Abstract: A racquet for tennis or the like, which comprises a frame with an appended handle with a plurality of guides mounted in spaced relationship along the frame in its plane. Each guide has an outwardly oriented portion concave in a plane normal to the plane of the frame and each guide is constructed of a self-lubricating and shock absorbent material. A string laced around the guides forms a ball impact grid within the frame. In one embodiment the guides are spools positioned between a pair of laterally opposed members forming the frame and in another embodiment the guides are bosses fixed to the outside of the frame with tangential apertures through the frame. In a further embodiment the guides are spools resting in sockets, or in a circumscribing channel, on the frame in its plane.

Abstract: A shock absorbing device comprising: an upper impermeable sheet; a lower impermeable sheet; an intermediate flexible impermeable sheet which is deformed to provide a grid of spaced peaks projecting on each surface thereof, the peaks being fixed to the upper and lower sheets to form two chambers of interconnected pockets, the upper one chamber being filled with a non-compressible liquid and the lower other chamber being filled with a compressible gas, the liquid and the gas being sealed therein.