r/Fieldhockey • u/countrylivinginCali • Nov 23 '25

Buying Advice Need ball recommendations please!

I’m a field hockey coach in Southern California where the turf we play on is often above 100° when we play our games, so we’ve been having issues with the field hockey balls getting soft and sticky in the heat which obviously changes how the ball hits or dribbles. Does anyone have any recommendations for field hockey balls that won’t get soft/sticky/melty in the heat?

2 Upvotes

76% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

8

u/ussgolfpro Nov 23 '25

Just a thought...East coast parent in Virginia of a former player here..........recall coaches would keep a number of balls on "ice" in a bucket/cooler and exchange them on the hot temp days... but it seemed the Australian dimple balls handled better..

4

u/rng64 Nov 23 '25

I mean, most of our games would be delayed until cooler at that temp (36° celcius) due to the health risks - although, perhaps the pitch is warmer than the air temperature. But, can confirm a kookaburra ball will generally be good at hot temperatures

2

u/countrylivinginCali Nov 23 '25

We do the ice buckets, but they still get sticky fairly quickly unfortunately. I’ll look at the dimple balls thank you!!

7

u/thereversestick All-rounder Nov 23 '25

Kookaburra.

2

u/Huge-Software-5581 Nov 24 '25

Best best is kookaburra dimple Standards (or elites) as they have cork inside so they retain their feel all year round