balls

Speed

Slow Speed Balls (violet) give a slow and deliberate movement that is good for strength work, long term rehabilitation, and for people that don’t get on with the Standard Speed.  Fitness fanatics – think slow twitch muscle fibers.  Less agility, more strength.

Standard Speed Balls (burgundy) give a speed of movement that most people find a good challenge but not too challenging, and are great fun.  Sitting between the Slow and Quickness, for many people its the only speed they need, and its the speed all of our balance boards come with as standard.  You’ll be working both strength and agility in balance.

Quickness Speed Balls (orange) give a faster speed of movement. Great to really push your balance training and workouts.  However good you get these are very difficult to hold still, so they will always work you.  Extreme agility.  As the challenge grows – so do the thrills!  Fitness fanatics – think fast twitch muscle fibers.

Speed can be slowed down a little by using it on a soft surface – an exercise mat or bit of thick carpet, and sped up a little by using on a hard surface – laminate flooring. In this way you can alter the speed as you progress.

Size

This is where it gets a bit tricky to explain – sorry for all the words!  Changing the size of the Ball has several effects that sometimes play off against each other, and a small change can make quite a difference!

Large Balls – ask 10 CoolBoard riders and 9 will say they prefer the Large Ball – why?

The Large Ball just feels great.  The movement feels extra silky and smooth, its even more addictive!  For any given Speed it will be fractionally less nimble than the Medium Size in the same Speed due to its extra weight and surface area.  Large Balls also take more effort and confidence to get up onto – the pop-up – but once you are up – simply lovely.  Personally I think they are too big for the Medium CoolBoard.

Large CoolBoard Balls are 2.2kgs and 150mm in diameter.

Medium Size Balls – the size we supply with all Ultra packages – why?

The Medium Size Balls offer the best balance between performance, confidence and price and suit the Large Board and PortoLT perfectly.  They still have a lovely silky movement, just not quite as lovely as the Large, and they handle heavier people better than the Small Balls.  They are not as easy to pop onto as the Small, but the pop feels more than manageable for most people, and it doesn’t feel the extra hike like the Large Balls.

Medium CoolBoard Balls are 1.2kgs and 125mm in diameter.

Small Balls – confidence inspiring and portable

The Small Balls pair perfectly with our Medium CoolBoard, the BareBones Board and go well with the PortoLT.  They keep you much closer to the ground, inspiring confidence to pop up, and while riding because you can almost always touch the edge of the board to the floor without it feeling scary.  The trade off?  Being smaller they work brilliantly for lighter riders, but are not quite as lovely for heavier riders.

Weighing in at just 0.7kgs and only 100mm in diameter they will slip into any bag.

NOTE – we do not recommend pairing a Small Ball with the Large CoolBoard – if you ride it dynamically you may catch the corner of the board on the floor, stopping you suddenly mid-ride – not nice!

Small CoolBoard Balls are 0.7kgs and 100mm in diameter.

I had a customer who could not choose between sizes, so he got a Quickness Ball in ALL three sizes to go with his PortoLT Board.  After a few months I asked for feedback, and he said he loved them all for the differences in feel, but could not explain why!

IMPORTANT BALL INFORMATION:

We cannot stress the importance of getting a good quality Ball.

We are seeing increasing numbers of copycat balance boards with a ball.  Please do NOT think these are similar to CoolBoard Balls.

I could write a book on what went into the development of our unique Balls.  There is no off-the-shelf ball that works.  Inflatable balls are highly annoying at best, dangerous at worst.  Other similar looking rubbery balls may look similar, but give a very different balance experience.

Every other rubbery ball we have tried fail in one of two ways – too fast, or too soft.

Too fast is most common – the movement is just too fast and twitchy, which will leaving you feeling like you are holding on for dear life.  It might be a fun five minutes if you’re into that sort of thing, but if you can’t control it properly its not doing you good, you are not learning, you cannot relax into it, you won’t find your flow.

Too slow – it just won’t roll properly, it will feel like its getting stuck under you – because it is!  It won’t flow, and it won’t be doing you much good or giving you much pleasure.  It will act like an unpredictable wobble board!

If you want to save money and want to make your own balance board – we salute you!!  It’s how CoolBoard was first created 20 years ago!  So please do if you have the skills and tools.  But please – get one of our Balls to honour your board with – you will thank us!  Just do us a favour – post a pic for your creation and tag @coolboardbalanceboard – we’d love to see it!