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Manners of using a sports ball parameter determining instrument

Manners of using a sports ball parameter determining instrument description/claims

The present invention relates to the use of measuring instruments for use in relation to sports equipment, such as golf balls and golf clubs, or balls and clubs/bats used in cricket or baseball.

Golf parameters have been measured using a number of apparatus, as may be seen in WO03/032006, WO 91/06348, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,700,204, 6,547,671, 5,092,602, 4,509,052, 3,798,644, 6,133,946, 5,489,099, 6,244,971, 6,456,232, and 5,495,249 in JP-A-6126015 and 8266701 as well as the present applicants three co-pending applications.

Launching a sports ball, a number of parameters may be of interest in relation to the club/bat or the ball during launch, flight, landing, bouncing and final resting position.

Such parameters may be: Club/bat path and velocity (such as the position/velocity/acceleration determined in 2 or 3 dimensions) Ball launch data (position/velocity/acceleration/spin/drag/lift etc determined in 2 or 3 dimensions), Ball Flight data (position/velocity/acceleration/spin/drag/lift etc. determined in 2 or 3 dimensions) Ball landing data (position/velocity/acceleration/spin/drag/lift etc. determined in 2 or 3 dimensions) Ball bouncing data position/velocity/acceleration/spin/drag/lift etc. determined in 2 or 3 dimensions), Ball roll data (position/velocity/acceleration/spin/drag/lift/friction etc. determined in 2 or 3 dimensions) The final position of the ball (determined in 2 or 3 dimensions)

A parameter may be derived from the whole of the club/bat swing or ball path or only part thereof.

Depending on the type of activity, any type of shot, such as, in golf, a drive, an iron-shot, a pitch, a flop-shot, chip, a put or the like may be the target of measurement of both parameters of the ball and the club/bat.

Different apparatus for providing these parameters may require different positioning thereof in relation to the ball/club/bat, such as behind or at the side of the golfer/athlete.

The parameters determined may be used in a number of different manners of which some are provided below primarily described in relation to golf. However, it should be noted that the same data may be derived in the same manner for cricket or baseball.

One manner of determining and using parameters determined from club/ball is during a practice session of a golfer. The parameters may help the golfer improve his game in that parameters may be provided faster and more precisely (e.g. the length of a shot or the distance of the landing zone from a given target) than if the golfer himself had to make the determination.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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