Games using tangible projectile – Playing field or court game; game element or accessory... – Practice or training device
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-14
2001-08-28
Chapman, Jeanette (Department: 3711)
Games using tangible projectile
Playing field or court game; game element or accessory...
Practice or training device
C273S359000, C273S371000, C273S374000, C273S386000, C073S379030, C073S379050, C482S083000, C473S441000, C473S479000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06280351
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to practice targets. In particular, this invention relates to a striking practice device providing a plurality of striking targets and a sensor for providing an indication of the striking force imparted to an individual striking target.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Practice devices having striking targets are used by athletes in martial arts and martial sports, to hone desirable qualities such as speed, coordination, accuracy and flexibility. For example, one popular practice device is a large punching bag known as a “heavy bag”, also known as a “kicking bag” or “body bag”, which typically comprises a canvas, vinyl or leather sac filled with a heavy material such as sand, water or the like. The filler imparts resilience and inertial resistance to the bag, reproducing the effect of striking a human opponent and thus allowing an athlete to practice potentially injurious techniques without actually harming an opponent. The heavy bag also provides the advantage of approximating the breadth and height of an opponent, which adds to the realism of the heavy bag as a practice device.
However, the heavy bag provides little feedback to the athlete regarding the accuracy or force of a strike. In general the degree to which the bag deflects under the force of a strike increases with the force of the strike, which provides a rough visual indication of striking power. However, the degree of deflection of the bag is also influenced by other factors such as the point of impact, a strike remote from the anchoring point deflecting the bag more than a higher strike of the same force near the anchoring point, and the angle of impact, since a glancing blow imparts less energy to the bag than a centred strike of equal force and thus deflects the bag less.
At a typical striking speed it is difficult for an athlete, particularly while concentrating on an exercise, to determine whether and to what extent the degree of deflection of the bag may have been attributable to factors other than the force of the strike. The heavy bag thus provides very poor feedback to the athlete, in a sport which relies very heavily on feedback to provide a means and motivation for improving the athlete's skills.
Practice devices are known which provide striking force feedback to an athlete. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,336 issued Feb. 25, 1997 to Gaoiran et al, which is incorporated herein by reference, provides a shock sensor affixed to a heavy bag for measuring the magnitude of a shock experienced by the bag during a strike. The shock sensor provides a quantified feedback indication to the athlete relating to the force of the strike. However, the shock detected by the sensor is affected by the vertical position at which the strike impacts the bag, and radial point of impact due to the rounded exterior of the bag, and thus still provides only a rough indication of the actual striking force.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,557 issued Aug. 13, 1985 to Bigelow et al, which is incorporated herein by reference, provides sensors associated with a variety of different types of striking targets, including a heavy bag and a number of smaller targets, to provide striking force feedback to the user. The smaller targets to some degree avoid the extraneous factors which influence the measured striking force, because limiting the size of the striking surface commensurately reduces the athlete's freedom to strike positions remote from the sensor. However, randomly positioned small targets do not realistically reflect the shape of an opponent's body, nor the arrangement of the sensitive areas of an opponent which martial arts and sports emphasize as striking targets for maximum efficacy.
As such, striking individually positioned small targets for practice does not improve the athlete's ability to selectively strike at susceptible target areas, as opposed to invulnerable or strike-resistant target areas of an actual opponent. The provision of multiple targets with separate sensors also renders this type of equipment complex and expensive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention overcomes these disadvantages by providing a practice device which comprises a plurality of striking targets arranged about a frame in an overall configuration which can be made to approximate the shape of an opponent. The targets are individually articulated to the frame, so that each individual target reacts independently in response to a strike. The targets are each in communication with a common force sensor, which provides feedback to the athlete regarding the power of each strike.
The invention accomplishes this by providing a load transfer shaft movable relative to the frame and bearing on a force sensor such as a load cell. The striking targets are hinged to the frame, preferably spring biased to a rest position, such that when an individual target is struck the force of the strike is transferred to the load transfer shaft. The load transfer shaft is thereby moved to alter a resting force on the load cell. The difference between the resting force and the striking force is output to an indicator, for example a visual indicator such as an LCD display, to provide striking force feedback to the athlete.
In alternate embodiments the striking targets may be removable, and replaceable with targets of different shape or resilience/hardness. The targets may be positioned as desired, for example to accommodate a particular martial art or style or to emphasize particular sensitive areas of an opponent. The force indicator may be visual or audible, and may be enabled by a threshold striking force. These and other embodiments of the invention will be apparent from the description which follows.
The present invention thus provides a practice device, comprising a frame, a load transfer shaft movable relative to the frame, a plurality of striking targets supported on the frame, each striking target being operably affixed to a load transfer arm movable relative to the frame and affixed to the load transfer shaft, and a force sensor in operative communication with the load transfer shaft, for providing an indication of striking force, wherein a striking force applied to a target is transferred through the load transfer arm and moves the load transfer shaft to alter a resting force of the load transfer shaft on the force sensor.
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Aryanpour Mitra
Chapman Jeanette
Dimock Stratton Clarizio
Eisen Mark B.
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