Good alternative to tennis balls...

Okay, so I've been spinning for a while, and just bought LED poi, and practice poi. While I was use to tennis balls and socks, these poi created a lot more weight and I come to find out that I am more comfortable with heavy poi. I've been on the lookout for so many types of things to use, but nothing works as good as just weighing the tennis ball down, but this annoys me, because if you don't secure the items inside the tennis ball correctly, they are loose, and throws off your spins. But of course, if you add to much to do so, they become too heavy.

Then I come accross these:
http://www.homeofpoi.com/shop/productDetails/Single-MB-72mm-Stage-Contact-Juggling-Ball

They are the same size as a tennis ball, double the weight (which still isn't that much, but seems to be what I am looking for), and while it doesn't say specifically, seem to have a soft surface.

Just wondering if anyone else has came accross this and tried it out, and what the outcome was? Of even if anyone else has a better alternative?

Rice in balloon http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMOtchpP8A

I think the 72mm or 80mm balls are the best mix of weight and non-deadliness. If you don't mind deadliness and the lack of a spherical shape, a good mountain bike innertube weighs 200+g, which is what I've mainly been using lately. But they're pretty hard.

I second the rice idea, though I just stick it a cupful or so in the sock and tie it off.

Yeah it's also by far the cheapest. And a full cup is a lot o0 It doesn't need to be very big at all.

Or take a tennis ball and a syringe with a heavy duty needle and inject it with water. You do not need to do anything beyond that even. (I have about 16 sets of juggling balls made like this for workshops.)

The hole closes due to the rubber and the air is forced through the water, so pretty easy.

(It should take about 60ml of H2O. I think it was around that anyway. Yes, we measured and took an average.)

Maybe my cup is small #) - I weighed it, 115g of rice.

i used rice on my old socks and put 1 1/2 cup of rice each sock. it's kinda heavy but i kinda like the weight. great in iso's, hybrid and other stuff, except when hitting your balls accidentally is a pain! but still you'll live!

http://www.homeofpoi.com/shop/productDetails/Pair-of-Pendulum-Contact-Poi-with-80mm-Balls

these are the best poi i've ever used so i think you're going in the right direction

i just made a pair of these kind of poi. it is almost equal the weight of my sock poi using rice as weights. but the only problem with pendulum poi is that when you're holding the rope, it will somehow twist and when this happens, it won't spin as better as the socks because it will creat some kind of a resistance as you are spinning. it is just hard for me to do hybrids and isolations with this poi. maybe i'm just adjusting to the new feeling because i'm used to playing with my sock poi. hehehe!

what about hot glue in a tennis ball?

johndaive: You can adjust for the twist partially by playing around with your hand motions, and partially by making the hole in the juggling ball big enough so that the rope can turn a little. They took some getting used to, but I don't have problems with them kinking anymore.

sister eleven: thanks! i would do that right now... i'll probably play around with it a little more often.

For the kinking, I imagine that being a proficient lasso-er would help out ^_^.
I still can't spin those right.

How are the contact ball poi that HoP carries, as far as this "kinking" is concerned? I was thinking of picking up a pair in leiu of making a pair as they look pretty suave.

As far as what I've been using for weight.... Juggling ball sock poi. They are about 120ish g in weight, so it works well for learning stalls and isos.

Also water balloons! I forgot about that. That's good if your socks aren't stretchy for sure.

Actually, starting this thread, this was my original idea. Juggling balls in sock poi, but all the other ideas seem to be something else to look into :]

Though I wasn't too fancy on the rice. Not exactly sure what it was, but something made it awkward swinging? Maybe it was just too much weight when I did it.

As for the tennis ball+water, great idea, I would of never thought of it, but does the water not seep through eventually?

Probably. A friend has some of the prototypes from last year and there are no problems yet and he juggles them constantly. Older balls (like the dead ones we got for nothing for the workshop sets) may have some leakage, but nothing major and even after a few months (admittedly of not particularly heavy use) they are fine.

Some of them have lost enough that they slosh, but at least for juggling it made no difference.