The popularity of baseball continues in the United States, and that popularity has been enhanced over the years by the institution of baseball leagues which cater to quite young children. The success of these leagues has been predicated upon the use of a stand upon which the baseball is placed to allow the batter to swing at a non-moving baseball. The advantages to use of such a stand to hold the ball while the batter swings are, at least, two fold: (1) the young batter can concentrate on the development of a reduced range of hand-eye coordination while swinging the bat at a non-moving object rather than a moving object; and (2) the young batter can concentrate on the mechanics of swinging the bat at the ball without having to divide his or her attention between the mechanics of swinging the bat and tracking the speed and direction of travel of a baseball.
While a number of patents exist which assist a baseball pitcher in learning how to grasp the baseball for various pitchers, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,193 to McGinley, the Applicant is unaware of any kits which have been developed which provide the young batting student with the baseball equipment and instructions to allow the batting student or user to study the mechanics of swinging a bat and/or which provides the younger student whose reading skills are not well developed with a sequence of illustrated movements showing the proper technique for swinging a bat.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to supply batting students with a kit which provides all the needed equipment and instructional material to instruct the user regarding the swinging of a bat.
Another object of the present invention is to provide the user with instructions on the swinging of a bat and the hitting of a baseball which are in the form of illustrations and/or in the form of written materials.
It is another object of the present invention to provide young batters whose reading skills are not developed with illustrations of a sequence of movements showing the proper form used in swinging a bat.
It is another object of the present invention to provide the user with a kit which includes the equipment and instructions for teaching the user to properly swing at a baseball and which provides the user with a baseball having indicia or finger placement positions printed on the ball to assist the user in throwing the baseball.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide baseball batting equipment and instructions on batting which are held within a single kit which is reusable by the user to store the equipment of the kit when not in use.