A chest protector may include shoulder portions to extend over shoulders of a sport participant wearing the chest protector, a padded chest portion to extend over the chest of a sport participant wearing the chest protector, a padded torso portion and a pliable shaper extending across the padded torso portion.

A pneumatic ball launcher includes a tube, a ball pathway unit, a push unit, a holding unit, an airway unit and a pneumatic unit. The ball pathway unit is used for connecting one end of the tube and wrapping part of a ball channel of the tube. The push unit includes a push bar, a slide base, a first driver and a second driver. The holding unit, detachably connected with the push unit, is used for holding the ball pushed by the push bar. The airway unit is connected with the holding unit. The pneumatic unit includes a valve mechanism, a pneumatic cylinder and a gas tank. When the valve mechanism opens to allow the gas tank to discharge into the holding unit via the airway unit, the ball held by the holding unit would be ejected out of the tube.

A method of forming a barrel portion including obtaining a mandrel shaped to define at least an inner surface of a barrel portion of the bat, wrapping a first plurality of layers of fiber composite material about the mandrel, placing a removable material over a first portion of the first plurality of layers, and wrapping a second plurality of layers of fiber composite material over the removable material and the portion of the first plurality of layers not covered by the removable material for form an assembly. The method further includes separating the mandrel from the assembly, inserting an expandable member within the assembly, inserting the assembly into a barrel-forming mold, and molding the assembly in a single molding cycle, curing the first and second layers with the removable material to form the barrel portion of the bat, and removing the removable material and the member from the barrel portion.

A video and audio presentation device configured to present video and audio for sports training with less delay in physical reaction is provided. The device includes: an offset determination unit configured to determine a time-series offset t.sub.offset obtained by correcting a time difference t.sub.diff on a basis of a correction coefficient α, the time difference t.sub.diff representing a time difference between A.sub.real and A.sub.mix, or a time difference between A.sub.VR and A.sub.mix, where a physical reaction A.sub.real represents time-series data of physical reaction to an incoming object in a real environment, a physical reaction A.sub.VR represents time-series data of physical reaction to an incoming object presented in a virtual reality environment, and a physical reaction A.sub.mix represents time-series data of physical reaction to an incoming object presented in a semi-virtual reality environment; a video presentation unit configured to present video in the semi-virtual reality environment; and an audio presentation unit configured to shift audio corresponding to the video on a basis of the time-series offset t.sub.offset so that the audio precedes arrival of the video, and to present the shifted audio in the semi-virtual reality environment.

An anti-slip member for a wearable equipment or sports equipment, the anti-slip member includes an elastic body including an elastomer and a hydrogel, and at least part of the hydrogel dispersed on a surface of the elastic body.

The sport data tracking systems available today are based on specialized hardware to detect and track targets on the field. While effective, implementing and maintaining these systems pose a number of challenges, including high cost and need for close human monitoring. On the other hand, the sports analytics community has been exploring human computation and crowdsourcing in order to produce tracking data that is trustworthy, cheaper and more accessible. However, state-of-the-art methods require a large number of users to perform the annotation, or put too much burden into a single user. Example methods, systems and user interfaces that facilitate the creation of tracking data sequences of events (e.g., plays of baseball games) by warm-starting a manual annotation process using a vast collection of historical data are described.

A system for creating a virtual environment is disclosed. The system has a barrier screen configured to stop an object including a ball that is moved toward the barrier, including a first barrier screen portion that is a cylinder section, and a second barrier screen portion that is disposed above the first barrier screen portion, wherein the second barrier screen portion is an elliptical section. The system also has at least one projector configured to project an image of the virtual environment on the barrier screen, at least one sensor configured to sense data associated with the object, and a computing device configured to control the at least one projector to change the image based on the sensed data.

A hand gripper for a baseball player according to the present invention comprises: a body which is provided to be covered by the index finger, middle finger, and thumb of a user; and an elastic body which is fastened to the body to provide an elastic force. Here, the body has a partially cut-out ring shape, and includes an upper end, a lower end, and a gripping surface having a selected radius of curvature. The gripping surface is provided: to include a first boundary line which crosses the gripping surface in the lateral direction, and first protrusions repeatedly formed along the first boundary line; and such that the upper end and the lower end of the body can come into contact with each other as the body bends when the user applies force while gripping the body.

An athletic training system (200) has a data recording system (202) and a data engine (204). The data recording system (202) is configured to record an athletic competition event. The event may have a first team of players competing against a second team of players. The data engine (204) is configured to receive data associated with the recorded athletic competition event. The data engine (204) processes the data and displays the data as a replay of the event in animated form.

A visualization tool with a gridwork aid to better help ball players visualize aspects of the game in practice. A system, device, technique, apparatus, and kit are envisioned that allow a ball player in practice to better visualize placements and positions for a batter to better hit the ball, whether done alone in the privacy of their home or outside, or with others. Plastic, paper and other non-electronic, electronic and smartphone versions of the present invention are implemented to provide improved tools for personal visualization for developing game skills, and recording the batting sessions.