Garmin Impact vs Blast Motion?

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Apr 30, 2018
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Any more users of the Garmin Impact? Did a search and seems to be very little in depth reviews or comparisons out there. From what I can tell here is what each does. Blast has some features locked behind a monthly/yearly premium subscription. Garmin's app has everything included in the initial purchase of the sensor. Biggest plus for me that is pushing me towards the Garmin is not having to pay for each additional batter. Blast wants $6.95/month to add an extra batter. Are the extras that Blast offers really worth it? I help coach a 10u rec team so I would like to try it out with the various girls on the team and share the data with the parents, but ultimately it is for helping my DD. Are these sensors worth it to use on our own in combination with her once a week lesson with her batting coach?

I've not included Zepp and Diamond since there sensors are disappearing due to losing the lawsuit and Diamond Kinetic is currently facing the same lawsuit. Trial is set for May 2019 for Blast vs Diamond Kinetic so Diamond might be going away also if they lose. Not sure if Blast is going to go after Garmin next or if what Garmin is doing doesn't violate Zepp's patent.

Blast
Blast MotionGarmin
Bat SpeedYY
Peak Bat SpeedY
Peak Hand SpeedYY
Attack AngleYY
Time to ContactYY
PowerY
Blast FactorY
Body RotationPremium
Vertical Bat AnglePremiumY
On PlaneY
Multiple BattersPremiumY
 
Oct 21, 2016
189
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I can only speak for the Blast Motion, and my DD has only had for 2 weeks, but she loves it. She is 14 not 10 though, and with many teenagers is obsessed with her phone. So giving her away to practice on her own while getting real time results, while also being on her phone has been a win win so far. I was honestly disappointed that Blast lacks some of the features out of the box and costs extra, but it honestly hasn't been a problem. Hard to be mad about something you have never had. We have settled in on just a couple metrics anyway with bat speed, attack angle, and blast factor. Hand speed is just a variant of the bat speed, the time to contact only varies by hundredth of seconds for my DD, and the power is measured in KW which means nothing to a teenager not raised on the metric system. I don't know if the garmin takes video, but it's one of the best features of the Blast. My wife will sit and hit record while I pitch to DD and when she hits stop it breaks every swing into a separate file with the metrics laid over the video. We use this a ton. As far as not having multiple batters, there is a way around that, kind of. You can load 10 different bats into the Blast and you choose which one you are hitting with. You can then look at the average of swings taken with that bat only in a section on the app. Now, it will add all the swings from all the bats into a total average by day/week/year that will skew your DD's numbers. But I have a way around this. So if DD and a friend are both hitting, we load the friend bat in and she can take as many swings as she wants with her bat she can look at the metrics for those swings with averages. But once the friend is done I simply just delete that bat and all the swings that go with it so the overall numbers in the app are just my DD. So not perfect, but it works, and you could do similar with your team with some bat and swing management in the app.

Hope that helps.
 
Mar 9, 2015
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So you can only use Blast Motion for one player, if I'm reading that chart correctly? I've got three kids, two in softball and one in baseball, does that mean I would have to pay additional fees?
 
Apr 30, 2018
349
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From what I can tell the sensor has a serial number which is linked to the user on the app. You have to purchase a separate sensor for each kid if you want to track the data over time for each. If you aren't concerned with tracking the data over time for each kid separately you could use the different back trick above. Otherwise the Garmin might be a better fit. On more detailed study it appears that the Garmin is a no frills sensor. It didn't appear to have interactive drills, training videos etc. that Blast has. Blast does charge extra $60/year for these extra features and videos though.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
Mar 9, 2015
321
18
From what I can tell the sensor has a serial number which is linked to the user on the app. You have to purchase a separate sensor for each kid if you want to track the data over time for each. If you aren't concerned with tracking the data over time for each kid separately you could use the different back trick above. Otherwise the Garmin might be a better fit. On more detailed study it appears that the Garmin is a no frills sensor. It didn't appear to have interactive drills, training videos etc. that Blast has. Blast does charge extra $60/year for these extra features and videos though.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

I glanced over the bat trick above. That might work. Right now I have the Zepp but haven't used it much but was planning on doing so this fall and winter. Probably end up trading in my Zepp for a Blast Motion.
 
Oct 21, 2016
189
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Just did the bat trick yesterday with DD friend. The friends Dad and myself also swung with the bat just for fun during Football game halftime. Everybody had fun looking at the metrics and videos. When we were done I deleted all the swings and the bat and I was back to DD historical metrics. This is important to us as we track progress on the metrics she is working to improve. If this historical data is not important and you just want instant feedback for multiple people then just wipe all the swings daily. Use it for one kid, record averages, wipe all data, use for another kid, wipe all data, etc.... It really just depends on the situation your using it for.

As far as going from Softball to Baseball not sure how/if that would work. The sensor is the same for both (golf too), you just pair it with the particular (softball, baseball, golf) app. You have to make a Blast account that you sign into on the app, and it's possible to use more than one device with the app, but you have to unpair the last device used before paring it with a new one. So I paired it with my phone and DD came home next day and tried to pair with her phone and couldn't because it was still paired to my phone. If would have been home I could have used the app to unpair, but in that case she was stuck. So since this is always used at home we just paired it with an ipad that is always at home. So I would think if you unpaired it from a device running the softball app, and then paired it with another device running the baseball app it would work, but that is just a guess. It might stop you since you would need separate accounts for each sport. I was given Blast Motion Baseball and the sensor works just fine running the Softball App for DD.

There is a way to get Blast Motion for a Coach because there on videos on the app for it. Each player has a sensor in the video and uses it at home. Once they bring the sensor to practice it pairs with the Coaches device and all their swings are downloaded to the Coaches device and can see not only the metrics, but the number of swings taken. You might look into that for multiple kids, but I'm sure it is more money.
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
Blast Motion should change this approach. This nickel and dime stuff is a big turn off.

Mine will be on eBay within a month if I feel like I’m being too limited by a device I own.
 
May 6, 2015
2,397
113
couple of questions

ARe these sensors allowed during game play? one of the big issues DD has is that she changes her swing on live pitching vs tee or soft toss. she gets hyper focused on making contact, ends up slowing down her bat speed (but of course doews not believe me or DW).

How effective are they in general in improving hitting. I could care less about improving metrics in practice honestly, have people who have used them seen improvements in game play (BA, power, etc.).
 

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