Variable trajectory kit for a ball pitching mechanism
The present invention is a method and apparatus for use with a ball throwing machine (e.g., baseball/softball pitching machines, tennis ball serving machines and the like) that may be employed for practice at hitting and/or catching balls thrown. In many conventional systems, such machines have a fixed position and are unable to vary the direction (horizontal) or angle (vertical) at which a ball is thrown. The present invention provides a simple, cost-effective device by which conventional machines may be adapted to provide randomly variable movement of the machine so as to enable a ball to move about a target location in order to simulate a competitive environment.
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This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/520,024, filed on Nov. 14, 2003 and U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/558,837, filed on Apr. 2, 2004, which are hereby incorporated by reference.
This invention relates generally to a throwing or pitching machine used in athletics for the practice of various ball dependant sports, such as baseball, football, tennis and the like, and more particularly to an improvement in the nature of a kit containing a mechanism to modify the trajectories of balls pitched or thrown by such machines.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONPitching machines are powerful and versatile training tools for athletes of all ages and skill levels. Developing players benefit from the safety and predictability of a ball being repeatedly delivered within the center of the strike zone and thereby allowing the inexperienced athlete to work on swing mechanics under consistent conditions and thereby alleviate the fear of errant balls often thrown by the pitcher, coach, etc.
Pitching and throwing is often accomplished with one, or possibly two, driven wheels rotating in opposing direction that project the ball upon contact with the pair of counter-rotating radial surfaces which are co-acting to provide a curvilinear trajectory. Similarly, an arm of similar ball delivery mechanism may be employed to throw or project a ball toward a batter or receiver. Wheeled pitching machines mounted onto a tripod have been the industry standard for many years. Companies such at ATEC of Sparks, Nev., The Jugs Company of Tulatin, Oreg., and Bata Baseball Machines of San Marcos, Calif. have long marketed two wheeled pitching machines for use in a training environment. While these basic pitching machines are well suited for practicing the principle elements of a sport, they are all too often lacking in the ability to simulate actual game situations, such as high/low pitches and those that are to the inside or outside of the strike zone. Although described herein relative to a baseball pitching machine, it will be appreciated that the advantages of the present invention may be enjoyed in other ball sports and for purposes other than batting practice (e.g., infield and outfield practice, fly-ball practice, football receiver practice, etc. On one hand it is advantageous to consistently place the ball within a designated zone to perfect a technique, however this is an obvious contradiction to actual play where the trajectory and azimuth of the ball is relatively inconsistent and unpredictable. Admittedly, traditional pitching and throwing machines have a harmful effect in not providing the athlete the experience in reacting to balls that are randomly delivered within the peripheral border of the strike zone or the like, or even outside the strike zone all together.
In order to obtain the maximum advantage of conventional pitching machines there is an apparent need to provide a realistic batting session whereby the ball is delivered in a manner where the position of the ball, relative to the plate, is variable. This is a critical feature in providing experience in coordinating visual acuity with spontaneous muscle control and the development of gross motor skills. To that end pitching machines have now been developed whereby variations to the trajectory are applied in both the x and y directions using a variety of motion control methods and associated mechanics. Such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,440,013, U.S. Pat. No. 6,440,013, U.S. Pat. No. 3,734,075 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,415,782. However, due to the complexity of the x and y movement mechanisms in such devices, there is no known retrofit kit providing for an “after market” integration of a variable trajectory feature into a conventional pitching machine mechanism.
Thus, there exists an unmet need to readily adapt existing pitching machines to accommodate the necessity for a more realistic training exercise by providing for a variable or randomized trajectory of the ball and relying on the batter to make an instantaneous decision as to the coordinates of the ball as it approaches the plate.
The present invention involves the adaptation of a ball pitching or throwing machine whereby a variable trajectory “kit” is operatively coupled to the pitching machine base for the purpose of continuously altering the trajectory of a pitch in order to provide a random presentation of the ball to the batter. The pitching machine as referenced in this invention comprises a ball tossing assembly affixed to a multi-leg base. The base may be a tripod, or other appropriate configuration that is capable of supporting and accommodating the re-coil of the pitching machine at a desired height and position.
Generally speaking the present invention is rotationally coupled to at least one leg, arm or corner of the supporting stand of a pitching machine. It will be appreciated, however, that as noted above the techniques described herein relative to the sport of baseball may be equally applied to other ball pitching devices and is therefore intended to include all those mechanical devices that are employed in the propulsion of game balls during training and practice sessions including, but not limited to, softball, hardball, tennis, badminton, football, ping-pong, lacrosse, and the like. In the preferred embodiment the invention acquires and controls at least one support member of the pitching machine and utilizes the member as a dynamic position control rod to oscillate the supporting structure of the pitching mechanism. The invention, in effect, intervenes between the supporting surface and a point of contact of at least one of the supporting legs to provide a fulcrum point as the trajectory of the propelled ball is continuously modified. Accordingly, this invention varies the vertical and/or horizontal vector of the ball with respect to the position of the batter or receiver where the resultant displacement within the strike zone, for instance, is the summation of the x (vertical) and y (horizontal) components where; y↑+x→=∠xy. It should also be appreciate that a relatively minor z component is inherent within the motion profile of the pitching machine due to the in/out displacement of the connection point between the pitching machine and the variable trajectory kit.
In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a means for producing a variable trajectory of the ball whereby the first direction of motion is continuously varied along with the second direction of motion. In effect this continuous adjustment of the x and y coordinates of the pitching machine facilitate an environment that emulates the throwing patterns of a pitcher. In actual practice this invention variably delivers the ball within a prescribed elliptical corridor contained within the “strike zone” by controlling both the horizontal and vertical orientation of the machine. A strike zone may be defined as a vertically orientated rectangular area over a home plate, where the width and horizontal position is relative to the home plate and the height and vertical position is relative to the batter.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a free standing and autonomous displacement device for use in conjunction with a ball pitching machine, comprising a support base on the ball pitching machine; an eccentric drive operatively attached to said ball pitching machine, said drive generating displacement in at least a first direction using a single motor to produce a displacement of the ball pitching machine to alter the trajectory of a ball thrown therefrom and a means for adaptation to at least one leg of the multi-legged support, said adaptation means flexibly translating the motion from the drive means to the pitching machine.
In accordance with a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a self-contained ball throwing machine comprising a means to throw a ball in a generally predetermined direction on a trajectory that is a function of the ball speed and angle of release; and an eccentric drive means associated with a motor and a control leg receiver operatively associated with at least one support of the ball throwing machine, wherein said control leg receiver is moved in at least one direction to effect a change in the direction or angle at which the ball is released so as to vary the location at which the ball is received in the vicinity of a target region, generally within a pre-defined strike zone, as a result of the variable displacement of the control leg receiver as the ball is released.
It is further intended that the present invention may be employed as an “after market” kit to enhance the functionality of existing pitching machines whereby the invention is readily installed and removed without the requirement for tools or modifications to the currently available pitching products. Furthermore, the drive means for varying the pitch trajectory is a single motor device having a minimum of moving parts, therefore being an economical and reliable improvement to a majority of the pitching machines currently in use. Moreover, the present invention accomplishes dual-direction variability of a pitching or throwing machine with only a single drive, thereby making the invention or “kit” easily transportable and attachable to multiple machines (e.g., may be used by the baseball coach one day and the tennis coach the next).
The integration of a variable trajectory drive system into a ball pitching or throwing machine is advantageous because this readily provides a complete range of ball orientations that are concurrent with actual playing conditions and can be presented to the batter or receiver with a minimal investment and modification to existing pitching devices. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after considering the following detailed specification, which describes an embodiment of the present invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGSThe objects and features of the present invention may be more easily understood from the following detailed description and by reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Referring to the drawings, in
Now in
As the eccentric drive 20 moves the control leg 16 up and down the angle or trajectory at which the ball is released, and similarly the height of the ball, 40 becomes variable. In like manner, as eccentric drive 20 concurrently moves the leg 16 left and right, the ball 40 will deviate from the nominal centerline accordingly. The motion output of eccentric drive 20 is intentionally asynchronous to the actual delivery or propulsion of the ball 40 from the machine 10 and thereby provides a multitude of trajectory angles for ball 40, as would be the case in an actual game. In order to assure even horizontal motion of the triangular base 15 at least one other leg may attached to a roller 21 (e.g., leg 19) or may be placed on a low friction skid pad 31 (e.g. leg 17) to enable movement about. However the movement of the other supporting legs may not be required if only unilateral vertical motion of the triangular base 15 is desired. Skid pad 31 may a sheet of material having a low coefficient of friction, such as PTFE, which is inserted beneath leg 17 to promote unrestrained horizontal motion of the point of contact to the ground or floor. Accordingly support leg 19, by remaining stationary, could provide a fulcrum for bi-lateral variable trajectory system. In an alternative embodiment at least one leg has attached a roller 21 whereby a stepped diameter adapter 23 is inserted within the leg 19 and axel 25 rotatably couples at least one wheel 27 to adapter 23 as depicted in
As described herein, a preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in
In an alternative embodiment as shown in
Referring also to
In particular,
In yet another embodiment, depicted in
Referring now to
As shown in
It will be appreciated that the above embodiments, while described within the context of the sport of baseball, are not limited or dedicated to any specific sport. On the contrary any athlete deriving training from a ball-propelling device will fully appreciate the features and benefits of the present invention.
Thus there has been described herein a ball pitching machine whereby the trajectory of the ball is randomly altered. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in the size, shape and arrangement of elements described hereinbefore without departing from the intended spirit, functionality and operability of the subject invention. Accordingly, it is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and broad scope of the appended claims.
Claims
1. A displacement device for a ball pitching machine, comprising:
- a support base on the ball pitching machine;
- an eccentric drive operatively attached to said ball pitching machine, said drive generating displacement in at least a first plane using a single motor to produce a displacement of the ball pitching machine to alter the trajectory of a ball thrown therefrom.
2. The displacement device of claim 1, further comprising means, connected to the eccentric drive, for adapting and operatively coupling the eccentric drive to at least one leg of a multi-legged support for the pitching machine, wherein said means translates motion from the eccentric drive to the leg.
3. The device of claim 1 wherein the eccentric drive further comprises a motor and a crank coupled to said motor, and where the adaptation means rotationally constrains at least an end of the control leg and causes said end of the control leg to move in at least two directions.
4. The device of claim 1, wherein said device is position relative to the pitching machine so as to cause motion in three directions.
5. The device of claim 1 wherein said leg adaptation means is engaged with at least one of the supporting legs of said ball pitching machine.
6. The device of claim 1 wherein at least one other of said supporting legs includes at least one roller in contact with the supporting surface so as to enable at least one other of said supporting legs to move relative to the supporting surface.
7. The device of claim 1 wherein at least one other of said supporting legs includes means for enabling sliding contact with the supporting surface.
8. The device of claim 1 wherein said variable trajectory means is a crank having a plurality of holes therethrough and wherein one of said holes operatively receives the leg adaptation means.
9. The device of claim 8 wherein said crank is affixed to a rotation means through one of said plurality of holes and the trajectory displacement is a function of the hole selected.
10. A free standing ball throwing machine comprising:
- means to throw a ball in a generally predetermined direction on a trajectory that is a function of the ball speed and angle of release; and
- an eccentric drive means associated with a motor and a control leg receiver operatively associated with at least one support of the ball throwing machine,
- wherein said control leg receiver is moved in at least one direction to effect a change in the direction or angle at which the ball is released so as to vary the location at which the ball is received in the vicinity of a target region as a result of the variable displacement of the control leg receiver as the ball is released.
11. A device for altering the position of a ball delivery machine having a plurality of legs to support the ball delivery machine on a surface, comprising:
- a leg mount to operatively connect the device to at least one of the legs;
- a crank;
- a pivotable connection between the leg mount and the cam, operatively coupling the leg mount to the cam; and
- means for rotating the crank about an eccentric axis, wherein the leg mount moves in at least a varying bi-directional manner as a rotating means is operated so as to cause the ball delivery machine to alter an angle at which a ball is delivered.
12. The device of claim 11, wherein the leg mount receives a leg.
13. The device of claim 11, wherein the leg is inserted, at least partially, into the leg mount.
14. The device of claim 11, wherein rotating means is an electric motor.
15. The device of claim 11, further including a roller operatively associated with at least one other leg.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 12, 2004
Publication Date: May 19, 2005
Applicant: Unified Solutions, Inc. (Rochester, NY)
Inventors: David Hudson (Canandaigua, NY), Gary Jordan (Victor, NY), Samuel Cromwell (Honeoye Falls, NY), Alan Tucker (Hilton, NY)
Application Number: 10/987,106