I’ll be dipped, it happened again. Was in the yard laying waste to some dandelions with this contraption when an awareness appeared.
The ball is irrelevant, and in this case so is the dandelion flower. To use this tool properly, and quickly, pressure first goes vertically down into the ground. The tool is then rotated counterclockwise 360 degrees but is working inward back toward you while freeing the tap root.
Once the tap root is free the last piece is leveraging all that gathered pressure upward out of the ground toward the finish which sends the flower and root up, up, and away.
Fun afternoon. 
