Baseballance?

[PEPPERS]

Baseballance anyone have an opinion on this thing?

BASEBALLANCE

My daughter attended the UA softball camp and she advised they had one of these devices and she loved it. Then we went to Nashville, TN and watched the Pro Softball game Racers & Nashville play, last games in Nashville for the year. They had a Baseballance on a table to bid on for Breast Cancer. My 15 YO begged for it, we had the item won at bidding end for $100.00, then this 10 YO came up crying wanting it and they let her have it for $110.00, I had intended to donate it to the HS team my daughter played on. Cute 10 YO with crocodile tears has more influence than a 15 YO I guess.

I don’t see that big an advantage of the thing, other than a fill for weight shift.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Cool - and why didn't I think of that? If you only knew how much time I spend on balance and weight shift. Maybe this would work.

The kids coming through my lessons are taught nothing in school about balance. They simply cannot balance on one foot. And weight shift? Forget it. I ask the girls if they haven't played hopscotch, used a teeter totter, hula hooped, etc. and they don't know what I am talking about.

I will take a look at this item. Thanks.

 

[baseballance]

The BASEBALLANCE is a tool very new to the softball world. It was developed and all prototypes were sorted through less than a year ago. It has only been available for sale since February of this year. It has worked to shorten the learning curve and has empowered the hitter with ability to feel what coaches have been saying to them for years. I don't want to go on and on about who is using it, but would be happy to do so in a private phone or email situation. The product sells itself to anyone that uses it. Balance from start to finish and proper weight transfer become easy to recognize and appreciate through the BASEBALLANCE. The BASEBALLANCES enhances every drill you have ever done-- tee work, soft toss, short toss, live BP. It is not a new way to teach, it is a new way to learn. The age old drills are still very useful, just enhanced and learning is accelerated when using the BASEBALLANCE.
BASEBALLANCE

 

[baseballance]

Amy,
Have you had any time to look further at the BASEBALLANCE?

 

[ifubuildit]

I have had this device in my place for about 3 months doing an evaluation on it and testing it for baseballance. It is without a doubt one of the best training devices I have used for my students. It will allow them to feel weight shift while being able to take a full swing at a ball of the tee. It has allowed them to feel how to load and unload while staying in a balanced position. Something young hitters often struggle with in terms of movement. It also shows when they get off the unit in terms of power. If they stay balanced they will hit the ball harder. Plain and simple. This helps them get there quicker with better understanding and FEEL of how to move and shift the weight.

I would highly recommend this to you Amy or any other person who is interested in helping their hitters improve their understanding of weight transfere.

Dana Maggs.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I wasn't overly impressed with the demonstrations.

For example ... my concern here was if the device might encourage an upper body lunge.

I also didn't like the "falling forward" portion of the swing demonstrated. Jim Dixon describes this lack of stretch at this portion of the swing as one of the biggest differences between a "good" (i.e., 'average') hitter and an "exceptional" hitter.

It also wasn't clear to me if this device promoted the poor barrel path, a desire to have a level barrel at contact, or the chopping down motion.

 

[ifubuildit]

Five

These are just demo clips. Practical application is dependent totally on the instructor or user. The lunging is not an issue of you understand the concept of weight transfer during the swing. Also based on where the tee is in relationship to the board it would be pretty difficult not to swing down on the ball.

Easily correctable.

Dana.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Dana, you have a good point .... it may be that the person demonstrating the product may have received poor instruction.

The placement of the tee does not justify the chopping down swing we see below.

With the tee positioned as we see here, we should see a healthy 'connected' swing. What we see instead is virtually the opposite of "hitting in a big zone" ... and one only needs to look at the barrel path, and underlying mechanics, to see why. This may not be the fault of the product ... but then again, this is what is being demonstrated ... and it isn't a swing that many of us are after.

 

[baseballance]

Thanks for noticing and pointing out the lunge. The BASEBALLANCE is designed to highlight and exaggerate small flaws in a hitters swing and/or give them the opportunity to feel and more easily duplicate the right approach, once experienced. Though the hitter in the video is in fact a Major Leaguer, it was his first time on the BASEBALLANCE. There was more lunging than backside rotation and the conversations following use were all about how the hitter could feel himself jumping out over the front side. The fact that you notice the lunge in video 1 speaks volumes to the BASEBALLANCE's value, because the lunge can be seen in video 2, but is not as exaggerated because the user is swinging from the other set of rockers. So, though it looks much worse in video 1, it is fair to say that the BASEBALLANCE is not causing the problem, only serving as a tool to exaggerate, enabling the opportunity to recognize the problem.

In video one, the user is hitting with the "pitcher to catcher" rockers and in videos 2 and 3, he is using the rockers that move "dugout to dugout". The BASEBALLANCE features both sets so that one can work dynamic balance at the plate. While working on balance, other flaws like the ones discussed above are recognized.

The long rockers come off (as they are in videos 2 and 3).

Regarding the swing path, again it is tough to blame the swing path on the device, since the swing is essentially being executed on a rocking batters box in video 1, but essentially off of flat ground in 2 and 3. Though the board can rock dugout to dugout in those two, I see very little movement--suggesting that the hitter is balanced. Certainly, in 2 and 3, there is no pitcher to catcher movement because those rockers aren't installed.

Is it safe to assume that FiveSwings may have been under the impression that the board was rocking back and forth, pitcher to catcher in all three videos?

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

BB ... who is the MLB pro performing the demonstration? What team is he on?

As an fyi ... I did not assume the board was rocking back & forth 'pitcher-to-catcher' in all three videos.