Games using tangible projectile – Billiards or pool – Cue
Reexamination Certificate
1999-03-05
2001-07-31
Graham, Mark S. (Department: 3711)
Games using tangible projectile
Billiards or pool
Cue
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267686
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field
The invention is in the field of training aids and pool sticks for playing billiards.
2. State of the Art
Shooting billiards, or pool as it is commonly called, is a very popular pastime with people in this country and in other parts of the world. While there are many people who play pool as a leisure activity, pool requires a great deal of skill in order to play well as evidenced by the proficiency of professional pool players. A pool player must not only determine the correct angles at which to hit the billiard balls to go into a pocket sometimes including contacting the side bumpers, but must also aim the pool stick and stroke at the cue ball such that the tip of the pool stick contacts the cue ball in the intended spot such that the billiard balls go in the intended directions.
There are training aids available commercially for playing pool which help pool players aim their pool sticks so as to hit the cue ball at the correct angle, to determine at what angles to contact the other billiard balls, and at what angle the billiard balls must contact the side bumpers of the pool table for the billiard balls to go into the pockets. Such training aids include types which have movable mechanical pointers which pivot relative to one another to show incoming and outgoing shot angles, and types which are flat template sheets which are laid on the surface of the pool table indicating various angles at which to hit the balls.
While such training aids can assist a pool player in determining the correct angles at which to contact the balls and the side bumpers, the novice pool player is likely not to hit the balls as intended due to incorrect stroking of the pool stick at the cue ball. Such incorrect stroking can include rotating of the pool stick by the rearmost hand and wrist during the pool stroke such that the tip of the pool stick is rotating while contacting the cue ball. This applies rotational torque causing a slight spinning of such cue ball in a direction lateral to the intended direction of cue ball travel so as to send the cue ball slightly off the intended course of travel. Such rotation of the pool stick during a pool stroke also can result in the pool stick being aimed slightly off the intended direction and/or the tip of the pool stick contacting the cue ball at a point thereon not intended by the pool player such that the cue ball travels off course. While there is a need for a device which aids a pool player in improving his or her pool stroke including not rotating the pool stick during such pool stroke, applicant is not aware of any such billiards training devices.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is a pool stick for training pool players to not rotate the pool stick during a pool stroke. The pool stick comprises an elongate body for the pool player to hold having a front and a rear body portion, and a shooting tip means preferably comprising a felt disk and a backing tubular member attached coaxially to an outermost tip portion of the front body portion. The outermost tip portion and tip means is laterally offset from an adjoining guide portion of the body, the remainder of the front body portion comprising an adjoining portion to the rear body portion. The rear body portion and adjoining portion, the guide portion, and the outermost tip portion have respective major, median, and minor longitudinal axes which extend therethrough. A first embodiment of the pool stick of the invention is a single section pool stick in accordance with the invention as described above.
During use the pool stick is slidingly supported by the frontmost hand of a pool player on the guide portion and by a rearmost hand gripping the rear body portion. Any rotation of the pool stick during a pool stroke occurs along an actual axis of rotation which extends through the guide portion where supported by the frontmost hand and through the rear body portion where supported by the rearmost hand, which actual axis does not pass through the tip means. Therefore, any rotation of the pool stick occurs along the actual axis which causes the tip means to move laterally rotationally about such actual axis which allows a pool player to visually detect such rotational movement of the pool stick relative to the billiard ball to be hit, to the pool table, and/or to the guide portion. Likewise, if the pool stick is held in position such that the major axis, median axis, and minor axis line up as viewed from above, rotation about the actual axis is visually apparent during a pool shot by such axes no longer lining up.
A second embodiment of the pool stick of the invention is a two section pool stick and a front section in accordance with the invention as described above, the front section being for use with commercially available rear sections as described above. As a two section pool stick, the front section comprises the front body portion with an outermost tip portion, guide portion, and adjoining portion, a tip means connected to the outermost tip portion, and a first element of a connecting means, preferably a male or female threaded bushing, disposed in a hole in the adjoining portion. The rear section comprises the rear body portion and a second element of the connecting means, preferably the mating male or female bushing to the first connecting element, disposed in a hole in the rear body portion. Pool sticks with more than two sections are also contemplated within the inventive concept with the various portions of the pool stick as described above forming the sections of the pool stick and connected together by connecting means such as described for the two section pool stick.
Numerous versions of the pool sticks of the invention are possible, with a preferred version being a two section pool stick having the rear body portion and adjoining portion of the front body portion laterally offset from the guide portion such that the tip means and outermost tip portion are coaxial with the rear body portion and adjoining portion with the median axis parallel to the major and minor axes. Other variations include, but are not limited to the following and various combinations thereof: the guide portion being coaxial with the rear body portion and the adjoining portion; the tip means and the outermost tip portion being laterally offset from the guide portion at a different distance than the lateral offset thereof from the rear body portion and adjoining portion; and the major axis, the median axis, and the minor axis being parallel or at an angle relative to the other axes.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4423867 (1984-01-01), Wise
Graham Mark S.
Mallinckrodt & Mallinckrodt
Rayve Brian R.
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