[SenorZ]

The "El Toro" system would seem to be easily duplicated. I'd say bag what you have and spend a few days with a second set-up doing some more testing.
We're not using this setup, but we've heard other teams are having issues.

My opinion: the elastic holding the two prongs together must be strong to apply compression at about 20" of separation, but not too strong so that the ball bounces off.
10:1 gearboxes sound fast, make sure the prongs aren't just skidding over the ball.