Heavy balls? Total control balls?

Good? Bad? Ugly?
Wanted to know your opinion on their use. A hitting guru says that using weighted balls is his no. 2 best tip. Improves intention of hitting the ball hard. Thoughts?

I was AC on a team where coach used them...they worked great for before game warmups could just find an area off to side a girls could make full contact swings and the ball just goes a little ways plus you can front toss without net. We would line up and each take three girls one girl hits other two stand behind the coach doing front toss shagging balls hit some then rotate easier than having nets and dedicated batting cage etc. I wouldn't used it all the time for everything but I think it can be helpful for certain situations.

These are great in my opinion.

Very useful, better than soft toss into a net because the ball is coming in like a pitch. But you have to have a coach pitch whereas with a net a teammate can toss. Girls will often develop a 'soft toss-net swing', kind of a smooth, medium effort, repeating action, which can creep into their game swing. When I'm doing it I will always ask the girls about their 'off the sweet spot' contact, which is easier to detect with these balls. I will also play a line drive game with them where I ask them to hit liners right back into my glove. It really helps them to have a goal or an 'intent' when they hit, most of the time they are just focusing on contact.

I never liked them. Ball falls quickly causing a steep falling angle and that affects swing path. I always prefer wiffles from about 25 feet.

ArmWhip said:

Very useful, better than soft toss into a net because the ball is coming in like a pitch. But you have to have a coach pitch whereas with a net a teammate can toss. Girls will often develop a 'soft toss-net swing', kind of a smooth, medium effort, repeating action, which can creep into their game swing. When I'm doing it I will always ask the girls about their 'off the sweet spot' contact, which is easier to detect with these balls. I will also play a line drive game with them where I ask them to hit liners right back into my glove. It really helps them to have a goal or an 'intent' when they hit, most of the time they are just focusing on contact.

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I disagree... the balls that are hit furthest are off the hands when using these balls. It's very misleading. Bad feedback IMO. But very useful in warm up because these balls do not travel and girls can take full swings

I use them only as last resort or to get a few swings before a game. To me it can cause the batter to change up their mechanics to brace for impact or to muscle up through the ball. IMO

The best use I found was for warmup in a small area, tossed from about 10', with a decent pace. I like that they need to have the intent to hit hard to make them go anywhere.

lhowser said:

I never liked them. Ball falls quickly causing a steep falling angle and that affects swing path. I always prefer wiffles from about 25 feet.

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They fall at the same rate as wiffles (ignoring a slight difference in drag from the holes in the wiffles).

Keep the speed up a bit and you'll get a better ball path.

No more than a half-dozen hits, but I believe the feedback is very good. Unless there is good rotation and solid contact, the ball goes nowhere.