Patent Application
20160199717
Throwing or passing is an essential skill in football. Improving football throwing skills involves throwing arm strength, accuracy and timing. The football must also maintain a spiral orientation so that it can be more easily caught by the intended receiver. As with most athletic endeavors, perfecting passing ability may take years of practicing by throwing a football. Generally, during practice the player throws the football to a second player who catches and returns the football. Practicing alone, however, is much more time consuming and less useful because the player must spend excessive time retrieving the ball after each practice pass.
For throwing practicing with a round ball, such as soccer or baseball, a player can use a return net where the ball rebounds back towards the player. Unfortunately, rebound nets do not work well for oblong balls, like a football. Due to its oblong shape, a football tends to rebound off of a return net in a random direction, rather than rebound back towards the player. Accordingly, there is a need for equipment which overcomes the disadvantages facing the lone player in practicing throwing a football.
A football throwing trainer has a football holder including first and second end caps adapted to fit over the ends of a football. Holder straps connect the first and second end caps and hold the end caps securely onto the ends of the football. A tether is attached to the first end cap and to a belt or cuff. The trainer allows a lone player to practice throwing a football and to easily retrieve the thrown football.
In another aspect the end caps may have a central opening and comprise a flexible material and have two, three, four, or more spaced apart arms, with the holder straps attached to the arms of the end caps. The holder straps may be attached to one of the arms by looping through a strap slot in the arm. The holder straps may be elastic or have an elastic section.
Other and further aspects will become apparent from the following detailed description and the drawings.
As shown in
The belt 12 may be worn around the player's waist, with the belt having a length made adjustable via a buckle, clip or via Velcro hook and loop tape 24. In an alternative design, the belt 12 may be replaced by a cuff designed to be worn on the player's wrist, or attached to a fixed object such as a ground stake or pole.
The holder 16 may include first and second end caps 50, which optionally are identical. Referring to
The slots 62 and 68 are sized and shaped to allow the straps 52 to pass through the end cap 50. These may be replaced with round openings if round straps are used rather than the flat straps shown in
In the example shown, four holder straps 52A, 52B, 52C and 52D are used. The holder straps 52 may be a flat web material, typically an elastic material, or having an elastic section. The front holder strap 52A, may be split into segments attachable to each other via Velcro hook and loop tape, a fastener or a knot. Alternatively the front holder strap 52A may be made long enough to extend from the first end cap, through a slot in the second end cap, and then back towards the first end cap, with the holder strap 52A forming a loop attached to itself. The side straps 52B and 52C may extend through the strap slots 62, loop back on to themselves and may be stitched, adhered or otherwise fastened.
As shown in
Referring back to
In use, a football 100 is secured within the holder by stretching the straps momentarily to allow the end caps 50 to be placed over the ends of the football. The elastic tension of the straps, or sections of the straps, then holds the end caps 50 securely onto the ball. The straps may be equally radially spaced apart to secure the ball within the holder on all sides. The straps may be oriented so that the laces of the football are spaced apart from the straps. Alternatively, if a split or looped front strap is used, the front strap may be momentarily opened or loosened, to allow the holder to be more easily installed around the ball 100.
The player attaches the belt around the waist, or attaches the cuff to the wrist. The player then throws the ball 100. As holder and tether are lightweight, their effect on the trajectory of the ball is moderate. In addition, since the tether is attached on the longitudinal central axis of the ball, via a swivel, interference with the spiral attitude of the ball is reduced. After the ball travels past the nominal length of the tether, the tether stretches, decelerating the ball and ultimately causing the ball to reverse direction and recoil towards the player. The player can then easily retrieve the ball by pulling on the tether. Tension forces applied by the tether in decelerating the ball may be distributed over the web section 78 and the straps 52A and 52D. A second web section may be joined perpendicular to the first web section, and to the side straps 52B and 52C, to further strengthen the ball holder.
As used here, football means any type of oblong ball, such as a football or a rugby ball. Oblong means the length of the ball is at least 1.4 times greater than the maximum diameter of the ball. Elastic or stretchable means easily elongated several centimeters (e.g., 5-10 cm) using nominal hand forces, such as to stretch the holder sufficiently to place into onto a football. Thus, a novel football throwing trainer has been shown and described. Various changes and substitutions may of course be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The invention, therefore, should not be limited except by the following claims and their equivalents.
