Senoh - screw on
There are many imitations of the original Senoh antenna and they are usually cheap crap. The plastic bits you screw onto the net chord will go brittle and break or get filled with sand and jam. The Senoh ones won’t do this and will last for years. These antennas will stay on your net even with the ball hitting them at the hardest speed possible from human hands. So in my opinion they are the best. Putting a white line up the inside of the antenna to mimic the outline of the court is a stupid addition and completely unnecessary. The referee is looking for any touch of the ball on the antenna for it to be called out and having a white tape there does nothing to help with this nor does it make any difference to the players.
Funtec - velcro sleeve
These can move or even fall right off when the ball hits either the antenna or the sleeve making them not ideal for competitive play as adjustment may be needed mid game. Worst case if it falls off the antenna could poke someone in the eye or elsewhere potentially causing a significant injury.
Independent–inside net sleeve
Often 8 metre nets have a sleeve space in the ends that the antenna can be slid into. The 8m Funtec nets (made to order) do this and while it seems the perfect solution as it's much neater and can't fall off, it also requires the net to be exactly at 8m which can be an issue if the net stretches a bit which many of them seem to do. Then the antennas can be leaning outwards as it's only the top of the net that tends to stretch. It's also more work to keep an 8m net perfectly in line with the sidelines but it does look much more professional and clean than a longer net. This however, would be my preferred option for an international event.
No sleeve or screw on? Use bicycle tube!
If you just have plain antenna with no sleeves or screw attachments then you can get an old bike tube and cut rings like thick rubber bands and attach a plain antenna to the net using a band top and bottom of each antenna.
Comments