Patent ID: 7491140
Filing Date: 2009-02-17
Classification: A63B

Abstract:
1. A basketball training aid system including a cord-like basketball net having a central vertical axis, the net characterized by a plurality of cord segments and knots, and an entrance opening proportioned for attachment to a basketball rim and also an exit opening smaller than said entrance opening, each of said openings concentric about said central vertical axis of said net, said system including: (a) a mounting ring having a central vertical axis, said ring proportioned for securement to said net at about a center area of said vertical axis of said net in a plane substantially transverse to said axis, said ring including means therein for its securement to said net at about said vertical center area of said vertical axis of the net; and (b) a chute having an open entrance having a diameter greater than that of a basketball by an annular radius in a range of 1 to 2 inches, said chute entrance including an inner circumferential channel complemental in dimension to a circumferential edge of said mounting ring, said channel defining chute-to-ring securement means comprises a plurality of vertical slots depending upwardly within a vertical circumferential surface thereof, said slots proportioned for engagements of knots of said basketball net, said channel proportioned for rotational motion about said ring upon application of a tangential torque to said chute, said chute curving downwardly and off of said vertical axis to an outlet having an axis of ejection at an angle of between about 10 to about 20 degrees relative to a basketball playing surface, said chute having a substantially open frontal portion beginning below said open entrance beneath said channel for said mounting ring, said frontal portion progressively increasing in lateral surface area to about one-half of a circumference of a basketball and, therebelow, decreasing to a lateral surface area corresponding to about one-third of said circumference of a basketball at said outlet of said chute, whereby said chute may be readily rotated about said vertical axis of said net and ring by application of a force to said chute at a radius from said axis in any direction tangent to said mounting ring, thus effecting changes in a return direction of a basketball after it is ejected from said chute.