US 4,364,563 A · Energy dissipating ball tee

Abstract

A ball tee is described for supporting a ball as a stationary target at a prescribed elevation to be struck as a practice exercise for a selected sport. The tee structure is formed with a self-supporting material that is capable of absorbing and dissipating energy delivered by violent impact. It is formed of two interfitting members, a base and a shaft. The shaft has a ball receiving support at an outer end that will hold a ball at a prescribed elevation. The shaft is removable from the base which includes a recess formed in its bottom side. This recess may be utilized to support larger balls adjacent to a ground surface primarily for kicking purposes. In another embodiment, the ball support may be provided with gripping members that releasably support a ball at any selected angle. The shaft is formed of a synthetic closed cell material. The nature of the material is such that it will not significantly disrupt the swing path of a bat or the resultant trajectory of the target ball. Further, recoil shock suffered by the person holding the bat or racket is hardly noticeable. The material dissipates the energy of impact and will recover its original geometry quickly after impact.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An energy dissipating ball tee for supporting a ball at a prescribed elevation to be struck at by a swinging bat moving in a selected direction, comprising:

a base member;
an elongated shaft mounted to the base member and projecting therefrom to an outward end;
a ball support integral with the shaft and formed at the outward end of the shaft;
said elongated shaft being formed of a self-supporting low density synthetic closed cell foam material of a defined volume having a homogeneous closed cellular cross section extending along the elongated shaft that serves as a critically damped inelastic energy-absorbing oscillator when the shaft is struck by the swinging bat moving in the selected direction with the shaft nondestructively progressively bending throughout the length of the elongated shaft from the base member to the ball support causing cell strain to vary throughout the cross section with a surface facing opposite the selected direction in maximum tension and a surface facing in the selected direction in maximum compression to distort the closed cells and to inelastically compress and to thereby heat air entrapped within the closed cells to absorb and dissipate the kinetic energy of the impact throughout the volume of the shaft without damaging either the bat or the shaft and to further cause the shaft to unbend to its original geometry without significant rebound.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Energy dissipating ball tee

Life of this patent

Energy dissipating ball tee

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims17