It's the WPA's rules concerning the condition of the balls.
It's interesting, because it is completely contrary to the popular practice of waxing or polishing balls with some type of wax, polishing compound or whatever.
I agree with the WPA. Treating the ball surface to make it slicker is not good. All you are doing is temporarily changing the playing characteristics of the balls. This is inconsistent. They play more consistently when they are clean without wax or polish.
People like that super slick surface because it cuts down on the throw. The balls also break easier. I see no value in doing that since you then transition to playing in a pool room or tournament with dull balls and now the balls react differently from what you are used to. Not an issue if all you do is play on your own table all the time.
I used to polish the balls but have stopped. The reason why is the inconsistency I've mentioned previously. That slick condition doesn't last anywhere near as long as it should to make it worthwhile in addition to that slickness being vastly different from pool room conditions. Within a few racks even on a home table, you can tell the difference. They're not as slick after a few racks. It then begins to go downhill real fast after that.
That's probably why you hear a lot of people mention they polish the balls every other day or every day. That's far too frequent. But goes to show how futile ball polishing is and how short lived the effects are. This is because the amount of friction caused by the cloth is vastly underestimated. Immediately, it is rubbing the polished surface off the balls on every single moment of contact or travel. Balls that go from still to a few MPH in an instant creates a lot of friction and heat. To make matters worse, a polished ball has a film on it. This film of wax (or whatever other polish), attracts a lot of chalk and nearly invisible "fuzz" off the table from the fibers. Sticks right to the balls. So they get grungy and slow down faster. This goes away as it all eventually wipes off onto the cloth due to high friction.
A perfectly clean ball, whose surface is dry and clean of any substance will not pick up as much chalk and other particles. It will play the same way for much, much longer than a polished ball.
I know this is ball condition heresy what I'm saying, but it's true.
Waxing the balls is also a solution to a problem that doesn't exist. A ball that is in good condition, that is totally clean will not suffer from excessive cling and throw effects. You won't get chronic skids. They play just fine as is. All waxing does is let people shoot total point of impact on the object ball and not have to deal with cut induced throw. I think that's a disservice to one's game and maintaining super slick balls is a hassle and a chore.
Soap and water here and there, wipe down with a towel and everything is fine.
