Facts/Trivia/Information

A new study finds those with Parkinson’s can benefit from playing table tennis.

With some help from another table tennis player, I’ve learned that because of sponsorship, most major national and international competitions (some of 2019 & most of 2020) used or are using DHS 3-star D40+. This includes the 2020 Olympics. Butterfly is the official table – https://www.ittf.com/tournament/5177/2020-world-championships/.

Sorry for the geekiness of this, but I wondered about the weight of the “new” plastic balls. Mainly, are the Nittaku heavier than the Butterfly? So, I grabbed a friend’s calibrated scale and did some comparisons.

First, the ITTF requirements

The official rules state that the ball shall weigh 2.7g, but any weight between 2.67 and 2.77g is acceptable for any one ball. No more than 1 ball out of the 24 sampled may be outside this range. The sample mean must be between 2.69 and 2.76g.

Second, the data

My data is based on weighing 3 balls of each brand, then doing a mean. So, yes, I have a smaller quantity sample (ITTF requirements are based on 24 balls), but I’m guessing that my random three balls measurement is representative. All balls were within the mean, so the weight difference between the balls is pretty damn small. All 40+.

Butterfly: 2.739g
Nittaku: 2.710g
DHS white: 2.755g
Andro: 2.747g
DHS orange: 2.714g

Not only was I wrong, but the Nittaku were the lightest of all.

The folks at Joola (which I now know is pronounced Yola) have a new robot in the works, the JOOLA Infinity, that looks great for the home user. Hard to know if it will live up to the hype, but the technology has improved enough to not require huge robots and give a larger diversity of serves.

This robot continues to improve. One day, we can all own one…

An art exhibit of paddles to raise money for a community club in Glasgow.

They aren’t useful as paddles, but they look great.