The Rope-it:
The concept itself is pretty simple, a golf ball on a
string... I've seen it done before with
rubber baseballs for my son, and it seemed like a pretty cool idea there
too. Once you take a closer look, it
gets more clever. The rope is not the
same the whole way. There is 10 feet of
elastic rope closest to the ball, connected to 10 feet of nylon rope which gets
tied to a 5 pound weight. I would assume
there is some scientific reason for this, but what do I know? The ball is a Dixon DXD 4000, and is attached
to the rope with an eyehook.
The App: Rope It on iTunes
Very simple and straight forward. There are 3 sections: "Using the Rope
It" which includes a link to their website, "History Graph"
which shows you a graphical history of your shots, and "Practice
Shots" which is where you enter your scores.
TESTING:
The Rope-it:
Here we go... I will try to give a fair and honest
representation of my thought process as I tried this out. After exactly 100 swings, I have found this
to be a fun way to experiment with my swing in my back yard. My yard is pretty small (40'x60'), and I had
more than enough room to use the Rope-It comfortably. Before I even started, the instructions say
to tie the loose end of the rope to a 5 pound weight, but since I don't work
out, weights are not something I just have lying around. I ended up filling a milk jug 3/4 of the way
fill and tying the rope to the handle.
Worked perfectly. I will say,
that at first, I was a little nervous about hitting a full 8 iron directly at
my neighbors house, but he still has all his windows after 100 swings. The eyehook stayed in the ball and the rope
didn't come untied. After 100 swings,
the ball has held up well, no scuffs, dings or marks at all. One thing that bugged me a little was that
the ball kept sliding down the rope, so I tied an extra know on the opposite
side and that stopped the problem. (See
the pics) This didn't effect performance at all, I just didn't like the way it
looked.
Other than the ball sliding down, I had to always make sure
that the eye hook was pointing the direction I was aiming, I wouldn't want to
accidentally swing and hit the hook, I'd imagine my club wouldn't be too
happy. One thing I did like was the
sound the rope made when you really hit a good shot. It's hard to describe, but it sounds really
cool.
The only other thing I didn't like about the Rope-It was the
fact that it really made me realize that my yard is a bumpy, rocky,
needs-to-be-mowed mess. Not the fault of
the people at Rope-It, but now I have more work to do tomorrow...
Thanks... :rolleyes: :D
The App:
It really is bare bones simple. I have never reviewed an app before, so I
really don't know what to critique, but here are my impressions. For what it is supposed to do, it works. It is easy to use, and easy to read. The app loads quick and it doesn't take any
effort to navigate. So if I had any
knowledge of app design, what would I do? A couple things...
"Using the Rope It"
I didn't like this screen, the info about buying the Rope-it
and the website/phone number take up half the screen, and don't move when
scrolling through the setup instructions, leaving only a small portion of the
screen viewable.
see how the "ad" stays on top??
"History Graph"
I like it... maybe allow for landscape viewing???
"Practice
Shots"
This is the main screen that you use to enter your
rankings. I think maybe some
recommendations that describe what a 1 looks like compared to a 3 or 5??? I'm not
sure if this would work though because everyone has different opinions about
what their swing should look like.
Also, maybe add a little bubble next to each shot so you can
add a note about the shot so when you are done you can look back and see what
the good shots looked like compared to the bad ones???
I would also like to see bigger numbers to rate my
shot. I was taking my phone in and out
of my pocket trying to add the score quickly, and the buttons were a little too
small.
And my biggest pet peeve was the auto rotate feature. It was really inconvenient when I pulled my
phone out and the screen was upside-down.
Then when I tried to quickly enter a rating, it flipped back to
normal. This bugged me. Maybe add an option to turn off autorotate.
"Extras"
Ideas for additional features:
Maybe a link to swing tip videos, or even pictures of swing
tips???
THE RESULTS:
Overall the Rope-It is a very simple, yet very cool little
device. It's one of those things that
when you are holding it you say to yourself "why didn't I think of
that?" For people like me who don't
have time to get to a driving range more than a couple times a month, and would
rather spend time at home, this is perfect.
The more I played with it, the more I started experimenting with my
swing. I could switch up my stance, put
the ball further back or forward, basically do everything I would do at the
range. Determining the ball flight was
difficult, but there is definitely feedback, and you can tell when you have a
good swing.
Would I recommend this?
YES... If you can't get to the range as often as you'd like, this is an
excellent way to spend $25. Way better
than hitting plastic balls, and way safer than hitting real balls. I will certainly continue using it, and when
my son is old enough, I plan on using
this to help teach him.
Thanks again to Rope-It (who I have no affiliation with) for the opportunity to test your product and app, I had a
blast...
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