Patent Application
20200376348
The present invention relates generally to sports equipment. More specifically, the present invention relates to a multicomponent lacrosse ball designed improve a ball's flight characteristics and impact-absorption properties.
The lacrosse ball has gone through relatively few changes since its organized inception in the early 1600's. The overall structure of the lacrosse ball has not changed since the introduction of wooden balls, nearly 400 years ago. The only major improvement came in 1856, when a solid rubber ball was introduced. Balls made of a single piece of solid rubber, and balls made with smooth surfaces suffer several shortcomings that lowers the effectiveness and overall safety of an athlete playing lacrosse. Notably, balls with smooth surfaces create unwanted drag, and therefore cannot be thrown in straight lines at high velocities. Specifically, the Magnus effect prevents smooth lacrosse balls from being thrown in a straight line at high velocities. Therefore, athletes infrequently make long passes at high velocities because the ball cannot be aimed accurately. Athletes tend to lob passes that are long. However, as the velocity of a thrown lacrosse ball increases, so does the danger of a bodily injury for the athlete. Specifically, balls made of rigid or inflexible materials cause greater damage to the athlete's body during a collision. Another shortcoming addressed by the present invention relates to the smooth surface of the ball becoming slick as materials gather on the surface and begin to oxidize on the ball. Thereby, reducing the athlete's ability to grip and throw the ball.
The present invention addresses the above-describes issues by providing a lacrosse ball with a dimpled surface and a structured, impact-absorbing, core.
Specifically, the present invention makes use of a set of texturizing dimples to modify the surface of the lacrosse ball, such that the athlete is able to throw the ball in a straight line while at high velocities. In addition to improving flight characteristics, the dimpled surface improves player safety. For example, goalies will be able to better judge the flightpath of a lacrosse ball to avoid Commotio Cordis. The present invention expands on this safety-improving concept by incorporating damper structures into the ball core. This enables the present invention to become deformed during a collision with the athlete's body. Thus, reducing the chance of injury. Finally, the dimpled surface prevents the present invention from becoming unusably slick.
All illustrations of the drawings are for the purpose of describing selected versions of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.
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Accordingly, while embodiments are described herein in detail in relation to one or more embodiments, it is to be understood that this disclosure is illustrative and exemplary of the present disclosure and are made merely for the purposes of providing a full and enabling disclosure. The detailed disclosure herein of one or more embodiments is not intended, nor is to be construed, to limit the scope of patent protection afforded in any claim of a patent issuing here from, which scope is to be defined by the claims and the equivalents thereof. It is not intended that the scope of patent protection be defined by reading into any claim a limitation found herein that does not explicitly appear in the claim itself.
Thus, for example, any sequence(s) and/or temporal order of steps of various processes or methods that are described herein are illustrative and not restrictive. Accordingly, it should be understood that, although steps of various processes or methods may be shown and described as being in a sequence or temporal order, the steps of any such processes or methods are not limited to being carried out in any particular sequence or order, absent an indication otherwise. Indeed, the steps in such processes or methods generally may be carried out in various different sequences and orders while still falling within the scope of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of patent protection is to be defined by the issued claim(s) rather than the description set forth herein.
Additionally, it is important to note that each term used herein refers to that which an ordinary artisan would understand such term to mean based on the contextual use of such term herein. To the extent that the meaning of a term used herein—as understood by the ordinary artisan based on the contextual use of such term—differs in any way from any particular dictionary definition of such term, it is intended that the meaning of the term as understood by the ordinary artisan should prevail.
Furthermore, it is important to note that, as used herein, “a” and “an” each generally denotes “at least one,” but does not exclude a plurality unless the contextual use dictates otherwise. When used herein to join a list of items, “or” denotes “at least one of the items,” but does not exclude a plurality of items of the list. Finally, when used herein to join a list of items, “and” denotes “all of the items of the list.”
The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the following description to refer to the same or similar elements. While many embodiments of the disclosure may be described, modifications, adaptations, and other implementations are possible. For example, substitutions, additions, or modifications may be made to the elements illustrated in the drawings. Accordingly, the following detailed description does not limit the disclosure. Instead, the proper scope of the disclosure is defined by the appended claims. The present disclosure contains headers. It should be understood that these headers are used as references and are not to be construed as limiting upon the subjected matter disclosed under the header.
Other technical advantages may become readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art after review of the following figures and description. It should be understood at the outset that, although exemplary embodiments are illustrated in the figures and described below, the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented using any number of techniques, whether currently known or not. The present disclosure should in no way be limited to the exemplary implementations and techniques illustrated in the drawings and described below.
In the figures, elements having an alphanumeric designation may be referenced herein collectively or in the alternative, as will be apparent from context, by the numeric portion of the designation only. Further, the constituent parts of various elements in the figures may be designated with separate reference numerals which shall be understood to refer to that constituent part of the element and not the element as a whole. General references, along with references to spaces, surfaces, dimensions, and extents, may be designated with arrows.
Unless otherwise indicated, the drawings are intended to be read together with the specification and are to be considered a portion of the entire written description of this invention. As used in the following description, the terms “horizontal”, “vertical”, “left”, “right”, “up”, “down” and the like, as well as adjectival and adverbial derivatives thereof (e.g., “horizontally”, “rightwardly”, “upwardly”, “radially”, etc.), simply refer to the orientation of the illustrated structure as the particular drawing figure faces the reader. Similarly, the terms “inwardly,” “outwardly” and “radially” generally refer to the orientation of a surface relative to its axis of elongation, or axis of rotation, as appropriate.
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Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.
The current application claims a priority to the U.S. Provisional Patent application Ser. No. 62/854,175 filed on May 29, 2019.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62854175 | May 2019 | US |
