Racket with rugged frame

A racket with a rugged frame adapted to be used in various games such as tennis, badminton, racket ball, squash tennis and etc. The racket includes a handle, a frame, and power reinforcing portions and flexible portions formed along a part of the frame or the entire frame in an alternating manner, each of the power reinforcing portions being constituted by a protruded frame portion having a relatively large side thickness while each of the flexible portions being constituted by a depressed frame portion having a relatively small side thickness, thereby capable of eliminating an insufficient power of the conventional classic type construction and an insufficient flexibility of the conventional wide body type construction, and attenuating a vibration generated when a ball strikes against the racket, thereby reducing an impact while providing a good ball striking feeling. In particular, the racket can control the flexibility and power appropriately depending on the feature of a user by adjusting the difference in thickness between the power reinforcing portion and the flexible portion both constituting the rugged frame construction and the number of protrusions and depressions respectively constituting the power reinforcing portions and the flexible portions.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a racket, and more particularly to a 
racket with a rugged frame adapted to be used in various games such as 
tennis, badminton, racket ball, squash tennis and etc. 
2. Description of the Prior Art 
Rackets used in tennis, badminton, racket ball and squash tennis games have 
a common construction including a handle, a frame and a string tied along 
the frame even though they have a slight difference from one another in 
terms of size and shape. For a simplicity of description, the following 
description, therefore, will be made only in conjunction with tennis 
racket. 
Generally, tennis rackets are classified into classic racket and wide body 
racket. They are distinguished from each other in terms of the side 
thickness of the frame. That is, rackets having a thickness of about 1.5 
cm to about 2.0 cm are called the classic racket while rackets having a 
thickness larger than that of the classic racket is called the wide body 
racket. 
FIG. 1 illustrates a state when a ball strikes against the conventional 
racket of the classic type. 
Since the classic racket has a relatively small frame thickness, the frame 
is freely flexed at the moment a ball strikes against the racket. As a 
result, the ball can stay at the racket longer time. By virtue of such a 
longer stay time of the ball, it is possible to obtain a sufficient time 
to control the advance direction and position of the ball. That is, the 
classic racket has an advantage of an easy ball control. By virtue of such 
an advantage, the classic racket is mainly favorite to professional 
players acting a high level play such as drive or top spin. 
In spite of the advantage, the classic racket has a disadvantage of a weak 
power (a weak resilience of ball). Due to such a disadvantage, the loss of 
the physical strength of the player is increased where the racket is used 
long time. Consequently, it is difficult for persons with a low physical 
power to use the classic racket. 
Recently, the wide body racket eliminating the disadvantage of the classic 
racket has been favorite to amateurs, in particular, female players or 
children. This is because the wide body racket ensures a superior power by 
virtue of a relatively large thickness of its frame, as compared to the 
classic racket. 
However, this wide body racket also have the following disadvantages: 
First, it is difficult to control the ball. FIG. 2 illustrates a state when 
a ball strikes against the conventional racket of the wide body type. 
Since the frame of the wide body racket is thick, it is hardly flexed at 
the moment the ball strikes against the racket, as shown in FIG. 2. As a 
result, the ball stays at the racket very short time. Due to such a very 
short stay time of the ball, it is difficult to control the ball. It is 
also difficult for a player to act a high level play. 
Second, a high impact is directly transferred to the player's arm at the 
moment the ball strikes against the racket because the frame is hardly 
flexed. As a result, the player is susceptible to a tennis elbow or a 
wrist injury. In other words, the wide body racket has a disadvantage of 
an increased danger of an injury because it can not absorb the impact 
generated upon the striking of ball at its frame, so that the impact is 
directly transferred to the player's arm. 
For this reason, professional and experienced players are unwilling to use 
the wide body racket. They use the classic racket in spite of the 
significant drawback of the classic racket. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Therefore, an object of the invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned 
problems encountered in two types of the conventional rackets and, thus, 
to provide a racket of a new type capable of exhibiting both a flexibility 
and a power. 
Another object of the invention is to provide a racket of a new type 
capable of controlling a flexibility and a power depending on the feature 
of a user. 
Another object of the invention is to provide a racket of a new type 
capable of reducing an impact generated when a ball strikes against the 
racket and providing a good feeling of a ball striking. 
In accordance with the present invention, this object can be accomplished 
by providing a racket comprising a handle and a frame, further comprising: 
power reinforcing portions and flexible portions formed along a part of 
the frame or the entire frame in an alternating manner, each of the power 
reinforcing portions being constituted by a protruded frame portion having 
a relatively large side thickness while each of the flexible portions 
being constituted by a depressed frame portion having a relatively small 
side thickness.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
FIGS. 3 to 9 illustrate various racket constructions in accordance with 
different embodiments of the present invention, respectively. FIG. 3 is a 
perspective view illustrating a racket with a rugged construction provided 
at its entire frame in accordance with a first embodiment of the present 
invention. FIG. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a racket with a 
rugged construction provided at a part of its frame in accordance with a 
second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a sectional view of 
a part of a racket with a rugged construction provided at its frame of the 
conventional classic construction in accordance with a third embodiment of 
the present invention. FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a part of a racket 
with a rugged construction provided at its frame of the conventional wide 
body construction in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present 
invention. FIG. 7 is a sectional view illustrating a part of a racket with 
a rugged frame construction having triangular protrusions and depressions 
in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 8 is 
a sectional view illustrating a part of a racket with a rugged frame 
construction having rectangular protrusions and depressions in accordance 
with a sixth embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 9 is a front view 
illustrating a racket with a rugged frame construction having lateral 
protrusions and depressions in accordance with a seventh embodiment of the 
present invention. 
In accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention shown in 
FIG. 3, the racket has a rugged frame having power reinforcing portions 21 
and flexible portions 22 formed along the frame in an alternating manner 
repeatedly. Each of the power reinforcing portions 21 is constituted by a 
protruded frame portion having a relatively large side thickness while 
each of the flexible portions 22 is constituted by a depressed frame 
portion having a relatively small side thickness. By such a rugged frame 
construction, in particular, the flexible portions 22, the racket is 
smoothly flexed at the moment a ball strikes against the racket. 
Accordingly, the rugged frame attenuates a vibration generated when the 
ball strikes against the racket. As a result, it is possible to protect a 
user from an injury of his arm. Since the ball can stay at the racket long 
time by virtue of the flexibility of the frame, it can be more accurately 
controlled. Furthermore, the attenuation in vibration makes the ball 
striking feeling good. Under the condition that the impact is absorbed as 
mentioned above, the user can strike the ball powerfully by virtue of the 
function of the power reinforcing portions 21. 
The rugged construction may be provided at the entire frame, as shown in 
FIG. 3. Alternatively, the rugged construction may be provided at a part 
of the frame, as shown in FIG. 4. Such a rugged construction also may be 
incorporated in the conventional classic type frame as shown in FIG. 5 or 
in the conventional wide body type frame as shown in FIG. 6. For obtaining 
a more high flexibility, the racket may have a rugged frame construction 
including lateral protrusions and depressions formed along the inner and 
outer surfaces of the frame. Such a construction is shown in FIG. 9. 
As the difference in thickness between the power reinforcing portion 21 and 
the flexible portion 22 is increased, the frame has an increased 
flexibility. The flexibility of the frame can be also increased as the 
number of protrusions and depressions is increased. The number of 
protrusions and depressions capable of providing a proper flexibility and 
a proper power is 5 to 30, and preferably 10 to 20. It is also preferred 
that the protrusions and depressions have an arc shape. Of course, the 
protrusions and depressions may have a triangular shape as shown in FIG. 7 
or a rectangular shape as shown in FIG. 8. 
For more reinforcing the power, the racket may have an upper frame 
reinforcing portion 23 provided at the upper portion of the frame or/and a 
lower frame reinforcing portion 24 provided at the lower portion of the 
frame. These frame reinforcing portions 23 and 24 are formed by forming 
the corresponding portions of the frame to have a larger thickness than 
other portions of the frame. Although these frame reinforcing portions 23 
and 24 are not the portions to be resisted against the flexure generated 
when the ball strikes against the racket, they are desirable to have an 
arc shape with a more or less large width so as to increase their 
durability because they may be weaken due to the repetitive impact 
generated by the ball. 
Although the present invention has been described in conjunction with the 
tennis racket for a convenience of description, it is not limited to the 
tennis racket. The present invention may be equivalently applied to other 
types of rackets such as badminton, racket ball, squash tennis and etc. 
As apparent from the above description, the present invention provides a 
racket having a rugged frame construction capable of eliminating an 
insufficient power of the conventional classic type construction and an 
insufficient flexibility of the conventional wide body type construction, 
and attenuating a vibration generated when a ball strikes against the 
racket, thereby reducing an impact while providing a good ball striking 
feeling. In particular, the racket of the present invention can control 
the flexibility and power appropriately depending on the feature of a user 
by adjusting the difference in thickness between the power reinforcing 
portion and the flexible portion both constituting the rugged frame 
construction and the number of protrusions and depressions respectively 
constituting the power reinforcing portions and the flexible portions. 
Although the preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed for 
illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that 
various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without 
departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the 
accompanying claims.