FR2542206A1 - Stick for launching balls - Google Patents

Abstract

Stick serving, with the aid of a manual movement, for propelling a ball placed on the ground according to a chosen trajectory. In its preferential form, this is a cylindrical metallic tube 1 equipped, at one end, with a handle 2 and curved at the other end, at the tip of which is fixed a propelling guide 3 consisting of a metallic ring. When the ball is on the ground, the device 3 is applied against it at an angle appropriate to the chosen trajectory and, with a manual driving movement, the ball is projected. The invention may be used for outdoor games.

Description

Cane to throw balls.

The present invention relates to cane type instruments for playing with balls, outdoors or in large spaces.

 All the rods of this kind, type "Golf or mini Golfwsont straight rod and provided with a generally full and heavy head, of variable shape, but always intended to strike the ball following a movement of momentum. or the shape of these heads, they are always striking masses.

 With our rod, the propulsion of the ball is no longer due to a hitting memory but to a training from an original position of cane-ball contact. A guide device replacing the usual tests, allows to train the ball in a chosen trajectory.

 The cane which is the subject of the invention, consists of a rod provided with a sleeve handle at one end and a propellant guide device at the other (Pl 1 Fig 1). Preferably hollow (tube) and metallic, the rod can be as massive, made of wood, plastic, fiberglass or any other composite material. Its section can be triangular, square, hexagonal or octagonal, preferably cylindrical. The dimension of this section (from a few centimeters to a few millimeters) is not necessarily constant throughout the rod which can be, and it is a preferred form, more and more tapered from the handle towards the guide propellant.Te tapering can be, progressive as in some ski poles, or dt to abrupt and successive decreases in sections.

Furthermore, the rod may be in one piece or made of nested sections, each socket allowing the remainder to reduce the section. The rod is, in fact, better if it is lighter at the bottom than at the level of the handle.

 The rod can be entirely straight, but the fact that it is curved or bent at an obtuse angle in its upper part gives it an exceptional adaptation to the use described below.

 The propellant guide is preferably made up of a ring (Pl 1 Zig 2) a few centimeters in diameter (depending on the size of the balls to be propelled), a ring made up of a cylindrical metal bar a few millimeters in diameter, obtained by bending, the ring is not completely closed. The opening of a few millimeters gives rise to two Pro long outside a few centimeters long. These are inserted into two grooves dug on the opposite generators of a small cylindrical log, (Pl 1 Fig 3).

The forceful introduction of the log into the rod tube, secures the propellant guide. The plane of the guide ring is perpendicular to that of the bending of the rod.

 The propellant guide can be varied in its nature as well as in its form and in its method of attachment. It does not necessarily have to be made of metal; any sufficiently hard and possibly elastic material can be suitable for shape. There are two main types: -The hollow ring (Pl 2 Fig4) and -The full spoon (Pl 2 Fig 5) whose diameters must be less than that of the balls used.

 The ring is not necessarily circular. It can be semi-circular (Pl 2 Fig6), oval (Pl 2 Fig7), or in a different outline (Pl 2 Fig Set 9). In the vertical plane, the ring may have a flat title (Pl 3 Fig 10) or a more or less accentuated concave shape (Pl 3 Fig 11).

 In the "full spoon" type, several shapes are also possible: circular, oval, or of any shape as in the type of rings. The spoon can also be pierced over its entire surface, with small holes, as in a colander in order to reduce its resistance to air (Pl 3 Fig 13).

 In addition to the fastening method used in the preferential form described above (arms), the fastenings can be carried out using a simple integral, square, hexagonal shank (to prevent rotation), or even provided with a thread (to be screwed into a nut at the end of the rod or in the material of the rod itself). To ensure the non-rotation of the guide, two tails can be used which will suffice to introduce into two holes or two grooves open directly at the end of the rod or in a cylindrical log fixed or screwed at the end of the rod. Finally, the arms and tails are not necessarily arranged in the plane of the rings or the peripheries of spoons. Affected by an elbow, they may be offset (Pl 3 Fig 12 and 13), which leads to the possibility of have a guide itself offset from the axis of a rod end.

Adjustable thruster guides:
The object of this improvement is twofold: adaptation to balls of different sizes, better control of the trajectory of the same ball. The arms of the spring ring, not completely closed, are not parallel but oblique to each other, both leaning either towards the inside (in the case of adjustment by sliding a flat ring around the arms) (Pl 3
Fig 14), or towards the outside (in the case of adjustment by sliding a grooved roller between the arms) (P1 3 Fig 15).

The handle must be long enough because the normal use of the cane is with two hands,
The ball being placed on the ground, the propellant guide is applied against it so as to wedge it. With the help of the arms, we make a sudden very horizontal training movement if we want to send the ball in low trajectory, very raised if we want to send it very high Naturally, the force of the ball depends on the impulse given , the rings being particularly perforated to control the height of the path.

 The curvature of the rod in its lower part allows to send the ball in front of you or laterally to you. The tests made with a straight rod do not allow to do it with as much ease.

 The cane object of the invention can be used for outdoor games or large spaces. It is perfectly adapted to Games consisting in sending balls either in a basket (basket style) or in a suspended bertical ring, between two vertical bars (rugby style) but mainly on a raised solid ground (green type of the game of golf).

Claims (9)

 1. Ball throwing rod consisting of a rod provided with a sleeve-handle at one end and at the other end, a propellant guide intended to drive the balls and not to strike them.  2. Rod according to claim 1, characterized in that it is bent or bent in its lower part.  3. propellant guide according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of a rigid assembly composed of a circular or sub-circular ring, flat or curved, of any section, provided with one or more arms of fixation,  4. Propellant guide according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of a rigid spoon-shaped assembly extended by one or more fixing tails.  5. propellant guide according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of a rigid assembly in the form of an open ring, the two ends of which extend into sub-parallel fixing arms.  6. Propellant guide similar to claim 5, but provided with an elasticity such that the approximation or spacing of the arms entassais a decrease or an enlargement of the circumference of the ring.  7. Arms and tails according to claims 3, 4, 5, 6, characterized in that they are bent at their base in order to offset the ring or the spoon.  8. Arm according to claims 5,6,7, characterized in that their free ends are curved to be accommodated in fixing holes.  9. propellant guide according to claim 6, characterized in that the spacing of the arms and, consequently that of the ring, is adjustable by means of a flattened ring sliding longitudinally outside the arms or adjustable by means a grooved roller sliding longitudinally between them.