A portable automatic football snapper may be built as a tube to launch football snaps while being lightweight and able to be carried by handle, shoulder-strap, or clipped onto another backpack. The snapper is small and can store a football within, and, when stood upright, may serve as a stand for a football placed on top to simulate an under center exchange. A stand built into a side of the bag extends to establish a base and ideal snap angle for shotgun snap use. Inside the snapper, a cup may be used to hold the football, may be pulled down and clipped into a pre-snap position, and upon release is pulled upwards, launching or snapping the ball in a spiral to the quarterback. The release may be manual, automatic based on a mechanical or electronic timer, or sound-activated or remote controlled allowing snap control by the quarterback.

A machine and method for receiving and launching an oval football. The machine includes a football catch area, a motorized belt to orient the football and motorized wheels to launch the football. The user catching the football throws it back to the machine. The machine automatically orients the football and launches it back to the user catching the football. The machine provides the user a consistent timing pause between receiving the football and launching of the football.

A firing device is provided for launching and retrieving projectiles as well as firing laser weapons from a robotic platform. In robotic games or competitions the projectiles and laser weapons are fired at targets to score points. In a game of laser tag the laser and/or infrared weapons are fired at targets on competing robots to score points and/or to disable the targeted robot. The firing device has one, two, or three rotating launch wheels for launching spherical projectiles illustratively including ping pong balls, where the revolution speed of launch wheels may be varied to control projectile velocity and distance of travel. A deflector plate is used to change the trajectory of the projectile and/or the laser beam.

A robot server assembly for serving table tennis balls comprising a body defining an internal ball path, means for introducing balls into the internal ball path at the lower end of the body; a ball guide at the upper end of the back panel, a serving head assembly at the upper end of the body having a ball discharge tube in communication with the ball guide; a pair of opposed discharge wheel operatively associated with the discharge tube; a plurality of gears associated with the serving head; at least one servo motor associated with at least one of the gears to actuate rotation of the gear; whereby actuation of a least one of said gears affects 180 rotation of the serving head about a longitudinal axis of the serving head, up and down movement of the serving head and side to side movement of the serving head.

A ball throwing machine can include a hopper for receiving one or more balls and a ball delivery device. The ball delivery device can be used to throw or pitch a ball from the hopper to a user of the machine. The ball delivery device can include wheels to impart speed to the ball and a direction system to control the projection angle of the ball. The direction system can control at least one of the up and down angle and the side to side angle of the ball as it is thrown, among possibly other throwing parameters. A controller may be provided for controlling operation of the ball throwing machine.

A training device for ball sports 1 comprises a launching section 3 comprising a pair of launch wheels 15, the launch wheels 15 having substantially parallel axes of rotation, and an adjustment mechanism 19 configured to adjust the vertical angle of launch of the launch wheels 15; a base section 2 supporting the launching section 3; the base section 2 comprising a base swivel 6 comprising an outer perimeter base 9 sized and shaped to provide a stable contact with the ground or other surface on which the base section 2 is resting, and at least one leg 10 connected to the outer perimeter base 9 and extending upwards to connect with and support the launching section 3 above the ground or other surface, the leg or legs 10 and launching section 3 mutually configured for rotational connection so that the base section 2 can freely swivel in substantially the horizontal plane.

The tennis ball supply device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a communication circuit configured to communicate with an external device; a launcher configured to launch a ball; a body unit configured to move the launcher; and a controller configured to: control the body unit to move to a first position, identify whether the body unit is disposed on the first position based on a signal received from the communication circuit, based on identifying that the body unit is disposed on the first position, control the launcher to launch the ball, control the body unit to move to a second position after the launcher has stopped launching the ball, and identify whether the body unit is disposed on the second position based on the signal received from the communication circuit.

The present invention relates to a sports apparatus (100). The sports apparatus (100) comprises: a ball holder (102); and a motor (110) arranged to rotate said ball holder (102); wherein an axis of rotation of a drive of the motor (110) is offset from the axis of rotation of the ball holder (102). The sports apparatus (100) is used for practicing football kicking skills.

A non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon logic is disclosed. The logic is executable by one or more processors to perform operations including receiving information associated with a selection of a first training drill, responsive to receiving the information associated with the selection of the first training drill and based on the first training drill, causing a first light to be placed in an activated state, wherein the first light is coupled to a first goal apparatus, and responsive to a triggering event, causing the first light to be placed in a deactivated state and causing a second light to be placed in an activated state. The goal apparatus includes posts that form a goal plane, wherein a first sensor pair is coupled to the goal, and wherein the triggering event is a detection of an object passing through the posts and across the goal plane.

Systems and methods of ball tossing machines. Ball tossing machines having reconfigurable joints are contemplated. Embodiments having dynamically articulating joints create tossing arms that mimic human arms completing underhanded tosses. In other embodiments, the tossing arm's elbow and fingers can be locked into place and pivoted about a shoulder to accomplish a basic tossing motion with an altered effective tossing arm length.