1. Technical Field
This invention relates to bats and the art of training devices, and in particular, to training bats used for training a user's bat swing. The present invention has a hitting portion and a handle portion with a tethered means for connecting the hitting portion to the handle portion such that the hitting portion is pivotally tethered to the handle portion, resulting in the training bat moving between an angled position and an extended position.
2. Related Art
There are a number of bat training devices for assisting a user with improving his/her swing of a baseball or softball bat. The majority of such training devices are separate devices intended to be used with a conventional baseball or softball bat. However, there are certain training devices directed to a modified bat which are designed to correct and improve a user's batting swing style.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,399,996 to Boyce, a Practice Bat is disclosed having a spring connecting a hand portion with a head portion with the spring positioned just above the knob of the handle. A user places one hand below the spring and one hand above the spring when using the bat. The bat is designed for assisting the user to break his wrists during the follow-through of a swing. A disadvantage of this practice bat is that it is very awkward to use because a user employs an unnatural grip, with his/her hands separated, on the bat handle when training. Therefore, there is a need for a training bat that allows a user to have a conventional grasp of the bat, with hands together on the handle, when practicing his/her swing.
Similarly, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,042 to LaChance, et al., a Sports Swing Development Device is disclosed which also has a spring to connect a head portion with a handle portion, but this spring is positioned closer to the head portion. The type of spring used in this device is a tightly wound coil spring such that the head portion and the handle portion remain along the same longitudinal axis even when not in use. That is, the head portion does not at any time drop down and rest at an angle less than about 180 degrees from the handle portion. A disadvantage of this practice bat is that it does not provide any immediate visual feedback to the user of whether or not he/she has swung the bat properly because the practice bat remains in an extended position as conventional bats.
Therefore, there is a need for a training bat in which a head portion is tethered to a handle portion such that the head portion is freely pivotable in any direction about the handle portion. There is a further need for such a training bat such that in use, the user is immediately given visual feedback as to whether he/she has achieved a proper swing with the head portion moving from an angled position in relation to a handle portion into an extended position wherein the head portion is aligned along the same longitudinal axis as the handle portion.
Furthermore, there are no bats available wherein a bat is separated into two distinct portions—a hitting portion and a handle portion such that the hitting portion is tethered to the handle portion such that both portions move independent of each other with free range of motion.
Similar to bat swing training devices, there are a number of modified golf clubs that are designed to assist a user in improving his/her golf swing. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,854,585; 5,489,100; 5,842,808; and 6,558,267 disclose various golf clubs each of which has a head portion that pivots during a swing such that upon contacting the golf ball, the head portion is in the proper hitting position so long as the user made a proper swing. In these devices, the head portion only pivots in one plane. That is, the hinge connecting the head portion to the shaft is designed for the head portion to pivot back and forth in a single direction. This limitation is required for a training golf club because unlike a baseball bat, a golf club has one very specific planar club face for hitting a ball.
Therefore, there is a need for a swing aid in which the hitting portion freely pivots about the handle portion and is not limited to one specific plane of motion.
In the field of karate, the nunchuka weapon is a pair of sticks connected together by a short chain. The sticks are the same length, size and shape wherein they are typically tapered from a thicker handle end to a thinner distal end connected to the chain between the handles. Also, the sticks are less than about one inch in diameter, and they are typically separated by about 3–7 inches of chain. Although the nunchukas are useful as a karate weapon, the nunchukas are not very useful in training a user's swing to hit a ball. The sticks are to small to be effective, and the separation distance between the sticks provides too much freedom of movement of the sticks.
Therefore, there is a need for a bat swing aid in which a hitting portion is tethered to a handle portion by a distance that provides an optimum degree of movement between the two portions. There also is a need for such a bat swing aid wherein the two portions of the bat when viewed in combination with the tether resemble the overall length, size, and shape of a conventional baseball/softball bat.