Ultra Clear Acrylic Ball

Item sold individually. The ball is delivered surrounded by protective foam, in a bag.

You can't read the future in these balls yet, but you can definitely read a book through them! Don't go breaking your neck!

Top quality!

Here we have an acrylic ball of incomparable quality. Perfectly round and ultra transparent, this ball is simply exceptional.

At the beginning of the creation, the acrylic ball is in liquid form, like a kind of acrylic syrup. It is then necessary to add a catalyst which will harden the ball.
In order for the ball to harden faster, some manufacturers will add more of this catalyst. Thus, they will be able to produce more balls and be more profitable. The concern is that the more catalyst you add, the less clear the ball will be.
This acrylic ball has been hardened with as little catalyst as possible. It took longer to dry but it is much more transparent than the rest of the acrylics that can be found on the market.

The difference in transparency in photos:

As you can see in this picture, the difference between lambda acrylics and Play's ULTRA CLEAR acrylics is obvious!

What size of acrylic should I buy?

If you ask 10 different people who practice, you will certainly get 10 different answers... But still, here are some tips given by Pich which I took the liberty of modifying a little with his permission. Thank you Pich for this information:

The size of the balls is chosen according to several criteria:

The visual rendering: The bigger the balls, the more visible they are and the more impressive it is. On the other hand, the light play is about the same with small balls or large ones. Visually, it is a bit of a shame to "handle" balls smaller than 70mm.

The tricks you want to do: If you want to practice with 5 balls in one hand, do not order 100 mm balls!! 70 mm maximum. And for small hands, 65 mm will be more suitable.

Hand size: At a certain stage, when the balls are too big, you can't do certain tricks. Thus, the thumb pushed pyramid flip will be more difficult to perform as the thumb may be too short. For example, Pich: hand wide open and fingers apart, measuring from the tip of his thumb to the tip of his little finger, 22cm. To start with a hand size like this, he recommends 75mm max.

The fluidity you want to have: It will be easier to be fluid with 75mm balls than with 85mm balls (for tricks with 6, 7 and 8 balls).

Fun: Some get more pleasure from bigger balls. Someone experienced will often tell you that they started with 70mm balls then a batch of 75mm then a batch of 80mm then a new batch of 85mm. Hard to go back! On the other hand, each time, it takes a rather long period of two or three months to get used to the new size. Long and difficult period (it can hurt your hands!) and during this period there is a loss of pleasure since you can no longer do certain tricks. It's gradually that you end up slowly re-doing (almost) all your tricks.

The weight of the balls: This is the central criterion in fact. We must choose the balls according to our muscular resistance, our propensity to catch tendonitis, our practice time, our regularity, etc... The ideal is still to be able to try with the balls of other manipulators.

Our muscular resistance: to "manipulate", you need to have relatively strong forearms and a really strong back. At the same time, the more you manipulate, the more your body will adapt to the manipulation. An average guy can handle 75mm. If you are less strong, then why not go down to 70mm.

Tendinitis: Some with 70mm get tendonitis in 10 minutes! If you are predisposed to it, do not manipulate with acrylics, period! (Hey Pich, what about my acrylic business then??!!!??)

Practice Time: If you practice more than 6 hours a week (that's what Pich does) then feel free to go big as you'll soon get used to the large size of your balls. If you practice little, it will take you time to get used to the size of your balls (their weight and size) and then you risk becoming discouraged. Do two minutes of manipulation, then you release everything for 2 minutes then you take them back for 2 minutes to release them completely and go juggle with something else!! ;o)

So if you don't practice much, I would recommend 70 mm. In a manipulation session, it can take a good half hour of practice to get really hot and do what you want with your balls.

Regularity of practice : it equals the time of practice but the more regular you are, the more your back will accept the manipulation and therefore the more you will support the big balls.

Level of practice: If you are a beginner, do not take more than 75mm, unless you are sure you are really doing a lot. Pich specifies that if he had started with 80mm, he does not know if he would have continued for a long time.

The pyramid with 75 mm does not come so quickly when you start, although it is still a relatively enjoyable figure. If you're not just starting out, it's because you already have balls and it's up to you whether you want to go bigger or not.

And to change ball size, it is always possible to resell your batch of used balls, which makes the new batch cheaper :-).

With intensive practice, a set of balls will last for approximately 3 years. Afterwards, they are so smashed that they can be transformed into bouncing balls!!