CA1306476C - Racket with improved throat portion - Google Patents

Abstract

A B S T R A C T

A RACKET WITH IMPROVED THROAT PORTION

A racket with improved throat portion (13a, 13b) having a plurality of symmetrical and equidistant recesses (19) on the upper and lower surfaces (17a, 17b, 18a, 18b) of the throat portion to form an oscillation zone for the optimum flexibility and stiffness.

Description

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A RACKET WITH IMPROVED THROAT PORTION
The present invention relates to a racke-t with an improved throat portion.
At present, rackets available on the market have a uniform cross section, which is chosen to emphasize a particular feature of the racket. For instance, some rackets put emphasis on stiffness of frame but neglect flexibility for an appropriate degree of bending to give proper whiplash energy, i.e., impact energy to hit a 0 ball. On the other hand, some rackets have large flexibility and insufficient stiffness, so that the oscillation half-cycle of the hitting surface is greater than the time of contact between the ball and hitting surface, and thus the outgoing ball is not hit with sufficient energy because the hitting surface does not restore its balanced position in good time. Hence the -known structure is not ideal for game playing, and hitherto there has not been any satisfactory solution for the above problems.
A feature of one embodiment of the-present inven-tion provides a racket with improved throat portion for optimum stiffness and flexibility so that the oscilla-tion half-cycle from hitting the ball is almost equal to the time of contact between the ball and hitting sur-face. In other words, the hitting surface can restore its balanced position at the instant while the ball is in contact therewith, and about to leave the hitting surface. Thus, energy of hitting can be entirely transmitted to the ball, and the outgoing ball will then fly at the highest possible speed.
A racket according to an aspect of the present invention has a head portion connected to a handle portion by two throat portions, the handle portion comprising a bifurca-ted strut extending outwardly from a grip portion to connect integrally with the throat por-:13~ 76 "
~ -' tions, wherein each of the throat portions has an upper and lower surface extending substantially parallel to a hitting portion deined within the head portion, the upper and lower surfaces each having a plurality of recesses extending in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the racket and parallel to the plane of the hitting portion, the recesses being symmet-rically disposed about the throat portion on the upper and lower surfaces, each of the throat portions having lo recesses disposed symmetrically about the longitudinal axis of the racquet with respect to the other throat portion.
For a better understanding of the present inven-tion, and to show how the same may be carried into effect, reference will no~ be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figure 1 is a perspective view of a preferred embodiment according to the present invention;
Figure 2 is a side view of the preferred embodiment in Figure l; and Figure 3 compares the bending degree of the racket of Figure 1 with a racket with uniform cross section when they hit the ball.
Referring now to Figures 1 and 2, a racket 10 with an improved throat portion comprises an integral tubular structure made of fibre reinforced plastic comprising a grip 11, a handle 12 extending from the upper end of the grip 11, a pair of struts 12a and 12b extending in two opposite directions in a bifurcated manner, a pair of throat portions 13a and 13b respectively at the upper ends of the struts 12a or 12b, a jaw portion 14 between the throat portions 13a and 13b, and a head portion 15 in the form of a ring connected to the throat portions 13a and 13b.
The racket has, on each strut 12a, 12b, five ~3~ 7~
- 2a -recesses 19 each with a width of 12 mm and a depth oE
3.1 mm arranged at 12.6 mm intervals on each of the upper and lower surfaces 17a, 17b, 18a and 18b pa~allel to the hitting plane of the racket. The recesses are s located between a point A, the intersection of the head portion 15 and each throat portion 13a or 13b, and the point s, the intersection of each strut 12a or 12b and each throat portion 13a or 13b. Of course, the depth, width and distance of such recesses 19 may be varied o depending on stiffness and flexibility required.
Referring to Figure 3, when the racket 10 is ~-3~ t^~

1 hitting a ball, each A-B section wher~ khe recesse~ 19 are located is just like an oscillation zone, and the racket 10 will bend for a degree l which is greater than 2~ the bending degree of a racket wi~th a uniform section ~the bending degrees are shown by dashed lines in the drawing). In other words, a racket with a frame as thick as the present invention but witho~t the recesses 19 to form oscillation zones has good strength but is less flexible than the present invention. Further, a rac~et with a frame thickness smaller than the thickness between upper and lower recesses 19 of the present invention does not have enough strength but has flexibility greater than ~hat actually required.
The inventor has compared the illustrated embodiment with a wooden racket (hereinafter referred to as "~acket ~"), an aluminium racket (hereinafter re~erre~
to as "~acket C"), and a rackPt with a frame thickness equal to the present invention but without the oscillation æone A-B (hereinafter referred to a~ "Racket A") by a static stif~ness test. In such tests the respective rackets are clamped at 6 inches (15.24cm) from the lower end of its grip, and a load to 3 kilograms ls applied to the top of each racket. De~ree of bending was measured and data obtained therefrom are as ~ollows:
_ACKET DEGREE OF BENDING
(unit2 inch) The present invention0.165 ~acket A 0.085 Racket B 0.324 l~acket C 0.339 The above data demonstrated that the racket A can be deemed as one without flexibility, use of which may injure a player's arm during play, and the impulse of the outgoing ball from which is not strong enough. The rackets B and C are too ~lexible; it is hard to get any .

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1 extra impulse for hitting the ball, and they are hence not ideal rackets. The racket according to the` present invention has a degree o~ ~lexihility between the above two, can get a ~good control of the ball, and can apply large hitting impulse.
Whil.e the invention has been descri4ed in connection with what is presently considered to be the most practical and pre~erred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the disclosed embodiments but on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and e~uivalant arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims which scope is to be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent structure.

Claims (3)

1. A racket comprising a head portion connected to a handle portion by two throat portions, said handle portion comprising a bifurcated strut extending outwardly from a grip portion to connect integrally with said throat portions, wherein each of said throat portions has an upper and lower surface extending substantially parallel to a hitting portion defined within said head portion, said upper and lower surfaces each having a plurality of recesses extending in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of said racket and parallel to the plane of the hitting portion, said recesses being symmetrically disposed about the throat portion on said upper and lower surfaces, each of said throat portions having recesses disposed symmetrically about the longitudinal axis of said racquet with respect to the other throat portion.

2. A racket according to claim 2,wherein each of said recesses has substantially the same cross-section in the direction of said longitudinal axis.

3. A racket according to claim 1 or 2, wherein each of said recesses on a surface are equally spaced from each other in the direction of said longitudinal axis.