Patent Application
20130045822
This invention relates to the field of sporting equipment, specifically, hockey sticks.
Hockey is a fast moving sport, requiring players to master a number of skills, simultaneously, such as skating and stick handling. Goalies, in particular, have to master a number of skills. They have to skate, perform blocking motions with their body and legs, and use their hands and stick to catch or block the puck. Hockey is a game of speed, and the goalie is expected to keep the puck from going into the net by any means necessary. When shots are fired on net, it is extremely important for a goalie to be able to minimize the number of rebounds, and/or be able to redirect the puck to an area away from the front of the net.
When blocking the puck, most goalies would like to control the angle or direction of the rebound. Unfortunately, due to current designs, and current constructions, and the placement of the goalie stick, this is often times impossible.
A hockey goalie stick is different than other hockey sticks. The blade of the stick continues up the shaft, forming the paddle. The paddle extends between 18″ and 27″, from the surface of the ice, depending on the height and the style of play of the goalie. The goalie holds the stick with his hand on the shaft, just above the paddle. The goalie places his index, and or other fingers, in front of the paddle, with the thumb behind the paddle, and the remaining fingers wrapped around the shaft, in order to stabilize the stick.
The face of the paddle on most goalie sticks (the portion facing opposing players) is flat. This means that the angle of the rebound is dependent, mostly, on the angle of the initial shot taken. More succinctly, like light itself, the angle of reflection of a hockey puck rebounding off of the face of a goalkeeper's stick's paddle is, generally, equal to the angle of incidence. For example, taking the 0° line as perpendicular to the paddle, if a shot comes in at an angle of 10° to the right of the 0° line, it will rebound at an angle of 10° to the left of the 0° line.
The paddle, itself, can be made from wood, plastic, or composite material. The flat geometry of the paddle is a legacy of making sticks out of wood. Certain hard woods are durable, making them acceptable for use as hockey sticks. However, these hard woods are heavy, and are difficult to machine into intricate shapes. Moreover, the more facets or features a wood stick has, the more likely it is to break. As a result, the face of the paddle on a goalie stick has been flat since the early days of hockey, and it has remained flat, even as new materials have replaced hard woods. There are no equipment requirements nor widely adopted league rules which require the paddle or the face of the shaft to be flat or smooth-faced.
Clearly, with the advent of composite materials, including, but not limited to carbon fiber, Kevlar®, aramid fibers, polyethylene, polyester, and fiberglass, surface features are almost limitless. Traditional wooden sticks were milled out of hard woods. Modern composites can be formed with a number of different processes, including, but not limited to, injection molds, vacuum forms, thermo-forming, blow-molding, and gas-injection molding.
The present invention relates to hockey goalie sticks. The hockey goalie stick has three general regions, a blade, a paddle, and a shaft. The blade has a toe and a heel. The heel of the blade is on the end where the blade joins with the paddle. The paddle has a face and a rear. The face is the side away from the goalkeeper's body. The rear of the paddle is the side that faces the goal and the goalies body. One edge of the paddle transitions into the top-edge of the blade, and will be called the top-edge of the paddle. The other edge of the paddle transitions into the bottom-edge of the blade and will be called the bottom-edge of the paddle.
The present invention uses composite materials to construct a surface feature on the face of the paddle. The purpose of the surface feature is to change the angle of reflection of the puck, so that it no longer equals the angle of incidence of the shot, when it strikes the face of the paddle. Ideally, the surface feature should be constructed so that the goalie has the maximum amount of control, concerning over where the puck will rebound. It should also be designed so that a skilled goalkeeper, when desired, can shunt the puck to the corner of the ice rink (away from the front of the net, and the opposing players), with relative ease.
The surface feature can run the entire length of the paddle, from the blade to the shaft. The surface feature can have a cross-sectional profile of any symmetrical or asymmetrical shape which lends itself to the purpose of the surface feature, including, but not limited to, a semi-circle, half-ellipse, triangle, parabola, or hyperbola. The surface feature can have a constant cross-sectional profile over its entire length, or its cross-sectional profile can change over the length of the paddle. A changing cross-sectional profile can either change in size or change in shape. The surface feature can be more or less linear over the length of the paddle, or it can curve from the shaft to the blade. A linear paddle-surface feature can be a constant distance from the heel edge of the paddle, or it can angle either towards the toe edge or towards the heel edge. The hockey goalie stick may even include multiple surface features on the paddle, with which to deflect the puck at something other than the angle of incidence.
There are five relevant drawings.
The following description represents the inventor's current preferred embodiment. The description is not meant to limit the invention, but rather to illustrate its general principles of operation and construction. Examples are illustrated with the accompanying drawings.
In the preferred embodiment in
