Sports Equipment

Sport Equipment Essentials

Fitness is crucial to our health. We've learnt to run, jump, walk, balance, lift weights and more all throughout our lives which is why it's important to have the best quality parts for your equipment and machines when you're practicing your favourite hobbies. We've gone through some of the most popular sports around the world and helped you to identify the parts you need from WDS Components. Whether you're into boxing and basketball or gymnastics and swimming, we've got your parts covered.

WDS Components has a substantial product pedigree with more than 25,000 parts stemming from its Machine and Hardware, Industrial Automation and other category areas to manufacture and supply standard parts and work holding units all around the world. Another great thing about WDS, is you have access to all of our product CAD models, completely FREE. Our 3D images can be downloaded quickly and easily integrated with a variety of CAD software such as Inventor, ME10, SolidWorks, AutoCAD and more- perfect for supporting Engineers, Designers and Technicians with their functionality and internal detail checks.

Swing Bolts and Lifting Eye Bolts

In swimming, more often than not, you'll find lanes are separated using flotation devices. They're great pieces of competition equipment because of their bright colours but an additional element which is important to consider is their attachment to the side of the pool. It's crucial your lane dividers are securely fixed to the wall to stop them from floating away and interfering with other lanes and their swimmers. The best way to do this is to attach swing bolts to the end of the swimming rope.

Also known as threaded eye bolts, these parts can be seen in the image above, they're very effective as the threaded bar allows for tightening and loosening which provides the user with more flexibility. The stainless steel swing bolts are great for water environments due to their resistance properties and durability. If you want to learn more about the difference between stainless steel grades, check out our Tech Spec page.

Whilst swing bolts or lifting eyes are placed at either end of the lane dividers then hooked onto the wall of the pool, you may find podiums at one end of the swimming lanes too. Oftentimes the starting blocks feature a bridge handle below the standing panel for grip prior dives into the pool. Check out our full range of handles including bow handles and stainless steel tube handles (WDS 8549) for longevity and durability- perfect for swimming pool environments with chlorine and other chemicals added to the water.

In boxing, training is just as, if not more, important than being in the ring itself which is why it's crucial boxers have the right equipment installed and adjusted to suit health and safety standards. To hang punching bags from the ceiling or using a wall rack, rings are required. Whilst hoist rings can be used in this situation it is much more cost efficient to apply lifting eyes. Hoist rings tend to have very high loading capacities, hence their suitability for the chandler and marine industry.

Each style of eye bolt includes information on the safe working load (flexible enough to suit most applications) and comes with the indicated safety certificate. We supply both male and female threaded lifting eyes in steel and stainless steel; check out the full range in our Jig and Fixture zone. Don't forget to grab yourself some fasteners too if you need to fix a wall bracket up, you might need nuts, screws or washers. 

Castors and Wheels

At most clubhouses and in sport centres, you'll find cages filled with an assortment of balls. It doesn't matter whether they're netball, football or even rugby balls, but they do need to have good quality castors attached to the base of the cage for easy movement. WDS Components supply a range of wheels in a variety of different materials such as nylon castors, rubber wheels and polyurethane castors. However, the bracket type is also an important element to consider. The three bracket types we supply include:

1. Fixed
2. Swivel
3. Swivel and brake

The swivel and brake castor wheels are likely to be your best option if they're for a ball cage as it means equipment can be moved around the sport facilities easily and then parked securely with the brake when they're closer to the playing location. Each of our castor wheels will specify the load capacity, a feature which should be identified prior to measurements to ensure you're selecting the most cost-effective and physically supportive set of castor wheels.

If you're using castor wheels on wooden floors, you'll find nylon are the best type to apply. Hardwood flooring provides an aesthetically pleasing design to a room along with little maintenance but as it can be a costly investment, it's important to take care of the flooring. Nylon castor wheels tend to be light helping users to avoid carving and degrading the wood.

Positioning Parts and Location Pins

Athletes come in all shapes and sizes hence adjustable elements are applied across thousands of sports apparatus and equipment so everyone can get involved with health and fitness activities!

Detent pins and positioning parts can be applied to basketball hoops and other ball games to adapt the height of nets. These location pins are ideal for schools where the height needs to be changed relatively regularly for students to play sports in PE sessions. Detent Pins are a quick and easy way to locate and secure an application in place. The quick release ball locking pin uses two spring ball bearings to prevent the pin from working its way free from the application. The quick pin also features a pull ring for attaching a lanyard or retaining chain.

Location pins: an extensive range of 316 stainless steel detent and quick release pins. Customise your own detent pins using our wide range of handles and hand knobs.

Hand Knobs and Grips

Our grade 316 stainless steel T-grips are available in both imperial and metric variations. These are used across plenty of gymnastic apparatus such as uneven bars or the asymmetric bars (if you look closely you can see their application in the image below). In our hand knobs and thumb screw section, you'll find an extensive range including star knobs, torque screws, mushroom pull knobs, wing grips and more- perfect for easily adjusting your equipment. Take note of our filter by section in the left-hand side panel too where you can quickly search for various materials such as stainless steel, cast iron and thermoplastic.

An alternative application to T-grips are our ball knobs and gear levers. Each of the red mushroom knobs, black mushroom knobs and barrel grips provide a comfortable and secure grip ideal in a variety of environments. Or, you could purchase stainless steel ball knobs for extra longevity and durability assurance. The gear levers that feature Bakelite grips are heat resistant and offer a robust solution. Alternatively, we also supply the lever without a hand knob allowing customers the opportunity to add any choice of hand knob.

Levelling Feet

It's common to have a number of table tennis stations set up in one area (e.g.. a sports hall), especially for competitions and training sessions. Because of this, it's very helpful to have tables which can be moved easily; applying components such as our swivel and brake castors are particularly useful in this situation. Alternatively, levelling feet can be used to adjust the height of the components it's supporting. These could be applied to the base of a table to ensure it's setup on a stable surface or alternatively, to the net providing both players and their coaches full assurance it is adjusted to the official table tennis height of 15.25cm.

If you've read enough and found all the pieces you need to produce your ball cages, adjust nets or even discovered the spare parts to fix up a swimming lane then head over to the search bar and add the components to your basket. Orders can be processed directly through the website or you can contact our Sales Team on 0333 043 5443. However, if you need a little more advice on selecting the best parts for your latest sport project, get in touch with our Technical Team. You can reach them on the same phone number as Sales or fill in some information using our online contact form. We can't wait to receive your order and help you out with your sport equipment essentials!