This past summer, we’ve been fiddling around with the Easton Power Sensor Motion by Blast ($150). Basically, it’s a sensor that attaches to your bat and, between the sensor and video you can capture your smartphone, the related app spits out all the metrics you could ever want about your swing. Oh, and Blast makes similar sensors geared towards basketball, golf, skateboarding, BMX, motorcross, volleyball, gymnastics, and general athletics.
What We Liked
Your life becomes a video game: all the metrics you’d ever want about your swing, like swing speed, time to contact, raw power, and more, are suddenly at your fingertips.
Everything gets recorded: are you improving or not? Don’t worry, Blast can tell you exactly how good (or poorly) you’re doing. Over time, you have plenty of data to work with.
Video curation & slow-mo: every swing gets recorded, so you can take a look later. Want to take a long, slow look? Well, the app supports that.
What We Didn’t
How much do you really need? If you’re in a beer or intermural league, maybe a swing sensor is overkill. Then again, if said league is populated by baseball nerds, you’ll be pretty popular.
It’s better on tablet: The Easton Power Sensor Motion by Blast is supported by a bevy of phones and tablets, but we found that most phones were too small to be useful with the app; use a tablet when you fire up the app.
Bottom Line
If you want to bring your game into the age of data, a sensor and the resulting metrics from Blast are going to do more for you than any space-age bat or reclaimed leather glove ever could.
