You are not alone. For years, I never figured out the way to keep track of the tennis balls.
I am really finicky about the quality of the bounce and the weight of the ball. In the past when I played with worn out balls, I ended up getting tennis elbow because I had to hit much harder. To make it complicated, the temperature and humidity does affect the bounce. Temperature more than humidity?
Here are a few interesting links
Approval Tests
The Effect of Temperature, Time, and Humidity on the Bounce of Tennis Balls
Does Temperature Affect How High a Tennis Ball Will Bounce?
The tennis ball bounce test
Does a tennis ball bounce higher in cold weather or warm weather?
So, a wise friend of mine named Kumar (last name concealed to protect the innocent:-)) suggested that sharpie can be used to mark the balls. That motivated me to look through my so called worn balls. I took the balls to my kitchen and dropped them to the kitchen floor one at a time using a new ball as a reference and then I saw how much the new ball bounced up. Then I sorted my Costco Penn Heavy Championship Heavy Duty balls used at least once by the numbers. BTW, number is just an identifier. No reference to the type of the ball. Out of 21 balls, I ended up picking up 18 as good. I took them to the court where 3 of us played today from 9:45am in Fremont, CA for 90 minutes where we rotated every 10 minutes. Temperature was about 70F on a totally clear sky.
After 90 minutes of play, we felt they still had a lot of good bounce left. We decided to mark the ball with 1 horizontal bar for every 1 hr of play for 2 peopel with 6 balls or 90 min of play with 3 people with 9 balls. These balls will get 2 horizontal bars because we used them at least once if not twice.
I did a "scientific" bounce test on 9 balls. They were all dropped 43" on to a laminate floor. The average bounce seems to be be about 50% or about 21 to 22".
I will repeat this test on the same balls after I use them for 90min with the same 3 people next week and see how much the degrade.
Here are the photos of marking the balls.
Here is how I measured the bounce.
I am really finicky about the quality of the bounce and the weight of the ball. In the past when I played with worn out balls, I ended up getting tennis elbow because I had to hit much harder. To make it complicated, the temperature and humidity does affect the bounce. Temperature more than humidity?
Here are a few interesting links
Approval Tests
The Effect of Temperature, Time, and Humidity on the Bounce of Tennis Balls
Does Temperature Affect How High a Tennis Ball Will Bounce?
The tennis ball bounce test
Does a tennis ball bounce higher in cold weather or warm weather?
So, a wise friend of mine named Kumar (last name concealed to protect the innocent:-)) suggested that sharpie can be used to mark the balls. That motivated me to look through my so called worn balls. I took the balls to my kitchen and dropped them to the kitchen floor one at a time using a new ball as a reference and then I saw how much the new ball bounced up. Then I sorted my Costco Penn Heavy Championship Heavy Duty balls used at least once by the numbers. BTW, number is just an identifier. No reference to the type of the ball. Out of 21 balls, I ended up picking up 18 as good. I took them to the court where 3 of us played today from 9:45am in Fremont, CA for 90 minutes where we rotated every 10 minutes. Temperature was about 70F on a totally clear sky.
After 90 minutes of play, we felt they still had a lot of good bounce left. We decided to mark the ball with 1 horizontal bar for every 1 hr of play for 2 peopel with 6 balls or 90 min of play with 3 people with 9 balls. These balls will get 2 horizontal bars because we used them at least once if not twice.
I did a "scientific" bounce test on 9 balls. They were all dropped 43" on to a laminate floor. The average bounce seems to be be about 50% or about 21 to 22".
I will repeat this test on the same balls after I use them for 90min with the same 3 people next week and see how much the degrade.
Here are the photos of marking the balls.
Here is how I measured the bounce.
Here is the video
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