What a Difference a Ball Makes

[A version of the article was previously published at TheDinkPickleball.com]

The Vulcan VPRO Flight, the new official ball of the PPA tour, and Vulcan’s first attempt to market a pickleball, has had a tumultuous first season, affecting the game in unexpected ways.

Most pros resist going on the record when it comes to statements regarding the ball. However, they express plenty of opinions off the record, most of which are negative.  

These opinions can be summarized as “It doesn’t bounce true. Or, it doesn’t have a true ball flight.”

Vulcan has not taken this feedback lightly; they have been working diligently to correct the manufacturing and design issues and have made substantial progress. Indeed, OG pickleball and Selkirk sponsored coach Daniel J Howard’s review of the newest version of the Vulcan ball, the Vulcan VPRO Flight 2, noted substantial improvements in playability.

That said, I asked a top PPA pro about the second version, and he answered that it still needed work before I even finished the question.

This has never been more visible than at this week's PPA Las Vegas Open, when the best player in the world, Ben Johns, who rarely loses his cool, let alone a match, blasted the ball in his losing effort against Roscoe Bellamy.  “It’s garbage,” he yelled in an exacerbated fashion: "Get a new ball; make it a real sport!” “It doesn’t bounce.”

Money Ball

Vulcan’s winning bid to become the official ball of the PPA is rumored to have included $2.5M in annual dollars and 8-10% royalties on all balls sold—a lucrative deal for the PPA by all accounts.  Couple this fact with the generous salaries many signed PPA players were afforded in the aftermath of the tour wars, and you can see why many players are reluctant to throw shade at a significant source of PPA revenue.

Variations on a Theme

The Vulcan ball is hard and fast, leading to a faster game, but that’s not the only reason this ball produces an aggressive playing style by the pros.  This ball makes for a faster game because of its variability off the bounce and through the air.

This variability is most notable in the return of serve. “You can’t run through the return like you used to,” one pro said. The ball is served hard on tour, and the Vulcan ball is prone to take an unusual bounce. “You have to be deliberate and pause to make solid contact.”  Indeed, missing a return is one of the few deadly sins of pickleball.

That said, pausing on the return has drawbacks, specifically that it costs valuable time in the race to the kitchen line. It’s no wonder we are seeing more 3rd shot drives at the pro level. It’s more common to catch a pro late or off balance following their return, as they are slowing down to study the ball’s bounce.

But that’s not all, “given the ball can take an off bounce, we are generally dinking less and taking more balls out of the air”, a pro stated.  Shots that require a lot of touch off the bounce like resets and soft dinks are a lower percentage than they used to be. “It’s not like dinking isn’t effective, it’s just less effective than volleys and attacks out of the air than they used to be given the variability in the ball’s bounce.  This benefits longer, taller players and pushes even more cautious players to lean in and take more balls out of the air.”

The above pro’s statement coincides with my conversation last month with Andrei Daescu, one of the tallest pros on tour, who has adapted quite well to the new ball and has no problems with it. “Tennis has many different balls out there that pros have to adapt to,” the former Romanian Davis Cup member stated. Indeed, each major tennis slam uses a different ball and different playing surfaces. As an aside, varying the ball may be an exciting idea for the PPA if they continue to have a similar grand slam structure.  

The Game is Getting Faster

Indeed, other factors besides ball anatomy affect the speed of play, such as hotter foam paddles and uneven indoor surfaces. Still, the ball is in the conversation regarding the evolution towards this faster, more aggressive game.

Contrary to what one might think, most players on tour generally like the Vulcan ball’s speed.  Pros typically liked the previous ball of the PPA, the Dura Fast 40, known to be the fastest ball on the market, but the Dura didn’t produce much negativity from tour pros back then.  This is because it didn’t warp to the extent that it affected ball flight and playability beyond acceptable limits.  Instead, it would just break.

Ball Science

The softer the plastic, the quicker the ball will regain its shape.  Think of a sponge ball.  If you press into a sponge, it immediately regains its shape.  Now, think of a toothbrush made of more rigid plastic.  If you were to bend it in half, the toothbrush may take an hour to straighten out if it ever does.  To extend the analogy, if we bend a hard plastic toothpick, it may break before it bends much at all.  

The above concepts can explain what is happening with the balls.  In this analogy, the toothpick is the Dura ball.  It is hard; if hit with enough power, it will break before it bends to a point that significantly affects playability.  The Franklin X40 is soft like a sponge.  It compresses and quickly snaps back to shape, so out-of-round issues are rarely a concern.  

The Vulcan ball is more durable than either ball, which is great from an environmental standpoint, but its durability causes problems.  If a pro forehand hits the Vulcan ball, it bends but does not break, and then it stays bent potentially indefinitely like the toothbrush.  This is why the ball is switched out every game on the PPA tour.  The ball becomes unstable within 15 minutes of sustained strikes by a pro-level player.  

The ball may hold up on amateur league night, but if you have ever attended a pro tournament, you can hear the difference in power as you walk in the gate well before you see them play.  Indeed, the few amateurs I met who own a Vulcan ball expressed no complaints around playability, suggesting this problem may be isolated to higher-level play.

In some respects, Vulcan’s design tries to have it both ways: durable and fast, but these factors in the same ball is creating variability.

This variability may explain the parity in PPA results. It’s not that Ben and Collin Johns are not favorites to win any tournament they enter.  It’s just that the variable conditions make them less probable to win the tournament, all things being equal.  

It’s similar to playing in high wind. Indeed, the best players will have the most success in high wind, but there aren’t many ways to play in high wind beyond aggressive play, and certain slow, skillful shots are out of the question.

Another way to view the situation is to imagine Steph Curry playing with an out-of-round basketball. His skillful game would be impacted more than Shaquille O’Neal’s, who gets most of his points by slamming the ball aggressively through the hoop.

Does it Matter?

There is a case to be made that it doesn’t matter. As Andrei noted, the pros all have to play with the same ball. They are paid to play, and as professionals, they are expected to adapt. The conditions may not be ideal, but they are the same for everyone.

It’s common knowledge that the PPA tour is banking on a media rights deal that will make their financials work.  Until that deal, the PPA is maximizing revenue and entertainment value, which may mean sticking with a ball that pays the bills until better financial tailwinds prevail.

The Bottom Line

Few rec players play with a Vulcan ball; “only PPA players and players that are practicing for PPA events own this ball”, one pro working through qualifiers said.  

Though sales volumes are unknown we can’t be sure whether the early high price tag, the newness of the ball to market, or these playability issues are the root of its absence on any given rec court.

That said, I agree with the points made by this pro. Having played all over the US, I've noticed that amateur players tend to prefer using the X40, Dura, and Selkirk balls on any given Saturday. While these balls have their own issues, they are generally considered to bounce true and maintain their shape well enough so as not to hinder gameplay.

Which begs the question, why does Gertrude down the block play with more reliable equipment than the pros on tour?  The answer may be that the PPA, the most visible pro tour, has gotten a bit over its skis in its quest for visibility.  Couple that with Vulcan’s dogged determination to get their first foray into the ball business right, and we are left with all stakeholders fully committed to see this through to the end.

John is a PPR-certified instructor and a professional rec player known by his pickleball friends as “The Professor.”  He aims to help players navigate their pickleball addiction with weekly tips on everything from etiquette to technique to injury prevention. He can be reached at ThePickleProf.com.