Re: Ball care?

[Todd <tdh@vbref.org>]

eggiest@aol.comBOP (Eggiest) writes:
> Hey,
> I'm a beginner to this whole volleyball thing, and I just bought my first ball,
> a Spalding Indoor/Outdoor, NCAA ball. The problem is it seems much harder than
> the balls we play with in my league. Is there a trick to breaking it in or did
> I just get a different style?
> Please advise!


I'm not familiar with the indoor/outdoor model, but I suspect that any
ball that is capable of being used indoor is going to be much harder
than a real outdoor beach volleyball.

Good outdoor balls are made of leather (not synthetic), have
hand-stictched raised seams, and use a lower ball pressure.  The hand
stitching (and perhaps more material in the ball covering itself) make
the outdoor ball much softer than its indoor counterpart.

Sadly, no amount of breaking in will make up for not buying a Spalding
Top-Flite 18, or Wilson AVP Gold for beach play.

More equipment recommendations are available on my web page if you're
interested.

--
                  Todd H.   tdh@vbref.org
USAV Jr. National Referee, Great Lakes Region, Palatine, IL
Todd's Volleyball Referee Page http://www.io.com/~tdh/vball/
"So you're a Ref and an engineer? Oh that explains it...."