SKLZ Impact Limited-Flight Practice Baseball, Softball, and Mini Balls (Baseballs, 12 Pack), Yellow, Black

I stumbled upon these balls on Amazon when looking for regular plastic Whiffle balls to play with my kids. I was running through dozens of traditional plastic balls over several months as they would crack in a short period of time, especially if any adults started taking turns hitting the ball. I read about these SKLS Impact Baseballs, initially balked (pun intended) at the price, but decided to give it a shot once I read about the composition of the balls allowing them to "squish", the one-year warranty, and some other helpful reviews. After literally thousands of swings now by dozens of children and adults using both plastic and metal bats, I am thrilled to report that the balls look and behave as if they were brand new! -- In summary, these balls are the best practice balls I've ever owned, and the fact that you can use them with both plastic and metal bats means I can use them for back-yard fun with the whole family or for on-the-field one-on-one batting practice with my older sons who can swing away without someone needing to chase balls down 300 feet away. Here are a few things to consider as you think about buying these balls: - Most importantly, they do what they claim to do. I have purchased two dozen balls now, and each of them is in perfect condition. (We lost one ball down a storm drain, but I suspect that it's still in perfect shape wherever it wound up!) - The balls are shaped the same as traditional Whiffle balls, and they will generally behave the same in terms of movement. - These balls include four small triangle-shaped holes in addition to the oval-shaped holes. I've found that putting my two throwing fingers in two of the triangles allows me to throw a straight "four-seam" fastball with no side-to-side movement. I love this feature because it allows me to throw these balls with more velocity than most other whiffle balls without inducing side-to-side movement that I don't want. If you're looking to throw straight batting practice (or trying to throw someone out when playing a game of Whiffle ball), the triangles are very helpful for throwing straight and hard. - The yellow and black ball design is excellent for visual stimulation and "tracking" the ball. The ball designers were also smart to alternate the yellow and black sides (some balls have holes on the yellow side, other balls have holes on the black) to prevent batters from being able to tell what kind of pitch is coming based on he color. That said, the batter can somewhat track whether he's seeing a straight (four-seam) fastball versus a cutting pitch depending on how the colors rotate coming out of the pitchers hand. This is a subtle design choice that roughly mimics being able to pick up the seams on a baseball and is something that hitters can't do with an all-white or all-yellow plastic ball. Nice design touch that helps encourage batters to really keep an eye on the ball! - The balls appear - in my estimation - to fly just as far or slightly farther than a normal Whiffle ball. The description talks about not flying as far so you can gather them more easily, which is true when compared to baseballs (which obviously fly much farther off a metal bat). Because these balls feel slightly heavier and more dense than a normal Whiffle ball (when coupled with the collapsing technology), they fly as far or - perhaps - slightly farther than other plastic baseballs I've used. - The initial cost of the balls is significant, though I feel it's a fantastic value when you consider that you're getting a dozen balls that will last you easily ten times as long as other Whiffle-ball-type practice baseballs. - As with any hollow plastic practice ball, these are not well-suited for pitching practice. The balls are light and hollow, so you don't want to over-exert yourself by throwing hard. These should - in my opinion - only be used for recreational Whiffle ball games (perfect use) or for batting practice. In short, this has been one of my favorite "discoveries" on Amazon this year. I had never heard of or seen these balls before, and I stumbled onto them on Amazon and decided to take a gamble on them. I couldn't be happier with the product and would definitely buy a third dozen if the first two dozen weren't all still going strong. If you're looking for a long-lasting practice baseball for batting practice, you'll be happy you tried these.

When coaching small children, the last thing a coach wants to do is give a kid any reason to be afraid of the ball. This year, after the league where I coach banned any type of hitting implement on the sidelines or in the field, I wondered how I would get my hitters warmed up for a game. I purchased a three dozen of these right before I went on a trip with my son to a wood bat tournament for 16 year olds. It was obvious from the moment I took them out of the package that this was a different kind of practice ball. They feel different in your hand, they respond absolutely truthfully when coming off the bat, and there is ZERO danger of harming another human being or anything in the immediate area like a window, aluminum siding, or precious yard plants or pets. I have lots of experience throwing standard wiffle balls, so there was no adjustment to be made in throwing a straight ahead fastball, a cut fastball, a wicked curveball, or a rising fastball. In that respect, these are great for work with more experienced players when you don't have access to a bat cage or a batting screen to prevent injury to the pitcher. The batter has instant feedback on whether he hit the ball solidly, because the slightest miss will result in a pop up or a chop into the dirt. Hitting this ball square results in a line drive that will travel up to 75 or 80 feet when struck by a strong older player. When working with my 9 and 10 year old boys, these are wonderful because you can hit them off at T into a net, you can soft toss them from the side, or you can pitch straight ahead in order to work on batting form without worrying about hurting the child or hurting one of your fielders (or an unlucky coach). Another big advantage is the specialized material, which remains flexible even in weather that would cause an ordinary plastic ball to shatter into a million pieces. My three dozen balls have probably been hit 100 times each this summer, and all of them look like the day I took them out of the package. No rips, no tears, they instantly spring back into shape and beg for more abuse. And when they get filthy, I drop them into the washing machine for a quick rinse and they come out in beautiful shape. For get expensive foam balls that you have to chase a long distance, forget plastic balls that chip or shatter in cold weather, forget tossing safety balls that can still break a window. Buy yourself a couple dozen of these, and watch how quickly young players develop a good sense of contact in their hitting zone, and how much older players appreciate having the ability to practice hitting in a small space at a field, a tournament, or even in your own garage into a net.

My bro who loves baseball and softball and plays on multiple intramural teams, told me to buy these particular wiffle balls, then he smacked the crap out of them during a friendly family wiffleball activity - and the balls live to tell the tale! There might have been one that got dented in, but we easily popped it back out to the right shape.

Fantastic training tool for kids. I purchased these to held with batting practice for a Single A little league team (ages 6-8). It works great and helps us to coach the kids in a low pressure, no stress manner. Kids are all very comfortable with the balls, whether tossed or on a tee. Given that this is a softer version of a wiffle ball, I was really surprised to see how well the ball pops when hit well. You can tell when a ball is hit down, popped up, kit off the end of the bat, etc. The response (visually) is really great as a coach and it helps us in educating the kids about swing dynamics and how to manipulate their swing for pull and opposite field hits. In terms of durability, I am very hopeful. After about a half season of constant use I have yet to see any real damage to the balls. A few show signs of scuffing and scratching, but nothing that indicates any loss of integrity of a ball in any way.

These balls are great for backyard batting practice with my 9 year old son. They actually fly really well - when he catches one it land about 2 yards down the street - but you never have to worry about it hitting anything since it's a nice soft rubber. And if you grip it correctly there is no problem throwing it straight over the plate even from 45 feet away - and with good velocity, much faster than any pitches he's likely to see in his 10U league. Sure you can curve it like crazy, just like a wiffle ball, but it's all in the grip. We've used these quite a bit already and I think they will hold up well (in fact, our balls have ended up in the neighbor's yard more than a few times and been chewed by their black lab for about 15 minutes without leaving so much as a scratch on the ball). Great product that I highly recommend!

This product is excellent for all ages, in all leagues. I have T-ballers all the way to AAAs, and they love these balls. Here are the pros and cons from all ages: Durability: I have yet to see any practice ball that survive the amount of abuses that these balls went through. We have light hitters, all the way to ball destroyers. Compared to the common plastic training baseballs/wiffle balls, these balls have yet to have a visible dent anywhere. We still have dozens of plastic ball halves, used all sort of glues to bind them for extended usages. However, those went into the recycling bin after a week of usages, freshly brought. For $20 a dozen, these outlast the $8/dozen hands down. We've already spent over $100 of the cheap plastic, including the heavy duty plastic versions. Should have invested in these first. Impact feedback: Incredible impact feedback. Unlike the light impact like the cheaper plastic, these collapsed, creating a longer period of kinetic transfer from bat to ball, leaving a much great impact feedback of where the bat came into contact with the ball, and how much energy was transferred. Everyone was quite impressed, and shocked the first 50 times they hit the balls. The loudness of the stronger impacts continually put huge smiles on those who know the importance of instant feedback of impacts. Travel distance: The harder you hit, the less the distance the balls traveled. It was quite amusing to see T-ballers and minor league 8-years old slammed the balls, and launched them over 80ft, while the AAs and AAAs greatest impacts, creating thunderous sounds, only manage to launch the balls 30ft out. So, the stronger you hit, the less you will need to run and collect the balls. Impact pain: I can't say the amount of pain of getting hit by these balls are less than the stiffer plastic balls. However, these impact balls don't bounce far away once they hit you, leaving a very little red mark. Stiff plastic balls leave nice dark circle marks, and bounce quite far away from you. No need to travel far to grab these balls if you get hit by them. Colors: Why black? Why dark yellow? I can understand if we're practicing during super sunny day, but, I rather have a nice dark red on bright yellow/orange so we can retrieve them more efficiently. It's so hard to find them in the bushes, tall grasses, and the shadowy areas if the balls' yellow surface is on the bottom. Took us a good long while to retrieve them all because of the color scheme issue. Weight: We, the coaches and pitchers, love the weight of these balls. They're not so light that it became difficult to throw in light wind (8mph), unlike the cheap stiff plastic balls. They're perfect enough to throw in the wind, with the right amount of weight to know the throw will be accurate enough to place them in the strike zone the way you want. I throw both left and right hand, and these make my pitches much, much easier, especially for small 5-years old T-ballers. An ounce heavier should be perfect, even if I have to pay $5 more for the plastic used. Size: Can't complain. Perfect for all pitcher sizes. However, if SKLZ can make these balls into the size of the golf balls, I'll gladly purchase 10 dozens. I want these balls positive attributes at a smaller sizes to train on batting accuracy and honing players' focus. Overall impression: Never again will I buy the cheaper stiff plastics, even when they're on sale at $3/dozen. Wish SKLZ can provide better color scheme, heavier balls, and smaller sizes.

WOW these are great. Lets kids swing away without having to chase. More importantly, don’t hurt when they hit you. Color is great and easy to see. Kids love these.

Dogs favorite

Pour travailler son swing sans avoir peur de paumer ses balles, voici LE produit qu'il vous faut. Ce n'est certes pas bon marché, mais vous pouvez me croire, cela en vaut la peine. Bonnes sensations.

estou usando a duas semanas e ainda não houve problema.

2回目の購入ですが、普通のカラーボールよりも子供も打感が良くて、喜んでいますわ

Great training balls for kids of any age. We've been buying these for our son and daughter for years and we're never disappointed. Very durable and useful for many baseball batting drills. Great for indoor training in the garage getting ready for spring as they don't fly too hard and if one misses the net they don't cause any damage on the walls.

I purchased these after breaking millions of the cheap white ones over the years. So far they have out lasted the cheap ones. I would purchase again.