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Some Facts about USED Tennis balls because every tennis ball
deserves …
…a 2nd Bounce.
Tennis Ball
The Rebound must be sound: The Standard
thwacked with a racket repeatedly, it loses bounce
test for rebound used by both the ITF and USTA
more quickly. Balls that get really old turn hard and
FUN FACTS
involves dropping a ball from a height of 254 cm (100
may feel new but bounce like a rock. Most players
inches) and measuring the rebound, which should be
think they can tell a good ball by squeezing it, but in
53-58 inches. The equipment used in the ITF lab
reality they can only detect some bad balls this way.
consists of a vacuum pipe holding the ball at 100” high,
Many balls will fake you out if you use the squeeze
releasing it to bounce off a smooth granite block, and a
method. You end up keeping the rocks, and throwing
video camera and light source to record the rebound.
out balls that would bounce perfectly well if you tried
The first bounce rebound peak is measured from the
them. So how do you tell the difference between bad
shadow of the ball that is cast against a scale.
balls and ones that are “acceptable for play”?
300 -­‐ 500 Million Software analyzes the video of the bounce in real time
____Answer: YOU HAVE TO BOUNCE THEM!_____
That’s like 30,000 TONs of tennis balls made each year. Thanks for slowing down the flow into landfills by buying used, and supporting our recycling efforts. and calculates the peak height over a series of frames.
Rubber, Cloth, and…Vulcans? constant as a ball ages, but the bounce (which is most
Tennis Balls are both – Yellow AND Green In surveys many players say they are “green” but they are officially “optical yellow”. We make them “green” by recycling them! Ever try rippin’ the fuzzy cover off a ball? Yeah, even RF can’t hit one hard enough. A “vulcanizing” solution holds the cover to the rubber core and is built up between the seams. No, It ain’t comin’ apart, unless you’re Mr. Spock. © 2015 1st-­‐Service We perform this same test to grade every ball….
just before it is shipped to you!
……...
All the other ITF/USTA standards for the ball (size,
mass, deformation, and durability) stay relatively
important to the avid player) degrades slowly over
time. Just sitting around, a ball will very slowly lose
some internal pressure (and bounce), and if it is being
After testing thousands of used balls, we have
developed a USED BALL Grading System:
GRADE REBOUND
DESIGNATION
A
55.5”-58”
Best - “Warmed Up”
B
53”-55.5”
Good - “Broken In”
C
50”-53”
Low - “for quick starters”
F
below 50”
Dead – “not fit for play”
A grade must be clean with minimal cover wear
B & C grades can have moderate cover wear
F grade get re-purposed/recycled
Rebound Guaranteed – 2 for 1 We Repurpose or Recycle all balls that no longer make a playable grade 1ST-­‐SERVICE PHONE WEB South Elgin IL 60177 630-­‐675-­‐0250 www.1st-­‐service.net