Structure Of Batting Tee Ball-Holder
A structure of the ball holder for a batting tee is provided, including a holder base and a plurality of resilient supporting elements on the holder base. The resilient supporting elements include at least three long resilient elements with upstanding position on the top surface of the holder base. The entire ball holder is monolithic, for example, manufactured by injection molding. With minimum contact surface, the ball holder can reduce the impact of the friction on the trajectory.
The present invention generally relates to a batting tee, and more specifically to a structure of a batting tee ball-holder to reduce the contact surface when holding the ball.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONConventional batting tee usually includes a base plate with an upstanding support rod. The tip of the supporting rod usually includes a soft rod in a shape of a cylinder with a ball-holder with a slightly larger diameter than the soft rod. The soft rod is made of rubber or foam for holding the ball. When the ball placed on the ball holder of the soft rod is hit, the soft rod will swing back and forth, and finally return to the original upstanding position for holding the ball for next batting practice. A drawback of the conventional batting tee is that the ball holder usually has a large contact surface with the ball. When the batter hits the ball from a higher position, the ball is pressed down to the ball holder, which increases the friction between the ball and the ball holder. This will affect the trajectory of the ball. On the other hand, when the batter hits the ball from a lower position, the bat is likely to contact the ball holder before the ball because the ball holder has a large diameter so that the ball will fall from the ball holder to the trajectory is greatly affected. All these will hinder the batting practice effectiveness.
To improve the above drawback, the inventor disclosed a structure of the ball holder for the batting tee, which is submitted for patent as U.S. application Ser. No. 11/134,203 (2005). The disclosed batting tee includes a ball holder having a plurality of hairs. Although the design is effective, the manufacturing process is more expensive as it involves more components and steps. The inventor has thus devised yet another improvement of the structure of a batting tee ball holder.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention has been made to overcome the above-mentioned drawback of conventional batting tee ball holder. The primary object of the present invention is to provide a structure of batting tee ball holder which is effective and easy and inexpensive to manufacture. The main body of the ball holder can be monolithically manufactured, and the resilient supporting elements on the ball-holder can hold the ball with minimal contact surface so that the impact of the friction between the ball holder and the ball on the trajectory will be reduced during batting practice.
To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a structure of the ball holder, including a holder base and a plurality of resilient supporting elements on the holder base. The resilient supporting elements include at least three long resilient elements with upstanding position on the top surface of the holder base. The entire ball holder is monolithic, for example, manufactured by injection molding.
With the present invention, a batting tee includes a base plate, a supporting rod and a ball holder. The supporting rod is placed upstanding on the base plate. The ball holder is fixed to the tip of the supporting rod. The ball holder includes a holder base and a plurality of resilient supporting elements, as described above.
The foregoing and other objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become better understood from a careful reading of a detailed description provided herein below with appropriate reference to the accompanying drawings.
The present invention can be understood in more detail by reading the subsequent detailed description in conjunction with the examples and references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The length and diameter of each long object of resilient supporting elements 12, and the total number of resilient supporting elements 12 determine the resilience and the supporting effect of ball holder 1. The embodiment shown in
This embodiment shows that holder base 11 and resilient supporting elements 12 are monolithically manufactured by, for example, injection molding of the same resilient material. Holder base 11 and resilient supporting elements 12 can also be made of different material and separately. For example, each long resilient element can be made individually. The long resilient elements can then be placed into a mold, and a second injection molding process with a different material can be used to form a holder base with implanted long resilient elements. The embodiment uses injection mold for description. Other equivalent methods are also within the scope of the present invention.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, it will be understood that the invention is not limited to the details described thereof. Various substitutions and modifications have been suggested in the foregoing description, and others will occur to those of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, all such substitutions and modifications are intended to be embraced within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.
Claims
1. A structure of ball holder for batting tee, comprising a holder base and a plurality of resilient supporting elements, said resilient supporting elements comprising at least three long resilient elements and with upstanding position on the top surface of said holder base, said ball holder being monolithically manufactured
2. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said resilient supporting elements are evenly and regularly distributed over the top surface of said holder base.
3. The structure as claimed in claim 2, wherein said resilient supporting elements are distributed as a plurality of concentric rings over said top surface of said holder base.
4. The structure as claimed in claim 3, wherein said resilient supporting elements on the outer rings are taller than said resilient supporting elements in the inner rings of said concentric rings.
5. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said resilient supporting elements are irregularly distributed over the top surface of said holder base.
6. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said ball holder is monolithically formed by injection molding of rubber.
7. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said resilient supporting elements and said holder base are made of the same material.
8. The structure as claimed in claim 1, wherein said resilient supporting elements and said holder base are made of different materials.
9. A batting tee, comprising:
- a base plate;
- a supporting rod, placed on top of said base plate; and
- a ball holder, placed at the tip of said supporting rod, further comprising a holder base and at least three resilient supporting elements having long shape and with upstanding position on the top surface of said holder base, said ball holder being monolithically manufactured.
10. The batting tee as claimed in claim 9, wherein said supporting rod further comprises a primary rod body and a secondary rod body, said secondary rod body is sleeved inside said primary rod body and is retractable in and out of said primary rod body to adjust the height of said batting tee, and said ball holder is engaged and fixed to the tip to said secondary rod body.
11. The batting tee as claimed in claim 9, wherein said secondary rod body is a resilient and bendable tube.
12. The batting tee as claimed in claim 9, wherein ball holder is a removable part that can be engaged to the tip of said supporting rod.
13. A batting tee, comprising:
- a base plate;
- a supporting rod, placed on top of said base plate; and
- a ball holder, placed at the tip of said supporting rod, further comprising a holder base and at least three resilient supporting elements having long shape and with upstanding position on the top surface of said holder base.
Type: Application
Filed: May 25, 2006
Publication Date: Nov 29, 2007
Inventor: Grace Liao (Taipei)
Application Number: 11/420,221
International Classification: A63B 69/00 (20060101);