Amusement devices: games – Surface projectile game; game element – Simulated game
Patent
1994-11-22
1996-02-06
Millin, Vincent
Amusement devices: games
Surface projectile game; game element
Simulated game
273193B, 403104, 403107, A63B 6936
Patent
active
054891000
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to golf clubs, and more specifically to training clubs designed to assist in the training and practicing of golfers.
Achieving a good "swing" with a golf club, and in particular a driver, requires great skill, and perfecting a swing requires much practice. One major requirement is that the action should be smooth and free of jerks. To assist golfers in achieving this, training clubs have been proposed in which the shaft is not rigid, so that the shaft bends during a swing which is jerky.
More particularly, training clubs have been proposed in which the shaft incorporates a spring-loaded joint or hinge, so that for a swing within acceptable limits of smoothness the shaft remains straight, but for a swing which exceeds those limits, the shaft "breaks" at the joint. The club is generally constructed as a pair of half-shafts attached to a self-contained hinge structure. (The term "half-shaft" is used for convenience, but the location of the hinge is preferably closer to the head than the handle of the shaft.)
At least two specific designs for such clubs have been proposed, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,497,237 (Reineking) and 4,854,585 (Koch and Koch). In both these designs, the hinge is of a fork type, with one half-shaft having a pair of arms forming a fork and the other half-shaft having a single arm which is received within the fork, and a pivot shaft passing transversely through all three arms. The single arm terminates in a generally circular arc with a depression in it, and the other half-shaft has an axial bore containing a spring-loaded detent element which bears against the circular arc and engages in the depression in that arc.
In this type of design, the hinge provides a single degree of freedom for the breaking of the shaft. The hinge pivot line is oriented so that the shaft will not break under the acceleration of a properly executed swing, but if the club is jerked transversely or is twisted during the swing, then the shaft will break. This arrangement is well adapted to the prevention of a number of common swing faults.
We have found that although this type of design is broadly satisfactory functionally, it has various structural deficiencies. The effects of wear over a long period of use can produce substantial changes in the characteristics of the club, and can even result in total failure.
The sensitivity of these known clubs can be adjusted by changing the tension of the spring loading the detent element. For this purpose, the end of the spring away from the detent element rests against an adjustment screw. In Reineking, the screw is located at the end of the handle half-shaft and is therefore accessible, but the spring has to extend along the whole length of the handle half-shaft from the screw to the detect element. The adjustment sensitivity is therefore small even with the handle half-shaft being considerably shorter than the head half-shaft, and would be negligible for the preferred position of the hinge. In Koch and Koch, the adjustment screw can be adjusted for initial setting but cannot be accessed thereafter.
The main objects of the present invention are to provide an improved training golf club with a hinge, and an improved hinge for use in a training golf club.
Accordingly the invention provides, in one aspect, a spring-loaded hinge for a training golf club, characterized by first and second main hinge components located side by side, pivoted together for relative rotation, and having respective shank means for attachment to respective half-shafts of the club, each shank means being oriented perpendicular to the pivot axis, the first main component including spring-loaded means movable parallel to the pivot axis and the second main component having circular track means against which the spring-loaded means bear, and depression means in which the spring-loaded means engage when the two shank means are aligned in parallel.
The hinge also preferably includes means for adjusting the strength of the spring loading.
The invention also provides a golf club using such
REFERENCES:
patent: 1529305 (1924-06-01), Gatke
patent: 2497237 (1948-03-01), Reineking
patent: 3679205 (1972-07-01), Finkle et al.
patent: 4856782 (1989-08-01), Cannan
patent: 5195748 (1993-03-01), Koch et al.
patent: 5255994 (1993-10-01), Stein
patent: 5277427 (1994-01-01), Bryan et al.
patent: 5358352 (1994-10-01), Klarhorst
Millin Vincent
Wong Steven B.
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