Games using tangible projectile – Golf – Practice swingable implement or indicator associated with...
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-22
2003-06-24
Nguyen, Kien T. (Department: 3712)
Games using tangible projectile
Golf
Practice swingable implement or indicator associated with...
C473S258000, C473S264000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06582319
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The literature of golf instruction is replete with advice and observations on the dynamics of a proper swing. It includes theories regarding “swing plane” as it relates to the “clubshaft” or “clubhead” as they are swung in certain directions and relationships to the golfer's body. The specific movements which the body should make in order to carry out the desired motions of striking a golf ball accurately have been written about in detail, and many other elements and theories of the swing itself have been examined since the beginning of the game of golf.
Golfers and golf professionals have worked ceaselessly in training and in an effort to “groove” the swing so as to produce a flight of the ball, which is straight and long.
Many devices have been created for training golfers to reproduce a proper golf swing. Complicated and misleading devices based in theory have hurt more golfers than they have helped. Devices designed to “track” the “shaft” of the golf club have been developed, and proven to be less than totally effective. It has been proven also that any device which attempts to “guide” the golf club on a “plane” parallel to that of the clubshaft at address does not accurately replicate what is being done by the world's greatest players and ball-strikers, and would thus be misleading or detrimental. It has been established and proven that the only accurate “swing plane” the golf club can be swung on, to accurately replicate a “professional motion”, must be one which is determined by the arc of the clubhead swinging in contact, and on the underside of a flat plane. This plane must also be inclined from the toe of the club at address through the top of the spine at the base of the golfer's neck. There are also devices designed to “guide”, or “track” the golfer's hands on a “plane”, but these too tend to be somewhat inaccurate and somewhat misleading to the golfer, since they utilize an incorrect plane, or rather a plane parallel to the shaft at address; see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,743 (Meeker). It is to improved and accurate swing training apparatus for full swings, chipping, and putting that the present invention is directed.
Previously proposed and patented practice devices are either incapable of accurately allowing the golfer to experience, with their own equipment, the feeling of properly swinging their clubs on their “ideal planes”, because the “plane” is defined with these earlier devices by clubshaft guides, or they are misleading and restricting the golfer by using rails or grooves for the clubhead to swing in or on. As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,416 (Mark) discloses a practice device for “grooving” an inside-out swing. Mark incorrectly assumes that the “proper golf swing is identical for all clubs (excepting the putter)” (page 1, line 54). This is not the case for a “professional motion”, and discounts the individual mannerisms of the professional as the clubhead arcs of professional golfers have been proven to shift in width different distances on the downswing. Also, modern golf theory does not “postulate the use of an ‘inside-out’ golf swing giving rise to the plural swing planes” (page 1, line 68), but rather computer analysis of the clubhead of the world's leading ball-strikers proves, quite the contrary, that a single plane concept is being utilized. As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,743 (Meeker) discloses a practice device as “a guide for assisting a golfer to learn the feel of the body positions for carrying out a properly executed golf club swing.” The planar undersurface of this device immediately “overlies the plane of movement of the golfer's hands” but fails to take into account the most critical element of the swing, which is the plane of the clubhead. Meeker also incorrectly assumes that body positions are more important than the path or plane of the clubhead (page 1, lines 19-25). “While devices as shown and described in these earlier patents are of limited use for demonstrating to the golfer the path which a golf club should generally follow during the swing, they are not very effective in insuring that the golfer maintains optimum body positions during practice so that the golfer is likely to execute the swing properly when the aid is no longer used.” It is readily apparent in the actions of the world's best players that although their body actions are very unique and individual, the true common denominator in the excellence of their ball-striking lies in the geometry of the aiming, and the inclination of the plane of their clubheads. To fix rails or tracks which would guide the arcs of the golfer's clubhead as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,416 (Mark) would likewise restrict the most efficient application of power by not allowing the arcs to shift properly. Although certain earlier devices may appear similar at first glance to the devices of the present invention, they are all quite different. For example, Meeker U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,743 discloses a device the purpose of which is to guide the golfer's hands in executing the swing. This device is designed with (page 2, line 49) “the arc or edge 34 is generally concentric to the path of movement of the golfer's hands in swinging the club through the desired swing.” The purpose of this device is to establish a planar surface (claim 1, line 60, page 5) “to carry out said swing with the golfer's hands guided for movement throughout said swing by said overlying undersurface of said member.” In contrast, the present invention is designed to provide a planar surface to guide the golfer's clubhead, rather than the golfer's hands, through the correct plane of motion. The Mark U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,416 discloses that the purpose of the earlier device is to provide a tracking mechanism for “guiding the golf club through an inside out or ‘grooved’ swing” (line 12, abstract). The training device of the present invention provides a planar surface along which the toe or front portion of the golf club (be it a driver, iron, or putter) is addressed and swung along the underside. the Mark U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,416 provides a backswing track which in (page 5, line 12) “mounted in raised relation relative to the track platform 16 by a number of columnar supporting members 27 which are substantially equal length.” It is clearly apparent in his
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that he has established a planar surface, which the heel of the golf club is to be swung above and on top of.
The present invention is intended to provide a planar surface for the golfer to swing his own club on the underside of the plane, with no tracks, guides, or need for a special training club, which clearly distinguishes it from the foregoing prior art devices. The present invention provides a training device based on a “singular plane concept”, the purpose of which is to give the golfer an awareness of what the world's best ball-strikers are achieving when they swing on one plane, rather than a dual plane “inside-out” concept as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,416 (Mark).
The U.S. Pat. No. 1,854,392 (Bambrich) discloses a practice device which consists of a (page 1, line 20) “curved rail against the under edge of which the shaft of the golf club may slide”; also (page 1, line 63) “may swing a golf club with the shaft thereof in contact with the lower edge of rail 10″. Such a device cannot guarantee that the clubhead would be swung within the same plane of motion achieved by use of the present invention. It has been established and proven through research of professional golfers that only the clubhead is swung on a single plane. Any attempt to force the club shaft onto a single plane of motion would not guarantee that the correct plane was also being achieved by the clubhead and would not mimic the action of a professional motion. One purpose of the present invention is to provide a planar surface for the head of the golf club to remain in contact with rather than that of the club shaft.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
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Cahill Jack F.
Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP
Johnson John M.
Katema LLC
Nguyen Kien T.
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