What is The BAL.ON Smart Kit And How Could it Improve Your Golf Game

Technology has revolutionised the game and innovations have made it easier than ever before for golfers to study and analyse their swing.

The BAL.ON Smart Kit is one of the more intriguing that we've seen lately. It consists of pressure soles, smart pods, and a smartphone app. Powered by pressure sensors and AI, this device offers you real-time swing analysis and coaching having captured information that just wouldn't be possible with your own eyes.

It's quickly made an impact on the sport with PGA professionals, amateurs and even tour players taking advantage of the insights that they can gain from BAL.ON. Underlining that point, it was recently announced that DP World Tour star Alex Fitzpatrick, the LPGA Tour's Esther Henseleit, and the PGA Tour's Matti Schmid have signed on as global brand ambassadors.

"I am extremely excited to work with BAL.ON and be a part of this phenomenal team. It is a tremendous piece of technology you have developed and something golfers can use in every part of their games," Fitzpatrick commented. "On a day-to-day basis, I specifically use the BAL.ON Smart Kit to make sure I am properly rotating on iron shots and in my short game, without getting the centre of pressure moving too far on either trail foot or lead foot, but staying fairly centered. Something I found myself struggling with earlier on in the season, but having a tool now to check this wherever I am is an absolute game changer and helped me getting back on track very quickly. In driving however, my coach Mark Blackburn and myself want to see a good separation between centre of pressure moving forward and center of mass staying behind the ball. Again, something I wouldn’t be able to work on in my normal schedule without the BAL.ON Smart Kit. It really is an everyday tool for me now - easy to understand and work with."

What is The BAL.ON Smart Kit & How Could it Help Your Game?

It has been marketed as being the "first affordable and fully mobile high-class solution in the category of pressure measurement systems," which means that it offers accurate data on golf biomechanics. This information is collated through smart insoles that each boast nine force sensing resistors that are aligned with high-resolution video from the BAL.ON app that is wireless and synchronised to the millisecond.

These pressure-sensitive insoles are 2mm thin and are designed to be placed underneath or on top of a regular insole in your normal golf shoe insole. This is all linked together by smart pods and a smartphone app.

Whenever you have them deployed, BAL.ON constantly monitors your swing performance, analysing seven key metrics (Setup, Backswing, Impact, Max Vertical, Vertical Timing, Transition Timing and Rhythm). BAL.ON uses two sources of information: sensor data of the pressure soles as well as the video data you capture with your phone.

"The best players in the world have been working with such systems for a long time, together with their athletic and swing coaches," said Jens Mundhenke, PGA Professional and sports scientist at BAL.ON. "The individual pressure pattern provides significant information on how efficiently and effectively a golfer moves. There are clear correlations between certain pressure patterns and club delivery. Having a holistic approach to golf training, this dimension must not be neglected. With BAL.ON, players and coaches finally have unrestricted access to this key technology."

"The biggest challenge in developing the BAL.ON product was to simplify swing training for golfers by adding the dimension of pressure," said Christoph Niederbroker, Product Manager BAL.ON. "The golf swing is a highly complex movement and controlling certain movements in a three-dimensional plane is challenging for almost everyone. Often the physical awareness differs drastically from the actual movement. Through intuitive visualisations, instant feedback and simple drills, we want to make it as easy as possible for all our users, from tour players to weekend warriors, to max out their potential."

The BAL.ON instantly spots where you are differing from the ideal position, which means that if you're working with a coach, your instructor has so much extra to work with, but even for personal use, it will help you to improve your misses and build greater consistency in your game as you receive feedback over every shot.

The Smart Kit is available in four different sizes, from S (EU 36-38) to XL (EU 45-47) at an RRP of £549 on www.bal-on.golf and at selected retail partners. A UK web shop is set to launch in May this year.