SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SPORTS PRACTICE
A practice wall for sports having a plurality of panels arranged in a series of rows and columns. The columns are joined by hinges such that the columns can be folded to create various profiles which will cause a ball to reflect differently depending on the goals of the athlete. In one embodiment the panels can be readily disassembled so the wall can be temporarily erected, stored, and reassembled. In some embodiments the inventive practice wall can be fitted with instrumentation to provide objective performance data to the athlete or a coach.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 62/994,393, filed on Mar. 25, 2020, and incorporates such provisional application by reference into this disclosure as if fully forth herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the InventionThe present invention relates to a system and method for solo practice of sports. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, the present invention provides a system and method for returning a ball, or other object that can be reflected, back to an athlete during practice.
2. Background of the InventionSolo practice for athletes in competitive sports has long been a problem. For example, tennis players have long used tennis walls for practicing tennis. A tennis wall is typically constructed of concrete or wood in a fixed location. Often a white line is painted horizontally across the wall to simulate a net. The participant hits the ball against the wall and then fields the bounce as if the ball was returned by another player. The big disadvantage of this system is that it requires a permanent installation and requires a significant investment. A racquet sports club is the most likely place to find a tennis wall and access to the wall is typically based on a sign-up sheet, or on a first-come-first-served basis. The athlete trying to achieve college level, or professional level, play will have a difficult time getting use of a tennis wall for enough time to achieve her, or his, goals.
The same issues exist with solo practice in many other sports. Baseball pitchers often throw into a net for practice. The net does not return the ball any significant distance, so the athlete typically pitches a bucket of baseballs, stops to collect the balls and starts over. Both infield and outfield players often resort to wall ball fielding drills for practice. Basketball players can easily practice shooting in a solo environment, but passing and ball-handling are difficult to perfect without a partner. Except where walls have been explicitly built for practice, building owners are usually not to keen to have balls repeatedly bounced off a wall due to marring and damage to the surface.
One issue with performing wall drills in any sport is that a flat wall is simply flat. The ball basically returns to the athlete at the reflected angle from which the ball strikes the wall. This provides some variety, but certainly does not allow the athlete to create a large number of variations for practice, or simulate a large number of conditions encountered in actual play.
A another issue with solo practice is the ability to perform analytics. While an athlete could video record her, or his, practice session and critique performance after-the-fact, there is not an easy scheme for quantifying the athlete's abilities during solo practice.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for solo practice which allows the user to simulate various conditions of the sport, and otherwise alleviate the needs discussed above.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn one preferred embodiment, the present invention provides an installable practice wall for performing wall drills. Preferably the wall is assembled from prefabricated panels to allow the wall to be assembled on-site and disassembled for storage or relocation. Panels can be stacked both vertically and horizontally to create a wall of suitable dimensions for practicing the sport of choice.
In another preferred embodiment, adjacent horizontal panels are joined with hinges to allow section of the wall to face the user at varying angles, allowing the user to create varying situations when the ball returns from the wall. In further embodiments, adjacent vertical panels may also be adjusted to allow the athlete to create addition steeper, or shallower, return angles.
In yet another preferred embodiment, target areas are identified on the wall to allow the athlete to practice accuracy of ball placement while engaging in practice.
In still another preferred embodiment, the wall includes mounting areas for accessories, such a basketball hoop so the user can practice shooting, along with wall drills.
In another preferred embodiment, the wall includes chambers along the bottom to allow weight to be added to the wall for stability. Typically, the chambers would be filled with water, sand, or the like. The chambers may either be integral to the panels or attachable to the panels. Optionally outriggers may be attached to the panels to likewise improve stability.
In another preferred embodiment, the wall includes instrumentation to quantify the athlete's performance during solo practice. Such instrumentation could include, by way of example and not limitation, accelerometers to measure impact forces of the ball against the wall, which could be used to determine ball velocity, and angle of impact against the wall; video cameras for recording the athlete for later analysis, detecting eye movement during the session, detecting ball spin, before and after the return, accuracy relative to a target on the wall, etc.; microphones to allow analysis of the sounds produced by ball impact with a racket, baseball glove, the wall, or other sporting equipment; timers and counters to determine the number and rates of impacts; as well as other useful sensors.
Further objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon examining the accompanying drawings and upon reading the following description of the preferred embodiments.
Before explaining the present invention in detail, it is important to understand that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of the construction illustrated and the steps described herein. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or carried out in a variety of ways. It is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation.
Referring now to the drawings, wherein like reference numerals indicate the same parts throughout the several views, an athletic practice wall 100 is shown in its general environment in
In one preferred embodiment, panels 102 are joined to form a series of rows 152-156 and columns 140-150. Preferably, each column 140-150 is pivotally attached to each adjacent column such that wall 100 can be adjusted to a variety of profiles facing user 104. For example, column 140 is pivotally attached to column 142 along line 106, column 142 is likewise pivotally attached to column 144 along line 108, column 144 is pivotally attached to column 146 along center line 110, an so forth across the width of wall 100.
Accordingly, columns 140 through 150 can be folded to any desired angle to form a generally concave wall, a generally convex wall, or a straight wall. If wall 100 is configured in a substantially flat configuration, preferably weights or outriggers are attached to the back side of wall 100 along bottom row 152 to provide stability.
Trim pieces 126 and 128 may be added to improve the aesthetic appeal of wall 100 and to create a finished appearance.
With wall 100 in a concave configuration, as shown in
For tennis practice, a line 116 may be placed on wall 100 indicating the height of a tennis net. This allows the athlete to verify the ball would have cleared the net if on an actual court. In addition, targets, such as line 118 and plus sign 120, may be placed on the surface of wall 100 to help the player to work on accuracy of ball placement. Other targets may be added to wall 100 as desired. Targets and lines may be painted on, or simply be made from white tape. Tape of any color may be used, but preferably such tape is of a contrasting color to wall 100.
In the environment of
In the environment of
Turning next to
In order to prevent bulging of surface 504 during the filling and curing process, panel 502 may be supported with a clamp frame. Clamp frames, or cooling frames, are well known to those of ordinary skill in the art and sometimes used on injected molded parts during cooling to prevent warping. Basically, the frame is a device to help the plastic part hold its shape until the manufacturing process is complete.
As with the embodiments previously discussed, adjacent panels 502 may be hinged along lines 506-514 to allow adjustment of the wall. A net line 516 and targets 518 and 520 may be applied to the forward surface 504 with paint, tape, or other contrasting medium. Trim pieces 526, 528, and 530 may be inserted along edges 560, 562 and 564, respectively, to provide a continuous, smooth edge.
An individual panel 502 is shown in
With further reference to
After a row is completed, another row of panels 502 is stacked above lower row 532. Receptacles 714 of the upper panel 502a receive bosses 712 of lower panel 502c to fix upper panel 502a directly above lower panel 502c such that a smooth surface is created across the front of all the panels, except along the hinges where the wall maybe intentionally folded. Stacking of rows continues until wall 500 is of the desired height. For purposes of this disclosure the wall is shown having a height of three panels, but the invention is not so limited. Panels of any height may be constructed.
After the desired height has been achieved, edge trim 726 is placed over bosses 712 to give wall 500 a finished look.
As will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, the inventive practice wall is particularly well suited for supporting instrumentation which can measure and analyze the performance of the athlete. Turning to
Further, camera 802 may include a microphone for capturing audio, or a separate microphone could be employed. Audio information may be used to determine when a ball is struck, when the ball strikes the wall, the time interval in between, the quality of the strike and other useful parameters. In addition, the athlete can choose to review portions of the practice session and observe performance and hear accompanying sounds.
Additional instrumentation may include accelerometers attached in intervals along the back of wall 800 and strain gauges imbedded in the front surface 810 of wall 800. A block diagram of such a system is depicted in
Preferably accelerometer 902 is a three-axis accelerometer having three individual accelerometers orientated 90 degrees from each other. One such device suitable for use with the present invention is the IAM-20381 high performance 3-axis motion tracking accelerometer available from TDK Invensense, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. In a preferred embodiment one accelerometer package is located in approximately the center of each panel of the wall. The accelerometer will produce a signal proportional to the force with which the ball hits the wall. If the type, and mass, of the ball is known, the speed of the ball at the time of impact can be estimated with a reasonable degree of accuracy. In addition, the angle of impact can be estimated by processing the signals from all three accelerometers. The IAM-20381 connects to processor 912 via either an I2C bus or a SPI bus, both of which are well known in the art. A number of other inertial measurement units are equally well suited for this task.
Strain gauges 904 measure the deflection of the surface. Placing strain gauges around a target on the wall allows processor 906 to determine the point of impact, at least in the proximity of strain gauges. As will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, strain gauges are normally connected as part of a bridge circuit 910 where the steady state condition is typically null, when read across the bridge at nodes 916 and 918. Changes in resistance caused by stress on the strain gauge 904 cause an imbalance in bridge circuit 910 and thus produces a signal readable by an analog input of processor 906. Since stress on strain gauge 906 is the result deformation in the surface of the wall caused by a ball impact, the output of the bridge circuit will be proportional to the distance of the point of impact from strain gauge 906. The exact position of the ball can be determined by examining the ratio of pairs of signals from nearby strain gauges. The output of strain gauge 904 may be rather small. Typically, an instrumentation amplifier 920 is used to amplify, and possibly otherwise condition, the output to make it suitable for reading with an analog input to processor 912.
In addition to sensors placed on or around the wall, sensors may also be placed directly on the athlete or in a piece of equipment such as a racket, a bat, or even the ball. By way of example and not limitation, sensors on the athlete could measure body speed, arm speed, hear rate, oxygen uptake, blood pressure, perspiration rate, etc. Likewise, by way of example and not limitation, sensors in equipment could include gyroscopes, accelerometers, magnitometers, video capture devices, microphones, etc.
Processor 912 is typically a microcontroller, such as the PIC32MZ1024EFG100 manufactured by Microchip Technology, Inc. of Chandler, Ariz. Preferably, interface 914 provides communication via an ethernet connection. While a number of communication interfaces would provide the required functions, ethernet is particularly useful as it easily facilitates centralization of accounting and database processes, allows simple communication with off-site functions, allows direct access to a user's smart phone, is easily adapted to wireless communication, etc. By example and not limitation, other suitable interface schemes include blutooth, USB, RS-232, and the like.
With further reference to
While the embodiments discussed above have been described with reference to practice involving a round ball, the invention is not so limited. Embodiments of the present invention are also suitable for practice with oblong balls, i.e. footballs or rugby balls, as well as with other objects such as hockey pucks and other objects.
It should be noted that while preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described as assembled from rotationally molded plastics, the invention is not so limited. The invention is well suited for construction from a number of materials. For example, structural foam is well known in the art and formed in a low-pressure process that would be well suited for forming panels for use in the inventive wall. By way of example and not limitation, other suitable materials include: wood, fiberglass, carbon composites, wood-based composites, plywood, particle board, medium or high density plastic sheet material, phenolic, as well as a host of similar materials.
It should also be noted that, while all of the preferred embodiments discussed herein have adjustable walls, the invention is not so limited. Panels could be created having a fixed angular offset. Such a wall would fall squarely within the scope and spirit of the present invention.
It should also be noted that, while a specific microcontroller was referenced with regard to the preferred embodiments, the invention is not limited. Many microcontrollers from a variety of manufacturers would work equally well with the preferred invention. In addition, many single board computers would also provide all the functionality needed to accomplish the required function, as would certain FPGA devices and many other such programmable devices, and/or systems.
Finally, it should also be noted that while assembly of the practice wall was described, disassembly of the inventive wall may be accomplished by simply reversing the steps of assembly. Thus the practice wall is well suited for temporary installation or for easy relocation.
Claims
1. A practice wall comprising:
- a plurality of panels arranged in a plurality of columns,
- wherein each column of said plurality of columns is pivotally attached to an adjacent column such that individual columns may be folded with respect to each adjacent column.
2. The practice wall of claim 1 wherein said plurality of panels are arranged in a plurality of rows, and wherein each panel in a lower row includes an upper edge having a first mating feature, and wherein each panel in an upper row includes a bottom edge having a second mating feature such that said first and second mating features join said upper row to said lower row to form said plurality of columns.
3. The practice wall of claim 2 further comprising a camera directed generally forward of the practice wall to capture the actions of a person using the practice wall.
4. The practice wall of claim 2 further comprising:
- an accelerometer affixed to said wall;
- a processor in communication with said accelerometer for measuring acceleration in at least one axis; and
- a program executing in said processor for calculating at least one performance measurement of a person using the practice wall.
5. The practice wall of claim 2 further comprising:
- a plurality of strain gauges attached to the impact surface of at least on of said panels;
- a processor in communication with said plurality of strain gauges to measure mechanical stress on said impact surface having said plurality of strain gauges; and
- a program executing in said processor for calculating at least one performance measurement of a person using the practice wall.
6. The practice wall of claim 4 further comprising an RFID reader in communication with said processor, wherein said processor can communicate said at least one performance measurement to said user.
7. The practice wall of claim 5 further comprising an RFID reader in communication with said processor, wherein said processor can communicate said at least one performance measurement to said user.
8. A practice wall comprising:
- a plurality of panels arranged in columns and rows; and
- a plurality of hinges joining said columns such that each column is foldable with respect to each adjacent column.
9. The practice wall of claim 8 wherein each panel of said plurality of panels is interchangeable with any other panel od said plurality of panels.
10. The practice wall of claim 9 wherein said wall has at least one vertical edge and the practice wall further comprises comprising trim pieces secured along said at least one vertical edge.
11. The practice wall of claim 9 wherein said wall has a top edge and the practice wall further comprises a plurality of trim pieces secured along said top edge.
12. The practice wall of claim 8 further comprising instrumentation for generating an output.
13. The practice wall of claim 12 further comprising a processor in communication with said instrumentation for processing said output and providing information to a user derived from said processing.
Type: Application
Filed: Mar 25, 2021
Publication Date: Sep 29, 2022
Inventors: Richard T. Herbst, JR. (Bradenton, FL), Jon Colin Leonard (Bradenton, FL)
Application Number: 17/301,103