As an amateur boxtrainer, professor Bai Rong was very concerned about his protégés’ health. A specially designed boxing glove, made of a volleyball’s rubber bladder, was initially meant to make training less dangerous. It did not take the students and the professor long to discover the joy of tossing the bladder in bowls. Soon, the bowls turned into a wok.

It is quite challenging to keep a ball up in the air without having it come to rest. It requires team work and skillfulness. The trajectory has to be anticipated and the bladder has to be received and released with just the right momentum.

However, unwieldy kitchen objects do not lend themselves to ball sports and so a badminton racket was eventually repurposed. The Bailongball racket prototype was born. What is special about the racket is its playing surface. Special? Indeed! The racket is not built to hit the ball. Its special surface is used to redirect the ball’s trajectory. Once on the racket, the ball only leaves it when the player wants it to.

The swinging and arc-like moves keep the ball on the racket, thanks to centrifugal force. Bailongball distinguishes itself by elegance, smoothness and quietness.