Patent Application
20150031007
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a child sport activity training device and, more particularly, to a snow ski training harness and tether arrangement for training a novice skier in downhill skiing, especially a young child.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Learning how to ski can be a challenging endeavor and can take several years of practice. Typically, one becomes a better skier the younger one begins. However, teaching youngsters and especially infants to ski is difficult for most parents and even ski instructors. One technique to assist young children has been to use some sort of auxiliary ski between the adult and child with a fixed horizontal handle for the young skier to grasp. One such device for use in snow skiing is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,227 to Bern. This device suffers from a disadvantage, however, in that teachers want to control students when they first begin learning how to ski, but also want to provide increased freedom as the student progresses. This increased degree of freedom is really not possible with the fixed pole or handle concept.
Another popular way to try to assist beginning skiers is to use some sort of harness system and tether system. This type system allows the teacher to hold the student during training exercises and prevents the student from falling or traveling to fast. The leash or tether is connected at one end to the student, and the teacher holds the other end. Using the leash, the instructor can control the student's speed and provide pressure (via pulling on the leash or leashes) to assist the student in turning and stopping. While such an arrangement provides some degree of control over the student, it would be desirable to have a tether arrangement with a retractable feature, so that the length of the tether line could be continuously adjusted in use, when desired.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,509,921, shows a ski training halter which is positioned on a person below his or her waist and also extending across the student's front, lower abdominal region to the respective left and right hip regions of the student's body. The training halter also includes portions adapted to be positioned around the upper portions of the student's thighs and interconnected with the portions extending across the student's lower abdominal and hip regions. Elongated reins are detachably connected to the training halter and extended to a location rearwardly of the student being trained where another person can be positioned safely on skis to hold the reins and use them to exert restraining and turning forces on the training halter.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,795, shows a method for teaching children to ski which uses a wide torso encircling band and two pairs of reins of different length. At an early stage of learning, the instructor straddles the child and uses short reins to directly control the speed and direction of the child and the pair of ski slowly. At a later stage of learning, the instructor backs away from the child and uses the long reins to directly control the child's speed and indirectly control the child's direction.
The '921 patent and the '795 patent thus show ski harnesses and tethers, but the tethers are not retractable.
U.S. Patent Publication No. 2005/0239027, shows a training device which includes a harness having a belt, handle, and a storage compartment. The storage compartment provides storage for a leash or the like that a trainer uses to instruct a student. The device described in this publication is commercially marketed by Luckybums® as the “Kids Ski Trainer.” However, the leash is not retractable and the storage pocket is of limited size and utility as compared to a backpack.
A need continues to exist, therefor, for a training harness and tether arrangement of the type described which overcomes the various deficiencies of the prior art, especially in the area of training devices intended to be used by small children or infants.
A child sport activity training device is shown which includes, as a first component, a harness having harness straps for partially enclosing and supporting a torso of a child. The harness is affixed to a companion backpack having an exterior and an enclosed interior for storing items. A pair of leash reels bodies, each housing a retractable leash, are removably attached by the retractable leashes at two spaced locations on a selected one of the backpack and harness. Each of the retractable leashes has a distal end attached to the selected backpack and harness and a proximate end which is received about a spool contained within the leash reel body, whereby the child can be tethered at various distances from the trainer holding the leash reels, in order to assist the child in maintaining balance and stability, or otherwise instruct the child when traveling along a given course.
A preferred version of the invention is the provision of a snow ski backpack and tethered harness combination for use in training a child to snow ski. A harness is provided having harness straps for partially enclosing and supporting a torso of a child, the harness straps including a waist strap and associated shoulder straps. A loop strap is attached to each of the shoulder straps and forming a loop opening, whereby a trainer can lift the child by the loop straps. The harness is affixed to a companion backpack having an exterior and an enclosed interior for storing items. Once again, a pair of leash reels bodies, each housing a retractable leash, are removably attached by the retractable leashes at two spaced locations on a selected one of the backpack and harness. Each of the retractable leashes has a distal end attached to the selected backpack and harness and a proximate end which is received about a spool contained within the leash reel body.
Preferably, the leash reels have a lock mechanism which is actuated by a button located on an exterior surface of each of the respective leash reel bodies. The lock mechanisms allow the child to be tethered at a fixed distance from the trainer.
The leash reel bodies can also be provided with an associated wrist strap extending therefrom, the wrist straps having strap openings for receiving the hands of a trainer, so that the child will remain tethered even if the trainer falls.
In one version of the invention, the backpack has a front side, a back side and peripheral sidewalls which define the enclosed interior, and wherein a bottle holder is located at each of two opposite locations on the peripheral sidewalls of the backpack for holding drink bottles.
Additional objects, features and advantages will be apparent in the written description which follows.
The embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments that are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processes and manufacturing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the invention herein may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments herein. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the claimed invention.
As has been briefly described in the Background portion of the application, the present invention is concerned with a stabilizing and training aid for helping to teach a beginning skier, especially a very young child. Teaching children, especially small children, to ski involves several challenges. Although they are easy to teach and eager to learn, to merely tell them what to do and expect them to do it is unrealistic. Thus, a ski instructor or parent may attempt to show the child what to do and tries to get the child to mimic the actions. Taking this one step further, an instructor may grasp and turn the body of the child to show what needs to be done. If the child and the instructor are standing still, these efforts are not realistic and leave something to be desired. For the beginning skier, it may be difficult for the child to ski alongside the instructor and, for the instructor to try to run beside the child is usually not a satisfactory solution.
Also, at an early stage, the instructor needs to exercise maximum control over the child by directly controlling speed, direction and weight distribution. As the child becomes more comfortable, it would be desirable for the instructor to be able to exercise less control. Further, a preferred method of controlling speed, turning, and stopping for a person moving downhill on skis is for the person to use the technique of parallel turns and stops, as opposed to snow plow turns and stops. However, most ski instructors and beginning ski students find that these can be difficult techniques to initially master. There are several reasons for the difficulty in learning this technique, including the fact that a skier has to be moving at least at a certain minimum velocity before the parallel turn and stop technique can be used successfully, and that minimum required velocity is usually faster than the beginning skiers feel comfortable or secure in moving. Further, the parallel turn and stop technique requires the skier to twist or rotate his or her hips about one thigh or the other accompanied by a certain degree of weight shifting from one leg to the other. Since beginning skiers are usually quite unstable on skis and have no feel for parallel turns and stops, these hip rotating and weight shifting movements are perceived to be significantly more drastic than their confidence and control will allow. These problems of maintaining adequate control are compounded to some extent for relatively small children who are learning to ski, at least initially, since they usually lack the muscle control and strength in their legs and hips to even use the snow plow technique to control their movement and velocity.
As has been discussed in the Background portion of the present application, many methods have been proposed for assisting a beginning skier in accomplishing the skiing techniques previously described. For example, it is quite common to restrain the motion of a student physically by use of a strap or rope wrapped around the student's waist and extending rearwardly to a position where the strap or rope can be held by the instructor. Another method observed by the inventors, primarily for use on small children, includes the use of a harness or halter around the student's upper torso or chest and shoulders with a strap or rope extending from the harness or halter rearwardly to a position where it can be held by the instructor. Despite the fact that tether/harness type arrangements have been used in the past, to Applicant's knowledge, these arrangements have always featured a fixed length of rope for the tether.
However, as has been described, it would often be desirable to be able to advance or retract the length of the tether, depending upon the ski terrain and also depending upon the degree of control the instructor wishes to exercise. That degree of control, as has been discussed, will generally decrease as the skier becomes more proficient.
Consequently, until the development of this invention, a need has always existed and had not yet been met for a method and apparatus that would allow a ski instructor to stabilize and control the movements of beginning ski students, especially young children, that would provide the advantages of a harness and tether arrangement, and yet which would allow the distance between the instructor and child on the tether to be varied easily and safely. The device would also insure that the child and instructor remained tethered, even if the instructor were to fall.
The present invention meets the above needs by providing a child sport activity training device and, more particularly, a snow ski training device which has a retractable leash feature. In a preferred form, the device includes a harness having harness straps for partially enclosing and supporting a torso of a child.
The combination of the invention also preferably has the harness affixed to a backpack 35 having an exterior 37 and an enclosed interior (not shown) for storing items. In the version of the invention shown, the backpack has a front side 37, a back side 39, and peripheral sidewalls 41 which define the enclosed interior. The enclosed interior is accessible by means of a zipper 40 which runs about a portion of the peripheral sidewalls 41. Preferably, a bottle holder 43, 45, is located at each of two opposite locations on the peripheral sidewalls 41 of the backpack for holding drink bottles, such as plastic water bottles.
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In the preferred form of the invention, each of the leash reel bodies 47, 49, is provided with a lock mechanism which is actuated by a button (such as button 61 located on an exterior surface of each of the respective leash reel bodies. The lock mechanism allows the child to be tethered at a fixed distance from the trainer. The leash reel bodies of the type described can be obtained commercially from a number of sources, generally in the form of a retractable pet leash. For example, one suitable retractable leash is sold under the brand name Flexi® Retractable Leash available at PetsMart®. The commercially available leashes used in the practice of the invention have been modified to have attached wrist straps 63, 65, extending therefrom, the wrist straps having strap openings for receiving the hands of a trainer, so that the child will remain tethered even if the trainer falls.
An invention has been provided with several advantages. The combination harness and backpack arrangement allows the instructor to use a pair of retractable leashes to vary the distance between the student learning to ski and the instructor, depending upon such factors as the skiing terrain, or the skill level of the student. The locking features of the retractable reels allow the student to be securely held at a given fixed distance. The wrist straps insure that the student will be held, even in the event the instructor was to fall. The combination device of the invention also has a number of associated convenience features, such as the provision of a backpack with an interior sufficient to store a number of items, the provision of bottle holders, and a pair of lifting loops to lift a child onto a ski lift.
While the invention has been shown in only one of its forms, it is not thus limited but is susceptible to various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.
