Where to buy Molten's for Cheap?

[BearClause]

bunnywailer said:

Hey when you are done weighing all those old balls and measuring each panel, will you show us your comic book collection too? LOL.

Gave that up a while ago. ;D

I'm an engineer. While I may not be an expert in everything, learning to look stuff up is part of the job. Useless technical details fascinate me. I've got my old Tachi right here with me, and if there's anything different, it's not the weight.

A Molten Pro-Touch doesn't necessarily weigh any more than any other official size/weight volleyball including the ones that **ahem** chicks dig. There is something uniquely different about the Pro-Touch though. It probably does fly truer and is harder to "float". It feels like a rock to dig. If you hit it just right, it sounds like it was shot from a cannon. That doesn't mean it's heavier. I've hit around a few of the all-white Pro-Touch balls when I learned how to play. I loved to hit 'em but hated digging them. Some instructors would start the session by pulling out all of the Moltens first because there were too many complaints.

[donneyp]

I coach a the men and women at my school. The men's team is still club so we've been using the women's Super touches and they are beat to hell in no time. We go varsity next year and need to by 20+ Pro-touches, plus replace the super touches that we will have destroyed.

And what you are telling me is, if I want to use a pro-touch for the women's home matches there is no rule saying that I can't do that? Essentially, we practice with a ball no one else uses, and use that to magnify the home court edge...and thats 100% legal?
Or if my team is having trouble with ball control, I can pull out the tachikara and we can play with that?
Can I pull out the pro-touch for one match, and then pull out the taches for another, maximizing my relative advantage?

FYI... I was at the Florida girls camp a couple years ago. They had a cabinet full of each type of ball. If they were going to play a baden team - out came the badens. If they were playing a spalding team? Ok, they practice with those that week. It really is kind of sick that it can get THAT specific when preparing for a match.

[IdahoBoy]

I remember reading somewhere a coach kept the heat way up in his home gym and ran the basketballs through the dryer before each game... I recall hearing that was legal, too.

[BearClause]

donneyp said:

I coach a the men and women at my school. The men's team is still club so we've been using the women's Super touches and they are beat to hell in no time. We go varsity next year and need to by 20+ Pro-touches, plus replace the super touches that we will have destroyed.

And what you are telling me is, if I want to use a pro-touch for the women's home matches there is no rule saying that I can't do that? Essentially, we practice with a ball no one else uses, and use that to magnify the home court edge...and thats 100% legal?
Or if my team is having trouble with ball control, I can pull out the tachikara and we can play with that?
Can I pull out the pro-touch for one match, and then pull out the taches for another, maximizing my relative advantage?

It's all within the rulebook. That doesn't mean that a league wouldn't get all huffy because they sense some sort of unfair shenanigans. I remember there was nothing between the student section and floor at Haas Pavilion for men's basketball. They proceeded to place some high-priced folding chairs between the court and student section as a "buffer" when there were complaints of an unfair advantage. The floorplan met all NCAA rulebook requirements.

I do remember one team switching from one of the squishy Mikasa models to the Spalding TF4000 midseason, but that was a unique case that may have involved mass theft of balls from ball carts (or so went the rumor). They're not all that different anyways.

You don't suppose that potential non-league opponents might not find about it and choose not schedule on that basis that the equipment used it unusual for the women's game?

FYI... I was at the Florida girls camp a couple years ago. They had a cabinet full of each type of ball. If they were going to play a baden team - out came the badens. If they were playing a spalding team? Ok, they practice with those that week. It really is kind of sick that it can get THAT specific when preparing for a match.

They really do all feel different. I guess that's why so many love the consistency in the equipment used for US men's collegiate volleyball programs.

[CityTechLegend]

donneyp said:

I coach a the men and women at my school. The men's team is still club so we've been using the women's Super touches and they are beat to hell in no time. We go varsity next year and need to by 20+ Pro-touches, plus replace the super touches that we will have destroyed.

And what you are telling me is, if I want to use a pro-touch for the women's home matches there is no rule saying that I can't do that? Essentially, we practice with a ball no one else uses, and use that to magnify the home court edge...and thats 100% legal?
Or if my team is having trouble with ball control, I can pull out the tachikara and we can play with that?
Can I pull out the pro-touch for one match, and then pull out the taches for another, maximizing my relative advantage?

FYI... I was at the Florida girls camp a couple years ago. They had a cabinet full of each type of ball. If they were going to play a baden team - out came the badens. If they were playing a spalding team? Ok, they practice with those that week. It really is kind of sick that it can get THAT specific when preparing for a match.

BOTH balls (red/white/blue and columbia blue/white/grey) are sanctioned NCAA balls. What BClaus is saying is that there is NO SET GUIDELINES as to what ball you SHOULD use as long as the ball used is OK by SPEC. In other words size, shape and weight of the balls must be to SPEC. The Moltens that you see in this thead are the OFFICIAL NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP Volleyballs produced by Molten for the men and women, that's all.
Hense the afore mentioned Pacific using an orange/white/black ball that looked like a "pumkin."
Most schools decide to use the Molten balls for either men or women during their season for familiarity. It makes life easier. I use both balls in my women's and men's practices. I have to admit that the cotton sub-cover of the Super Touch gets beat up quicker than the Pro Touch nylon sub-cover.
The Pro Touch reminds me if the OLD MIKASA ball. The "PING" ball as we used to call it. You would hit that ball and hear that "ping," like a bell, ring through a gym. When a guy hit that ball just right, it would shatter eardrums. The sound would resonate across courts and people would stop to see who hit the ball that hard. AWESOME stuff.

Does anyone else remember that ball??? The original Molten form about TEN years ago was exactly like that ball. I actually have one of those and I have my men's team practtice hitting off the wall with that ball. It was also one of the heaviest ball I ever had the pleasure of hitting, serving and my fave, DIGGING. That ball just wouldn't move for anything. It would bounce off your arms like a lead brick. BEST BALL EVER!!!

I loved that Mikasa/Molten Original Pro Touch.

[BearClause]

nycitytechcoach said:

BOTH balls (red/white/blue and columbia blue/white/grey) are sanctioned NCAA balls. What BClaus is saying is that there is NO SET GUIDELINES as to what ball you SHOULD use as long as the ball used is OK by SPEC. In other words size, shape and weight of the balls must be to SPEC. The Moltens that you see in this thead are the OFFICIAL NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP Volleyballs produced by Molten for the men and women, that's all.
Hense the afore mentioned Pacific using an orange/white/black ball that looked like a "pumkin."

Players are so used to colored-paneled volleyballs these days that I'm sure nothing short of hot pink would distract anyone.

Even if the equipment is theoretically within spec, I'd expect there to be complaints lodged with official bodies (conference or NCAA) if anything is unusual. It might even be within a ref's discretion to stop a contest if the equipment is that much different. I know a ref I might be able to ask.

Update: I grabbed my Mikasa MG-MVL200 blue/white/yellow "Olympic Ball" and set it on a digital postal scale - 9.3. oz - at the lower end of the NCAA/FiVB/USAVB weight spec. This is the same ball that I've had people tell me to put away because it was "too hard".

[BearClause]

donneyp said:

And what you are telling me is, if I want to use a pro-touch for the women's home matches there is no rule saying that I can't do that? Essentially, we practice with a ball no one else uses, and use that to magnify the home court edge...and thats 100% legal?

I got the answer back from the ref I know. He said a Pro-Touch for women's VB would present no problem from his perspective.

However - some conferences apparently approve specific volleyball models for conference play, and he cited one case where a team used a different (not yet conference approved) ball in their non-conference season and an approved ball for the conference season. Sounds to me like an equipment contract may have been involved. He also stated that there might be conference minimum requirements for identical volleyballs in the ball carts. Now that I think of it, all I saw last season in the Cal ball carts were Molten (NCAA Tournament) Super-Touch.

I'd think that anyone pulling a stunt of switching equipment from week to week would get badmouthed for it, and deservedly so.

Anyone know of any team that actually uses a Tachikara as their game ball?

[donneyp]

Even without doing anything shady, this is an opportunity to save money. If the women play with the pro-touches in the fall, they should survive then the guys are going to beat the daylights out of whatever ball they have anyway, but instead of buying and replacing 2 sets of balls, you can replace 1.

[eastcoastvb]

I coach at a boys team at a high school and I am trying to move from the tachikara's to Molten Pro-touches. One of the reasons is that a majority of my boys play club and love to play with Moltens. The main reason for me is that they last so much longer.

Tachikara silvers are horrible in the fact that their bladders do not last a season. The golds are better but the leather on them will tear or wear out through constant use.

Another thing Moltens ship their balls fully inflated. Tachikaras come uniflated and what you get are creases throughout the leather that never come out.

[BearClause]

eastcoastvb said:

Another thing Moltens ship their balls fully inflated. Tachikaras come uniflated and what you get are creases throughout the leather that never come out.

Maybe if you buy in bulk, but the retail version comes inflated in a cardboard box. I bought mine from a volleyball specific store and it was deflated when I got it.

[fingrbustr]

Our Moltens come inflated, but they still need air for proper playing pressure (say that 3x fast).