US20190111296A1

US20190111296A1 - Modular Agility Device

Info

Publication number: US20190111296A1
Application number: US15/782,188
Authority: US
Inventors: Marli Alec Jacob; David Joseph Jacob
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2017-10-12
Filing date: 2017-10-12
Publication date: 2019-04-18

Abstract

In one aspect, the present disclosure provides a grid member useful for constructing an exercise grid, said grid member comprising: a first end and a second end, the first and second ends being attached to a connector, the connector comprising a first narrow end and a second wide end. In another aspect, the present disclosure provides an exercise grid comprising a plurality of grid members, the grid members comprising: a first end and a second end, the first and second ends being attached to a connector, the connector comprising a first narrow end and a second wide end.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to exercise equipment, and in particular to a modular agility device that in one embodiment is a grid member useful for forming an exercise grid.

B. Background of the Invention

Athletes frequently will perform various drills to try and improve their physical performance. In many cases the drills used do not directly involve the sport for which the athlete is training. For example, many football trainers will spend time lifting weights to increase strength, but no one lifts weights during an actual football game. It is well known that many athletes will perform better when they develop certain skills. It is also true that specific drills can be utilized to develop particular skills and capabilities.
Many athletes will use various drills to improve fundamental motion skills. One type of implement which can be used is an exercise ladder. Many different exercise ladders are available, and they can be used in a wide variety of drills to improve the agility, speed, coordination, balance, quickness and other traits of an athlete. In some cases, several tires can be set in a line, and an athlete will run through the tires while stepping in the middle hole as they progress. Alternatively, exercise ladders can be laid on a playing surface and the athlete will perform various drills while moving through the ladder.
There are a great many different types of drills which are possible with a simple exercise ladder device. Many of the drills aid an athlete to develop quick motion of the feet, improve coordination, and shorten start time. This can make an athlete quicker and more agile on their feet. For many sports, an athlete may try to increase the speed of the starting motion in any direction from where they are standing. The athlete may desire to begin moving quickly straight behind them or straight forward, or to the left or right, or anywhere in between. The athlete desires a quick start in any possible direction.
One of the best ways to improve performance is to practice the desired motion. Practicing starting in every possible direction can aid an athlete in gaining a quicker start, regardless of the direction in which the athlete will be moving. In many sports, agility and quickness training is one aspect of an overall training program. It is not uncommon for exercise ladders to be used for agility and quickness training for a portion of a practice period, and then other drills and practice techniques are used for the rest of the practice period.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a top view of one embodiment of the grid member.

FIG. 2 is a top view of two grid members joined together.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Now referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the present disclosure provides a grid member 10 that has a first end 12 and second end separated by a rod 16. The grid member 10 includes an upper fabric 18 and a lower fabric 20. The upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 are connected together, and can form a pocket for the rod 16. Stitching can be used to connect the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20, but other connection techniques can also be used, such as gluing, hook and loop connectors, rivets, or other techniques known to those skilled in the art.
In one embodiment, the upper fabric 18 can have an upper fabric color and the lower fabric 20 can have a lower fabric color, where the upper fabric color is different than the lower fabric color. Providing different colors on the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 allows a user to select a color for the grid member 10 when in use. Providing contrasting colors can allow for a grid member 10 which is useful with a wider variety of playing surface colors while still providing good visibility.
The upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 should be constructed of a durable material. The grid member 10 may be stepped on frequently in use, and the athlete may be wearing cleats or other sharp footwear. The athlete's foot may also be twisted while placed on the grid member 10, which can increase the rate of wear and tear. The grid member 10 can also be left out in the sunlight for extended periods, so material which is able to withstand ultraviolet light from the sun has certain advantages. In addition, the upper and lower 18, 20 can be somewhat soft such that if an athlete were to fall on the grid member 10, the athlete may have a reduced chance for injury from abrasion or cuts. The upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 can be made of flat or tubular webbing, but other materials can be used as well, including but not limited to nylon, cotton, wool, or a wide variety of other materials.
The rod 16 is positioned between the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 and extends substantially from the first end 12 and the second end 14, but generally the rods 16 stop short of each first and second end 12, 14. The rods 16 are firm so as to maintain the shape of the grid member 10. The rods 16 can have some minimal flexibility such that they will bend somewhat, but the rods generally will try to return to a generally straight shape. The rods 16 are long, and the rod 16 cross section can be round, flat, oval, or almost any other shape.
The grid member 10 has a connector 22 on each of the grid member's 10 first 12 and second ends 14. The connector 22 is useful for connecting one or more grid members 10 together to form an exercise grid (also known as an agility grid). The connector 22 is configured such that the connector 22 of one grid member 10 connects to the connector 22 of another grid member 10. The connection may be accomplished in many different methods, but one preferred embodiment is through the use of hook-and-loop fabric (or VELCRO®) such that the hook fabric of one connector 22 attaches to the loop fabric of another connector 22 thus attaching the grid members 10 to one another. Generally, when hook-and-loop fabric is used, one side of the connector 22 will have the loop fabric while the opposite side of the connector has the hook fabric.
In one embodiment, the connector 22 has a narrow end 24 and a wide end 26. The narrow end 24 is placed between the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 before the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 are joined together (as via stitching or the other methods referenced herein) thus securing the narrow end 24 of the connector 22 to the grid member 10. Alternatively, a brad may be used to attach the narrow end 24 of the connector 22 to the grid member 10. In this embodiment, the brad passes through the upper fabric 18, the narrow end 24 and lower fabric 20. One advantage of using the brad to secure the connector 22 to the grid member 10 is that the brad allows the connector 22 to rotate independently of the grid member 10.
Further, in one preferred embodiment, the overall length of the connector 22 is about 2.0 inches. In this embodiment, about 0.50 inches of the connector 22 is placed between the upper and lower fabrics 18, 20 while about 1.50 inches of the connector 22 extends from the first and second ends 12, 14 of the grid member 10.
The connector 22 may have an aperture 26 in its wide end 26. This aperture 28 may be circular or more of an oblong shape. This aperture 26 is useful for storing the grid member 10 on racks or other devices as a rack extension or other device may pass through the aperture 28.
The shape of the connector 22 is important for the function of the grid member 10 as it imparts a great deal of flexibility in the connection between a first grid member 10 and a second grid member 10. The narrowing portion of the connector 22 between the narrow end 24 and wide end 26 allows the connector to bend or flex.
A plurality of grid members 10 may be connector together to form an exercise grid which 30 can be used for athletic training drills, as shown in FIGS. 3-4. The grid 30 may include a number of running strips 32 and crossing strips 34, where each strip can be positioned in a generally straight line which can intersect several other lines. Each strip 32, 34 includes the entire generally straight line, even though the line can be broken down into shorter pieces. It may also be possible to position the exercise grid 30 such that a strip 32, 34 does not make a straight line. The running strips 32 and crossing strips 34 define a series of quadrilaterals, which in one embodiment can be squares 36. The exercise grid 30 as shown includes nine squares 18, so the exercise grid 30 is said to be a 3×3 grid where the number 3 is referring to the number of squares 36. The squares 36 are open space, or just holes, so an athlete steps directly on a playing surface when stepping in a square 36.
The exercise grid 30 is intended for exercising, so dimensions are established which approximate the average step of a person. Based on experimentation, it has been determined that the squares 36 have dimensions of essentially 20 inches by 20 inches. In this description, the word “essentially” means plus or minus 1 inch unless otherwise specified. The 20 inch by 20 inch square 18 has been found to fit the normal step of people of very different sizes. This is a functional size for very large people, and it is still useful for people having a shorter stature. It has also been found that an exercise grid 30 with 20 inch squares is relatively easy to set up, move, and take down. However, if the squares 36 become much larger than 20 inches it becomes more difficult to manipulate the exercise grid 30 by a single person. A 3×3 grid 10 with 20 inch squares is 5 feet wide, and increasing the square size by just 4 inches gives a grid 10 that is 6 feet wide by 6 feet tall. To form an essentially 20 inch by 20 inch square 38, the use of rods 16 which are essentially 18 inches long can be effective. Or course, other rod 16 lengths should be considered within the scope of this disclosure as the rod length 16 can be varied depending upon the desired size of the exercise grid 30 or the quadrilateral to be formed therein. Other preferred lengths of rods 16 are 12.00 inches and 8.00 inches.
The exercise grid 30 may be positioned flat on a surface or may include one or more 3-D elements. The inclusion of 3-D elements is made possible due to the unique connection (as described above) of one grid member 10 to another grid member 10. The inclusion of 3-D elements allows one to construct various obstacles within the exercised grid 30 such that an athlete may have to jump higher than normal to move from one position to another within the exercise grid 30.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the invention as disclosed here. Accordingly, the scope of the invention should be limited only by the attached claims.

Claims

1. A grid member useful for constructing an exercise grid, said grid member comprising: a first end and a second end, the first and second ends being attached to a connector, the connector comprising a first narrow end and a second wide end.

2. The grid member of claim 1 wherein the grid member further comprises a rod spanning the substantially the length between the first end and the second end.

3. The grid member of claim 2 wherein the rod is enclosed between a upper and a lower fabric.

4. The grid member of claim 3 wherein the narrow end of the connector is between the upper and lower fabrics.

5. The grid member of claim 1 further comprising a upper and lower fabric and wherein the narrow end of the connector is between the upper and lower fabrics.

6. The grid member of claim 1 wherein the connector comprises hook-and-loop fabric on the large end.

7. The grid member of claim 4 wherein the connector comprises hook-and-loop fabric on the large end.

8. The grid member of claim 7 wherein the connector is attached to the grid member via a brad.

9. The grid member of claim 6 wherein the connector is attached to the grid member via a brad.

10. The grid member of claim 1 wherein the connector is attached to the grid member via a brad.

11. The grid member of claim 1 wherein the connector comprises an aperture on the large end.

12. The grid member of claim 9 wherein the connector comprises an aperture on the large end.

13. An exercise grid comprising a plurality of grid members, the grid members comprising: a first end and a second end, the first and second ends being attached to a connector, the connector comprising a first narrow end and a second wide end.

14. The grid member of claim 13 wherein the connector comprises hook-and-loop fabric on the large end.

15. The grid member of claim 14 wherein the connector is attached to the grid member via a brad.

16. The grid member of claim 15 wherein the connector comprises an aperture on the large end.