GB2180163A - Practice net - Google Patents

Abstract

A practice net 22 for sports such as golf, cricket, or baseball is suspended from a support 21 designed in relation to an assumed ball striking position to have no or substantially no part of its surface exposed to direct impact with a struck ball which part is so oriented as to reflect the ball back towards the striking position. Preferably the support has an inclined portion 21a and a horizontal hanger portion 21b. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Practice Net This invention relates to practice nets for hard ball or other sports.

A conventional golf practice net comprises a framework usually of metal tube comprising two front and two rear uprights and upper connecting bars. Mesh or net is strung between the uprights, except at the front, which is open, and over the top.

A golfer tees up outside the net and strikes the ball into it where it is arrested by the net.

There is a small but definite risk with this arrangement that the ball can strike either a front or a rear upright or one of the cross connecting bars in such a way as to reflect back at the striker. Especially with a golf ball the time taken to rebound on to the striker is too short for any chance of evasive action.

Injuries have been caused.

The present invention provides an improved practice net arrangement which greatly reduces or even eliminates this risk and which at the same time is less expensive than conventional practice net arrangements.

The invention comprises a support for a practice net for hard ball sports designed in relation to an assumed striking position to arrest rapidly a ball struck from such position, said support having no or substantially no part of its surface exposed to direct impact with a struck ball which part is so orientated as to reflect the ball back towards the striking position.

The support may be inclined away from the striking position at all or substantially all exposed places.

Said support may comprise a riser and a hanger connected to the riser, the hanger extending horizontally or substantially horizontally from an upper position of the riser and forming attachments for suspending a net beneath the hanger so as to depend to one side of the riser. The riser may have a ground-engaging end which is in use located vertically below a position intermediate the ends of the hanger.

The hanger may however extend upwardly and outwardly from the riser so as to define a net space with a wide opening tapering down to a relatively narrow closed end.

The ground-engaging end of the riser may emerge from level ground inclined away from the striking position. If it is preferred to have a section which emerges vertically from the ground before being inclined away from the striking position a shield may be placed in front of the vertical section which presents a surface which is itself inclined away from such position.

The ground-engaging end may be adapted to fit into a sunk socket. A socket of the GROUNDGRiPPER (Trade Mark) type manufactured by Ground Gripper Limited of Chorley, Lancashire is very suitable. A base for indoor or hard area use may be provided, however.

The support may be made of metal tube, and may be made in connectable sections of substantially equal length so as to pack into a box for shipping. The lengths may be chosen so as to be assemblable differently so as to provide equipment for playing different sports, for example, so as to make an indoor tennis or badminton net.

The invention also comprises a practice net arrangement for hard ball sports comprising two supports as above described and a net adapted for suspension therefrom.

Embodiments of supports and practice net arrangements according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a conventional golf practice net arrangement, Figure 2 is a perspective view of an arrangement according to the invention.

Figure 3 is a side elevation of a support of the arrangement illustrated in Figure 2.

Figure 4 is a side elevation of an alternative support.

Figure 5 is a perspective view of a cricket net arrangement.

Figure 6 is a perspective view of another form of golf practice net according to the invention, suitable for indoor use, and Figure 7 is a perspective view of a baseball practice net according to the invention.

The conventional golf practice net illustrated in Figure 1 comprises uprights 11 (front) and 12 (rear) with upper connecting bars 13 (front), 14(rear) and 15 (sides). A mesh or net 16 is strung between or suspended from the uprights, except at the front, which is open, and between the connecting bars 13, 14 and over the top. The illustration also shows a golfer 17 addressing a ball 18 teed up in front of the net. Usually, the ball 18 will be teed up about mid-way between the front uprights 11.

Surrounding the golfer 17 is a notional striking position outline 19 which is basically a rectangle, face on to the net, which bounds the anticipated limits of movement of the golfer and his club. This outline 19 essentially defines the area into which the ball should preferably not rebound from striking one of the members 11,12,13, 14 or 15. Those members, however, although usually made of round section, will present areas from which the ball can so rebound. Such areas are essentially those which are associated with tangent planes which face directly back to the ball 18 position at one radial limit and which face towards the centre of the striking position outline 19 at the other radial limit, and which are between ball position (ground level) in the case of uprights) in the axial direction of the member.

There are six members from which the ball can directly rebound, and small but by no means negligible areas of all of them will rebound a ball to within the striking position outline with possible danger to the striker.

Figures 2 to 4 illustrate golf practice net arrangements according to the invention.

These figures illustrate a support 21 for a practice net 22, said support having no or substantially no part of its surface exposed to direct impact with a struck ball which part is so orientated as to reflect the ball backtowards the striking position.

The entire arrangement comprises two supports 21 each comprising a riser 21 a which is inclined away from the striking position and a hanger 21 b at the top of the riser 21a extending horizontally or substantially horizontally back towards the striking position, which is illustrated as before by an outline 23. It will be understood however that the hanger can be upwardly and outwardly inclined if desired.

The net 22 which is of one piece construction or made of panels connected together at their edges, is supported by suspending ties 24 from the front and rear ends of each of the hangers 21 b. It hangs inside the frame formed by the supports 21. The bottom part of the net 22 can be weighted, orbit might perhaps be tied down to pegs 25 driven into the ground.

In this case, essentially no part of the supports 21 is exposed to a direct hit by a driven ball, unless the net 22 is dislodged so as to expose a riser 21a or part thereof. Nevertheless a ball from a powerful drive may itself displace a loosely draped net 22 so that it can effectively strike the riser 21 a. All or substantially all of such riser 21 a is however so inclined that no part of it can directly reflect a ball back to the striking position.

If it is decided that the striking position is bounded at the top by a line 2.5 metres high, and if the tee position is set back by 3.0 metres from the lower end of the support, then the normal to the tangent plane at ground level should at least be inclined at tan-' 1 .25/3=tan~1 0.41 or about 22".

In practice there is no reason to stick to this lower figure, and a safety margin may be left by inclining the riser 21a further away from the striking position, say by 26.5 (corresponding to a striking position height equal to the distance of the ball from the position where the riser 21 a enters the ground) or even more. As the inclination increases, however, more material will be required in the support 21 to reach the required height for the hanger 21 b, which will add to the cost and reduce the cost saving over the conventional design illustrated in Figure 1.It will be appreciated in any event that whereas the conventional design uses no less than eight tube members the present invention uses only two, although as a practical matter these may be broken down into sections convenient for packing or other sports as will be described below. The length of metal tube in the present design is however far less than in the conventional design regardless of the inclination of the risers 21a, which in any event affects the length only marginally.

Figure 3 is a side elevation of a support 21 showing its mounting in a sunk socket 31 of the GROUNDGRIPPER (Trade Mark) type aforementioned. It will be seen that the riser 21a emerges from level ground already with the inclination of-in this case--26.5". The riser 21 a has a ground engaging portion 2which goes vertically into the sunk socket 31, but the socket 31 is located with its top end sufficiently below ground level that the upright portion 21c and the bend joining itto the inclined portion are both below ground level. The sunk socket 31 might itself be inclined, of course so that the riser 21 a need have no bend.

The hanger 21 b projects forwardly from the upper end of the riser 21a at least as far as the groundengaging portion 21 c and, as illustrated, even as far again in front of it. The ends of the hanger 21b are adapted for the attachment of the net by having drilled holes 32 through which ties may be passed.

The net could however be simply tied to rubber bands slipped around the hanger 21 b.

If the hanger 21b is two metres long, the inclined riserwill as illustrated be 1.12 metres and the ground engaging portions about another 400450 mm. This may conveniently be broken down into four shorter lengths as shown by the joins 33 for packing or other sports uses. The connections may be simply after the fashion of vacuum cleaner tubes, namely by a reduced end portion of one section fitting into another, so long as rotation of one section relative to the other is precluded.

Figure 4 shows another design of support 41 in which the riser 41 a is curved so as to rise more steeply towards the top. This steeper slope towards the stop can be accommodated because the ball striking nearer the top is itself travelling at such an angle that notwithstanding the steeper slope it cannot possibly be directly reflected back into the striking position. This same figure shows a formation at the join of the riser and hanger that is intended to eliminate a further small risk of reflection from the inside of the join where there will be a small region where tangent planes face towards the striking position.

The same Figure shows how the ground engaging portion may have an upright section 41 c projecting a little above ground level before the riser 41 a bounding over the properly inclined position. This may as explained present a slight risk to the striker in that there will be a small area which could reflect a ball back into the striking position. Even this small-negligible by comparison with the prior artrisk can however be eliminated by fittingpermanently as by welding if desired shield 42 with the necessary inclination.

The formation at the join of the riser and hanger also eliminates a risk of a double rebound first from the riser and then the hanger, or vice versa, reflecting the ball back into the striking position.

This risk is really very small indeed even if a direct hit on each member were possible, which is not because the ball would twice encounter the net 22 in such a trajectory. The risk could if desired otherwise be further reduced by suitably profiling the tube sections as by making the hanger, at any rate near the top corner, of triangular section for example, with its inwardly directed face vertical and its outwardly directed face inclined so that in the unlikely event that it receives a ball reflected from the riser, such will be deflected outwardly to lose further momentum in the net 22.

While the above described embodiments have related to a golf practice net, it will be appreciated that a conventional cricket net is basically similar to a conventional golf net, the essential differences being that the cricket net is longer and the batsman stands inside. Nevertheless the uprights and top cross members all present similar hazards and a cricket net constructed according to Figure 5 will present similar advantageous safety features to the golf net.

The cricket net arrangement of Figure 5 comprises, again, supports 51 and a net 52. This time, howver, the stumps 53 are inside the net 52 and the net 52 is closed behind them, the other end being open so that the bowler can bowl to the batsman. The net is substantially longer than the golf net, and two sets of supports 51 may be employed as illustrated.

The indoor golf practice net 61 of Figure 6 is hung from a frame 62 comprising substantially C-shaped side members 63,64 and an upper cross member 65 connecting the side arms. The assumed striking position 67 is inside the net, facing away from the cross member 65. The net 61 is draped loosely over the "target" end 66 of the arrangement.

The baseball practice net 71 of Figure 7 is a substantially larger affair hung from a number of cantilevered arms 72 which are mounted in a common root member 73 held into the ground in a practice field by, say, the GROUNDGRIPPER socket aforementioned.

The arms 72 sprout from the root member 73 from behind the striking position 74 and towards the pitcher's mound 75 being all the time inclined upwardly and outwardly with regard to the striking position. The curvature of the cantilevered arms 72 behind the striking position is such that a pitch passing the striker, should it hit one of the arms, will be deflected downwardly into the ground.

Whereas for the most part the supports described will be made of tubular metal, it may be found necessary or desirable, in the case of the larger arrangements such as cricket nets and especially baseball nets, to make the supports from lightweight but strong composite materials, such as fibre-reinforced or carbon-reinforced resin materials.

Similar basic considerations will apply to net arrangements for other sports practice such as discus and hammer throwing, the net supports being designed so as not to present any substantial risk of reflecting the ball or other projectile back at the striker (or thrower).

Claims (9)

1. A support for a practice net for hard ball sports designed in relation to an assumed striking position to arrest rapidly a ball struck from such position, said support having no or substantially no part of its surface exposed to direct impact with a struck ball which part is so orientated asto reflect the ball back towards the striking position.

2. A support according to claim 1, in which the support is inclined away from the striking position at all or substantially all exposed places.

3. A support according to claim 1 or claim 2, said support comprising a riser and a hanger connected to the riser, the hanger extending horizontally or substantially horizontally from an upper position of the riser and forming attachments for suspending a net beneath the hanger so as to depend to one side of the riser.

4. A support according to claim 3, in which the riser has a ground-engaging end which is in use located vertically below a position intermediate the ends of the hanger.

5. A support according to claim 2 or claim 3 or claim 4, having a ground-engaging end which emerges from level ground inclined away from the striking position.

6. A support according to any one of claims 1 to 5, having a ground-engaging end adapted to fit into a sunk socket.

7. A support according to any one of claims 1 to 6 made of metal tube.

8. A support according to any one of claims 1 to 7, made in connectable sections of substantially equal lengths so as to pack into a box for shipping.

9. A practice net arrangement for hard ball sports comprising two supports according to any one of claims 1 to 8 and a net adapted for suspension therefrom.