This innovative high-tech training aid blew my mind

Welcome to Play Smarta regular GOLF.com game improvement column that will help you become a smarter and better golfer.

If you’ve ever been even a little nervous about the golf swing, you know that weight shift and pressure are crucial. Correctly moving them promotes clean ball hitting, increases power and helps with consistency. Getting it wrong, on the other hand, can have disastrous effects.

But while these elements are essential to a great golf swing, they can be difficult to measure during a typical practice session. The change in weight and pressure can be felt by the golfer making them, but is hard to tell for those watching. Without the help of high-tech equipment in teaching studios, it is difficult to know the exact amount to shift weight and pressure.

However, thanks to one of the newest training tools on the market, that is changing.

Sign in BAL. ON. This innovative, wearable training aid — manufactured by the German multinational Continental — is wearable IN your shoes and uses pressure soles and other equipment to give you real-time feedback on swing metrics like weight and pressure changes.

I recently had the opportunity to try out the BAL.ON Smart Kit and came away very impressed with its capabilities. Watch the video below to see how it works, or read on for more on my experience.

BAL.ON Smart Kit

When I first heard about the BAL.ON Smart Kit, I was a little skeptical. It seemed like a device that was too good to be true. A convenient weight and pressure tracker? No way it can work as advertised.

After 15 minutes with the product, I was proven wrong. Not only did the product work as intended, it also gave me some great real-time feedback on my swing.

Here are some of my other thoughts on the product.

Convenience is a plus

Wearable technology—especially in the golf space—can feel clunky when you first put it on. And when the BAL.ON representatives told me that the pressure trackers were going away WITHIN my shoes, I expected them to feel a bit uncomfortable. However, to my surprise, this was not the case.

Press studs are very thin and easily slide right into your shoes. And if you wear some kind of special insole in your shoes (like I do), they can be worn right under them.

As soon as I got the press-on soles on my shoes, I forgot they were even there. Walking around the range, and then hitting a few shots, I didn’t even notice that I had a high-tech training aid right under my feet. That’s a huge plus in my book.

The technology really works

As I said above, I was skeptical that this product would actually work when I first heard about the concept. However, I was soon proven wrong.

Under the direction of GOLF Top 100 Teachers Mike Dixon, I received a part-tutorial, a part-demonstration of how he uses the product with his students. Throughout it all, he had an iPad with my pressure readings next to him.

As I went through our lesson, I could see the iPad readings of where the weight and pressure was on my feet at all times. When he asked me to put more weight on one leg or the other, I could see on the iPad exactly how much weight I was shifting at any given moment.

It’s one thing to feel the weight and pressure change on your feet, but having an accurate measurement provides an extra level of knowledge that’s hard to come by otherwise.

Practice smart

Since I first tried the BAL.ON Smart Pack, I’ve gotten one for myself and plan to incorporate the training aid into my practice regimen this coming season. The data it provides will be crucial for diagnosing faults and working to correct them.

For someone like me who is a lower handicapper with a strong understanding of the swing, a training aid like this is extremely helpful for self-practice. But even for people with higher disabilities, the Smart Kit offers a lot of value. You will no longer have to think about changing weight and pressure when you go to a lesson. Now, you can simply refer to the BAL.ON metrics and work with a trainer to correct the issues.

With limited time to work on our games, it’s important to make efficient use of the little practice time we do get. With the BAL.ON smart kit, this is easier than ever. Guesswork on your swing is no longer necessary. With objective data at your fingertips after every move, you can diagnose flaws and correct problems faster than ever before.

The final take

I’ve just started working with the BAL.ON Smart Kit, so I’ve barely scratched the surface on all the product’s capabilities. So far, though, I’m extremely impressed.

As I continue to iterate on the product, I’m sure other benefits will become clear. However, for someone looking for weight and pressure change data on a daily basis, there is no other product that can achieve that like the BAL.ON Smart Kit.