Patent Publication Number: US-2016228748-A1

Title: Twisted tennis racket frame

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates generally to sports goods and more particularly, to a twisted tennis racket frame, which has better performance in controlling the tennis ball and enables the user to turn the hitting surface of the tennis racket quickly. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Before swinging the tennis racket and hitting the tennis ball with the tennis racket, the tennis player has to turn the hitting surface of the tennis racket appropriately according to the hitting method such as forehand, backhand, smash, chop, volley, and so on. Therefore, a tennis racket frame enabling the tennis player to turn the hitting surface of the tennis racket is required. However, the manufacturers of the conventional tennis racket frames are not aware of such requirement, and never attend to fill such requirement. Besides, the tennis racket&#39;s performance in controlling the tennis ball has much influence on the performance of the tennis player, so how to improve the tennis racket&#39;s performance in controlling the tennis ball is an important subject for the related industry. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an objective of the present invention to provide a twisted tennis racket frame, which has better performance in controlling the tennis ball and enables the user to turn the hitting surface of the tennis racket quickly. 
     To attain the above objective, the present invention provides a twisted tennis racket frame which includes a handle, two supporting arms, and a head. Each of the two supporting arms is extended from an end of the handle and has an inside surface and an outside surface. The inside surfaces of the two supporting arms face each other, and the outside surfaces of the two supporting arms face reverse directions. The head is annular-shaped and provided on an imaginary plane with a large arc portion and a small arc portion. The large arc portion is C-shaped and has two ends connected with ends of the two supporting arms respectively. The small arc portion is connected with the two ends of the large arc portion. The large arc portion has an external arc surface and an internal arc surface. The external arc surface and the outside surfaces of the two supporting arms compose a continuous curved surface. The continuous curved surface has at least one twisted section provided with a starting end and a terminal end. The starting end is located at the large arc portion of the head and faces toward a first facing direction that is situated on the imaginary plane. The terminal end is connected with the handle and faces toward a second facing direction. The included angle between the second facing direction and the first facing direction is larger than 0 degree and not larger than 180 degrees. 
     Resulted from the configuration design of the twisted section, the twisted tennis racket frame enables the user to turn the hitting surface of the tennis racket quickly for changing hitting method nimbly, and improves the performance of the tennis racket in controlling the tennis ball. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a top view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is a partial lateral view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a sectional view taken along the line  4 - 4  in  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 5  is a perspective view of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The structural features and effects of the present invention will be specified in the following description of two preferred embodiments of the present invention. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1-3 , a twisted tennis racket frame  10  according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a handle  20 , two supporting arms  30 , and a head  40 . 
     The handle  20  has a front end  21 , a rear end  22 , and octagonal cross sections. 
     Each of the two supporting arms  30  are extended from the front end  21  of the handle  20  and has an inside surface  31  and an outside surface  32 . The inside surfaces  31  of the two supporting arms  30  face each other, and the outside surfaces  32  of the two supporting arms  30  face reverse directions. 
     The head  40  is annular-shaped and provided with a large arc portion  41  and a small arc portion  45 . The large arc portion  41  and the small arc portion  45  are located on an imaginary plane  50 . For the convenience of illustration, the imaginary plane  50  is the X-Y plane in this embodiment. The large arc portion  41  is C-shaped and has two ends  42  connected with ends  33  of the two supporting arms  30  respectively. The small arc portion  45  is also connected with the two ends  42  of the large arc portion  41 . The large arc portion  41  has an external arc surface  43  and an internal arc surface  44 . The external arc surface  43  and the outside surfaces  32  of the two supporting arms  30  compose a continuous curved surface  60  which has two twisted sections  70 . Each of the twisted sections  70  has a starting end  71  which is located at the juncture of the large arc portion  41  of the head  40  and the supporting arm  30  and defined with a first facing direction  81 . The first facing directions  81  of the two twisted sections  70  are both located on the imaginary plane  50 , i.e. the X-Y plane. Each of the twisted sections  70  has a terminal end  72  which is connected with the handle  20  and defined with a second facing direction  82 . In this embodiment, the second facing directions  82  of the two twisted sections  70  are both parallel to the Z-dimension; one of the second facing directions  82  points to the upside of the X-Y plane, and the other second facing direction  82  points to the downside of the X-Y plane. The second facing direction  82  and the first facing direction  81  of each twisted section  70  have an included angle therebetween. The two included angles are equal to each other, and each included angle is approximately equal to 90 degrees. The two twisted sections  70  are twisted in the same direction in a way that the juncture of one of the supporting arms  30  and the handle  20  is located above the imaginary plane  50  and the juncture of the other supporting arm  30  and the handle  20  is located below the imaginary plane  50 . 
     It should be mentioned that each of the first facing directions  81  and the second facing directions  82  is a facing direction which is defined on a surface as the direction the surface faces. The concept of the facing direction is like that of the direction the human face fronts; no mater how curved the human face is, the human face fronts a direction which is just like the facing direction defined in the present invention. Refer to  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  illustrates the cross section of the juncture of the large arc portion  41  and the supporting arm  30  of the tennis racket frame  10 , and the starting end  71  of the twisted section  70  is located at the juncture. Because the part of the continuous curved surface  60  shown in  FIG. 4  belongs to the external arc surface  43  of the large arc portion  41 , the first facing direction  81  in  FIG. 4  is illustrated as the arrow to the right. If an imaginary connecting line L is defined to connect two junctures  47  of the continuous curved surface  60 , the part of which shown in  FIG. 4  belongs to the external arc surface  43 , and the internal arc surface  44 , the first facing direction  81  is perpendicular to the imaginary connecting line L and passes through the midpoint of the imaginary connecting line L. In this embodiment, the imaginary connecting line L is parallel to the Z-dimension, and the first facing direction  81  is located on the X-Y plane. As shown in  FIGS. 1-3 , the facing direction of each twisted section  70  rotates counterclockwise (viewed from the rear end  22  of the handle  20 ) from the starting end  71  to the terminal end  72 . At the starting end  71 , the facing direction is the first facing direction  81  located on the X-Y plane. At the terminal end  72 , the facing directions of the two twisted sections  70  become the second facing directions  82  which are parallel to the Z-dimension. One of the second facing directions  82  points to the positive direction of the Z-dimension and the other second facing direction  82  points to the negative direction of the Z-dimension. 
     When the right-handed user is taken as an instance, the tennis racket frame  10  of the present invention is used in a way that the user holds the handle  20  with the right hand and slightly supports the two supporting arms  30 , i.e. the twisted sections  70 , with the left hand. When a force is applied from the left hand to turn the racket, the direction of the force is approximately perpendicular to the part of the continuous curved surface  60  there, so that the tennis racket frame  10  can be turned to the demanded angle quickly, enabling the user to change the hitting method nimbly. Besides, resulted from the configuration design of the twisted sections  70  of the continuous curved surface  60 , the feeling of hitting the tennis ball with the tennis racket having the twisted tennis racket frame  10  is quite different from the feeling of hitting the tennis ball with the conventional tennis racket. The practical trial performed by tennis players indicates that the tennis racket frame of the present invention has better performance in controlling the tennis ball than the conventional tennis racket frame, thereby showing potential in marketability. 
     Based on the spirit of the present invention, the area of the twisted section can be modified, such as that of the twisted tennis racket frame  10  according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in  FIG. 5 . The structure of the frame in the second preferred embodiment is similar to that in the first preferred embodiment. If the handle  20  is defined in the 6 o&#39;clock direction relative to the head  40 , the large arc portion  41  of the head  40  has two side ends  46  located at the 3 o&#39;clock position and the 9 o&#39;clock position of the head  40  respectively. The twisted tennis racket frame  10  of the second preferred embodiment is characterized in that the starting ends  71  of the twisted sections  70  are located at the side ends  46  respectively. 
     In other potential embodiments, the twisted sections are not limited to be equal in the included angle between the second facing direction and the corresponding first facing direction, and the twisted sections may be twisted in opposite directions; alternately, the twisted tennis racket frame may have only one twisted section. Besides, the included angle between the first and second facing directions may be modified according to the user&#39;s habit of hitting ball, as long as the included angle is larger than 0 degree and not larger than 180 degrees. If the included angle doesn&#39;t equal 90 degrees, the junctures of the supporting arms and the handle may not located above and below the imaginary plane respectively. 
     It should be mentioned that the starting end of the twisted section is not limited to be located as in first and second preferred embodiments; the starting end can be located at any position of the large arc portion of the head, such as the 12 o&#39;clock position, the 4 o&#39;clock position, or the 8 o&#39;clock position. 
     The above description represents merely the preferred embodiment of the present invention, without any intention to limit the scope of the present invention. The simple variations and modifications not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit of the invention are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.