Abstract:
A practice baseball bat for assisting the development of a batter&#39;s swing mechanics and techniques, comprising a conventional baseball bat defined by an elongate circular cross-sectional member with an improvement therein in which a portion thereof centered about a sweet spot of the member defines a recessed hitting surface having opposing shoulders extending between an exterior surface of the bat to the recessed hitting surface, whereby impacting the hitting surface on a thrown baseball causes the ball to fly away in a preferred flight such that repetitive use of the practice baseball bat develops muscle, stance, and swing mechanics and techniques in the batter for improving the batter&#39;s hitting skills.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present invention relates to baseball bats. More particularly, the present invention relates to practice baseball bats for teaching baseball players proper stance and swing mechanics with visual feedback for developing proper hitting skills. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Baseball and softball are team participation sports enjoyed by many individuals with wide variations in skills. Organized baseball leagues are provided for children as well as adults. These leagues include amateur play as well as professional. The amateur leagues are primarily directed to children&#39;s participatory leagues, but it also includes high school, college, and post-graduate amateur leagues for participants unable to compete in the professional leagues. 
     Baseball is a game of developed skills involving the throwing of a baseball, catching the baseball, and hitting the baseball with a baseball bat. Baseball games are competitive events between two teams. Prior to games, however, skills are developed through coaching and training in practice sessions. Coaches who typically are experienced players, teach other players how to develop the skills required for the game. While each of the positions on the team have differing skill requirements, each member of the team becomes involved in the hitting aspect of the game (except generally for pitchers in the professional American League). 
     The ability to hit a baseball with a bat involves the batter taking a standing position at the plate with the bat held in a rearward cocked position. The batter must swing the bat from the laterally rearward cocked position, through a frontal hitting position, and to a follow-through laterally forward position. The bat is swung at an appropriate time after the pitcher facing the batter has thrown the ball towards the plate where the batter is standing. At the appropriate time, the batter commences the swing. The swing is based on the batter making the necessary eye and arm coordination for swinging the bat at the appropriate time in view of the perceived travel of the baseball towards the plate. The batter must take into account the speed of the ball, the type of pitch and the expected flight path to the plate. Ideally, the bat impacts the baseball and causes the ball to travel outwardly from the plate into the baseball field, or preferably beyond. 
     Hitting a baseball with a baseball bat is a developed skill. Batters are considered successful when they have a hitting percentage of between about 0.250 and 0.333 or more. In other words, a batter is considered successful if a hit is obtained between one-fourth and one-third of the number of times the batter is at bat. In addition to batting average, some batters become skillful at hitting grounders which are balls that are hit downwardly to bounce on the ground and through the infield. Other batters become adept at hitting long flies to the outfield. Further, batters may develop skills for hitting the ball in particular pitches to selected parts of the ballfield, in order to advance base runners. 
     Because hitting is a developed skill, batting practice typically involves the batter standing at the batters box and swinging at a number of pitches. Pitching machines have been developed to throw baseballs towards the plate in order to give the batter repetitive opportunities to swing a baseball bat at a significant number of balls thrown over a period of time. Coaches observe the batter&#39;s stance, swing, and follow-through mechanics, and provide guidance as to changes the batter may make in order to be more successful at hitting. 
     In addition to using conventional baseball bats for practice, others have provided special practice baseball bats. One such bat includes an elongated opening that starts approximately two-thirds the length of the bat from the handle. The opening is dimensioned to give clearance to a standard baseball along an imaginary line through the center of the bat. This center portion is typically referred to as the sweet spot, in that baseballs hit at the center location are best driven by the batter into the playing field. Balls hit on an upper portion of the bat tend to pop-up, while balls hit on a lower portion of the bat tend to be driven into the ground as grounders for fielding by an infielder. In this practice bat, a net is provided outwardly of the backside of the bat. The bat catches the ball within the opening and the ball passes through the bat into the net. The bottom of the net is open allowing for the ball to drop to the ground. Another practice bat provides a hollow end for receiving baseballs with an opening for ejecting a ball. The ball is ejected by flipping the bat upwardly to toss a ball through the opening into the air. The batter then swings the bat in order to hit the ball into the playing field. 
     While these practice bats provide practice in hitting, there are drawbacks to their use. The bat with the net does not provide a true indication as to the performance of the batter when he has successfully swung the bat in that the ball is caught by the net backwardly of the bat rather than being directed into the playing field. The magazine-style practice bat requires frequent reloading. The balance, weight, and performance of this bat is not as a conventional baseball bat, so this practice bat does not provide a true representation of the swinging mechanics for a baseball bat. 
     Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved practice bat for learning swing mechanics for hitting thrown baseballs. It is to such that the present invention is directed. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
     The present invention meets the need in the art by providing an improved practice baseball bat for assisting batters to learn proper swing mechanics for hitting thrown baseballs. The practice baseball bat for assisting batters comprises an elongate member having a handle end that tapers into a barrel portion and terminates in an opposing distal end. The handle end and a substantial portion of the barrel are circular in cross-sections. An impact portion of the barrel defines a notch having a planar hitting surface recessed from an exterior surface of the barrel. The hitting surface provides a preferred portion for impacting a thrown baseball with the success of hitting being observable by the carry flight of the baseball into the playing field. 
     Objects, advantages and features of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the following detailed description of the invention and claims in view of the appended drawings. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a horizontal side elevational view of the practice bat, according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a horizontal front elevational view of the bat shown in FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along line  3 — 3  of FIG. 2 to illustrate the notch in the practice bat of the present invention. 
     FIG. 4 is a horizontal side elevational view of an alternate embodiment of the practice bat of the present invention. 
     FIG. 5 is an exploded side elevational view of a practice bat having a metal body according to the present invention. 
     FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of a portion of the practice bat illustrated in FIG. 5 illustrating the manufacture of the practice bat. 
     FIG. 7 is a illustration of the practice bat of the present invention being used for learning how to swing the bat at a thrown baseball. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now in more detail to the drawings in which like parts have like identifiers, FIG. 1 is a horizontal side elevational view of a practice bat  10  according to the present invention. The bat  10  is a conventional elongate cylindrical body having a handle end generally  12  and a barrel generally  14  for impacting a baseball. As illustrated in FIG. 2, an elongated notch  16  is defined starting approximately two-thirds down the length of the bat  10  from the handle  12 . The notch  16  defines an impact face  18  that is parallel to a longitudinal axis of the bat  10 . The impact face  18  in the notch  16  is recessed from an exterior surface of the bat  10 . The notch  16  defines two opposing shoulders  20  and  22 . 
     As best illustrated in FIG. 3, the notch  16  is recessed approximately one-third of the diameter  24  of the barrel of the bat  10 . The length of the notch  16  is approximately two and one half baseball diameters. The notch  16  is preferably centered on the sweet spot of the bat from which most effective hits are obtained when the batter connects squarely with a ball. With the notch  16  configured in a wooden bat, the notch is disposed on a side perpendicular to the bat label  26 . FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an alternate embodiment of the practice bat  10 , in which the barrel defines opposing notches  16  and  16   a.    
     The practice bat  10  of the present invention may be manufactured using a conventional wood bat or an aluminum or metal bat. In the wooden bat, the notch  16  is preferably formed in a side lateral and perpendicular to the label  26  of the bat. The label  26  conventionally designates an “up” position relative to the ground, so as to reduce bat breakage. The notch  16  is cut with a band saw or by a saw operated to cut a mortise in the wood. The bat also can be manufactured in metal from metal tube stock which has been worked or machined, such as by swaging or ironing, to establish a relatively small diameter handle portion, a relatively large diameter barrel and a tapered intermediate portion. The notch  16  is formed by a die press or other swaging effort. 
     In particular reference to a hollow metal bat  40  of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 5, it is noted that such bats conventionally comprise a hollow metal casing  42 , an end closure plug  44 , and a handle grip and end closure member  46 . The end plugs  44  and  46  typically comprise molded members formed of a light weight, shock resistant material, such as rubber, a poly vinyl chloride plastic, polyurethane, or other such material. The plug  44  inserts into the larger end of the casing  42 , and the handle grip  46  is received at the smaller end of the casing  42  to assemble these elements together. The metal casing  42  is preferably formed from an extruded aluminum tube of uniform diameter and uniform wall thickness throughout. The tube  42  is swaged or ironed to reduce its diameter at one end, to form a bat body having outer barrel portion  47  with the diameter of the original tube  42 , a tapering intermediate section  48 , and a handle portion  50  of considerably less diameter than the original tube. This machining provides a bat body or casing  42  of approximately conventional bat shape. The casing  42  then is machined to define the recessed hitting surface  18 . 
     In one method, the recess is defined by a hydraulic die press. A die supports the casing  42 , and a movable die is forced, preferably under hydraulic pressure, against the casing. This defines the hitting surface  18  recessed from the exterior surface with opposing shoulders  20  and  22 . 
     FIG. 6 illustrates an exploded perspective view of a metal practice bat made by a second method. A portion of the casing  42  is cut along parallel lines  60 ,  62  to define the ends of a notch. The cuts are approximately one-third to one-half the diameter of the casing  42 . Two cuts  64 ,  66  are made parallel to a longitudinal axis of the casing  42  between the opposing distal edges of the cuts  60 ,  62 . This severs a portion of the casing  42 . The hitting surface  18  is defined as an insert  68  having a planar member  70  with a pair of opposing flanges  72  at distal ends. Distal edges  74  of the flanges  72  define an arcuate edge conforming to the curved exterior of the casing  42 . The insert  68  is received inwardly of the casing  42  through the opened side. The insert  68  is welded in place to define the notch  16  with the hitting surface  18 . 
     Returning to FIG. 5, in assembling the plugs  44 ,  46  with the casing  42 , a skirt end inserts into the respective open end of the barrel with the plug being slightly compressed to permit entry of the plug within the annular opening. The skirt end may include a lip that engages a groove on an interior surface of the barrel. Adhesive may also be used to secure the plugs  44  and  46  to the casing  42 . Prior to closing the ends of the casing, wadding such as cellulose fibers is conventionally packed within the interior to absorb sound and shock. 
     The practice bat  10  is operated preferably with the instruction of a coach for guiding the batter in developing proper batting stance and mechanical swing skills, while also developing eye and arm coordination in evaluating the speed and travel of the thrown baseball from a pitcher for impacting the surface  18  in the barrel of the bat  10  squarely with the ball. Preferably, the batter&#39;s hands grip the handle portion with correct positioning. As the batter swings, the hands go through the swing and the follow through, without rolling over. A batter whose hands “roll-over” downwardly tends to hit soft grounders while a batter whose hands “roll-over” upwardly tends to hit pop-ups, and both are generally easily fielded for outs. With the present invention, the batter learns to go through or swing through the ball during the pitch while the bat impacts the ball in the sweet spot. The batter learns the swing mechanics whereby the sweet spot is brought into impacting engagement with the thrown pitch. With reference to FIG. 7, a baseball  28  is illustrated as impacting a comer portion of the face  18  which should result in a solid line drive into an outfield portion of the baseball field. 
     The practice bat  10  of the present invention provides an immediate visual indication to the batter as to the impact position of the ball  28  on the bat  10 . The ball will fly outwardly and laterally away from the batter when the ball impacts the inner shoulder  20 . The ball will fly outwardly and laterally in a direction substantially towards the batter when the ball impacts on the outer shoulder  22 . When the ball  28  impacts a bottom surface of the bat, the ball will be driven down to the ground. When the ball  28  impacts an upper edge of the bat  10 , the ball will pop-up and possibly rearwardly away from the batter. 
     It is thus seen that the present invention as disclosed here and provides a practice bat for developing the stance and swing mechanics of batters while the batter is coordinating eye and arm actions with a thrown baseball, in order to learn how to hit a baseball thrown by a pitcher. While this invention has been described in detail with particular reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, the principles and modes of operation of the present invention have been described in the foregoing specification. The invention is not to be construed as limited to the particular forms disclosed because these are regarded as a lustrative rather than restrictive. Moreover, modifications, variations and changes may be made by those skilled in the art without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention as described by the following claims.