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Practice bat

Practice bat description/claims

This patent application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/903,647, filed Feb. 27, 2007, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

The present invention relates to ball bats generally, and more particularly to a solid practice bat for allowing the striking of heavy balls while still presenting a minimal ball-striking surface.

There are many sports and games that involve hitting a thrown or otherwise projected ball with a swung “bat.” Typical examples of such sports include baseball and softball, and within softball, the 12-inch and 16-inch varieties. Although there are many skills involved in the successful playing of either baseball or softball, an important ability for all players is the ability to accurately strike a pitched ball with a swung bat so as to accurately strike the ball in a controlled manner.

Certainly playing softball and baseball will eventually develop skills consistent with the player's abilities; however, it is often desirable to hasten the learning curve by practicing the hitting of balls. Because practice time is not unlimited, it is important to ensure that practice sessions are spent learning good habits of stance, swing and so on to accurately hit the ball. A baseball bat (or softball bat) has a rather wide cylindrical striking head tapering to a smaller diameter handle by which the user grasps the bat. Although it is possible to hit the ball with any portion of the broad striking surface, the maximum and most efficient transfer of energy occurs when the ball is struck with the central portion of the bat face. In addition, the flight of the ball is much more predictable when the ball's point of impact on the bat is centered. If the ball hits high on the bat surface, a pop-up may result, whereas if the ball hits low on the surface, an unintended ground ball may result.

However, with a traditional bat, the user is not properly trained to use only the center of the bat, since off-center hits are also possible. Thus, it is desirable for the batter to use a bat of reduced diameter so that off center swings result in misses rather than merely inaccurate or inefficient hits. However, most such bats are formed in the same manner as a full size bat, i.e., either of a wooden rod or a hollow metallic tube. Wood has less than desirable strength, stability and vibrational properties, while hollow metal tubes may exhibit lower strength relative the heightened stresses of focusing the ball on a smaller surface. In addition, both types of bats tend to exhibit unrealistic weight properties so that the batter is not receiving an accurate hitting experience and had to readjust their stance and mechanics when later using a full size bat.

The foregoing background discussion is intended solely to aid the reader. It is not intended to limit the innovation, and thus should not be taken to indicate that any particular element of a prior system is unsuitable for use within the described and/or claimed system, nor is it intended to indicate any element, including solving the motivating problem, to be essential in implementing the innovations described herein. The implementations and application of the innovations described herein are defined by the appended claims.

In one aspect, an improved training bat for training a batter to use a center portion of a bat rather than an off-center portion has a cylindrical handle portion of standard size and a reduced-diameter cylindrical head portion attached to the handle portion for contacting a ball, wherein at least the head portion of the bat is solid material. The bat may also have a handle stop affixed to an end of the handle portion opposite the head portion for retaining a user's hand in position on the bat.

Additional and alternative features and aspects of the disclosed system and method will be appreciated from the following description.

FIG. 1 is a perspective side view of a practice bat according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional side view of a training bat according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional side view of a training bat according to an alternative embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective side view of a practice bat according to an alternative embodiment of the invention.

• Provisional Patent
• Utility Patent

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