow felt on the outer surface of the ball.

Premium balls are almost always made with a woven construction; similar to how a premium rug is made from weaving the materials together. Images below: Examples of premium Dunlop and Tecnifibre balls. Courtesy of Dunlop and Tecnifibre. Of the balls that we sell at a lower price-point, such as the Championship or champ line of balls, you will typically find one of two things that varies from the premium balls.

Any balls below the Championship line of balls will be made of mostly or all with synthetic nylon fibers and will be a needle-punch felt. For those seeking a vegan-friendly ball, you can sometimes find that the entry level balls have a full synthetic nylon felt without any natural wool content. Of the balls that we carry, the pressureless balls will be made of synthetic fibers for the felt. Although these balls may be fully synthetic, the performance is typically poor in comparison to a Champion line ball and especially the premium balls.

Image below: Felt being cut out. For the majority of tennis balls, the core is made of either natural or synthetic rubber, which is pressed by steel rollers to thin it out, then heated and cut into biscuit-like forms called slugs. These slugs are then shaped and molded to form a half sphere. Next they are cured, sanded on the rims, and then the two half-spheres are connected with adhesive to form the ball.

Image below: Tennis ball cores. During this process the ball is filled with compressed air. For the premium balls, and pretty much all of the balls that Tennis Warehouse sells, the core is formed from natural rubber that is derived from rubber trees and is often sourced from locations such as Thailand.

Dunlop has been in the rubber industry for many years, going back to with its origin in tires. Tecnifibre partners with Bridgestone Tires and uses premium natural rubber to make the cores for its balls. Penn sources its rubber from a specific region and find it an ideal natural rubber source for the formation and molding of tennis balls. All of the premium balls and Championship line balls that Tennis Warehouse sells are typically pressurized with natural air.

Tecnifibre explained that it uses the natural air composition when pressurizing its tennis balls, 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and the remaining 1 percent is a combination of argon, carbon dioxide and trace amounts of other gases. According to Tecnifibre's testing, nitrogen is less likely to permeate through the core of the ball. Tecnifibre has tried pressurizing balls with higher concentrations of nitrogen, even all nitrogen, but through playtesting found the performance and durability differences to be negligible.

There isn't a clear standard for how much pressure is used when filling the core with air, but in one case it was noted that there was an initial PSI of 18, and as the core was cured and sealed, it settled to 15 PSI, which was the target spec. Most tennis balls are between 12 and 14 PSI. Image below: Penn Championship balls being packaged into a case.