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Posted by Jason Hatch on May 6th 2020
It’s an embarrassing problem that you’ll hear talked about in gyms and locker rooms across the nation, and one that seems to get worse over time. “What in the world is happening to my balls?”
If you’ve been playing sports long enough, you too have probably noticed how your football, basketball, soccer ball, water polo ball, volleyball or even your playground ball aren’t quite the same as the glorious day you first bought them. Once bright, soft feeling and full of bounce, your ball is now a mere shadow of itself. Once the pride of the playground, your ball now has a hard, dry, faded and cracked cover with a bladder that doesn’t quite hold air as well as it once did.
It’s so bad that it makes you want to hide your balls in shame. What is going on here? Following is the short explanation, with 10 simple steps on how you can get the most out of your brand new sports balls and keep them looking and performing at their best. First though, let’s review some quick points on how inflatable balls are constructed.
What Your Balls are Made of
Inflatable balls, be they a football, soccer ball, basketball, playground ball or others, share many of the same components. At their core they feature either a natural latex rubber bladder or a synthetic butyl rubber bladder to hold air, nylon windings or fabric layers to assist in retaining the balls’ shape and provide added performance and cushioning, an air valve to allow for inflation and finally a top cover which provides performance, grip, durability and looks.
Some balls, such as soccer balls or footballs, may feature glued or stitched-on panels, or in the case of rubber balls and many basketballs, feature a one-piece, seamless cover that does not require either.
Depending on the price, quality and intended purpose, the ball’s cover may be constructed from leather, composite leather (a mix of leather scraps and polyurethane), synthetic leather or rubber. And while each material has their own strengths and weaknesses, they all have the same set of enemies.
Your Ball’s Natural Enemies
We all love nature – a warm, sunny day, fresh air, or a good old fashioned rainstorm, but your balls may feel differently about it. The sun’s UV rays cause a breakdown of materials known as UV degradation. You may notice this effect on your balls as a faded cover with a chalky white surface, the loss of strength, bounce and flexibility, or even drying and cracking along the surface.
Heat, when combined with oxygen and ozone, act together as antioxidants that further crack the ball’s surface - even getting inside and damaging your ball’s inner bladder. Because the bladders are made of latex rubber, or more likely a synthetic rubber (butyl), they naturally absorb oxygen and ozone as they age, and the reaction is accelerated by heat. In time, the bladders begin to vulcanize (harden), lose their flexibility and form small cracks and tears. The balls eventually lose the ability to reliably hold air pressure until one day the bladder bursts.
Water in the form of rainfall, perspiration, swimming pools, wet grass and mud puddles, not only get absorbed by the balls’ covers, but also slowly decay stitching and rot the ball from the inside out. Essential oils that give the ball its grip and feel get stripped away from the cover, leaving the ball slick or hard feeling.
Mankind – Be Kind to Your Balls
Aside from nature, mankind can be a ball’s best friend or worst enemy. Many-a-time I have left my balls outside in the elements, or thrown them into the backseat of my hot, stuffy car - baking my balls in direct sunlight. At times I have sat on my balls, using them as a convenient chair.
Other times I have carelessly thrown my balls against rough concrete walls, skipped them across hot asphalt and rough gravel, or worst of all, over-inflated them, causing them to look like misshapen watermelons rather than a beautiful round globe. Where does the abuse end!
Even Old Balls Can Look and Feel Like New with a Little TLC
The two year old rubber basketball below was faded and had a dry, hard cover. After two minutes of scrubbing under warm water with the rough side of a kitchen sponge and mild soap, it not only looked newer but regained much of the color and soft grip it had lost over the years.
10 Simple Solutions to Keeping your Balls at Their Best
So now that we know the causes of premature ball damage, let’s look at 10 simple ways we can keep our balls shiny, bouncy and performing their best.
While every inflatable sports ball has a shelf life and will one day wear out and no longer perform at its best, these 10 simple, practical steps will help you get the most out of your purchase, and be the envy of the playground as well.
Stay healthy, play fair and enjoy the game!
Jason Hatch
President
Athletic Stuff
“Taking Your Game to a Higher Level”
Toll Free (877) 406-0607