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What Colour Is A Tennis Ball?

What Colour Is A Tennis Ball?

  • Green

    Votes: 3 9.7%

  • Yellow

    Votes: 24 77.4%

  • Not Sure

    Votes: 4 12.9%
  • Total voters
    31
Yithian

Yithian

Parish Watch
Staff member
Joined
Oct 29, 2002
Messages
36,465
Location
East of Suez
I find this recent polling intriguing.

F2IcIBhXgAEBMZT.jpeg.jpg


Obviously there are differing brands and hues and the specific type of ball being referred to in the question is left unsaid, but that is a remarkable generation break.

As a member of the 25 to 49 cohort, I would probably have said 'green' and been thinking of the balls I played with while growing up in the 80s (not professional balls on television).

Is there some obvious reason for the glaring disparity by age? Was there a song that referenced yellow balls or an 'original ball' that specified yellow (although they used to be white)? Why is there no cultural consensus on this matter like there is with bananas and the sun (in the West!).

The 'not sure' number is also pretty low; respondees largely know what they believe on this matter.

(I have deliberately not inserted 'both' so as to see whether our results match those in the poll)

Much thoughtful discussion of the matter here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/02/what-color-tennis-ball-green-yellow/523521/
 
They are a sort of greenish yellow (and not the other way around).

They were changed from white to yellow to make them more visible on the TV. Too green, and it would defeat the object.

Therefore, because I "know" that they are yellow, that's how they look to me!

The "professional" balls you mention are commonly used by mere club hackers such as me, too. Can't think how many tins of Slazenger Wimbledon Hi-Vis I've opened over the years (and tried to avoid slicing my fingers on the ring pull).
 
Stormkhan said:
I don't understand the problem.
When I was a nipper, the tennis balls we had started out white, becoming grey over time, while the 'professionals' we saw had bright yellow.
Yellow to stand out against grass?
Click to expand...

There's not a problem, but (if I have your age correct) 41% of your peers disagree with you.

If I had conducted a different poll first, asking whether the respondee believed that most people would agree on the colour of tennis balls (along with other items, carrots, for example), but not mentioning any specific colours, I strongly suspect most people would assume others agreed with them and opt for a high level of agreement.
 
Yup, when I was a kid (60s/early '70s) tennis balls were white/grubby grey. I didn't play tennis or take any interest in it after leaving school so after that I'd mainly see tennis balls being thrown for dogs. At some point the bright yellow ones appeared.

Techy was a school champion tennis player so I'll ask him.
 
I'm 59, so it's only 28% disagreement. ;)
I see what you mean, but is this disagreement - in any age bracket - a faulty memory, word association (y'know, tennis - grass - green) or even the suspicion of a 'trick question'?
The question encourages recollection, but to me, it's not an issue. The majority of people recall tennis being played on grass, even though clay court or, on the local level, tarmac. So why make a tennis ball the same colour as the grass court? Sure - the question might've been any alternative colour - red, blue etc. - but this proposal would be too blatant.
So, I suppose the real issue is ... what makes so many people give a blatantly wrong answer?

Addendum: perhaps the pollsters are interested in which generation can be duped into a false proposition.
 
From the LTA. Different colours for different age groups.

I'm often asked the difference between the various coloured tennis balls, and when each one should be used. In a nutshell, they are designed for specific age-groups:
  • Red for 8&U players - the ball is not pressurised and so bounces slowly and high, hence staying in the air longer and so easier to hit
  • Orange - slightly pressurised, and so a little faster
  • Green - pressurised to 50% of a yellow-ball, allowing the ball to fly through the air a little slower allowing the child more time to get to the ball now that they are playing on the full-sized tennis court
  • Yellow - fully pressurised and when they bounce, they bounce!
When children start playing at say aged 2or 3 years old, they will start on the red ball (or even foam balls!). They can stay on the red ball right until just before their 9th birthday! So a long time! And we use this time to develop their shots, learn the game, fall in love with the game and introduce competition.
 
I thought they were fluorescent yellow - so that shade of yellow that's almost veering into the green spectrum (she said, hedging her bets_.

Or maybe that's because the only contact I have with tennis balls is buying the ones that you throw for a dog.
 
I'm 70 I'd agree with @escargot. Courts were grass (Brown or green) or tarmac (dark grey) Balls were white turning light grey then yellow started to appear.
@Tempest63 post is interesting - was that always the case or was this introduced at some point after the 70s?

Cricket balls however were always red, I assume like British army uniforms so as not to show the blood. :)
 
catseye said:
Or maybe that's because the only contact I have with tennis balls is buying the ones that you throw for a dog.
Click to expand...
We cannot venture out without the dogs finding a cheap yellow tennis ball.
Unfortunately the ones they lose are the expensive Chuckit balls. Though just checking the price on Amazon two balls have dropped from £11.99 to £8.99. Curiously three balls of the same size are selling for £15.46.
 
That's very interesting and surprising to me too.

I think my thought process went like this... they're fluorescent aren't they... (comparison against mental representation of the fluorescent Stabilo boss highlighter pens of which I was so proud as a schoolchild - blue, pink, yellow and green) - definitely yellow. I suppose actual tennis balls might be green compared to the yellow of a dandelion, but that wasn't my go-to fluorescent colour scale.

I do think the whole subject of colour naming/perception in different cultures and languages is super interesting. Like the word 'glas' in Welsh being mostly for what English speakerswould call blue, but you can also apply it to foliage.

Edit - I noticed on Amazon there are Wilson tennis balls in a tube that actually says "Starter Green" (allegedly slower balls for people starting to play) - yet the descriptionof the product calls the colour yellow, confusingly. But I wonder if Young People are seeing the word green on the tube... is that conceivable
 
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Eponastill said:
That's very interesting and surprising to me too.

I think my thought process went like this... they're fluorescent aren't they... (comparison against mental representation of the fluorescent Stabilo boss highlighter pens of which I was so proud as a schoolchild - blue, pink, yellow and green) - definitely yellow. I suppose actual tennis balls might be green compared to the yellow of a dandelion, but that wasn't my go-to fluorescent colour scale.

I do think the whole subject of colour naming/perception in different cultures and languages is super interesting. Like the word 'glas' in Welsh being mostly for what English speakerswould call blue, but you can also apply it to foliage.

Edit - I noticed on Amazon there are Wilson tennis balls in a tube that actually says "Starter Green" (allegedly slower balls for people starting to play) - yet the descriptionof the product calls the colour yellow, confusingly. But I wonder if Young People are seeing the word green on the tube... is that conceivable
Click to expand...

In my Cornish (closely related to Welsh) lexicon, glas is translated as blue/green.
Probably similar to what was "cyan" on the old Spectrum computer:

cyan.png
 
Tempest63 said:
From the LTA. Different colours for different age groups.

I'm often asked the difference between the various coloured tennis balls, and when each one should be used. In a nutshell, they are designed for specific age-groups:
  • Red for 8&U players - the ball is not pressurised and so bounces slowly and high, hence staying in the air longer and so easier to hit
  • Orange - slightly pressurised, and so a little faster
  • Green - pressurised to 50% of a yellow-ball, allowing the ball to fly through the air a little slower allowing the child more time to get to the ball now that they are playing on the full-sized tennis court
  • Yellow - fully pressurised and when they bounce, they bounce!
When children start playing at say aged 2or 3 years old, they will start on the red ball (or even foam balls!). They can stay on the red ball right until just before their 9th birthday! So a long time! And we use this time to develop their shots, learn the game, fall in love with the game and introduce competition.
Click to expand...

stop giving us useful, relevant and valid information! Jeez! :rollingw:
 
escargot said:
Yup, when I was a kid (60s/early '70s) tennis balls were white/grubby grey.
Click to expand...
When I was a kid (60's), 'tennis' balls were gray and used for footie in the playground (everyone had one in their pocket) - who the heck played tennis whilst at Primary School ?
 
Tempest63 said:
From the LTA. Different colours for different age groups.

I'm often asked the difference between the various coloured tennis balls, and when each one should be used. In a nutshell, they are designed for specific age-groups:
  • Red for 8&U players - the ball is not pressurised and so bounces slowly and high, hence staying in the air longer and so easier to hit
  • Orange - slightly pressurised, and so a little faster
  • Green - pressurised to 50% of a yellow-ball, allowing the ball to fly through the air a little slower allowing the child more time to get to the ball now that they are playing on the full-sized tennis court
  • Yellow - fully pressurised and when they bounce, they bounce!
When children start playing at say aged 2or 3 years old, they will start on the red ball (or even foam balls!). They can stay on the red ball right until just before their 9th birthday! So a long time! And we use this time to develop their shots, learn the game, fall in love with the game and introduce competition.
Click to expand...

This only offers a solution if we know when the system came into effect.

Not being a tennis player, my primary experience of tennis balls is a) from 'ball games' in P.E. and the playground, b) of cheap specimens of budget brands that may or may not adhere to the system your quote, c) swingball in the garden, the hue of which I recall as being retina-burningly flourescent green.
 
Bald tennis balls were IIRC black. There were a lot of those about, and partly bald ones where the hair was reduced to a sort of designer fuzz.
 
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An odd memory I have concerning tennis balls is in the early 70's, my sister was 12-14. I recall her playing a game with a neighbour where they had a tennis ball in the toe of a stocking or one leg of a pair of tights. They took turns with their backs to a bare wall to swing the ball like a cosh to hit the wall, in turn over each shoulder, next to each hip, then next to each knee, finishing with one between the legs and one over their head. This was accompanied by a 'skipping' song. Each participant would follow the pattern until the tennis 'weapon' hit the body, when it became the next players turn.
Though an impact would sting, it was a non-lethal version of the old "knife-point between the fingers" thing. :)
 
Stormkhan said:
An odd memory I have concerning tennis balls is in the early 70's, my sister was 12-14. I recall her playing a game with a neighbour where they had a tennis ball in the toe of a stocking or one leg of a pair of tights. They took turns with their backs to a bare wall to swing the ball like a cosh to hit the wall, in turn over each shoulder, next to each hip, then next to each knee, finishing with one between the legs and one over their head. This was accompanied by a 'skipping' song. Each participant would follow the pattern until the tennis 'weapon' hit the body, when it became the next players turn.
Though an impact would sting, it was a non-lethal version of the old "knife-point between the fingers" thing. :)
Click to expand...

I remember seeing my sister and other girls doing that. Back to the wall and bouncing the ball in various patterns. A sort of nunchucks training only with a sock and a (yellow) tennis ball.
 
Ascalon said:
Interestingly, in Irish there are a few words for green, but natural green, as in grass, foliage, etc, is glas, sounding like gloss.
Click to expand...
Not sure of the connection, or shared root, but the gallowglass, or galloglas, were a class of mercenary troops from Ireland/Scotland from 13th - 16th century.
 
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