The Floppy - Indoor Practice Ball

- Anyone who knows me knows that I have no qualms when it comes to “playing through” any off-course environment (a house, an office, a retail store, you name it).  There comes a point where you seek challenges that don’t involve booking a tee time and slogging it out for hours behind a bunch of slowskys.  When I happened to stumble upon an ad for a revolutionary indoor practice ball called “The Floppy,” which claimed to work wonders with your wedges and short irons -- offering realistic feedback-- I figured I should give it a try.

The Floppy®, which is kind of a weird name, looks a lot like a round hacky-sack (http://tinyurl.com/colcka). It has been specifically designed for indoor use with an emphasis on providing the same feel and feedback of a golf ball, but without the fear of damaging your property. Up & Down, Inc., the company behind The Floppy, won’t give up its “secret sauce.”  The most the packaging divulges is that it has an incredibly durable “woven cover”, which surrounds a “specially engineered layer”, which surrounds “proprietary fill.”  To me, the fill was like some sort of beanbag material.  I later found out that each Floppy is hand made (impressive!).  I also learned that the hand woven cover is washable. 

Compare & Contrast

I’m someone who practices with a whiffle ball indoors and an almostGOLF ball in the park and/or parking lot.  Curious, I did a weigh-off.  The Whiffle is 4 grams.  The almostGOLF ball is 13g.  A regular golf ball weighs in at 45g.  So where does The Floppy fit?  A whopping 20g!  BTW.  I learned that after my test drive. 

Smash ball – The Floppy Test

When The Floppy arrived I tore into the package and immediately tested it out.  Grabbing my trusty 8-iron, which I use whenever I play through my house with the Whiffle ball, I took a swing…  and it went nowhere.  Huh?  So I put it back into position and took another swing.  This time I made contact and it flew maybe a foot off the ground before hitting the wall and rebounding back to me.  “Wow,” I thought, “At this rate, I’m never going to get The Floppy up the stairs in regulation.”  So I hunkered down, putting my all into it, and off it flew… high and true.  Lesson number one – don’t baby this Floppy.  It wants (needs) to be smacked.

Once I got the hang of it, I smacked away and had a ball (pun intended). I  came a bit close to my husband’s nice wine glasses that were perched on a shelf, but otherwise, had no issues.

There’s more to this test drive … an important more.  Remember that this is intended to be a practice ball.  So how did my Floppy practice impact play?
 
It might be a coincidence, but the next time I was out on a real course, I was getting a lot more length from all my clubs.  Seems that I carried that smash ball mentality onto the real course where I was hitting farther and still straight.  That’s a great thing! 

An Interview with the CEO

I got a hold of Adam Tuttle, the president and founder of Up & Down, Inc. to ask him some questions about The Floppy.

How (and when) did you come up with the idea?

Adam Tuttle: The Floppy was born on a rainy day (a rare thing in San Diego).   After being rained out of our weekly match, my friend Jeff and I were hitting balls around the house.   Practicing our short game we were chipping, pitching and floppin’ balls down the hallway.  The idea for The Floppy came from accidentally skulling a ball into my TV.  I thought to myself “there has to be a better way to practice indoors”…  and the rest is history.

Did you have a beta test period? Who was involved?

Adam Tuttle: It took many, many, many different prototypes and versions before we came to rest on our final version.  Because the balls are handmade it took many years and countless samples, made in a number of factories around the world before we were able to produce a ball that was of the highest quality and consistency.   A few choice friends and my dog were the primary beta testers.  With lots of encouragement from golfers and non-golfers alike I embarked on the hard road of taking the product to market.

When was it released for public purchase?

Adam Tuttle: We put out some early versions in 2007 and then launched officially at the 2008 PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida.

Any numbers you can provide (i.e. units sold)?

Adam Tuttle: We don’t release our actual sales numbers but The Floppy is currently for sale around the world – including Australia, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, Dubai and many more countries and has made thousands of golfers (and their walls and furniture) happy and of course much better players. Tuttle added that The Floppy “is a fantastic training aid. With just a few swings a day you can maintain a smooth and sharp short game.   It’s a fantastic way to teach new golfers and juniors how to stay down and through the ball while providing realistic feedback.”

Conclusion

A 4-Pack of The Floppy sells for $19.95 with free shipping (www.thefloppy.com).  That’s an incredible bargain!  To me, The Floppy is one of the best investments a golfer can make.  Honestly… the biggest problem you’ll have using The Floppy is making sure you’ve accommodated for your backswing and follow-through.  There’s nothing like dinging a wall (or fine furnishing) with your club to ruin a fine indoor practice session.