SUMMARY OF STEVE'S RESULTS

[Steve's complete article]

Steve Edgar and his squash playing friends in upstate New York have conducted tests of the new line of Dunlop Balls compared with the "old" Dunlop yellow dot ball as well as with the new Prince balls. The goal was to find out (a) does the new Dunlop line perform as advertised? and (b) how does this compare with the old Dunlop line and with the Prince balls?

Steve tested bounce under different playing conditions.

Steve first tested the bounce of the various balls. The chart comparing these bouces can be found in the article. Steve found:

• The new Dunlop double x (pro) ball performs virtually the same as the old yellow dot ball.
• The most important variable affecting bounce is ball temperature (not surprisingly).
• The range of balls varies as advertised, Steve did not find a way to test hang time. (He instead did a calculation)

Steve then looked into the impact of ball temperature on bounce in more detail. His study shows a 40% difference in bounce over the range of ball temperatures. (again not surprisingly). This means, though, that balls tested out by pros under pro playing conditions will give much different results than actual play by novice or average players who don't heat the ball as much.

Steve also provides an interesting example of ball temperature differences, comparing ball temperatures measured by a college men's and women's match (the women's match was played at higher ball temperature!).

On the subject of Dunlop versus Prince balls, the Prince balls clearly displayed different characteristics than the Dunlops: The Prince yellow tested at 7-15% slower than the Dunlop and the Prince blue tested faster than any other ball.

[Read Steve's article and data]

NOTE: Steve Edgar is not connected with SquashTalk. SquashTalk presents this information but has no way of verifying the measurements that Mr. Edgar reports on.

The bounce and hangtime of the new Dunlop and Prince squash balls.

by Steve Edgar