My Volleyball is as hard as rock! What can I do to make it less hard?

Question

Please help me.

Ahh.

I want to play with it.

But everytime I hit it.

It really hurts!

Answer 1

uhh take some air out of it?

Answer 2

There's a little hole in the ball where air can be put in/released. Little hand held pumps work fine, and you can get them at sports stores or probably your neighborhood WalMart. You just need to get some of the air out of there. Right by the hole, it usually has numbers too, telling you how much air should typically be in there. I never really had a pump, but I noticed that the ball will deflate by itself over some time, but if you don't have the patience or time, you can do it manually.

Answer 3

You should pump up the ball so that you can make slight indents in the ball with your fingers when you press hard while holding it. Now, you may need to fix the amount of air in your ball, but if it's cheap, it's just cheap.

Walmart-type Cheap balls and net systems may be the death of recreational volleyball.

They sell balls with designer graphics that are as hard as a rock and beginners tend to think that that is what we play with. The net systems are just as crappy of quality. If you got a ball from a Walmart, Target-style store take it back and get your money back too.

Stores like Sports Authority, and most quality Sporting goods stores have Molten, Tachikara, Wilson, etc.

Baden is starting to get better but their reputation is poor now due to years of low quality balls, but for now, stay away from most other manufacturers.

Answer 4

let some of the air out of it

thats what my team had to do with our V-balls

Answer 5

our team's pump broke so what we did was put the volleyball in a warm place for like 2days and it was better

Answer 6

As stated above, you may have too much air in the ball.  

If the ball itself is hard and it does not have too much air, you have a different problem.  If it is a good volleyball, it is real leather.  And you got it wet.  You can go to a sporting goods store and buy a leather conditioner and HOPE that works.

If it is a cheap volleyball, it is going to hurt no matter what you do.

Answer 7

remove some air or just play with it a little and it will be broke in and lose some air

Answer 8

Take the ball to a place who normally pumps up balls and ask for the guy to let out some air for you?

It is simple to know how much air. You should be able to press your thumbs about 1/8th of a inch into the ball. The more air you let out, the softer it will be.

Whenever you purchase a new volleyball - it is usually pumped up too much (they never know how much air should be in it) - even a soft volleyball will be hard, with too much air pressure.

A very soft volleyball is the Mikasa Training Series VUL500 - it is lightweight too, and is especially for the 12 year olds and under. It is particularly good for beginners, at the right air pressure. It's like playing with an airbag or balloon.  It is too lightweight for competition games - but is serious fun. You can do amazing saves with it, and put extra spin onto the ball.

Adding to more fun than with a standard volleyball.

Players may say at first - "Oh, it's flat!" but it's not - it's just right! - they are just use to playing with rock hard volleyballs. You won't get any serious injuries with a soft volleyball, like broken fingers [a seriously bruised little finger can take up to two months to heal properly - who wants to endure that kind of pain, and anxiety?]. Long time players end up with mangled fingers - when you clench your hand into a fist, you can see how out of alignment they are... All of that can be avoided completely.

A volleyball turns 'hard' because it is used where it shouldn't be. Any expensive indoor volleyball - should be used inside only - using it outside on a hard surface or at the beach, makes the outside skin turn hard.  Same with it being pumped up with too much air for a very long period of time.

An indoor volleyball should be used indoor only, or on grass.  You can purchase a cheap practice volleyball, for use outside, on any surface.

Answer 9

take a pump, and remove the needle from it. push the needle (detached from the pump) into the ball and air should begin to come out. just add/remove air until you've got it right.

Answer 10

Following up with what gordon and Dan said...

You have to realize, you get waht you pay for. Now, with that said, you want to get a pressure gauge and a ball pump.

Almost every ball states the inflation range near the hole used

to inflate. For instance Tachikara says inflate from 4-6 lbs. The standard rule is to use the gauge and measure how much is there. Inflate to the middle of the stated range or maybe a tad bit higher. With Tachikara, I always inflate the ball to 5lbs, with Molten inflate to 4.5 lbs

Answer 11

If the ball was made with non-leather material, even if you bought it soft, it will become hard very quickly. My boy had a Nike ball from Big5 (received as a birthday gift), and I am using it for warm up just to have one more ball to throw but I don't want to bump it.

Top names are Tachikara, Molten, and Mikasa, but be careful they also make cheap balls. Make sure you choose leather indoor volleyball.

If you can invest $40-50, you should be able to find a good ball at Amazon or any other sporting goods website. Walk-in stores may not carry those "good balls".

You may also try the Wilson in Costco, which is probably soft enough and cheap enough, and most importantly comes with Costco's customer satisfaction guarantee.

Here below are some examples of good volleyballs:

http://www.amazon.com/Tachikara-SV5W-Com...

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det...

http://www.sportsauthority.com/product/i...

20% off TSAWIN

Answer 12

its too pumped up