hockey balls

NicfromSweden 13
mani 8
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[ugals]

Hi there!

I need some advice to buy some balls for my club, the thing is that we are used to practice (junior level) with grays astrotec balls, and I we have been made a nice offer to play with other brands balls different than grays, I would like to know if they meet the same (more or less) standards as the astrotec grays model (any kokaburra low profile model, or princess / addidas /malik balls for example).

Thanks for your help!

Good Hockey!

Ugals

[Goalie64]

Can't help on make, I'm afraid, but as a keeper I'd suggest not buying yellow balls.
We train in the evening and for me at least they are impossible to see under floodlights.

[Grumpy]

Most of the balls on the market for training purposes i think are made by the same manufacturer and then they have the the hockey companies stamp put on it. So buying should not be a problem.
The only problem i have found with the ball supplied that when it gets cold and and we do play right up until the pitch freezes. I have found that most of the balls on the market have a tendency to start splitting when exposesed to freezing or near freezing weather.

[Snoody]

Can't help on make, I'm afraid, but as a keeper I'd suggest not buying yellow balls.
We train in the evening and for me at least they are impossible to see under floodlights.

We should have a thread about that... 

[redumpire]

Can't help on make, I'm afraid, but as a keeper I'd suggest not buying yellow balls.
We train in the evening and for me at least they are impossible to see under floodlights.

We should have a thread about that... 

We d...  Oh I see.   

A link would have been nice tho Snoody.

[lodzinski]

ermm.. managed to annihilate a couple of mercian 'spider' balls in about 40 mins, but in their defence they were only £2 a pop, so little was expected of them. Kookaburra are the official FIH ball (though i am led to believe this is more by luck than being far and away the best) and I have always liked the kookaburras, but I know people who SWEAR by the Readers GT balls, and they are pretty good too.

[mspice61]

avoid the cheapest balls... as has been mentioned they do have a tendancy to split when they are cold, i think my club last year bought 60 and within 2 weeks we had smashed through about 12. by the end of the season we had at least 20 which had broken. think those balls were about £2.50 each or something.

better quality balls really are not that much more expensive and you avoid the cost of replacements.

as for manufacturers i cant really help, we had a load of the cheap mercians last year. we did have the more expensive kookaburra balls as match balls and they were really good.

[Snoody]

A link would have been nice tho Snoody.

You seem to have confused me with someone who knows how to do all that complimacated watchamacallit URL stuff... 

[Grumpy]

You have to learn to keep up with the times ;

[roguefailure]

Guys, what is the difference between match balls and training balls (except for the blinding obvious before anyone says it!)

[lodzinski]

as far as I can see balls advertised as 'training balls' are cheaper, often have a tendency to be a bit more fragile (in my experience, though this is probably due to low cost than the purpose) Also, I would suspect training balls do not need to be spot onto the legal requirements for a gameball

Ball
3.1 The ball :
a is spherical
b has a circumference of between 224 mm and 235 mm
c weighs between 156 grams and 163 grams
d is made of any material and coloured white (or an agreed colour which contrasts with the playing surface)
e is hard with a smooth surface but indentations are permitted.

my suspicion is (though I don't know for sure) that if a ball is made that is not quite the right weight/circumference (also by not having to be so strict to the regs manufacture cost will be lower) these balls would be labelled 'practice' not game use. same for any balls that are not orange or white i would think too.

[ugals]

thanks for the help...as for the freezing... there is no freezing in Barcelona mates! so no worries in that part.
I asked for a set of trial balls of each brand to take a look, when I have tried them I will let you know!

[Moody_Git]

Training ball:      Generally hollow centre.

Quality match ball:   Like a scotch egg, but with cork in the middle rather than egg (tastes about the same, I'm sure)



Ugals,
I'm quite sure that if we can break training balls all the way up here in sub-arctic Montpellier (3 hrs by car from Barcalona) you could be quite capable of it too!

[Craggsy]

Talking about match balls, we got some brand new kookaburra balls, it was ruined after about 10 mins of play, the outside was quite soft and literally has just rubbed off. However some of the £2 salzenger practice balls have lasted ages. Will see what becomes of the other kooks I have, in the coming weeks.

[JonT]

Talking about match balls, we got some brand new kookaburra balls, it was ruined after about 10 mins of play, the outside was quite soft and literally has just rubbed off. However some of the £2 salzenger practice balls have lasted ages. Will see what becomes of the other kooks I have, in the coming weeks.

Now that is surprising - we generally get quite a few matches out of the Kookaburra's we use. We have a good supply of decent match balls though, those and the Readers GT ones.