A ball retriever assembly for retrieving and storing balls includes a hopper body defining a hollow storage space therein and at least one attachment configured for removable coupling to the hopper body. Each of the attachments includes a retrieval structure configured for unidirectional passage of one of the balls through the corresponding one of the attachments. A lid is configured for removable coupling to the hopper body as well as each of the attachments. The lid is adjustable between a ball retrieval configuration wherein the lid encloses an end of the hollow storage space and a ball removal configuration wherein the lid forms a stand for maintaining an upright and open configuration of the hopper body. The different attachments configured for removable coupling to the hopper body allow for the unidirectional passage of different ranges of outer ball diameters.

A device for practicing hitting a ball may comprise a bat and a flag portion. The bat may comprise a bat stick comprising a bat handle and a bat barrel coupled to the bat handle; and a weight coupled to the bat barrel. The bat may comprise a rigid material. The flag portion may comprise a flag coupled to the bat barrel, wherein the flag is configured to extend from the bat barrel. The flag may comprise a flimsy material.

An apparatus includes a training area in the form of an enclosed space in which light levels can be controlled, at least one physical element related to a task for which an individual is to be trained, and a lighting arrangement. The lighting arrangement generates a background luminance level in the training area sufficient to cause the vision system of the individual to function in the mesopic or low photopic range of vision, and the physical elements are themselves illuminated by an illumination means. The luminance level of the physical elements is greater than the background luminance level.

A sports and performance media positional detection system, comprising: at least two elements, with at least one element involved in the sporting activity; a power source; and machine-to-machine communication, which are collectively arranged such that if any two or more elements interact, their electromagnetic properties can be detected thus allowing the position of the interacting elements to be communicated to a decision maker. The system can be applied to at least one stationary element, which can be the playing surface, lines defining the boundaries, or a set of goalposts; and at least one moving element, which could be a ball, footwear, or the participants themselves. The system can also be applied to performance media capture.

A method of making a ball bat may include forming a bat frame with a handle and an inner barrel structure, providing spacer elements extending radially outwardly from the inner barrel structure, and forming a barrel shell having a main barrel and a tapered section. An inner diameter in the tapered section may be equal to an outer diameter of a first one of the spacer elements. The method may include mechanically locking the barrel shell to the bat frame by passing the handle through the barrel shell and moving the barrel shell toward the inner barrel structure until the barrel shell contacts the first one of the spacer elements. A gap is maintained between an outer diameter of the inner barrel structure and the barrel shell. The barrel shell may deflect during a hit to create a trampoline effect, while the inner barrel structure limits the deflection.

A system is disclosed that includes a ball-throwing machine included within a first housing, a controller communicatively coupled to the ball-throwing machine and included within a second housing different than the first housing, a camera, and a non-transitory storage medium having stored thereon logic, the logic being executable by one or more processors to perform operations including: receiving information associated with a selection of a first training drill from the controller, responsive to receiving the information associated with the selection of the first training drill, causing the ball-throwing machine to impart motion to one or more balls in accordance with the first training drill, receiving multimedia data of a player captured by the camera, and performing a player recognition procedure to locate the player within the multimedia data.

A smart cricket bat and a process of fabrication of the same is disclosed. The cricket bat includes an electronic system includes a plurality of sensors with sensor fusion to remove bias in sensed data. The plurality of sensors measure accurate data representative of rate of change of velocity, angular speed, orientation of the smart cricket bat, pressure exerted on the smart cricket bat by a ball, a pressure exerted on the handle unit by a hand grip of the batsman during swing of the smart cricket bat and one or more audio signals. The electronic system also includes a processing unit configured to process sensed data to calculate one or more metrics associated with batting. The electronic system also includes a transceiver unit configured to transmit one or more calculated metrics to a user's computing device.

A device for training athletes with direction control, the training device having modular sections connected by a common elastic material, such as an elastic cord, the modular sections being capable of being connected to form a rectangular configuration and disconnected for storage, the device when connected providing a physical and visual guide for the user on any chosen surface. The modular sections can be tubular sections having ninety-degree connectors to form a rectangular configuration, the modular sections and connectors capable of being various sizes, shapes, lengths and widths to form a rectangular configuration when interconnected. The various modular sections and/or connectors can be configured with an elastic cord, hinges or have one or more modular section that are telescopic in nature, which make the device capable to be quickly and easily reduced or enlarged in the size of the device while keeping each component of the device fully connected and in proper order.

Described herein are devices and systems relating to sports training equipment, for example, for baseball. These devices and systems can comprise a mat with markers identifying a plurality of positions on the mat. In some embodiments, the system can comprise removably attachable footpads to identify ideal foot positions for an athletic performance. In some embodiments, the footpads comprise one or more pressure sensors. The system can comprise one or more position sensors on a ball, and one or more position sensors removably attachable to a hand-held sports instrument. In some embodiments, the system can comprise a memory, communicatively coupled to a processor and a camera, with executable instructions to implement a set-up component, a user recognition component, a practice component, and instructional component, and a play component.

A method may include receiving a group of images taken by a camera over time in an environment, in which the camera may be oriented within the environment to capture images of an object in a substantially same direction as a launch direction of the object, and the group of images including a first image and a second image. The method may further include: identifying a first position of the object in the first image; identifying a second position of the object in the second image; generating a flight vector based on the first position of the object and the second position of the object; and determining one or more flight parameters using the flight vector. Additionally, the method may include: generating a simulated trajectory of the object based on the flight parameters; and providing the simulated trajectory of the object for presentation in a graphical user interface.