An automatic ball launcher includes a ball feed control system that includes a meter wheel with radially-spaced ribs or grooves to selectively block and pass balls to the flywheels of the launcher. The meter wheel rotates to selectively block and release a single ball to pass at a time. The controller of the launcher can be programmed to stop the meter wheel when a ball has been metered by monitoring the current at peak of the motor driving the meter wheel. A meter-event can be determined to have occurred when the current of the drive motor drops to a trough by a pre-set magnitude following a rise to a peak value. A remote control can be provided for the user to operate the launching machine and adjust a plurality of parameters.

Training equipment includes a hollow shaft having a sidewall defining an internal cavity and at least one polymer material filling at least a portion of the internal cavity. The polymer material may fill the entire internal cavity of the hollow shaft. The polymer material may be a visco-elastic polymer material or polyurethane. A spacer or a filler may fill at least a portion of the internal cavity. A method of making weighted training equipment with a hollow shaft having a sidewall defining an internal cavity may include injecting a curable composition into at least a portion of the internal cavity. The method may further include curing the curable composition into a polymer material.

A handle for sport equipment comprises a tubular body (7) which extends along a longitudinal axis (L) and has an outer peripheral surface (8) adapted to be grasped by a user and shaped with a plurality of longitudinal faces (9) placed side by side in correspondence of edges (10) adapted to facilitate the positioning of the finger joints of the gripping hand by the user. The edges (10) are arranged along at least one pair of helical or spiral paths that develop around said longitudinal axis (L) with mutually opposite sign to subdivide each of said longitudinal faces (9) into a plurality of areas or flat surfaces (11) sized to accommodate a corresponding phalanx of the gripping hand of the user, each of said areas or flat surfaces (11) being perimetrically delimited by at least one pair of edges (10, 10) of each of the helical or spiral paths.

A handle for sport equipment comprises a tubular body (7) which extends along a longitudinal axis (L) and has an outer peripheral surface (8) adapted to be grasped by a user and shaped with a plurality of longitudinal faces (9) placed side by side in correspondence of edges (10) adapted to facilitate the positioning of the finger joints of the gripping hand by the user. The edges (10) are arranged along at least one pair of helical or spiral paths that develop around said longitudinal axis (L) with mutually opposite sign to subdivide each of said longitudinal faces (9) into a plurality of areas or flat surfaces (11) sized to accommodate a corresponding phalanx of the gripping hand of the user, each of said areas or flat surfaces (11) being perimetrically delimited by at least one pair of edges (10, 10) of each of the helical or spiral paths.

Structures with racket performance varied according to the configurations of cylindrical parts can be easily used. A grommet includes a cylindrical part which is mounted pierced through a through hole formed in a frame of a racket and through which a string passes. The string is extended in a tensioned state on the frame so as to form front and back faces as hitting faces. The cylindrical part includes a first formation section forming both sides of a central axis position of the cylindrical part and a second formation section rotationally shifted with reference to the central axis position by 90 degrees relative to the first formation section and forming both sides of the central axis position. One of the first and second formation sections is disposed on both sides in a front/back direction. The first and second formation sections each have a different rigidity.