Patent ID: 7534178

Claim:
A system for training a batter to automatically swing at pitched balls corresponding to strikes and to refrain from swinging at pitched balls not corresponding to strikes, the system comprising a visual reference member suspended between a pitcher's mound and a home plate where the batter is located, at a location in front of the plate, so that the trajectory of a pitch from a pitcher's release point proximate the pitcher's mound to a point in a strike zone proximate the home plate consistently passes through a portion of the visual reference member, wherein the visual reference member comprises a hoop section having an upper portion missing to define an open upper end between a pair of exposed ends of the hoop, with a surface of the hoop facing the batter having alternating light and dark bands, with the exposed ends representing two of the dark bands, and the system further includes a pair of light-colored supports located to suspend the hoop above the ground, with the supports extending from the exposed ends of the hoop at an angle of from about 40 to about 50 degrees, wherein when a pitched ball corresponding to a strike passes through a predetermined portion of the hoop the user visually completes the broken image provided by the alternating dark/light bands of the hoop and the supports to yield a cone-shaped zone within the hoop.