A Novel Hockey Puck Launcher

Abstract

Technology is ever-evolving, and its usefulness in sports training applications has increased with each evolution. Coaches and teams turn to technology to analyze player movements, break down game footage, and improve athletic performance. The sport of ice hockey has seen rapid player development over its history, with the game becoming faster, player equipment constantly improving, and the sport more popular and accessible than ever [4]. However, despite the abundance of training technology available for ice hockey players, one position still lags behind in development: the goalie. Ice hockey goalies often develop at a slower pace than their skater teammates due to a lack of expert coaching and resources at the lower levels, as well as the specialized equipment required, which makes the position more expensive and creates barriers to entry [19]. Additionally, goalies see the most growth in their playing ability when they get meaningful ice and game time. This thesis explores various designs of automated ball pitching and launching machines, as well as previous attempts to develop hockey puck shooting machines for goalie training. It also investigates why these earlier designs failed to gain widespread adoption within the goalie training community. Drawing on these insights and market research conducted for this project, the goal of this senior thesis is to design and build a functional puck launcher that is portable, versatile in capability, and can operate both on and off the ice, while being easily transported between different training locations.