Patent ID: 8579768

Claim:
A collapsible athletic training ladder comprising: a plurality of substantially rigid polygon-shaped segments, each defining an outer perimeter and an interior hollow region; and a plurality of segment connectors each configured to be selectively pivotably secured to a first side, a second side, or a third side that is adjacent to the first side of the plurality of segments to selectively place the training ladder in a first, a second, and a third configuration; wherein at the first configuration, a first segment connector of the plurality of connectors is configured to pivotably secure a first side of a first segment with a first side of a second segment and a second segment connector of the plurality of connectors is configured to piviotably secure a second side of the second segment with a first side of a third segment of the plurality of segments of the athletic training ladder such that the first, second and third polygon-shaped segments define a first running pattern in a first direction along a substantially horizontal plane parallel with a horizontal bottom surface; wherein at the second configuration, the first segment connector is configured to pivotably secure the first side of the first segment with a third side adjacent to the first side of the second segment and the second segment connector is configured to pivotably secure the second side of the second segment with the first side of the third segment, such that the first, second, and third polygon-shaped segments define a second running pattern in which a portion of the second running pattern formed from the first and the second segments extends a second direction divergent from the first direction along the substantially horizontal plane parallel with the horizontal bottom surface; and wherein at either the first configuration or the second configuration, said first and second segment connectors are configured to be pivotally secured to said first, second and third segments in a manner allowing the first, second and third segments to be pivoted about said respective segment connectors to permit the ladder to be configured in a third configuration in which the first segment is configured to rest on top of said second segment and the second segment is configured to rest on top of the third segment, thereby defining a collapsed stack of said first, second, and third segments.