BASKETBALL RIM REDUCER AND REBOUNDER

Abstract

A reducer for a basketball rim has a circular reducer ring having a diameter less than the basketball rim. Rim clips may be slidably positioned on pins extending radially outwardly on the reducer ring. The clips may have a tube section adapted to fit onto the basketball rim. A rebounder may be attached onto the reducer, or to the rim. The rebounder may have a plurality of spokes with outer ends of the spokes attached to a circular rebounder ring and inner ends of the spokes attached to a central hub. The spokes may have at least one concave section and one convex section.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A standard basketball rim has an inside diameter of about 45.5 cm. Basketball rim reducers are used during shooting practice to reduce the effective inside diameter of the rim. With the reducer in place on the rim, shots must be more accurate to pass through the rim. Use of the reducer can therefore help to train basketball players to shoot more accurately.

Basketball rebounders block the rim entirely, causing the ball to rebound, optionally on an unpredictable or random trajectory. Rebounders are used to help basketball players practice grabbing a rebounding ball. Although a variety of reducers and rebounders have been designed and used with varying degrees of acceptance and success, the need for improvements remains.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A reducer for a basketball rim has a circular reducer ring having a diameter less than the basketball rim. Rim clips may be slidably positioned on pins extending radially outwardly on the reducer ring. The clips may have a tube section adapted to fit onto the basketball rim. A rebounder may be attached onto the reducer, or to the rim. The rebounder may have a plurality of spokes with outer ends of the spokes attached to a circular rebounder ring and inner ends of the spokes attached to a central hub. The spokes may have at least one concave section and one convex section.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, the same element number indicates the same element in each of the views.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a reducer and a rebounder assembly on a basketball rim.

FIG. 2 is a top and front perspective view of the reducer and rebounder assembly shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a top view of the reducer and rebounder assembly shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is an exploded top and side perspective view of the of the reducer and rebounder assembly shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is a side view of the of the reducer and rebounder assembly shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 is an enlarged side view of a spoke shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of a clip shown in FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Turning now in detail to the drawings, as shown in FIGS. 1-4, a basketball rim 12 is supported on a rim bracket 14 attached to a backboard 10. The backboard 10 is typically mounted on a pole or wall, or suspended from a ceiling structure, with the rim at a standard height of 305 cm. A net or chains 16 are generally attached to the rim 12. A reducer and rebounder assembly includes a reducer 20 and a rebounder 50 which may be attached to the reducer 20 or directly to the rim 12.

The reducer 20 includes a reducer ring 20 which may be a tube having an outer diameter of e.g. 1-2.5 cm formed into a circle. For use with a standard basketball rim having a 46 cm inside diameter and a 23 cm diameter standard basketball, the reducer ring is provided with an inside diameter usually in the range of 36-40 cm. As shown in FIG. 4, the reducer ring 20 may include pins 34 extending radially outwardly. In the example shown, four equally spaced apart pins 34 are used. A clip 24 is supported on each pin 34. Referring now also to FIG. 7, the clip 24 may have a sector plate 36 adapted to fit around an outer surface and a lower surface of the reducer ring 20. Hence the sector plate 36 may curve in three dimensions.

A tube section 26 of the clip 24 is joined to the sector plate 36 by a pin tube 28 having a pin hole 32. Vertical and horizontal gussets 30 may also be joined with the tube section 26, the pin tube 28 and the sector plate 36 to stiffen and strengthen the clip 24. The tube section 26 has a down facing opening and an inside curvature which may be adapted to receive the reducer ring 22. For this purpose the tube section 26 may have an inside diameter nominally smaller than the diameter of the ring reducer tube.

When the clip 24 is pressed onto the ring reducer 22, the opposite sides of the tube section 26 may flex outwardly slightly to allow the clip 24 to move onto the reducer ring 22, with the opposite sides then resiliently flexing back to their original positions, to secure the clip onto the reducer ring 22. The sector plate 36 may have an up facing opening, or curved surface, in contrast to the down facing opening of the tube section 26. Referring momentarily to FIG. 5, the clip 24 may be dimensioned so that the center line 40 of the reducer ring 22 is spaced radially inwardly by dimension RR from the center line of the rim 12, with RR ranging from ring 2.5 to 5.5 cm.

The reducer 20 is installed on a rim 12 by snapping the clips over and around the reducer ring 22. To compensate to slight variations in rim diameter, the clip 24 may be moved radially inwardly or outwardly by sliding the clip 24 on the pin 34. The pins may be 1-2 cm long. Using pins 2 cm long may allow for clip movement of up to about 1 cm. The clip 24 may be captive on the pin via retention collars or other techniques. As shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, the top surfaces 42 and 44 of the clips 24 may be aligned in a plane to better avoid affecting rebound trajectories of missed shots that hit the clips. Referring to FIG. 3, the inside diameter ID of the reducer ring 22 determines the accuracy required for a shot to pass through the rim 112 for a score. The diameter ID may be selected based on the shots to be practiced, player skill level, or other factors.

As shown in FIG. 2, the rebounder 50 may be attached to the reducer ring 22 using clips 60 similar to the clips 24. One of the clips 60 may be replaced with a fin clip 70 having a vertical fin 72. The fin clip 70 may otherwise be the same as the clip 60. If used, the fin clip 70 may positioned over the rim bracket 14 to help prevent the ball from getting stuck on top of the rim bracket 14.

Referring to FIGS. 2, 3 and 5, the rebounder 50 may include a plurality of spokes attached to a rebounder ring 52. The rebounder ring 52 may be provided as a solid wire formed into a circle having a diameter of about 27-33 cm. In the example shown, eight radial spokes are used, with the outer ends of the spokes attached to the rebounder ring 52 and with the inner ends of the spokes joined to a central hub 66. The rebounder ring, the hub and the spokes may be joined by welding. The central hub 66 may have a flat top with a diameter or largest principal dimension of 1-5 cm.

As shown in FIG. 5, the hub may be vertically spaced above the centerline 40 of the rebounder ring 52 by a dimension HH of 4-6 cm. Some or all of the spokes may be clip spokes 56 with a clip segment 58 extending beyond the rebounder ring 52, with a clip 60 on the outer end of the clip segment 58. The remaining spokes may be ring spokes 54 with outer ends terminating at the rebounder ring 52. The clips 60 may be moveable radially inward or outward, over a range of e.g., 5 mm, to allow the clips 60 attach onto rims of slightly varying diameters, where the rebounder 50 is also designed for use without the rim reducer 20.

Turning to FIGS. 5 and 6, all of the spokes 54 and/or 56 may optionally have the same shape and dimensions, except for the clip segment 58, if used. All of the spokes may be straight when viewed from above as in FIG. 3, and may correspond to a radius of the rebounder ring 54. One or more of the spokes, or all of the spokes, may have at least one convex or down curving segment 86 and one concave or up-facing segment 92. These segments 86 and 92 may be adjoining as shown in FIG. 6.

An additional convex segment 94 may be joined to the hub and to the inner end of the concave segment 92. An additional concave segment 84 may be joined to the convex segment 86. If used, the outer end of the segment 84 may be joined to a clip segment 58, or the outer end of the segment 84 may have a straight section attached to and/or terminating at the rebounder ring 52. Similarly, if used, the segment 94 may have a straight section adjoining the hub. In the example of FIG. 6, the spoke has alternating concave and convex segments 84, 86, 92 and 94. In this design, segment 94 may have a larger radius of curvature, followed in order by segments 92, 84 and 86. The peak PP of the segment 86 may be 50-80% or 65-75% of the height of the top surface TT of the hub, measuring from the center line 40 of the rebounder ring 52.

Thus a novel basketball reducer and a rebounder have been shown and described. Various changes and substitutions may of course be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The invention, therefore, should not be limited except by the following claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A reducer for a basketball rim, comprising:

a circular reducer ring having a diameter less than the basketball rim;

a plurality of spaced apart radial pins; and

a rim clip slidably positioned on each radial pin, with each rim clip having a tube section adapted to fit onto the basketball rim.

2. The reducer of claim 1 with the rim reducer comprising a tube formed into a circle and with each rim clip having a sector plate curving around an outer surface and a lower surface of the reducer ring.

3. The reducer of claim 2 with the sector plate curving in two dimensions to substantially conform to the outer surface and the lower surface of the reducer ring.

4. The reducer of claim 1 with each rim clip captive on a radial pin.

5. The reducer of claim 1 wherein substantially each radial pin is 0.5-2 cm long.

6. The reducer of claim 1 with the a centerline of the reducer ring 2.5 to 5.5 cm radially inwardly of a centerline of the tube sections of the rim clips.

7. The reducer of claim 1 with the reducer ring having an outside diameter of 40-42.5 cm.

8. The reducer of claim 1 with the rim clips removable from the reducer ring.

9. A rebounder assembly for a basketball rim, comprising:

a rim reducer including a circular reducer ring and a plurality of spaced apart a rim clips each slidably positioned on a clip pin projecting radially outwardly from the reducer ring, and with each rim clip having a tube section adapted to fit onto the basketball rim; and

a rebounder including a circular rebounder ring having a plurality of spokes, with each spoke having an outer end attached to the rebounder ring, and an inner end attached to a hub centered within the rebounder ring, and with each spoke having at least one concave section and one convex section.

10. The rebounder assembly of claim 9 with each spoke curving in only two dimensions.

11. The rebounder of claim 9 with substantially each spoke having inner and outer convex sections joined on opposite ends of a concave section.

12. A rebounder for a basketball rim, comprising:

a circular rebounder ring having a plurality of spokes, with substantially each spoke having an outer end attached to the rebounder ring, and an inner end attached to a hub, and with each spoke having at least one concave section and one convex section.

13. The rebounder of claim 12 wherein the hub and the rebounder ring have a common central axis.

14. The rebounder of claim 12 with one or more of the spokes including inner and outer convex sections on opposite sides of a concave section.

15. The rebounder of claim 14 including four spokes having a clip segment extending radially outwardly beyond the rebounder ring.

16. The rebounder of claim 12 with the rebounder ring lying in a first plane, and with the spokes having curvature in a second plane perpendicular to the first plane.

17. The rebounder of claim 12 wherein substantially each spoke comprises a radial spoke.

18. The rebounder of claim 12 wherein a top surface of the hub is 3.5 to 7 cm above a centerline of the rebounder ring.

19. The rebounder of claim 12 comprising eight equally spaced apart spokes with four non-adjacent spokes including a clip segment extending radially beyond the rebounder ring.

20. The rebounder of claim 12 with substantially each spoke comprising a metal wire having a diameter of 4-8 mm.