Balls with dots

When I play at work we sometimes use cheap balls that look like soccer balls or baseballs (made by Stiga). It really help to see the spin. They also make training balls that have a dark line around them. At home when I practice my serves most of my training balls has dots or lines around them (I just use a permanent marker) so I can see if I am putting the correct rotation and speed of spin on the ball.

just this weekend I used a permanent marker to paint dots on the 4 'corners' of one of my competition balls. I've been trying to practice getting spin on the ball at home while listening to the radio. It was difficult to see the effect on a normal ball before but i''ve already seen an improvement. while the pingskills pinwheel is good I think that this is a better option for me.

 

i wouldn't want this to leak into competitive TT, however, as Jon Augspurger said.

well, finally someone put this topic up.. well making dots on balls really helps beginners. i am a penholder and when i started playing this magnificient sport, i made dots on my tt balls (permanent marker,as mentioned above) and well it indeed HELPS!! most Penholders are extreme spinners by nature. so this helped me alot to improve my services and learn the sidespin loop as well. i must agree this technique is awesome to learn your spin and to improve it!!!!!! YEAH!!