Unlike racquets, balls wear out quickly. The air seeps out of a pressurized ball, and it loses its bounce. Here are a few ways to stretch your ball budget:
- Buy the cheaper balls. You can get entirely adequate balls for around $2 a can at most discount chains.
- Try the new, extra-durable balls. These are designed to lose air less quickly.
- Use a ball repressurizer. Our forum members had some good ideas on these.
- Try pressureless balls, which don't depend upon internal air pressure to remain bouncy. They're stiffer than regular balls, and all but Tretorn are a little less bouncy, but you might like them. They get bouncier as they lose their fuzz, but you start to lose some important aerodynamics with a bald ball, so you can't really take advantage. Tretorns are incredibly bouncy. If you have a big kick serve, get out those Tretorns.
- Store balls at a cool temperature. Balls bounce higher when they're warm, but they also lose air faster. If you keep an opened can in a hot car for any length of time, they'll go flat pretty fast. If you keep balls cool, they'll bounce a little less when you first start playing with them, but once they warm up on the court, they'll be fine.
- Some very inexpensive balls (around 99 cents for three) that are sold at the discount chains in plastic bags are not pressureless, so the lack of a pressurized container is a sure bet that they won't bounce well. They're often lopsided, too, and can crack open or lose most of their fuzz in less than an hour of play.
