50 Words or Less
The Tour Striker Smart Ball is a “better mousetrap” version of a couple classic golf drills. Very useful and affordable.
Introduction
Set-Up & Ease of Use
The Tour Striker Smart Ball consists of a small inflatable ball and a lanyard. The ball clips to the lanyard easily, and the ball can be used either inflated or deflated, depending on the drill. Changing the length of the lanyard is easy. All in all, the Smart Ball couldn’t be much easier to use.
Effectiveness
There are three primary drills that the Tour Striker Smart Ball is useful for: the ball between the arms, glove under the right arm, and glove under the left arm. The question, then, is why do you need the Smart Ball?
Let’s address the “glove under arm” drills first. One small benefit of using the Smart Ball is that you don’t have to bend over to pick up your glove after each swing. This isn’t a game changer, but it’s always nice to remove a hassle from your practice session. The more important thing that the Smart Ball does is enhance the feedback you get when you lose your connection. The golf swing happens so fast that it’s easy to lose track of when your arm flies loose. With the Smart Ball, not only will you feel the ball drop out of your armpit, you will also feel a little tug on the lanyard letting you know that your arm is disconnected from your body.
The Smart Ball offers even more benefits for the “ball between arms” drill. You still get the benefit of not having to pick something up after each swing and getting more feedback, but you also get a ball that’s perfectly sized and not too heavy. There are literally dozens of devices that you can do this drill with, but many of them are too big, too small, or too heavy. If they’re too big or small, they ruin the structure of your arms and defeat the purpose of the drill. If they’re too heavy, they introduce an unwanted influence on the swing which compromises the drill.
All in all, the Tour Striker Smart Ball isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, just perfect it, and it does that job very well.
Longevity
The longevity grade for the Tour Striker Smart Ball is mixed. On one hand, the uses for it aren’t as varied as many of the other Tour Striker training aids. On the other hand, the drills it does are truly elevated by the Smart Ball, and the Smart Ball is really small and easy to keep in the bag.
Value
At $40, the Tour Striker Smart Ball is very affordable and a worthwhile purchase for anyone who uses its drills regularly. For a coach, this is a no-brainer purchase.
Conclusion
If you’re one of the tens of thousands of golfers working to fix the structure of your arms, do yourself a favor and pick up the Tour Striker Smart Ball. This simple training aid makes classic drills easier to do and more effective.
Shop Tour Striker HERE
He founded Plugged In Golf in 2013 with the goal of helping all golfers play better and enjoy the game more.
Matt lives in the northwest suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two daughters.
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5 Comments
Matt, thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you like the Smart Ball. -Martin
I have one of these. Makes the practice on arm structure more precise and productive. Most people think their arms don’t break down but they do, and this shows you where in the swing you are getting loose. Added thought I use: Squeezing the ball between my forearms also helps me relax my grip at the same time. Since too much grip pressure is my No. 1 flaw, it has really helped and I am getting a nice smooth release now. Using this even with slow half swings is a great warmup that really helps contact.
I appreciate that Martin Chuck has expressed there are other similar option or home items that can be used (e.g. 6″ beach ball and lanyard). This is a great multi-use training aid.
If you can answer, would this or the planemate be something better to use for swing plane and connectedness? I use the planemate but feel that I still lose arm connection, although my biggest sort of swing fault seems to be hip rotation relative to the body.
Randall,
I haven’t tested the PlaneMate, so I can’t speak to that.
-Matt