[Kellen Hill]

After struggling to hit many of our shots through Kansas City, we decided this would be the best way to address the issue of various ball consistencies. We would launch new balls several feet over the backboard and old balls would fall short of the hoop. As Bruce mentioned, after collecting data through Thursday and Friday, we were able to start implementing wheel speed drops and hood adjustments on a per ball basis. This resulted in us hitting 9/10 and 5/11 balls from the key our finals matches at 10,000 Lakes, allowing us to come away with a regional victory. While there is still room for improvement, we are very excited that Captain Pike is performing at a more competitive level and we're excited to bring out game to champs in a few weeks.

On the topic of ball consistency, what are some other examples of ways teams have addressed this issue? I know of three teams that have compression load cells (2169, 1625, 525). Some shooters have built in ways of dealing with this issue whether it be using a catapult or having a longer contact time with the shooter wheel that the ball will have an extended period of acceleration resulting in a more consistent shot. I have also seen others that simply shoot each ball at the backboard with enough force and enough backspin that the ball will almost always drop in.

So what have other teams done to combat these issues or what are you planning to do?