Why Tennis Balls are an Environmental Disaster
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- Saving the planet... one tennis ball at a time.
Our planet's oceans and the life they harbor are under serious threat from this planet's excessive pollution problem. With your help, we can change this. Every $1 removes 1 lb of plastic from our waterways, so every donation counts!
🌎 LEARN MORE: teamseas.org 🌍
A big, BIG thank you to Curiosity Stream for donating their sponsor time so I could instead tell you about #TeamSeas
CULT TENNIS brings you player profiles and analyzes some of the best stories in the world of Tennis! Subscribe to see more content like this, and thank you for stopping by!
--------------------------------------------------------------
/ culttennisyt
/ culttennis
--------------------------------------------------------------
I’ll be honest, my mouth fell open when he said that most people throw away tennis balls after a single session. I can almost understand the top-level professionals, but I find it astounding that it could be the standard for most people playing tennis.
In my coaching center too many people who are at above intermediate level also use fresh ball for every session... But they give their used ones to us for drills...
Same. If I'm just hitting casually with friends or family, we just reuse old balls. If I'm playing a match for my highschool team, the we crack open a fresh can of balls, but we atleast reuse those balls for practice
As a 4 to 5 times a week tennis player, I can really relate to the problem of tennis ball waste, and whilst I know that people reuse them for drills or more casual tennis, once the pressure and fluff goes they are pretty useless for tennis. I can see it being a bigger problem than most people care to think about. We do need a technology to produce a much longer lasting tennis ball, by a significant amount. Perhaps a tax on balls that goes into research of this?
" most people throw away tennis balls after a single session" - Yeah right, that's a total LIE.
They're exaggerative narrative of 'Tennis Balls Pollute' means that they need to lie...
Where i play everyone plays them for about 1.5 to 2 months.
Wow I've never heard of this before, Thank you so much for making such an excellent video with all these details!
Two gods of tennis content talking to each other
@@toxihavoc ❤️
Amazing
ily
Just doing my part for our favorite sport :)
As a furniture designer i would love to have all those used tennis balls. I have already done a couch out of them for my home tennis club and everybody loves to sit on it.
Damn bro that’s pretty fire 🔥
please upload an imgur of this tennis couch you made, I gotta see this
Yeah. Please post a picture of it somewhere.
would love a photo as well!
Wow that's incredible skill - would love to see a picture. Thank you for doing this.
Wow, I had no idea that tennis balls were such an environmental issue. Thanks for educating me! Good thing I'm so cheap I almost never throw out my tennis balls, but rather add them to my "for serve practice" bin. lol
I do the same move
Me too haha...
Samee
A better solution is to use metal or glass balls 👍
@@Phurngirathaana perfect :) and they won’t cause any harm to yourself
We have a box for used tennis balls at our club, from which beginner players can take some whenever they like. They're also pretty good for practicing certain parts of your serve, even as an advanced player.
That way, they're at least getting used a bit more.
I think this is a pretty normal practice. My local club also does this. And increasing the playable life span of balls is great. But it does not solve the waste problem of the balls. And I think this video highlights some of the problems very well.
However, tennis has another problem: tennis strings. The waste from old string beds produced by tennis players is not insignificant. And here the products used in strings are not homogenous like tennis balls. The material composition varies, and this could be a challenge when sorting and recycling old strings.
Hitting the wall--particularly walls with a sort back area, I use dead balls so I can hit as hard as I want.
@@zsbacskai7331 Wasted space for courts? Are you saying tennis courts are a waste of space period. Or that they are inefficient with he way they are built? Because being a waste of space can be argued for literally every sport and entertainment center that is not used for housing or some infrastructure to provide an essential service.
All tournaments everywhere could donate their used tennis balls which would be given to any non professional anywhere. But, this would mean less money for Penn, Wilson, Daidem, etc. So, money runs the show. Always has always will.
There are many solutions, but all would mean less profit for tennis ball companies.
balls are unplayable after tournaments. I mean could only be useful for begginers/kids maybe
@@miguelgrilo5853 completely untrue. my friend lives next to wimbledon and had loads of balls end up in his backyard this year, and they're almost as good as new and very much playable.
@@alexandrosjones i actually never seen such balls, I just assumed based on my intermediate level experience.. I assume that with their power their balls with be unplayable... but if you say so, well haha
@@miguelgrilo5853 like mentioned in the video they only use the balls for 30 minutes maximum at a time. while they may be hitting with a lot more power than you and me, trust me the balls are still perfectly adequate for anybody who plays recreationally.
@@miguelgrilo5853 No, they stop using them before there is any real difference with the balls that could affect play. Ask any ball boy.
I was working on an alliance of tennis clubs that advertise free dog balls for the wider public in northern Sydney, but everything stalled out. I hope this video can give them a good push in the right direction. It's such a shame that tennis balls for dogs are even sold when there's so much tennis ball waste from tennis clubs. I want to make tennis balls for dogs in shops and pet stores a redundant product someday.
I'm from Sydney too and I have quite a lot of old tennis balls over the years that I have absolutely no idea what to do with (e.g. how to dispose them). Do you know if there are any organisations in Sydney that currently collect them?
Man that sounds great but I'm pretty sure that tenis balls by themselfs are dangerous for the dogs to play with :(
A better solution is to use metal or glass balls 👍
Normal tennis balls are bad for dogs.
My source: Our dog had swallowed some of one, and because it doesn’t break down, it damaged her intestine and she almost died. Cost my dad £1800 in vet bills..
At my local hardware store there is a bin filled with old tennis balls.
This might one of your best videos yet, both in theme and in visual design. It’s crazy that such an integral part of our sport contributes so much damage. I bought a case of Triniti balls in January and have not looked back. They bounce better, they last a lot longer, and the sleeves are very slick. Highly recommend them.
I only by Triniti now and talk to everyone I meet on the court about them. Approx $1.00 more per ball but they last so long I do not mind paying for it.
Same. They last forever.
as somebody who loves the environmental and loves tennis, i can't believe i never considered this! thank you so much for the video, i'm annoyed with myself
Lol why
I think tennis as a sport is extremely lucky to have you making videos. The editing, research, and passion you put into these videos are really inspiring. Keep up the good work!
As for many casual European players, we still use the same balls for months, sometimes years on end, hitting them at least once a week.
Here in Brazil as well. People will surely open a new can for special occasions, but most of the games are played with used balls. We use them up to the point they stop bouncing high enough, and even then they can still be repurposed as toys for kids and dogs, taking years to be actually discarded.
Every tennis player I know has sets of balls in a scale of worn out patterns and quality, which they chose from depending on the occasion.
It's completely alien to me the idea of amateur players throwing balls to the garbage bin after only 12 hours of use, seems too expensive in the long run.
Here in india we keep playing with the balls unless they loose bounce after that they can be used for cricket practice etc . Plus even though tennis balls maybe bad for environment they are still not the most bad thing . Maybe a procedure to represurize the balls can be found or alternative balls will be found and in around 10 years this problem will be solved
@@sehajveersingh7230 Good points
@@accretionescapee thanks mate
Dominic Thiem would approve of this video. He’s big on environmental issues, especially in the ocean!
It would be nice to have a compare video ex. Tennis vs. F1-formula.
If he really cared then why does he restring all of his rackets before each match? And why does he need them to be wrapped in plastic when they are restrung? Surely there are better ways to identify a newly strung racket. Even in the 90s, some players would restring after several matches. Now even rackets that don't get played are restrung. Terrible waste.
He claims he is, it's really just for PR. Wonder if people remember the irony of him holding up the card telling people to save the oceans while he was sat in his private jet...
He hasn't gotten vaccinated yet, but he is big on "environmental issues" ?
his sponsor Adidas is responsible for the ocean issue
That's why I'm happy my club has switched to Wilson Triniti balls. They are shipped in big boxes that can be recycled and the balls last longer so the club is not opening new balls for their lessons. Just imagine each tennis cart in a club holds 4 cases of tennis balls which has 24 cans times that by 4 that's 96 tennis balls cans that can't be recycled.
Wonderful! What country are you in?
"If you think its all doom and gloom don't worry" :)
"It gets worse" :(
Really glad you were willing to put your channel on the line by talking about the unsustainable practices surrounding tennis balls.
I had no idea about any of this and found it extremely informative and eye opening.
I use a Pressure Tube so my Tennis Balls hold on till the felt is gone..
I also use Triniti or pressureless balls for training.
Dont get it why one would only train once with a can of balls, like who plays on that level where that matters 😂
damn i didn’t even realize pressure tubes were a thing lmao, but then again i’m just a watcher of tennis not a player so maybe that’s why i’ve never heard of it. but wow if you can re-pressurize tennis balls idk why more people aren’t doing it 😭 especially people who just play for hobby and fun !
let me provide a solution ... in Argentina I started a local movement among some players ... in which each one breaks their tennis balls ... puts them in 5-liter or more water bottles and together with first-use plastics. .. we transform it into eco-bricks ... which are then used for multiple purposes ... and the cost is 0 dollars
Your idea is great but even I have a idea why not flat all the tennis balls and use them for various sports fields like hockey aur and a soft floor option there are super ways , (one idea was to fill trillions balls in boeng 707 and send it to space 😂)
My capstone design project for my bachelor degree was building a large scale device for a local tennis club to repressurize their balls. I've long since moved away, so I don't know for certain, but I hope they're still using it.
awesome!
So cool that you've brought this issue to light, in conjuction with the whole Team Seas thing! Thanks
Thank you for this video - I had no idea how bad tennis balls were for the planet. Something must be done.
Heard that one before. Everyone says that but nothing is done about it. No one really cares.
I mean what tho?
@@LeSunshine9 did you watch the video?
@@monicafoley1136 so you don’t either. Correct?
A better solution is to use metal or glass balls 👍
Throwing a ball in the bin is a dumb move. An overwhelming majority of the most casual players cannot even distinguish between a new ball and a flat ball - just leave them on the club table or by the side of the court, a use will be found for them
Love seeing how all kinds of creators in different niches incorporate team seas. Well done!
I don't or very very rarely watch tennis. Last match i watched was easily a good 10 years ago, yet these videos are super entertaining. When you can make videos where people have little to no prior interest in the main topic of your videos, you know you're making some great content! Keep it up Cult Tennis 👍
7:17 is not a picture of tennis balls lol. those are hedge apples
Great video as always mate :) Very eye opening how big of an impact the tennis balls has on the environment
Man no way!!
I'm staying hopeful for the future!!
At my club my coach repressurizes his balls as long as he thinks they still have a ok amount of fluff, so their lifespan is basically doubled
Love to see you upload my man - Cheers
omg I've been using the same 6 balls for the last 3 months, how can non-professional players throw them away after 1 session?😭😭😭
I hit with my tennis balls for maybe 4-5 sessions and then keep them as a practice tool when I wana just hit out like 20 serves.
Eventually I will have to get rid of some but yeah it's crazy how wasteful it is.
Love these videos..feels like your uploading more often now
I have been using a tennis ball pressure can for years. Stores the balls in a pressure volume so it can be used again.
As a non tennis player, I didn’t know that the lifespan of balls was so short.
I never knew this, I hope the situation improves for the better to make the balls more sustainable. #TeamSeas
Man , you always make dope videos
When I use pressurized tennis balls, I only open 2 cans at a time and use a ball saver to store them when not it play. And I get a 20-30 hours of play from 2 cans of pressurized balls. But when teaching my girlfriend to play tennis, you need a lot more balls than that, so I was looking for pressure-less balls that feel the same as pressurized.
Discovered the Wilson Triniti line of balls at at local tennis shop and now I swear by them. They feel as good as a day's worth of play old pressurized balls left in the ball saver. A box of balls 72 balls lasts more than a year. And the box now even comes without the individual cardboard tubes to pack them into packs of 3. That saves me even more time when I have to load the hopper with dozens of balls.
Meanwhile my family and I just used the same few tennis balls for years
same
In the State of Hessen, Germany, we had to play with triniti pro balls this year for the first time. People hated it and for some it lead to arm problems.
Really? I’ll look up more details later. Shame he didn’t address this.
What sort of issues did people experience and why?
You typical tennis arm, as the vibration per shot was more intense. I had no issues, except rallies were way longer and I had to put in a dampener, as the sound without it was horrible, like a car crash 😃
There was a lot of backlash, even the biggest national tabloid „BILD“ reported on how playing with „eco balls“ ruined the game for some, which is a bit exaggerated (as expected by this newspaper)
@@dmnkhs Do you think people would get used to them or does Wilson need to redesign them?
The quality of your videos are really amazing..Talking about topics that everyone should know.
People probably don't want to play with second rate balls. Professional tennis needs to adopt a truly environmental ball and everyone will follow suit and play with the balls pros are using at Wimbledon.
The fact that this video has significantly fewer views than your others is extremely depressing. Thank you for your suggestion of the Wilson Triniti balls - I'm going to pick some up tomorrow.
Our Cult leader only speaks when its absolutely necessary.
Great work! I really enjoy your content/channel and just wanted to say thank you. Truly great work.
Hey man love you’re content. You’re videos are really interesting. You are so underrated. Keep it up!
1:38 that sound is SOO satisfying
Best Tennis RUclips Channel ..................Greetings from Germany!
What about tennis ball with pubic hairs? Not a perfect solution but still better than the current green balls.
and here i am using 2 year old ball still
Wow this is crazy! Glad you made this! Editing on point like always 💪
good video. and Triniti is a huge step forward, as are efforts to eliminate our impact on seas.
I’ve been playing tennis since I was 3 and didn’t even think about the environmental costs of a ball, that’s crazy…
OMG do you feel bad? Do you repent? Are you a terrible human being?
@@kikamen No. I actually just ordered a 24 case of balls yesterday
Thats why i use pressureless balls. You use them much much longer so you dont need to keep buying.
I use babolat gold academy balls.
A better solution is to use metal or glass balls 👍
@@Phurngirathaana The fuck are you on bro
@@Phurngirathaana yeah mate. Let me get my glass tennis ball for the comp lmao.
@7:17 those aren’t tennis ball that’s a tree that drops really big green fruit. Nearly tricked me!
You can repressurize old tennis balls in a corny keg if you want to reuse them till they are bald.
I am thankful to you for the content. Luckily i found your channel on RUclips now i can learn more about tennis rather than just playing it.
I was thinking about waste and tennis... as my local club goes thru so many balls, and when you watch the pros smash sticks, basically turning them into garbage, and when you re-string a stick, that left over racquet string waste.
Not a tennis fan. Been watching your channel for about a month now. Think it’s amazing that even with your love for the game you are aware of this is issue and bringing awareness to it!
Why u don’t like tennis?
Some links would have been dope for those ball recycle places
Cult tennis is actually the best RUclips channel
What a great video editing, so insterresting and cool. Keep the great work
Seriously. I go to a nice spot in Maine in the summer I’ll be honest there are two tennis courts that people can sign up to play on. The woods around it are littered with old tennis balls that cleared the fence. It’s kinda sad really.
Cult tennis is the gift that keeps on giving
Do you play tennis and care about environment. .? Try tennis ball presurizers, but only the ones with valve to increase pressure over 15psi (it works with bike tire pump). I.e brands like Head has already a contract with a ball pressurizer manufacturer and they sell them with Head Brand . I train occasionally on sundays, have 40 balls since more than a year, ,like felt stills ok due to ocasional use, i just mantain pressure with pump and use them like new balls, make your search on web, you'll see..!
I had no idea tennis balls saw this little use in their lifespan. Kids and families probably use tennis balls until they break but professionals use them for 30 minutes then throw away. Unbelievable
excellent, yet alarming video. thank you for posting it.
My friends and I try to get as much use out of a can of balls as possible, but I find using old balls hard on the elbow.
This was a mystery that has revealed to me just now. Thank you cult tennis for this video. Keep your content unique 🙌🏼
Anyone here ever played with those recycled/recyclable balls? How do they play compared to traditional balls?
I tried triniti. They are okay for practicing. But I would play a match. But try yourself, you might like it.
Those wilson balls are decent to drill with in some scenarios, but overall this "technology" radically changes the game for the worse in my opinion. Way to slow, may as well play pickle ball or something.
Having played tennis my entire life, maybe i'm wrong or just stupid, but what are you on about "only get 10 hours from a pack of tennis balls" Never heard so much bs in my life.
Bruh he’s right 😂 unless you’re on your first year of tennis or something
@@mike_404 nope I've played for a while and had packs of balls last far longer than that short amount of time
@@rufusaa well they last me maybe 15 tops
Triniti as bad as it gets. First first hour it feels like rock, but then ball gets naked. Felt doesn’t stay long.
That moment when you click on a video about tennis balls cause you're bored and find yourself crying by the end of it... Good work guys :)
Well im using trinity balls. Overall would be cool if pros would donate some money into that renewaball so that company would get some real founding and grow. You buy their balls, and you get %off if you give them ur old balls.
Yeah I wish that too, but unfortunately most pro tennis players are completely self centred and emotionally unintelligent and lack foresight concerning issues outside of their game.
I never realized u could only use a tennis ball like 2 sessions
Great video but I have not heard 1 good review of the triniti balls and personally don't like the way they play.
Great video as usual. Thanks for the info. Donating to TeamSeas now.
I use my tennis balls until they completely go flat. I hate throwing away any tennis balls that are remotely still shiny
I find it insane that people throw away their tennis balls that quickly. Professionals? sure, but everybody else? WTF! Me and my friend bought each 2 cans of 4 balls a few months back and we're still using the same ones, it's no big deal. Only recently have we considered buying some new ones but that's more because we lost a few and replaced some by others we found on court.
How are they not dead after months of use? After a few sessions all the pressure is completely gone and the ball unusable.
What would be a double win is if we came up with renewable balls that would undo the advantages gained by using ultra-light, ultra-powerful graphite rackets with large heads and very large sweet spots. These rackets not only force players to resort to incorrect grips and swings to control their power, but having done this those players now have an insurmountable advantage over any players who, for whatever reasons, still use the correct ground stroke techniques.
I switched to the Triniti because of the issue of waste. They're great balls and they last much longer. I also love the cardboard tube. Would be incredible if they eventually make them fully recyclable. I'll have to look into the ball recycle program to see how to get a box at my courts
+1 for Triniti
Love US Open feel but they don't last at all
@@bertieff From what I've noticed, the Trinitis never lose their bounce. The cover just wears thin and they start to sound like racquetballs and the bounce off the court starts to get inconsistent (probably because they no longer 'bite'). That said, one tube lasted for 5, 3-set sessions with my hitting partner over the course of 5 weeks. Probably well more than 100 games as we're pretty evenly matched. They're in my serve practice bucket now, but that is what I call longevity. And since they're still bouncy, I didn't even dispose of them like I would a pressurized ball.
I’m an environmentalist and tennis player - this video made me so happy (and sad!).
Usually the whole "donate 1$, remove 1 pound of plastic from the seaside" boils down to whatever company/NGO paying 20 cent/hour to someone who needs the job in an underdeveloped country at a spot where there are tons of plastic. Thus turning a huge profit on good people's acts and intentions. I'm not saying this project is doing so, just warning people who may not know about the practice.
That being said, amazing video as always. Very interesting, informative and entertaining!
Having played tennis in Zambia for years, I can confirm tennis balls can be used for years. Rain, sun, mud, dogs, tennis balls can still be used in a match
Thank you for this video! Becuase of this I negotiated to put a recycle bin for tennis balls in the local club I play in.
Being a tennis fan has never made me feel so guilty until now 😭
Are tennis balls really worn out so quickly? Or is it just a wasteful habit of tennis players?
In Europe, Tennis-Point is spreading recycling boxes especially for Tennis balls, such as the Wilson box in the video.
I would greatly appreciate if the outer layer will be made of natural fibres instead of the plastic ones. I sometimes see particles flow around me after big hits, some of them even fly into my mouth. And most balls look like shoven after just one hour. I occasionally pop one or two of them, even when they are new.
The Trinity ball is no solution however. These are terrible cannonballs, my arm even hurts when I just think about them. The pro version is no better.
Never thought about this! Great video
In love with this channel
As much as I love unboxing and using pressurized balls. I'm willing and going to make the change over to renewable balls. Ordering some Trinitis now!
Love the Team Seas concept. I just found it about it yesterday after watching Mark Robert's video. I will definitely donate 😁
Very important video! Thank you for educating me about this!
Please do an episode on poly strings. I play with full bed of Völkl Cyclones but it does go dead after 2 weeks of play (4-5x sessions per week). I can’t help to think that’s terrible for the environment as I’m cutting the strings each time. Yet with different companies using different additives, there’s no way it can be recycled?
1:14 I’m not trying to be rude or anything but I noticed that you said 1.2 billion people play or watch, but only around 325 million balls are made
325 million per year. Balls from previous years still exist too
If you watch Wimbledon on the tv you count as one of those people so not that many actually play
@@aaronusernamefiller9435 yep he threw that number in their to increase the hysteria. Lost me there. Plus I keep old balls for at least a year for practice sessions. And every club I know recycles. The device you're using to watch this video causes way more environmental damage than freakin tennis balls.
@@maynotreply3505 Why you mad when he speaking facts
@@maynotreply3505 Why are you in denial? It's not that insurmountable issue. Clubs may collect the balls, but have you asked where they go? Unlikely they are recycled (speaking as a former teaching pro).
Thank you for making this video and bringing light to this topic, I had never thought about it before
Great initiative to keep the planet and make the sport green
What a great video! Thank you
I love this channel so much
I cannot believe that in a such well edited video there is absolutely not one word mentioned about repressurization methods and that those revived balls provide the same performance as perfectly new 🎾 until the fleece holds up. So a pretty substantial amount of time. If you had done your research, and I believe you had, you 100% surely met this idea. Why did you not elaborate on that subject, as well?
Another brilliant video, glad to see a topic that regardless of tennis level we can all contribute to
pro tip: if you stay in the stadium long enough, you can just ask for a ball that the match was played with