1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to lacrosse sticks, and more particularly, to a collar for providing an offset between the axis of a shaft and the socket axis of the juncture of a head attached to the shaft. The present invention also relates to a lacrosse stick head having a socket axis that provides an offset.
2. Background of the Invention
For traditionally-strung pockets (which have thongs and string instead of mesh), thongs (not shown) made of leather or synthetic material extend from upper thong holes 116 in transverse wall 112 to lower thong holes 118 in stop member 114. In some designs, such as the design shown in
As shown in
A male plug that fits within the bore of shaft 102 could also be used, as suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 5,935,026 to Dill et al. With this connection, the shaft can be held onto the male plug by the friction fit between the components.
When double-wall synthetic lacrosse heads were first introduced, the early designs featured straight handles and straight heads, when viewed from a side elevation facing a sidewall of the head. In other words, the lacrosse head remained largely in line with the axis of the handle. Since those early designs, however, the trend has been to lower the lacrosse head below the handle axis. Lowering the head can enable better ball control and provide a player with an indication of the orientation of the lacrosse head, which results from the uneven weight distribution relative to the handle axis in directions radial to the handle axis.
An embodiment of the present invention provides a lacrosse stick having a shaft, a head, and a collar between the head and shaft. The collar is disposed within the juncture of the head. The shaft is disposed within the collar. The collar positions the shaft relative to the juncture such that the socket axis of the juncture is offset from the axis of the shaft, when viewed from a side elevation of the lacrosse stick facing the exterior of a sidewall of the lacrosse head, with the ball receiving side of the head facing upwards.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides a lacrosse stick having a shaft, a collar defining an opening that receives the shaft, and a head having a juncture. The juncture defines a socket that receives the collar, and the socket and the shaft are non-concentric. In a further aspect of this embodiment, the shaft has a shaft axis, the opening of the collar has an opening axis, the socket of the juncture has a socket axis, and at least one of the socket axis, the opening axis, and the shaft axis is offset, when viewed from a side elevation of the lacrosse stick facing an exterior of a sidewall of the head.
In an alternative embodiment, the collar has a male plug that is disposed, and preferably compressed, within the hollow shaft.
Another embodiment of the present invention provides a lacrosse head having an offset socket that provides an offset between the shaft axis and the axis defined by the exterior of the juncture and/or the remaining frame elements of the head, when viewed from a side elevation of the lacrosse stick facing the exterior of a sidewall of the lacrosse head.
FIGS. 2A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating an isometric front view of a lacrosse stick having a lacrosse head, collar, and shaft, shown in different stages of assembly, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 3A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating an isometric back view of the lacrosse stick shown in FIGS. 2A-C.
FIGS. 4A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating isometric views of the front and back sides of a 3° offset collar, with and without a shaft inserted, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 5A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating isometric views of the front and back sides of a 1.5° offset collar, with and without a shaft inserted, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 6A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating isometric views of the front and back sides of a straight collar that provides no offset (i.e., 0° offset), with and without a shaft inserted, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIGS. 2A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating an isometric front view of a lacrosse stick 201 having a lacrosse head 200, collar 202, and shaft 204, shown in different stages of assembly, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, collar 202 is placed on the end of shaft 204. The shaft 204 and collar 202 are then inserted into the socket defined by the juncture of head 200.
The friction fit between head 200, collar 202, and shaft 204 can adequately secure shaft 204 to head 200. As an example, collar 202 can be made of an elastic and compressible material, such as an elastomer, that stretches over shaft 204 and compresses within head 200 to provide a strong friction fit. Optionally, the shaft 204, collar 202, and head 200 are further secured with a fastener 206 (e.g., a screw) disposed in aligned openings of each component. In an alternative embodiment, a quick-release fastener, such as a spring-loaded bearing, secures the shaft 204, collar 202, and/or head 200 together. Quick-release couplings, such as the friction fit or the quick-release fastener, would enable a player to rapidly and conveniently adjust the offset of a lacrosse head to achieve desired performance characteristics during practice and competitive play.
As shown best in
Collar 202 provides an offset between the axis of shaft 204 and the socket axis of the juncture of head 200, when viewed from a side elevation of the lacrosse stick facing the exterior of a sidewall of head 200, with the ball receiving side of the head facing upwards. In this example, the offset is approximately 3°. The offset could, of course, vary depending on the desired performance characteristics of the lacrosse stick. The axis of shaft 204 is determined by the portion of the shaft that is disposed inside of collar 202 and extends linearly from collar 202. The socket axis of the juncture of head 200 is determined by the socket that receives the collar 202. The exterior of the collar 202 mates with the interior surface of the socket. The axis defined by the exterior of the collar (referred to herein as the exterior collar axis) is therefore coincident with the socket axis of the juncture of head 200.
In another aspect of the present invention, the offset between the axis of shaft 204 and the socket axis of the juncture of the head 200 is expressed in terms of concentricity, wherein concentric as used herein means having the same axis. For example, shaft 204 and the socket of the juncture of head 200 are non-concentric to provide the offset. The opening in collar 202 can also be non-concentric with the exterior of collar 202 and the socket of the juncture of head 200. As one of ordinary skill in the art would appreciate, no particular shape of the socket, collar, or shaft is required to provide a non-concentric configuration, and could include, for example, round shapes, oval shapes, or octagonal shapes.
FIGS. 3A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating an isometric back view of the lacrosse stick 201 shown in FIGS. 2A-C. These views illustrate the exemplary aligned openings 301 that receive fastener 206.
FIGS. 4A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating isometric views of the front and back sides of a 3° offset collar 400, according to an embodiment of the present invention.
As shown best in
FIGS. 5A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating isometric views of the front and back sides of a 1.5° offset collar 500, according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, collar 500 is similar in most respects to collar 400 of
FIGS. 6A-C are schematic diagrams illustrating isometric views of the front and back sides of a straight collar 600 that provides no offset (i.e., 0° offset), according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in this example, opening 602 is centered at the front face of collar 600. As opening 602 extends toward the back side of collar 600, it remains centered. Therefore, the axis of shaft 604 (which is coincident with the axis of opening 602) and the axis defined by the exterior of collar 600 remain coincident such that no offset exists.
An embodiment of the present invention uses the three different collars of
In one embodiment, the size of the collar accommodates the typical sizes of juncture sockets on lacrosse heads and the size of the shaft is reduced from the typical size to enable the shaft to be inserted into the collar. Optionally, an adapter could be used to reduce the size (e.g., as measured by the cross sectional area) of the typical shaft, in which case the shaft would be coupled with the adapter and the adapter would be inserted into the collar.
In another embodiment, the collar is sized to accept a shaft of a typical size, and the juncture of the head is oversized to accept the collar.
As shown in
In a further aspect of the present invention, the longitudinal body has an uppermost wall and a lowermost wall when viewed from the side elevation, and the uppermost wall decreases in thickness from the first end face to the second end face, while the lowermost wall increases in thickness from the second end face to the second end face.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the exterior collar axis is offset from the opening axis by approximately 1.5° or approximately 3°.
A further aspect of the present invention includes a quick-release coupling disposed in a fastener opening defined by the longitudinal body. The fastener opening can be adapted to align with aligned openings in the shaft and the head.
In a further aspect of the present invention, the longitudinal body has an octagonal shape, an oval shape, a teardrop shape, an asymmetrical shape, or a cylindrical shape.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, a collar has a male plug that is disposed, and preferably compressed, within the hollow shaft.
Collar 1300 provides an offset between the shaft axis and the socket axis of the juncture of the head. The male plug 1302 fits within the hollow bore of a shaft.
The male plug 1302 preferably includes compressible members (e.g., ribs) that can provide a snug friction fit with shafts having a range of different bore dimensions. To further secure the shaft, collar, and head together, a fastener is preferably placed through aligned openings of each. In this configuration, the shaft is held securely in place by the friction fit of the male plug 1302 inside the shaft, the friction fit of the shaft in the offset collar 1300, the friction fit of the offset collar 1300 in the head, and the fastener. Additional embodiments and benefits of the male plug are described in application Ser. No. 10/630,856, filed Jul. 31, 2003, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,916,259, issued Jul. 12, 2005, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Although the figures illustrate offset collars suitable for roughly octagonal-shaped shafts, it should be understood that an offset collar according to the present invention could be adapted to fit any variety of shaft shapes, such as teardrop, asymmetrical, and oval. Indeed, the offset collar of the present invention could be adapted to accommodate a cylindrical shaft or a shaft having any number of sides.
Examples of suitable materials for an offset collar according to the present invention include nylon, composite materials, elastomers, metal, urethane, polycarbonate, polyethylene, polypropylene, polyketone, polybutylene terephalate, acetals (e.g., Delrin™ by DuPont), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), acrylic, acrylic-styrene-acrylonitrile (ASA), alcryn (partially &rosslinked halogenated polyolefin alloy), styrene-butadiene-styrene, styrene-ethylene-butylene styrene, thermoplastic olefinic (TPO), thermoplastic vulcanizate (TPV), ethylene-propylene rubber (EPDM), and polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
Although
Similar to the collar embodiments described above, socket axis 1406 of head 1400 of
The foregoing disclosure of the preferred embodiments of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many variations and modifications of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art in light of the above disclosure. The scope of the invention is to be defined only by the claims, and by their equivalents.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/600,794, filed Aug. 12, 2004, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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60600794 | Aug 2004 | US |