Amusement devices: games – Surface projectile game; game element – Simulated game
Patent
1994-05-23
1995-12-26
Grieb, William H.
Amusement devices: games
Surface projectile game; game element
Simulated game
434232, A63B 6936
Patent
active
054780829
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to golfing apparatus, and particularly to apparatus for teaching golfers where their feet should be placed when hitting a golf ball in a specified direction with a known club. The apparatus can be used to train tyro golfers, or to help experienced golfers to eliminate a stance or swing defect.
People wishing to learn golf usually take lessons from an experienced golfer and/or use a video to learn the correct grip and stance. The present invention aims at providing a teaching aid to act as a visual guide, intended to be recalled from memory by the golfer when addressing a ball and used mentally to position the feet correctly when wishing to use a selected club.
Various apparatus has been proposed to assist in developing appropriate stance and swing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,384,718 discloses a device consisting of three flat strips variably positionable one with another to secure appropriate positioning of the golfer's feet and the ball. A more popular approach to the problem involves the provision of a mat with markings on it on which the golfer is to stand. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,915,387, 2,606,026 and 4,023,810, and British Patent Specification 1305710 are representative of this approach. Most involve complex markings for foot position and they do not address the importance of providing a visual guide corresponding to the desired line of flight of the ball when it is struck.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,983 discloses a mat having a T-bar guide secured to its surface with the horizontal portion of the T providing a plurality of possible positions in which a tee may be located. The device shown in this specification, however, does not allow for the positioning of the feet of the golfer such that the line joining the fronts of the golfer's feet when positioned on the mat runs at an angle to the intended line of flight of the ball. It is inflexible and visually cluttered.
We have now found that improved mats may be designed which are simple in construction and effective in training by providing a mat having a flight line for the ball marked clearly on it generally near one edge, and provided with one or more means to define a stance line which can be adjusted both with respect to its distance from the flight line and with respect to its angle.
Accordingly the present invention provides apparatus for teaching or correcting the stance of a golfer when addressing a golf ball, including a mat covering an area big enough to accommodate both feet of the golfer when adopting an addressing stance, in which the mat is marked with a ball line of alternative ball positions aligned with the intended line of flight of a golf ball, and in which the line has associated with it indicia indicating the positions along the line at which a golf ball should be placed when it is to be struck with a golf club of specified weight or number, and in which the mat has means defining at least one stance line which is at an adjustable position from the ball line and which subtends an acute angle with the ball line. The apparatus may include a suitable stand for the ball, designed to be placed on the line and to support the ball above the mat at a level corresponding to the optimum level above the ground of a teed-up ball.
Using such a mat, the golf professional can identify for the trainee golfer the appropriate stance line for any particular wood or iron and this can be noted down and used subsequently by the trainee when he or she wishes to practice without the professional. Preferably the ball line has three alternative ball positions designed to correspond with a comfortable position for placing the ball to be struck with woods, long irons and short irons respectively.
According to a particular feature of the present invention, there is provided for use in conjunction with the mat, a flexible upstanding guide, designed to be positioned such that it lies above the surface of the mat and extends from a planar section positioned adjacent to the side of the ball line remote from the user and substantially at the position of the ball on t
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patent: 4384718 (1983-05-01), Cachola
patent: 4434983 (1984-03-01), Taggart
patent: 4915387 (1990-04-01), Baxstrom
patent: 5163686 (1992-11-01), Bergman
De Knight Rene E.
Haynes Major R.
Grieb William H.
Swingtrue Limited
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