CA2817991A1

CA2817991A1 - Portable table tennis trainer and the methods of using thereof

Info

Publication number: CA2817991A1
Application number: CA2817991A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Elena Shkrab
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2013-06-11
Filing date: 2013-06-11
Publication date: 2014-12-11
Anticipated expiration: 2033-06-11
Also published as: CA2817991C

Abstract

A portable table tennis trainer and the methods of using thereof, consisting of a standard tennis ball immovable attached to a springing rod, supported by the adjustable horizontal bracket arrangement, mounted on the base, for facilitating training process of the table tennis players and teaching proper techniques and footwork.

Description

Description This invention belongs to the field of sport training equipment, and mainly serves for the purpose of training for the table tennis. There are known many types of the table tennis trainers, in particular, types where a tennis ball is imitated by the solid ball or by the disk attached to the springing rod. These types of trainers have following disadvantages comparing to the present invention:
= weight of the imitating ball or the disk is much higher than the weight of a standard table tennis ball approved by the International Table Tennis Federation, 2.7 grams, which is causing an increased resistance to the striking force of the player and constantly increasing load on the player's wrist;
= an increased time of return to the initial position by the imitating solid ball or disk is causing a delay of the next stroke, the speed decrease of the footwork and the whole tempo of the game, which makes impossible to train for the increased speed of strokes, footwork and tempo of the game;
= the positioning of the existing trainers is limited by the attachment to the edge of the table, preventing utilizing middle zone of the table top and also its zone close to the net, which prevents effective training of the technical strokes and footwork;
= return time of the imitating ball is significantly increased due to the luck of the adjustment of the springing qualities of the holder, which makes training of the increased speed of footwork, technical strokes and the game itself to be impossible;

= there is no adjustment of the springing qualities of the holder, which is seriously limiting the ability of the player to train for different strokes and speeds of the game;
= the imitating wheel is attached to the springing rod in such a way that it only allows the rotation of the imitating wheel in one plane, which prevents training of strokes from different directions and positions , the contact of racket with in different planes of table tennis ball, and also the combination of strokes from different directions, such as forehand, backhand, slices, topspin.
For the above mentioned reasons and the differences between an imitating ball or disk , and the standard table tennis ball in its shape, size, material strength, springing qualities, weight and other features of the imitating contact of the ball with a racket, existing trainers do not provide natural sense of real standard table tennis ball within a game.
This makes coaching and self-training of strokes, footwork, improvement of speed of the game to be impossible.
The purpose of this invention is to overcome the described disadvantages of the existing table tennis trainers and to create a portable, small and light device, which would allow utilizing several trainers at the same time to maximize the effect of the emulation of the real game and sense of real standard table tennis ball.

In addition, this invention allows using trainers in each necessary point or zone of the top of the table, such as close to the net, middle or far zones. Also an adjustments will allow to learn and improve different strokes in a sense of real game.
The general view of the trainer is illustrated by the Fig. 1.
Fig. 2 illustrate the mounting of the tennis ball on a springing rod.
Fig. 3 illustrates some possible ways of mounting and adjustment of the trainer and its placement.
Table tennis ball 1 is attached to the springing rod 2, which is held in the holder 3 by the means of a horizontal bracket 4. It is supported by the vertical rod 5, attached to the base 6 (see Fig. 1).
Tennis ball 1 is made out of a real ¨life celluloid tennis ball, which is cut in half. It is glued to the styrofoam base or filled with a styrofoam or a similar light-weight plastic, and solidly attached to the end of the springing rod 2. This kind of the attachment will allow for an acceptable mass and strength of the assembly, where springing qualities of the rod will match 2.7 grams weight of the standard table tennis ball.
Springing rod

2 is made of a round springing steel wire and is held within the hole of the holder 4 by the threaded clamp. The outward length of the springing rod can be changed by releasing the clamp and sliding the rod in or out of the holder 3.
Holder 3 contains an adjustable swiveling joint and its position can be changed in relation to the horizontal bracket 4 , which will allow to adjust the position of the springing rod 2 with table tennis ball 1 according to different types of strokes and footwork exercises.
Horizontal bracket 4 can be moved along the vertical rod 5 and can be attached to it by its another end if necessary.
The base 6 is made heavy enough to absorb striking forces on the ball and to hold the device itself in a stable position (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 3).
The trainer can be placed at any point and zone of the table top to facilitate the training needs, improve skills for any types of strokes, and implement variety of the footwork exercises (see Fig. 3). If required, several trainers can be utilized simultaneously, being located in the different zones and points of the table top.
The trainer works in the following way:
The player adjusts the length of the springing rod 2 with the threaded clamp and the angle of the holder 3 according to the requirements of the training task. Then the user installs the trainer at the required point of the tabletop and starts training by striking the ball with his racket and imitating real game response.
The offered embodiment of the device is most preferable, but can be varied without changing the nature and the main features of the invention.

Claims

Claims The embodiments of the inventions in which exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. Portable table tennis trainer consisting of imitating table tennis ball attached to a springing rod, wherein said ball is made out of a genuine standard table tennis ball approved by the International Table Tennis Federation.

2. The combination defined in Claim 1, wherein two halves of the said table tennis ball are attached to the styrofoam ball, which is rigidly attached to the extension of the springing rod.

3. The combination defined in Claim 2, wherein the length of the said springing rod can be varied according to the training requirements, to make the combination of the rod and the ball more or less springing.

4. The combination defined in Claim 3, wherein the position of said springing rod can be changed in space to satisfy different types of strokes made by the player.

5. The combination defined in Claim 4 wherein said trainer can be installed at any point and zone of the table tennis table top to accommodate training requirements.

6. The combination defined in Claim 5, wherein several of said trainers can be installed together to facilitate the training process, and to allow training for the combination of technical strokes and footwork as in a real game.