Sports training ball and method of manufacturing a sports training ball
AssigneeSwax Lax LLC
InventorsLaura Gump, Jim Fitzgerald
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A lacrosse training ball that is made up of a shell that defines an enclosure having an interior volume is disclosed. The shell includes a plurality of pads connected along a plurality of seams sewn with a thread having a finishing knot. The interior volume is substantially occupied by a filler that includes a mixture of a first material and a second material.
Claims26
A regulation-size lacrosse training ball comprising:
- a shell defining an enclosure having an interior volume, the shell including a plurality of pads connected along a plurality of seams sewn with a thread having a finishing knot;
- and
- a filler that includes a mixture of a first material and a second material that substantially occupies the interior volume,
- wherein the shell has a substantially spherical shape having a circumference in the range of about 19.0 to about 21.0 centimeters, and
- wherein the lacrosse training ball has a weight of about 5 to about 5.25 ounces.
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A method of making a lacrosse training ball comprising:
- (a) forming a first hemispherical cup and a second hemispherical cup from a first material, wherein each cup comprises six pentagonal pads and is made by the steps comprising:
- anchoring a starting knot to a central pentagonal pad,
- sewing a seam joining the central pad to each of five neighboring pentagonal pads so that the seam runs around the perimeter of the central pentagonal pad joining a first neighboring pentagonal pad to the central pentagonal pad, a second neighboring pentagonal pad to the central pentagonal pad, a third neighboring pentagonal pad to the central pentagonal pad, a fourth neighboring pentagonal pad to the central pentagonal pad, and a fifth neighboring pentagonal pad to the central pentagonal pad, and
- sewing each of the neighboring pentagonal pads to its two uncoupled neighboring pentagonal pads;
- (b) attaching the first hemispherical cup to the second hemispherical cup along an equator line to make a substantially spherical shell having an interior volume;
- (c) before the equator line is completely sewn, filling the interior volume of the ball with a filler comprising a mixture of a first material and a second material;
- and
- (d) tying a finishing knot to complete attaching the first hemispherical cup to the second hemispherical cup to make the lacrosse training ball.
The method of manufacturing the lacrosse training ball of claim 21, wherein the plurality of pellets consists essentially of pellets having an overall width of about 2-4 mm.
The method of manufacturing the lacrosse training ball of claim 21, wherein the ratio of a mass of the plurality of pellets in the filler to a mass of the plurality of grains of sand in the filler is in the range of about 0.55 to 0.65.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.