US20160129329A1 - Baseball Multi-Tee Training System - Google Patents

Certain embodiments herein relate to a baseball multi-tee training system that comprises a base that is attached to a vertically extending tube. The baseball multi-tee training system further comprises an upper rotatable collar that is disposed around the vertically extending tube that attaches an upper horizontal arm to the vertically extending tube, and a lower rotatable collar that is disposed around the vertically extending tube that attaches a lower horizontal arm to the vertically extending tube. Disposed at each end of the upper horizontal arm are one or more upper ball supports that each supports a ball. Similarly, disposed at each end of the lower horizontal arm is one or more lower ball that each support a ball, where the ball supported by each of the upper ball supports and the lower ball supports do not cause an obstruction in relation to each other.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

• This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/076,973 filed Nov. 7, 2014, and is incorporated herein in its entirety.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

• Not Applicable

REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM, LISTING COMPACT DISC APPENDIX

• Not Applicable

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

• 1. Field of Invention

• The present invention relates to a batting tee that provides a user with various ball placement positions to help the user improve their batting technique.

• 2. Description of Prior Art

• Batting tees are widely used to practice hitting a ball, such as a baseball or softball. Learning ball hitting skills is a process that requires repetitive practice. It is important that the practice repetition is done correctly. Ball hitting skills depend on making a proper swing with the bat. A proper swing must be made through a proper angle as the bat approaches the ball. Critically, the optimal swing techniques and bat angle vary slightly depending on the location of the pitch in the hitting zone. Pitchers can be successful in getting batters to swing-and-miss or hit pitches poorly by throwing a pitch that initially looks like it will end up at a certain location but, because of spin and speed of the pitch, ends up in a different location. The extremely short time available for batters to decide if and where to swing their bat (under one-half second at high levels of performance) requires that the bat swing must be initiated and directed toward a portion of the strike zone before the ultimate location of the pitch is fully known. As batters recognize the type of pitch thrown and anticipate the resulting change in ball location, they have a limited opportunity to adjust mid-swing and still make contact with the pitched ball. A batting tee that can simulate these changing pitch placements can assist a batter in practicing these adjustments.

• Traditional batting tees are designed to place a ball at a designated location in the hitting zone and allow batters to practice optimal swings for that ball location. These traditional batting tees have seen some improvements over the years to allow for multiple tees, as well as adjustable tees. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,388,823 to Prieto discloses a single adjustable batting tee that is capable of simulating the position of a baseball at various locations within a strike zone. U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,374 to Groves discloses a two-tee batting system where the tees are upright and adjustable.

• Despite these improvements, the ideal batting tee that allows batters to practice adjusting their swing based on pitch movement has not yet been achieved. For instance, many of these improved tees are still single tee systems and do not allow for multiple ball placements. On the other hand, many of the multi-tee systems interfere with the swing adjustment due to the spatial arrangement of the tees or only allow placement of balls within the strike zone to allow for easy hitting.

• Therefore, it is clear that known ball striking devices have failed to duplicate multiple striking positions such that a batter can practice the swing adjustments necessitated by curveballs, changeups, and other pitches that enter the hitting zone in other than the anticipated location.

• Based on the critical role and difficulty in developing bat swing adjustments based on the movements of different pitches, there is a need for a new, simple and cost effective training tool to improve a batter's optimal swing at different pitches. The present invention addresses this need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

• Embodiments of the present invention provide for a multi-tee batting system that provides a user with various ball placement positions of two balls to improve a batter's batting technique. Typically, one ball is positioned where a fastball would be expected to be located and a second ball is positioned slightly to the left or right and usually lower than the first ball. In this way, a batter can practice optimal swings at a fastball and also practice adjusting to produce an optimal swing at a pitch that has moved from the anticipated location to a different location.

• In some aspects of the invention, the multi-tee batting system can simulate various pitches including, but not limited to fastballs (four seam and two seam), cutter, splitter, forkball, sinker, curveball, slider, slurve, screwball, and changeup, and any combination thereof.

• In other aspects of the invention, the position adjustable multi-tee batting system utilizes a base with a vertically extending tube. The vertically extending tube contains an upper and a lower horizontal arm to which attachments support a ball for practice. An upper rotatable collar is mounted around the vertically extending tube and anchors the upper horizontal arm. Similarly, a lower rotatable collar is mounted around the vertically extending tube and anchors the lower horizontal arm. At each end of the upper and lower horizontal arms are two alternative ball placement locations. The balls on the horizontal ball supports can be freely struck into the field of play, or may be fixedly attached to the upper and lower horizontal arms.

• These and other exemplary features and advantages of the present invention will become clear from the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

• The following drawings form part of the specification and are included to further demonstrate certain embodiments or various aspects of the invention. In some instances, embodiments of the invention can be best understood by referring to the accompanying drawings in combination with the detailed description presented herein. The description and accompanying drawings may highlight a certain specific example, or a certain aspect of the invention. However, one skilled in the art will understand that portions of the example or aspect may be used in combination with other examples or aspects of the invention.

• FIG. 1

  is a front view of a baseball multi-tee training system, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

• FIG. 2

  is a top view of a rotatable collar, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

• FIG. 3

  is a view of the baseball multi-tee training system in use, according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

• The present disclosure relates to a baseball multi-tee training system that provides a user with various ball placement positions to improve a batter's batting technique. In certain embodiments, the baseball multi-tee training system provides a batting tee that is adjustable and provides multiple ball supports to enable the user to practice their swing to correspond with different pitching techniques.

• In one embodiment, the baseball multi-tee batting system utilizes a base with a vertically extending tube. An upper rotatable collar is dispensed around the vertically extending tube and anchors an upper horizontal arm Likewise, a lower rotatable collar is dispensed around the vertically extending tube and anchors a lower horizontal arm. At each end of the upper horizontal arm and the lower horizontal arm are ball supports holding a ball that may be struck by a batter. For instance, in one embodiment, at each end of the upper horizontal arm may be an upper ball support holding a suspended ball and at each end of the lower horizontal arm may be a lower ball support holding a permanently attached ball. The upper ball support and the lower ball support provides an alternative ball placement location, where the upper and lower horizontal arms may be rotated towards a batter to practice batting for inside pitches or alternatively rotated away from the batter to practice batting for outside pitches. Accordingly, the position of the upper and lower ball supports is adjustable and beneficial for users of varying batting styles, heights and abilities, and allows them to easily transition between the various ball placements.

• Reference is made herein to the attached drawings. For the purposes of presenting a brief and clear description of the present disclosure, certain embodiments will be discussed as used for improving a player's swing in conjunction with practicing pitch recognition. The figures are intended for representative purposes only and should not be considered to be limiting in any respect.

• Many tee designs serve the function of holding a baseball or softball so that a batter can place the ball on the tee and practice the psychomotor movements of swinging their bat and hitting the ball. The height and position of the tee can typically be adjusted to simulate different locations of pitches in the strike zone above home plate.

• As will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, the baseball multi-tee batting system disclosed herein allows, for example, a batter to simulate the different movement and location over home plate of many pitched balls. The types of pitches simulated can include, but are not limited to fastball (four seam and two seam), cutter, splitter, forkball, sinker, curveball, slider, slurve, screwball, and changeup, and any combination thereof. For example, in certain embodiments, a fastball pitch can be simulated by positioning a ball about three feet high over home plate and a changeup type pitch can be simulated by positioning a ball about four inches lower than the fastball pitch. This allows the batter to practice the swing adjustments that a batter would need to make on a pitch depending on whether it was a fastball or a changeup pitch, which batters typically do not recognize until after having initiated their swing.

• Furthermore, in certain embodiments, the baseball multi-tee batting system disclosed herein provides for an upper and lower ball supports that are disposed at the end of the upper and lower horizontal arms. This provides for the positioning of two balls in a different spatial relationship to each other allows batters to practice the adjustments that they must make in their bat swing in order to hit different pitches. Accordingly, the technical effects of the disclosure provide for the batter's ability to swing his or her bat at balls within the strike zone that are supported by either the upper or lower ball supports. As such, the common combination of a fastball and changeup may be simulated. This is an example of a realistic combination of pitch locations that cannot be simulated with existing tee designs.

• In other aspects of the disclosure, the baseball multi-tee batting system provides for the independent positioning of two balls on separate tees that do not cause an obstruction in relation to each other. The present disclosure also allows for the placement of two balls in close proximity to each other. In some aspects of the disclosure, at least one ball can be placed as low as 9 inches off of the ground to simulate a low pitch.

• In other aspects of the disclosure, at least one ball can be supported by the upper ball support on the upper horizontal arm from an above position, through for example, being suspended in a net or sling, while one other ball can simultaneously supported by the lower ball support on the lower horizontal arm from below on a tee mechanism, for example a brush tee or upright tee. The brush tee and upright tee are preferably made from a durable and flexible synthetic material that is capable of maintaining its shape. This allows a batter to swing freely at either teed ball location. The baseball multi-tee batting system facilitates batters hitting baseballs or softballs off of their teed positions and into space. The baseball multi-tee batting system can also have permanently mounted baseballs or softballs that can be struck but are not projected into space, or a combination of permanently mounted balls and balls that are freely projected into space when struck.

• Referring now to

  FIG. 1

  , there is shown a front view of a baseball

  multi-tee batting system

  100 according to an embodiment of the disclosure, wherein the device is shown in an exemplary embodiment.

• As shown in

  FIG. 1

  , in certain embodiments, the baseball

  multi-tee batting system

  100 may include a

  base

  110, a vertically extending

  tube

  120, a lower

  horizontal arm

  130, and a upper

  horizontal arm

  135. In certain embodiments, the

  base

  110 may be a supporting metal plate that attaches to the vertically extending

  tube

  120. The attachment of the vertical extending

  tube

  120 to the

  base

  110, as with all attachments and connections described herein, can be permanent or designed for a quick detachment. The materials used for the vertically extending

  tube

  120 and the lower and upper

  horizontal arms

  130, 135 can vary to include metal, rubber, and plastic.

• With continued reference to

  FIG. 1

  , in certain embodiments, the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 and the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 may be attached to the vertically extending

  tube

  120 via a lower

  rotatable collar

  140 and an upper

  rotatable collar

  145, respectively. For instance, in one embodiment, the lower

  rotatable collar

  140 may be disposed around, or otherwise attached to the vertically extending

  tube

  120. The lower

  horizontal arm

  130 may be inserted into the lower

  rotatable collar

  140 and slide horizontally to a desired position, where the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 is then secured to the vertically extending

  tube

  120 by tightening a

  first fastener

  142 associated with the lower

  rotatable collar

  140. Similarly, the upper

  rotatable collar

  145 may be disposed around, or otherwise attached to the vertically extending

  tube

  120, such that the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 may be inserted into inserted into the upper

  rotatable collar

  145 and slide horizontally to a desired position, where the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 may then be secured in position by tightening a

  second fastener

  147 associated with upper

  rotatable collar

  145. In certain embodiments, the lower

  rotatable collar

  140 and the upper

  rotatable collar

  145 may be, for example, a clamping collar, set screw, threaded, one piece, multi-piece or quick-change collar, or a combination thereof. The

  first fastener

  142 and the

  second fastener

  147 can be any fastener known to one of ordinary skill in the art. These include, but are not limited to knobs, nuts, screws, washers or any combination thereof.

• Still referring to

  FIG. 1

  , in certain embodiments, the vertically extending

  tube

  120 may comprise one or

  more apertures

  125 that allows for the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 and the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 to be positioned by varying heights. For instance, upon inserting the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 into the lower

  rotatable collar

  140, the lower

  rotatable collar

  140 may then slide vertically along the vertically extending

  tube

  120 to one of the

  apertures

  125 corresponding to the desired height. Thereafter, the lower

  rotatable collar

  140 may be secured around the vertically extending

  tube

  120 by turning the first faster 142 into the selected

  aperture

  125 to hold the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 in place. This same method may be followed to secure the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 at a desired position along the vertically extending

  tube

  120.

• As shown in

  FIG. 1

  , in certain embodiments, the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 can be fitted at each end with upper ball supports 150, 155 that provides two alternative ball placement locations. For instance, in one embodiment, one end of the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 may be fitted with

  upper ball support

  150 that comprises a

  sling

  152 that can support a suspended baseball or softball. A batter may swing his or her bat and hit the ball out of the sling. On the opposite end of the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 may comprise

  upper ball support

  155 that comprises a

  solid piece

  157 holding a softball or baseball, which hangs down so that it freely swings around the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 when hit with a bat rather than project into space.

• Still referring to

  FIG. 1

  , in certain embodiments, the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 can be fitted at each end with lower ball supports 160, 170. For instance, in one embodiment, one end of the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 can be fitted with

  lower ball support

  160 that comprises a

  brush tee

  165, where a baseball or softball can be placed on the

  brush tee

  165 and then hit off of the

  brush tee

  165 with a bat. On the opposite end of the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 is

  lower ball support

  170 that comprises a

  swing piece

  175. In certain embodiments, the end of the

  swing piece

  175 may include a permanently attached baseball or softball and is, for example, notched so that it can be held in place pointing up until the force of being hit with a bat makes it spin around the lower

  horizontal arm

  130. Other methods of holding the permanently attached ball upright can be used and are well known in the art.

• In certain embodiments, by securing the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 and upper

  horizontal arm

  135 to the vertically extending

  tube

  120 at a desired positions, two baseballs or softballs can be placed at various positions in the strike zone determined by a horizontal X axis (sliding the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 and/or upper

  horizontal arm

  135 left or right) and vertical Y axis (sliding the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 and/or upper

  horizontal arm

  135 up or down). In addition, lower

  rotatable collar

  140 holding the lower

  horizontal arm

  130 and the upper

  rotatable collar

  145 holding the upper

  horizontal arm

  135 can be rotated clockwise or counter-clockwise to create a third Z axis. By rotating the lower and upper

  rotatable collar

  140, 145 and the lower and upper

  horizontal arm

  130, 135, each ball supported by either lower ball supports 160, 170 or upper ball supports 150, 155 can be placed anywhere in the strike zone above home plate along X, Y, and Z axis.

• In certain embodiments, the suspended balls from upper ball supports 150, 155 at each end of upper

  horizontal arm

  135 can be placed between about 2 feet and about 5 feet off the ground. In certain embodiments, the teed balls attached to lower ball supports 160, 170 at each end of lower

  horizontal arm

  130 can be placed between about 1 foot and about 3 feet off the ground. This allows, for example, the two-arm tee to position baseballs to simulate a fastball at the batter's knee height and a change-up directly under the fastball and a few inches lower. It can also depict a fastball/sinker combination where the lower ball would be under the “fastball” about 4 inches and also closer or further from the batter.

• In other aspects of the invention, the batter can use the suspended and teed balls to simulate the combination of a fastball on the outside corner and a slider than would come from the pitcher looking similar to the fastball but would “slide” down and away. This is a pitch combination that can give advanced baseball batters a lot of trouble.

• Thus, a novel multi-tee batting has been shown and described. Various changes and substitutions can of course be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure.

• Referring now to

  FIG. 2

  , shown is a

  top view

  300 of a

  rotatable collar

  230, according to an embodiment of the disclosure. The

  rotatable collar

  230 is an example of a collar that may be used as the lower

  rotatable collar

  140 or the upper

  rotatable collar

  145 in

  FIG. 1

  . In certain embodiments, the

  rotatable collar

  230 goes over a vertically extending

  tube

  220. In use, a

  horizontal arm

  210 is inserted into a

  rotatable collar

  230 and then slides to a desired horizontal position. Thereafter, the

  rotatable collar

  230 and the

  horizontal arm

  210 may slide vertically along the vertically extending

  tube

  220 to a desired height, where the

  rotatable collar

  230 is then tightened around the vertically extending

  tube

  220 by turning fastener(s) 240 to hold the

  horizontal arm

  210 in place.

• Referring now to

  FIG. 3

  , shown is a

  view

  300 of the baseball

  multi-tee training system

  310 in use, according to an embodiment of the disclosure. A batter wishing to simulate the different movement and location over home plate of many pitched balls may step up to the baseball

  multi-tee training system

  310 to practice one or more swings. As shown in

  FIG. 3

  , the baseball

  multi-tee training system

  310 provides for the independent positioning of two balls on separate tees that do not cause an obstruction in relation to each other.

Definitions

• The following definitions are included to provide a clear and consistent understanding of the specification and claims. As used herein, the recited terms have the following meanings. All other terms and phrases used in this specification have their ordinary meanings as one of skill in the art would understand.

• References in the specification to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, etc., indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular aspect, feature, structure, moiety, or characteristic, but not every embodiment necessarily includes that aspect, feature, structure, moiety, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrases may, but do not necessarily, refer to the same embodiment referred to in other portions of the specification. Further, when a particular aspect, feature, structure, moiety, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect or connect such aspect, feature, structure, moiety, or characteristic with other embodiments, whether or not explicitly described.

• The singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural reference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, a reference to “a compound” includes a plurality of such compounds, so that a compound X includes a plurality of compounds X. It is further noted that the claims may be drafted to exclude any optional element. As such, this statement is intended to serve as antecedent basis for the use of exclusive terminology, such as “solely,” “only,” and the like, in connection with any element described herein, and/or the recitation of claim elements or use of “negative” limitations.

• The term “and/or” means any one of the items, any combination of the items, or all of the items with which this term is associated. The phrase “one or more” is readily understood by one of skill in the art, particularly when read in context of its usage.

• As used herein, the term “about” refers to an approximately +/−10% variation from a given value. It is to be understood that such a variation is always included in any given value provided herein, whether or not it is specifically referred to.

• One skilled in the art will also readily recognize that where members are grouped together in a common manner, such as in a Markush group, the invention encompasses not only the entire group listed as a whole, but each member of the group individually and all possible subgroups of the main group. Additionally, for all purposes, the invention encompasses not only the main group, but also the main group absent one or more of the group members. The invention therefore envisages the explicit exclusion of any one or more of members of a recited group. Accordingly, provisos may apply to any of the disclosed categories or embodiments whereby any one or more of the recited elements, species, or embodiments, may be excluded from such categories or embodiments, for example, for use in an explicit negative limitation.