Baseballance?

[baseballance]

Really not trying to get into a debate over certain issues, just clarifying your understanding so I could appreciate your perspective. The player's name is Brian Bocock, and he was a late season call up with the Phillies when Jimmy Rollns went on the DL and was otherwise injured. As his stats might show you, the only thing keeping him out of the Major Leagues on a full-time basis is his bat. Started at shortstop for the SF Giants to open the season two years ago when Omar Vizquel was on the DL.

Anyway, back to the actual questions you had regarding the BASEBALLANCE.......

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I'd like to view a game swing of him. My curiosity is if these swing flaws exist in his normal game swing, or if they were induced while using this device.

 

[baseballance]

OK, sir. Give it a look. Please realize that you are in a sense, micro-assessing a tool that has a broad range of benefits. If you would like to deduce it to levels that you enjoy working with, I understand. In the meantime, users of the BASEBALLANCE will continue to use it as they see fit for the individual needs of their hitters. If not tied to negotiations of contracts at the present time, I would discuss those that are interested in endorsing this product as a hitting tool and how they have used it to benefit hitters, programs and organizations. I think those names may surprise you. However, it appears that regardless of how I justify the value of the BASEBALLANCE, you may find some flaws or faults. Seems I may be fighting an endless battle. My goal is not to convince those that don't believe in it, it is to work with those that do.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

BB … I don’t know if there are “flaws and faults” that result from using your product.

Quite simply, I saw a swing demonstrated using your product that was less than ideal. That swing contained flaws and faults. The question I have is if the product induced those faults, or if those faults were worse prior to using your product.

 

[ifubuildit]

Why is this about the swing Five?

This device is primarily designed to help hitters understand balance and weight shift and to be able to feel it. This guys swing really has nothing to do with the product. Its not going to make his upper body moment better or worse. This is primarily a lower body training aid to feel momentum shift.

Everything you see designed to help a hitter boils down to the swing with the swing. Its more about movement, balance, or in some cases lack of movement that is the benefit of this product.

Dana.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Let me get this straight. This guy's swing has nothing to do with the product … yet the website displays in bold ‘red’ print that it is the “#1 Hitting Tool for 2010”.

If this guy’s swing has nothing to do with the product, then how about the kid below? Is there a reason for the excessive internal rotation of the front leg into heel plant? Notice in the pause in clips below, with the 'red' circle highlighting the front leg, that the front leg is fully rotated to the pitcher at heel plant. This is a significant bleed of power. Also notice the poor barrel path similar to what the pro demonstrated ... as well as the chopping down motion, the lack of stretch, and disconnection as the hands move towards contact ahead & independent of torso rotation.

 

[Wellphyt]

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.

It's hard to say what it accomplishes without trying it out. Based on the two demo clips that FFS posted, you have to wonder if it is doing more harm than good. The most efficient swing is one where the hitter is balanced throughout the entire swing. It stands to reason that if you put me on a platform that rocks back and forth every time I make a movement, I'm going to be fighting to stay balanced. My body is going to react differently than if I were standing on stable ground. It also seems like this device would hinder the uncoil. IOW, when you do your initial hip cock, the device would undoubtedly rock back as it should. However when you reverse the hips to uncoil, I don't see how this device could possibly keep up given the suddenness...explosiveness, of the uncoil move. When I uncoil, I want to be on stable ground so I don't end up on my butt.

 

[ifubuildit]

Well

This is a training device. It is totally dependent on the instructor/user to define its application. Not the student. It is obvious that the young man in the video has swing flaws in both the upper and lower parts of his movement.

That being said I don't think BB was even trying to demonstrate the perfect hitter using their training device. My use of it with students is to start very very slowly with it so the student can "FEEL" their weight transfer during the swing process. This also gets them used to the rocking motion and forces them to stabilize and try to maintain a better sense of balance during the swing. Once that is accomplished then we start speeding it up. I have also used it to just put them in their stance and challenge them to maintain balance. Most last about 30 seconds before they start loosing stability. At that time I point out to them they don't know how to balance themselves. If they cant do it on this do you think they are doing it when they set up at the plate?

What I can promise you without a doubt is that when you take a student off this device they have a much better understanding of how to use momentum and maintain balance and stability in the lower body feeding into the core. How you mold that into the students swing is totally up to the instructor or coach.

I can see the difference in their ability to move and I can see the difference in the power they generate due to understanding balance and momentum weight transfer. That is all that matters for me.

Dana.

 

[baseballance]

The videos you have posted are introductions to the BASEBALLANCE itself. The product was developed and prototyped in September of 2009-- the video with the younger hitter was the first day the prototype was picked up from the manufacturer. The hitter is my son and we were completely messing around with it and had no real understanding of exactly how we were going to use it. There is no backside rotation in this video because he had never stood on it before, thus his front hip opened.
Since that time, the first thing we ever talk about with hitters is the concept of starting balanced, allowing the board to move back into a load position (and there have been "stoppers" added since either of those two videos, to control or regulate the amount of "load" a hitter can get) then get the board back to level with one action alone--- backside rotation------Driving the hip, forcing the knee, prompting heel to catcher. Since that time---- hitting instructors at the professional and Division I levels have worked with the BASEBALLANCE and raved about its impact. The University of Virginia, (Jarrett Parker, 2010 second rounder, SF Giants), the Cincinnati Reds under the guidance of 13 year Major League veteran, Delino Deshields. Anyway..... please understand that these videos were shot when the BASEBALLANCE was in it's infancy. As with anything, a lot has been learned as the product has been used by more and more professional hitting instructors. That video isn't posted. The BASEBALLANCE is used with different hitters, different ways to address specific issues that each individual hitter is working on. Generally, the load and the transfer......anyway.........as I stated before, there are many who see the value and we will continue to work with them-------quite a resume that those bring------ those that actually try it, never send it back or find faults and flaws, most of them are actually looking for the positives and those people are much more fun to work with.... I no longer concern myself with those that are looking for negatives. There is a negative in everything----We could argue that hitting off a tee is a waste of time because the swing is dictated by where the tee is placed and it is unrealistic because the ball isn't moving and so on and so forth.......But, we all know how important and valuable the tee is. Not in the business of convincing those that are negative, only interested in working with those that recpetive to new ideas and interested in helping the BASEBALLANCE evolve, while addressing specific needs of specific hitters.

 

[baseballance]

Regarding swing path--- some baseball guys teach that swing and it has proven effective by many. It existed prior to any thoughts about the BASEBALLANCE.