Never heard of Continental Bal.On? No worries. Neither had I until a little over a week ago.
After an internet search, a few phone calls and a trial run, I can say it’s something you’ll want to know about. That is if you’re serious about your swing and understand the importance of balance.
On its most basic level, we’re talking about inserts for your golf shoes that serve as a pressure heat map for your swing. That’s not new. What is new – and different – is the human interface, user experience and overall product usability. Continental Bal.On is designed to help you interpret the data it collects and then use that data to improve.
The story of what Continental Bal.On does is fascinating enough. Where it comes from and how the product came to be might be even more interesting.
Continental Ball.On: The backstory
We’ll get to the facts and features of Bal.On momentarily. First, just what the heck is a “Bal.On?”
The connected concepts of balance and weight shift are fundamental to the golf swing. As a device that measures how well you shift your weight while staying on balance, the name Bal.On makes sense, in an abbreviated dot.com sort of way.
“Before giving a name to the brand, we asked, ‘What does the product actually do?’” explains Hendrik Stoffel, Continental Bal.On Marketing and Development Manager. “It came naturally that the name should have something to do with balance. So Bal.On stands for Balance On.”
That explains the party of the second part but what about “Continental,” the party of the first part?
If the logo looks familiar to you, it should. Continental Bal.On is part of the tire and automotive giant Continental AG, based in Hanover, Germany.
Continental was founded in 1871 as a rubber company. It started making tires in 1898 and is credited with manufacturing one of the first treaded tires in 1904.
As Continental has evolved, it branched out beyond tires into all aspects of automotive manufacturing. Through development and acquisitions, the company now specializes in braking systems, powertrain and chassis components, high-tech dashboard systems and, most pertinent to our discussion today, automotive electronics and sensors. It’s now the third-largest supplier of automotive manufacturing materials in the world as well as the fourth-largest tire manufacturer in the world.
However, unlike fellow rubber and tire giants Bridgestone and Sumitomo Rubber Industries (the SRI in Srixon), Continental never jumped into golf.
“Being a rubber company, something like golf balls would have been obvious,” says Stoffel, “but we never did it.”
Ironically, it wasn’t rubber, but electronic sensors that ultimately brought Continental into golf.
What business are you really in?
Companies stagnate and die for one simple reason:
They forget what business they’re really in.
If Continental viewed itself only as a tire and rubber company, it would never have reached its 153rd birthday.
“Our company motto is ‘The Future in Motion,’” says Stoffel. “It makes perfect sense that we would think outside the box.”
Starting in the early 2000s, Continental expanded into electronics. It bought the automotive divisions of Motorola and Siemens and, in 2021, acquired a minority stake in the artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technology company Recogni.
In 2018, Continental asked its more right-brained employees to exercise their innate creativity by holding an Open Business Model Challenge. Continental chose 100 people from all over the company and sorted them into 20 teams.
“We were challenged to think outside the box and come up with ideas to extend the company’s core business,” explains Stoffel. “The goal was to do something outside the core business.”
One group didn’t just think outside the box. It ignored the box completely.
“One team decided on something completely crazy and outside the automotive industry,” says Stoffel. “They looked at our machine learning and 3D printable sensor capabilities and applied them to sports. The idea was to build a smart coaching product using our machine-learning team.”
Since three of the five team members were golfers, that was the logical sport to target.
Of the 20 ideas proposed during the Open Business Model Challenge, Bal.On was the only one that made it to market.
A question of balance …
Bal.On starts with 3D-printed pressure sensors sandwiched into 2mm thin golf shoe inserts (you won’t feel them) to create a portable pressure mapping system. In that respect, it’s very similar to products such as Salted. The difference, however, is in its user interface.
The Bal.On sensors connect to the associated app and can be used in two ways. The simplest is “Live” mode. You’ll see a live silhouette of your feet and the shifting pressure points on your device in real time.
“The numbers will tell you how much balance is on the heel and toe of each foot and between the left and right foot,” says Stoffel. “That’s especially valuable for live coaching and immediate feedback.”
Then there’s the unique to Bal.On Swing Review Mode.
“You film your swing using the Bal.On app,” explains Stoffel. “Your shifting pressure points are synced up to the video of your swing frame by frame. When you look at your video you’ll get a heat map graphic for every frame and a detailed graph telling you how much weight you’re shifting on your backswing, when you transition and how much vertical thrust you produce.”
The Ball.On system measures several metrics during your setup, backswing and impact. The video synching determines the timing of your transition and when you start the downswing with your lower body. It also measures your swing rhythm and the ground force reaction or vertical thrust you generate.
“The amount and especially the timing of vertical thrust highly correlates to clubhead speed,” Stoffel says. “Then, based on your data, we give you certain drills to improve in the areas that will have the biggest impact on your swing.”
The AI element
One has to give Continental Bal.On some credit. With the rest of the golf world tossing “AI” around like a whiffle ball, Stoffel says that while the app says its coaching system is “AI-generated,” it’s more machine learning than anything else.
“We have the metrics we collect from your swings and we have data from some of the best players in the world. You’re being evaluated on those metrics. The AI behind the data will suggest drills to make your swing a little more efficient and a little better.”
You track progress on the app. It saves your sessions, plots your improvements and provides you with drills. Additionally, Bal.On hopes to work with coaches and instructors keen on using data and technology to help their players improve.
“Ground force reaction is something most teachers understand but many consumers don’t,” says Stoffel. “It’s vitally important that people understand there’s a correlation between how you interact with the ground and how fast and consistent your swing is.”
The Continental Bal.On system is easy to use without a coach as well. Most of the graphs are easy to understand and you can easily identify movement, speed and how you transition your weight. Total pressure and how it develops in your swing over time, however, is a little more complex. There’s a simple scoring system behind it but a coach can help with the nuances.
Continental Bal.On: What does it tell you?
Any good instructor will tell you the golf swing starts from the ground up. If your feet are right, then your balance is on. When your balance is on (if you’re bal.on, get it?), your swing is in sync and good things will happen.
If you’re bal.off, well …
The most intriguing element of Continental Bal.On is how the app synchronizes your swing video to the heat pressure map recording of your feet. The heat map shows how you distribute pressure on your front and trail feet at setup. The backswing metric determines how much pressure is then shifted to your back foot (it recommends up to 80 percent, with most of that on the rear heel). That will tell you how well you’re loading up pressure in the trail leg, a key element for power.
It then measures pressure distribution at impact, with a little over 70 percent on your lead foot with iron shots and just under 70 percent for driver shots. It also will know where the pressure is on your lead foot. Ideally, it should be centered and toward the heel to show good hip and body rotation toward the target.
Bal.On also measures how much vertical thrust you’re producing and when you’re producing it. Both are critical elements to creating and delivering power in your swing, along with the timing of your pressure shift and the rhythm of your swing.
The Bal.On app measures all of these metrics and presents them in a simple graph form. The chef’s kiss is that it helps you interpret all that data and provides you with drills to improve, thanks to the machine learning that Continental builds in.
The data
For any training aid to be worth anything, it has to be easy to use. So far, our limited testing shows Continental Bal.On passing that test. Second, the feedback has to be easy to understand and act upon. Again, based on our initial testing, Bal.On shows promise.
In our testing Bal.On told me my setup weight distribution was perfect (100), while my backswing was still pretty darned good at 92. My vertical thrust timing was spot on (another 100). Unfortunately, my max vertical thrust wasn’t so hot (47). I wasn’t making much vertical thrust, but by golly, I was getting the most out of what I was making.
Impact was another 100. However, both transition and rhythm were a problem. The Bal.On AI Coach gave me some drills to work on my swing rhythm.
My coach, Steve Thomson from Golftec in Danvers, MA found Bal.On useful.
“If you’re working on where your lateral movement is tracking, this will put some data behind it,” he says. “It’s pretty simple to use and it shows you what’s happening.”
Continental Bal.On: Final thoughts
At $599, the Bal.On starter kit isn’t for the casual golfer. For that kind of cash, you better be serious about improving. The package includes the insole sensors and rechargeable “Smart Pods” for each foot. The carrying case also includes a slot to hold your phone so you don’t need a tripod or another person to hold your phone while you record your swing. It’s a small touch but a useful one.
The insoles come in small, medium, large and extra large, based on your shoe size. There’s a sizing guide on the website to help you pick the right one.
You can use Bal.On on the range or on the course (if your partners don’t mind you setting up your phone before each swing). As with any machine learning, the more swings you input, the more the system will be able to compare your data with that of the pros and elite amateurs it has in its database. That allows the system to show your improvement and provide you with the right practice drills.
As mentioned, the Bal.On starter kit is $599 and is available on the Continental Bal.On website.
The post Just What Is a Continental Bal.On and Why Should You Care? appeared first on MyGolfSpy.
