GB2321601A

GB2321601A - Golf swing monitor

Info

Publication number: GB2321601A
Application number: GB9802145A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Josef Neubauer
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1997-01-31
Filing date: 1998-01-30
Publication date: 1998-08-05
Anticipated expiration: 2018-01-30
Also published as: AT404323B; ATA15897A; GB9802145D0; GB2321601B

Abstract

A device to permit a golfer to know whether his swing will produce a stroke in which the club head is squarely aligned with the ball comprises a rigid linear extension 1,13 of the club which carries longitudinal markings 12 to indicate the angular position of the club head.

Description

SWING CONTROLLER This invention relates to a visualizing and swing controlling device for correct swinging guidance and holding of a golf club. In the specialized field at hand, such a device could be called a swing controller.

As is well known, there are two basic types of golf clubs, the purpose and handling of which differ. The clubs are used to strike the ball to send it flying through the air. To start the motion, the club is swung back, the club head defining a wide arch; the same holds true for the following strike where it is important that the club head have the proper speed and be followed through in a relaxed manner. The strike itself is an unstopped, highly complex motion. The other type of club is called putter and is exclusively used on the green for holing the ball, the latter moving along in a rolling motion. Its handling is such that the ball is pushed, the club movement, therefore, covering only a very short distance and having reduced speed.

This invention relates to the first type of golf clubs, i.e. devices to strike the ball, sending it flying through the air.

For these as well as for putters, visualizing and swing controlling devices are known to make handling easier for golf players. As for putters, the following is known: US-A 5 465 971 discloses a crutch-like bar which is inserted into the grip end of the putter, the free end of which is tucked under the shoulder of that arm from which putting is to be performed. US-A- 5 288 361 proposed a second grip for a putter which is pivotably mounted on the grip end and has a pivoting axis which extends in a direction perpendicular to putting and parallel to the ball driving surface. The putter is held with one hand on the second grip and left dangling, putting being carried out with the other hand on the grip. US-A 4 789 158, DE-OS 3 720 054, US-A 3 262 705, US-A 3 467 761 and 3 1 98 525 concern putters having sighting means mounted on the shaft near the head and used to sight the ball and to indicate the direction to the hole.

WO 91/16955 disloses a putter having a square grip and shaft cross-section, as well as a color marking on the shaft which is only visible to the player when the putter is held incorrectly, i.e. when the ball driving surface of the putter is not perpendicular to the holing direction.

Golf clubs for striking the ball also have visualizing and swing controlling devices of above-mentioned type used to provide the player with a direct or indirect visualization of errors in his or her swing and position.

US-A 4 982 963 concerns a practice club for learning the proper swinging technique having a shaft and head made of rubber (neoprene). In order to simulate different club lengths, the grip is displaceable on the shaft and the shaft has markings corresponding to individual club lengths. There is no rod to be placed on the grip portion of the golf club as an extension, and errors are visualized by the club collapsing into itself, as it were, causing the golf player to feel an entirely strange sensation. Wo 91/11227 discloses a practice device for learning the correct swinging and striking technique, comprising a golf club having a lamp on the clubhead bottom and a lamp positioned on the grip end as well as a motion path provided within those zones which are traversed by the two light rays and in which visualizing means are located. Similarly complex devices are described in WO 92/22358 which, based on a well-known evaluation of electrical signals of electro-optical circuits caused by the club head swinging past them and giving information on speed, striking plane, orientation of the clubhead and off-center ball hits, specifies that magnetic field sensors positioned within the clubhead are known and proposes to use length sensors rather than spot sensors.

When striking a golf ball the body plane, i.e. that plane in which the shoulders, pelvis, knee and ankles are found when the body is kept in a neutral position, should be parallel to the trajectory plane of the golf ball which is a given distance from the tips of the player's toes. The golf club is held correctly when, after the initial swing, it is positioned parallel to the standing plane and parallel to the body and trajectory planes.

There are two potential errors - an insufficient and an excessive swing. When the swing is insufficient, the club shaft, as viewed from the grip to the clubhead, is pointed upwards, and downwards when the swing is excessive. Thus, in the first case, the clubhead - relative to the standing plane - is the highest part of the club, in the second case, the lowest. These errors are easily recognizable for persons observing the golf player, e.g. the instructor, but not easily recognizable for the player himself.

When the ball is hit, the club face, regardless of its angle to the player's standing plane, must lie in a plane perpendicular to the ball trajectory plane. This position is called neutral or "square" position. If it is less than 90 , it is called closed or "hook" position, and the ball, compared to the intended trajectory, veers towards the left. If, on the other hand, it is more than 90 , it is called open or "slice" position, and the ball veers toward the right.

When the club is swung prior to hitting the ball, grip errors, which lead to deviations from the square position, can only be recognized with great difficulty by golf instructors, and are virtually non-recognizable to the golf player.

Therefore, there was a need to design a visualizing and swing controlling device allowing the golf player to detect swinging and gripping errors himself, i.e. much more effectively, and to experience much less disapointing practice sessions, and permitting the golf instructor to recognize gripping errors from a distance; furthermore, the device should require no complicated or special equipment, i.e. be useable with any commercially availabe golf club.

To meet all these requirements, the visualizing and swing controlling device of the invention is characterized in that it is a rod to be attached to the grip end of the golf club, which rod, in its attached state, forms a rigid axial extension of the golf club and has longitudinal markings to indicate the angular position of the club face relative to the intended trajectory plane.

The rod-like grip-side extension of the club can be easily seen by the golf player after the initial swing by looking at his hands - he only needs to align the rod parallel to the standing and body planes, which means that the swing was correct.

On the other side the shaft of the rod also has longitudinal markings to indicate the angular position of the club face relative to the intended trajectory plane which is preferably rotatable relative to the rod s longitudinal axis, these markings being recognizable at the same time as viewing the free end of the rod and permitting a correction of the "square" position by turning the club grip. When these markings are colored, the golf instructor can correct several practicing players simultaneously.

Conveniently, there is provided on the rod a clamp for attaching the rod onto the golf club grip. This is the simplest configuration, and the club itself need not be modified.

To compensate for different body heights and club lengths, the rod length can be changed, particularly by a telescope mechanism. Advantageously, the latter is a rotating and clamping/turning clip mechanism, as it is well known for a variety of skiing poles and climbing sticks; see for instance DE 829 111C and AT-397 355B.

A further characteristic of the rod is that in the area of its end turned away from the club grip there is provided a colored indicator zone to detect the position of the rod's end, particularly a luminous-color indicator zone.

The invention will now be described by means of an embodiment of a telescope rod for clamping onto the end of a golf club grip and by referring to a drawing in which the individual parts of the telescope rod are shown partly in different views. Fig. 1 is a view of the external pipe partly shown in cross-section, Figures 2 and 3 are views illustrating the clamping collar to be clamped onto the end of a golf club grip, Figures 4 and 5 are views of the marking sleeve, Fig. 6 is a view of the telescopic interior pipe having an ccentric body partly shown in cross-section, Figures 7, 8 and 9 are views of the eccentric body, and Figures 10, 11 and 1 2 are views of the eccentric clamping disk. Fig.

1 3 is an overall view of the telescope rod.

Fig. 1 shows an exterior pipe 1 having a terminal flange 2 engaged by a displaceable clamping sleeve 3 made of elastic, resilient material for clamping onto the end of a golf club grip (not shown), having a marking sleeve 4 on the free end that cannot be easily rotated.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the clamping sleeve 3, and Fig. 3 is a view showing the free end of the clamping sleeve 3, the clamping sleeve 3 being illustrated in its widenend state in which it is pushed over the terminal flange and the end of the golf club grip pressed onto the face 6 of the terminal flange 2 until it abuts against the terminal flange 2 with an interior shoulder 5.

The clamping sleeve 3 has four holding tabs 7 and corresponding longitudinal slots 8.

The holding tabs 7 have interior steps 9 und converge in the non-widened state to the free end 10 of the clamping sleeve 3 so that, when being pushed over all the way, they embrace the terminal flange 2 on the free end 6 and the club grip and hold them in position.

The marking sleeve 4, as can be seen in Figures 4 and 5, has differently colored marking surfaces 1 2 separated by ribs 11.

Fig. 6 shows a telescopic interior pipe 13 for being inserted into, and displaced within, the exterior pipe 1, the end to be inserted being provided with a flanged eccentric body 14 and the free end being provided with a position-indicating body 1 5 adhered thereto.

The eccentric body 14, as can be seen in Figuren 6 to 9, has a groove 16 in which is disposed an eccentric cylinder surface 1 7. Within the groove 16, in the assembled state of the eccentric mechanism, there is an eccentric disk 18 around the cylinder surface 17. For mounting purposes, the eccentric disk 18 has an axial slot 19. Further, there is ribbing 20 along the circumference, an enlarged cutout of which is shown in Fig. 12, which ribbing becomes wedged, when rotating the interior pipe 13, with the inner wall of the exterior pipe 1, while exposing the inner wall when the interior pipe 13 is rotated in the opposite direction.

The position-indicating body 1 5 is made of transparent plastics material colored with daylight luminous color, such as acrylic resin.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A visualizing and swing controlling device for correct swinging guidance and holding of a golf club, characterized in that it is a rod (1, 13) attachable to the end of a golf club grip, which rod, in its attached state, forms a rigid axial extension of the golf club and has longitudinal markings (12) to indicate the angular position of the club face relative to the intended ball trajectory plane.

2. A visualizing and swing controlling device according to claim 1, wherein the markings (12) are rotatable relative to the rod s longitudinal axis.

3. A visualizing and swing controlling device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the rod (1, 13) is provided with a clamp (3) for attaching the rod to the golf club grip.

4. A visualizing and swing controlling device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the rod (1, 13) has a telescope mechanism (14-20) to change its length.

5. A visualizing and swing controlling device according to claim 4, wherein the telescope mechanism (14-20) is a rotating and clamping/turning clip mechanism.

6. A visualizing and swing controlling device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein on the rod (1, 13), in the area of its end turned away from the golf club grip, there is provided a colored indicator zone (15) to recognize the position of the rod s end, particularly a luminous-color indicator zone.