A baseball or softball batting practice device has a rope trackway along which a pulley carriage is adapted to travel freely. A simulated baseball or softball is suspended by a length of nylon cord from the carriage. A batter strikes the ball to cause the carriage to travel along the trackway and endeavors to hit the ball again as the carriage returns toward the batter along the trackway. In a preferred embodiment the ball has a solid cork center core and a molded urethane elastomer shell surrou...

A structural module which lends itself to the construction of playground edifices for climbing and crawling. The module is in the form of a tetrahedron whose four corners are truncated to define four triangular minor faces that are disposed in parallel relation to four major hexagonal faces, the module having a spherical central cavity. The radius of the sphere is greater than the distance between the geometrical center of the module and any major face thereof, circular ports in the major faces ...

A golf practice platform is divided into two sections one of which is stationary, and the other of which is mounted to tilt slightly as the golfer's weight shifts from one foot to the other in order to indicate the instant when the shift occurs. Each section has an artificial turf surface and the turf surface of the stationary section from which the ball is driven is laid above a pad of cellular elastomeric material to simulate actual playing conditions. The entire platform may be tilted in vari...

Apparatus for playing a game with a number of participants wherein the apparatus includes a number of flexible cord-like members, each member being of a different color for identifying it with a respective participant and loops at each end thereof for releasably connecting the same to a body part of a participant. Each member has beads bearing game instruction indicia thereon to indicate the play of the game wherein the participants successively make moves which cause them to become intertwined....

A portable platform apparatus adapted for the vertical support of a volleyball referee, the apparatus having a vertical front frame; a pair of vertical end frames, a top horizontal frame; and a ladder; the combination providing an elevated horizontal support platform which is hingedly collapsible into a compact unit that is easily carried.

A machine for automatically shooting or propelling a hockey puck is described. The machine includes apparatus for automatically issuing a hockey puck from a hopper. The puck is then dropped into an aiming chute from which it is propelled by a piston driven hammer. The aiming chute is adapted to be raised or lowered to propel the puck therefrom at different levels off of the ice. For ease in maneuvering across the ice, the machine is placed on wheels.

A golf ball teeing area includes a platform on which a golfer may stand, mats from which golf balls may be driven and a flexible apron connecting the platform to an adjacent rigid floor member. A pair of hydraulic jacks are located in a pit below the platform and permit the platform to be tilted to various sloped positions. A rotatable turret is mounted within a central opening in the platform. The periphery of the turret includes three angularly related faces provided with grasslike mats which ...

The stance gauge has a first strip to be straddled by the golfer's feet substantially normal to the desired line of flight of a golf ball. A replaceable rod is mounted on the front end of the strip for indicating the proper teeing position of the golf ball prior to swinging. A cross-strip is adjustable intermediate its ends on the first strip intermediate the ends of the first strip. A left foot positioning pad is pivotally adjustably mounted on the cross-strip to be engaged by the toe of the sh...

A loading circuit tuned to an identifying frequency is molded within a plastic housing. The housing is threaded into a cavity located in a fingerhole of a bowling ball. The circuit includes a resistor, a capacitor and an inductance coil connected in series.

A ski-training device is formed with a base, a pair of ski-like boards pivotally mounted by their front ends on a vertical axis in the front zone of the base and at least one flexible, resilient traction element acting upon the middle zone of the boards over at least two guide rollers rotatably mounted in vertical axes in the rear zone of the base. In use of the device to obtain a realistic feel of movement and forces experienced in technique of skiing, the ski-like boards rotate parallel to one...