BALL HANDLING AND GRIP STRENGTH TRAINING GLOVES

Abstract

The ball handling and grip strength training gloves strength the fingers and forearms of a user by creating resistance against curling the fingers towards the palm when worn. The ball handling and grip strength training gloves assist players in catching balls, and strengthens the grip for players in any sport, while helping to prevent players from closing their hands before the ball is caught, thereby assisting in preventing fumbles. The gloves include resistance tension bands along the finger portions at the top of the gloves, thereby forcing the user to keep their hands open. This strengthens the muscles in the user's hands and forearms.

Description

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. 37 CFR 1.71(d).

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention(s). It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art, or material, to the presently described or claimed inventions, or that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.

1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of strength training devices. More specifically, the invention is a pair of ball handling and grip strength training gloves designed to increase hand and grip strength and ball handling in order to improve a players performance in sports such as American football.

2. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Hand and grip strength is an important issue with a wide range of effects on activities as diverse as opening a jar to gripping a wheel to simply holding someone's hand. Such strength is of particular import in a number of sports, including American football, soccer, and water polo, where the ability to reliably catch, hold, and throw a ball can make or break a players game, whatever their level of play.

Ball handling skills are closely related to hand strength, and of utmost importance to players in ball-focused sports. Many players close their hands before the ball makes contact, causing them to drop the ball. Players in a number of sports often have issues due to a lack of hand strength that causes their performance to diminish. Players can be prone to fumbling a ball or missing tackles because their hand strength is insufficient.

Currently available grip strengtheners tend to include balls and other devices that can be squeezed repeatedly as part of a workout. While this is useful for over all hand strength, it doesn't necessarily help to improve a player's ball handling skills.

Ideally, ball handling and grip strength-training gloves should provide a way of increasing a user's ball handling and grip strength and, yet would operate reliably and be manufactured at a modest expense. Thus, a need exists for a reliable ball handling hand and grip strength-training glove to avoid the above-mentioned problems.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known grip strength-training device art, the present invention provides a novel ball handling and grip strength training glove. The general purpose of the present invention, as described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a pair of ball handling and hand and grip strength training gloves.

The ball handling and grip strength training gloves as claimed are gloves designed to strength the fingers and forearms of a user by creating resistance when worn. The presently claimed invention assists players in catching balls, and strengthens the grip for players in any sport, while helping to prevent players from closing their hands before the ball is caught, thereby assisting in preventing fumbles.

The ball handling and grip strength training gloves include resistance tension bands along the finger portions at the top of the gloves, thereby forcing the user to keep their hands open. This strengthens the muscles in the user's hands and forearms.

The present invention holds significant improvements and serves as ball handling and grip strength training gloves. For purposes of summarizing the invention, certain aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have been described herein. It is to be understood that not necessarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus, the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advantages as may be taught or suggested herein. The features of the invention that are believed to be novel are particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in the concluding portion of the specification. These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with reference to the following drawings and detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The figures that accompany the written portion of this specification illustrate embodiments and method(s) of use for the present invention, a ball handling and grip strength training glove, constructed and operative according to the teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 1A shows a perspective view illustrating a ball handling and grip strength training glove, according to an embodiment of the presently claimed invention.

FIG. 1B shows a palm-side view illustrating a ball handling and grip strength training glove, according to an embodiment of the presently claimed invention.

FIG. 1C shows a back-side view illustrating a ball handling and grip strength training glove, according to an embodiment of the presently claimed invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a pair of ball handling and grip strength training glove, according to an embodiment of the present invention of FIG. 1.

The various embodiments of the present invention will hereinafter be described in conjunction with the appended drawings, wherein like designations denote like elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As discussed above, embodiments of the present invention relate to a strength training device and more particularly to a ball handling and grip strength training glove as used to improve the user's ball handling and hand grip strength.

Generally speaking, the ball handling and grip strength training gloves have resistance bands in the finger portion of the gloves that keep the hands in an open position. In order to close his or her hand, the user must work against the resistance bands, thereby increasing the strength of the user's hand and forearm muscles.

Referring to the drawings by numerals of reference there is shown in FIG. 1A, the ball handling and grip strength training glove 1 is preferably made from cotton or nylon in the shape of a hand. As shown in FIG. 1B, the palm portion 2 of each glove has a tacky rubber material 3 thereon, to assist in gripping the ball. As shown in FIG. 1C, resistance bands 4 run from the top portion of every finger 5 to the writst portion 6 along the back side 7 of each glove, and are attached to provide resistance against the fingers curling towards the palm. The wrist portion 6 may include a strap 8 with a snap or a hook-and-loop, such as Velcro, attachment to adjust the tightness of the glove at the wrist to the user's body so that the gloves remain on even during sport.

As shown in FIG. 2, the gloves made for both a left hand 9 and a right hand glove 10, and are ideally worn as a pair, creating a ball handling and grip strength training glove system. The system may be sold as a kit including a glove for the user's left hand and a glove for the user's right hand. The gloves can be manufactured in a wide variety of sizes and colors. The exact specifications may vary.

The embodiments of the invention described herein are exemplary and numerous modifications, variations and rearrangements can be readily envisioned to achieve substantially equivalent results, all of which are intended to be embraced within the spirit and scope of the invention. Further, the purpose of the foregoing abstract is to enable the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally, and especially the scientist, engineers and practitioners in the art who are not familiar with patent or legal terms or phraseology, to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and essence of the technical disclosure of the application.

Claims

1. A ball handling and grip strength training glove, the glove comprising: (a) four finger portions to receive a user's four fingers;(b) a thumb portion to receive the user's thumb;(c) a hand portion, wherein the four finger portions and the thumb portion are operably connected to the hand portion to receive the user's hand;(d) a wrist portion, wherein the wrist portion is operably connected along a bottom edge of the hand portion to receive the user's hand through the wrist portion;(e) a palm side; and(f) a back side;(g) a tacky rubber material operably attached to the hand portion of the palm side of the glove in order to assist with gripping a ball;(h) five resistance bands operably attached from a top of each finger portion and a top of the thumb portion to the bottom edge of the back side of the hand portion so that each resistance band provides resistance against curling the user's fingers and thumb towards the user's palm.

2. The ball handling and grip strength training glove according to claim 1, wherein the glove is made of a material selected from the group consisting of cotton or nylon.

3. The ball handling and grip strength training glove according to claim 1, wherein the wrist portion further comprises: (i) a strap with a snap or hook-and-loop attachment operably connected to the wrist portion to adjust the tightness of the glove at the wrist to the user's body to hold the glove in place.

4. A ball handling and grip strength training glove kit, the glove kit comprising: (a) a glove according to claim 1, wherein the four finger portions and the thumb portion are operably connected to the hand portion to receive a user's right hand; and(b) a glove according to claim 1, wherein the four finger portions and the thumb portion are operably connected to the hand portion to receive a user's left hand.

5. The ball handling and grip strength training glove according to claim 4, wherein each glove is made of a material selected from the group consisting of cotton or nylon.

6. The ball handling and grip strength training glove according to claim 4, wherein the wrist portion of each glove further comprises: (i) a strap with a snap or hook-and-loop attachment operably connected to the wrist portion to adjust the tightness of the glove at the wrist to the user's body to hold the glove in place.