Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
3Z~9
HOCKEY STICK
The invention relates to a field hockey stick
with a short head. More specifically the hockey stick
of this invention has a head with a free end which is
bent in relation to the shank and merges into the
stick.
For playing field hockey, in recent times
hockey sticks with short heads have been used which
are handier than hockey sticks with heads swung far
out but which only offer the ball a comparatively small
hitting surface. During play, it therefore often
happens that the ball rolls away over the head or is
not hit correctly during the stroke. Particularly
during backhand play, the front face of the head facing
the ball, close to the ground, is particularly small
because only the front edge of the end of the head
touches the ground.
It is an object of the present invention to
avoid these disadvantages and to provide a hockey
stick with a short head, the useful striking surface
and stopping surface of which for the ball is larger
than on the conventional hockey sticks and is almost
equally large for forehand play and backhand play, and
which renders possible rapid play requiring little
force.
This problem is solved with the invention in
that the free end of the head is bent back through
about 180 in such a manner that the inner edge of the
free end of the head adjacent to the shank of the head
is at a short distance from the shank of the head.
As a result of this construction, the head
acquires the shape of a substantially U-shaped hook
wherein the two arms are at such a distance apart that
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a ring pass is ensured but the ball cannot slip
through between the two arms. Accordingly, for stop-
ping and striking the ball, the two surfaces of the
shank of the head and of the end of the head, disposed
side by side, and the air space between them are avail-
able, the wid~h of the air space being smaller than
the diameter of the ball.
The construction of the hockey stick accord-
ing to the present invention also has the advantage
that the stick can be turned very quickly and with
the expenditure of very little force, because the head
with the bent back end of the head turns on the ground
like a circular disc~
As a result of the enlargement of the playing
area of the stick achieved with the invention, faulty
strokes are avoided during the game and many fewer
technical faults are made. As a result, play is not
interrupted so often during matches and playing time
is gained.
A particular advantage of the hockey stick
according to the invention lies in the fact that balls
can be played and hit much more easily backhand over
the ground. During the execution of the backhand
stroke, the centre of gravity of the head of the stick
is close to the centre of gravity of the ball. As a
result, only a small torque develops in the stick during
the striking as a result of which more force is trans-
mitted to the ball and a high velocity is imparted to
this.
With this new stick, the game of hockey
becomes safer. Furthermore, the ball can no longer be
struck with the upper edge of the head and no longer
jumps up in the event of a somewhat inaccurate stroke.
Also during stopping, the ball can no longer jump up
as a result, so that many injuries are avoided.
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~ nother advantage consists in that a so-
called 'high ball" can be played very easily with the
hockey stick according to the invention. Here it is
a question of a special kind of playing which only a
few hockey players master. In this case, the ball is
"scooped up'' and hit over a long distance.
In addition, the hockey stick according to
the invention has the advantage that the ball cannot
roll over the head during stopping so that it can
easily be ''stopped dead''.
Also balls which are stopped with the back-
hand, in which case the stick is laid on the ground -
can no longer slide so easily under the stick. The
stick according to the invention is actually closer
to the ground because the head is no longer so long.
This is an advantage, particularly with artificial
grass and for indoor hockey.
In order to facilitate handling still further,
the head has, at its rounded back, a thickened portion
which is between the upper edge of the end of the head
and the apex region of the bend. As a result, the
centre o gravity of the hockey stick is displaced so
that the stick can be turned with the expenditure of
very little force when changing over from forehand play
to backhand play or vice versa. In this case, it is
particularly appropriate if the outer marginal boundary
of the head is made substantially semicircular and is
taken up to th~ upper edge of the end of the head.
As a result, the head always rests on the ground with
an arcuate marginal portion with a constant radius of
curvature regardless of how the stick is held during
play. The striking conditions are therefore always the
same during forehand play and backhand play.
In order that the head may have adequate
strength even in the strongly bent shape according to
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the invention, the head according to the invention con-
sists of a plurality of curved layers of wood which
are glued together and the boundary surfaces of which,
which are glued together, extend substantially per-
pendicularly to the flat front (playing side) of the
stick.
The present invention provides in a hockey
stick with a short head, a free end of the head of
which is bent in relation to a shank of the head mer-
ging into the stick, the improvement comprising the
free end of the head being bent back through about
180 in such a manner that an inner edge of the free
end of the head facing the shank of the head is at
a short distance from the shank of the head.
Further features and advantages of the inven-
tion are apparent from the following description and
the drawing in which a preferred form of embodiment of
the invention is explained in more detail with reference
to an example.
Figure 1 shows a hockey stick according to
the invention in a front view which shows the left-
hand, flat side of the hockey stick,
Figure 2 shows the head of the hockey stick
of Figure 1 with shank extension in an enlarged illus-
tration,
Figure 3 shows the subject of Figure 2 in an
end view,
Figure 4 shows a rear view of the head with
stick connection, which shows the rounded back of the
stick, and
Figure 5 shows a view of the head from below,
seen in the direction of the arrow V.
In Figure 1, a hockey stick is illustrated
which is designated as a whole by 10 and which consists
of the handle ll, the shàft 12 of the stick and the
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head 13 which merges into the shaft 12 of the stick
at the so-called joint 14, also called the lower
splicing--. The left-hand side of the hockey stick
10 facing the observer in Figure 1, is flat and repre-
sents the front 15 of the hockey stick which shouldface the ball, while the opposite right-hand side of
the hockey stick is rounded and is regarded as the back
16 during play, with which the ball should not be
touched during play.
The head 13 consists of a plurality of layers
of wood which are glued together, preferably from the
wood of the mulberry tree, the boundary surfaces 18
of which, which are glued together, and extend sub-
stantially perpendicularly to the flat front 15 of the
hockey stick 10. The layers of wood 17 can be taken
further into the shaft 12 of the stick, in which case
resilient inserts of glass fibre or a resilient mater-
ial can ~e disposed between them. The handle 11 may
appropriately carry a wrapping 19 of textile or
leather material.
The head 13 consists of the shank 20 of the
head, which merges into the shaft of the stick 12 in
the region of the ~oint 14, and of the free end 21 of
the head which.is continued in the shank 20 of the
head and is bent back by about 180 in relation to
this so that the inner edge 22 of the free end 21 of
the head facing the shank 20 of the head is at a
short distance a from the shank 20 of the head. This
distance a is so great that the so-called -ring pass--
is possible, that is to say the whole hockey stick 10and its head 13 can be pulled through a circular ring
which has an internal diameter of 5.08 cm. Apart from
this, however, the distance a is as short as possible
and on the average is about half as large as the larg-
est diameter D of the head 13.
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It can be seen from the drawing that the
outer marginal boundary 24 of the head 13 is substan-
tially semicircular in construction and reaches as far
as the upper edge 25 of the end 21 of the head.
At its rounded back 16, the head has a
thickened portion 26 which is substantially in the
region between the upper edge 25 of the end 21 of the
head and the apex region 27 of the bend 28. As a
result of this thickened portion, the centre of gravity
of the hockey stick 10 is displaced during play more
towards the end of the head so that in the playing
position illustrated in Figures 1 and 4, during
forehand play (Figure 1) and backhand play (Figure ~,
it is substantially on a line 29 which passes from the
upper end of the handle 11 through the middle of the
gap 30 between shank 20 of the head and end 21 of the
head. The hockey stick 10 can then be turned parti-
cularly easily in the nor~al playing position so that
its handling during play is facilitated.
The invention is not restricted to the example
of the embodiment illustrated but several modifications
and amplifications are possible without departing from
the scope of the invention. For example, it is also
possible to make the distance a between shank 20 of
the head and end 21 of the head larger or smaller. The
distance should not be so great, however, that the
hockey ball passes through between shank of the head
and end of the head or remains stuck in there when
struck. On the other hand, the distance a should not
be so short that the ring can no longer be pulled over
the head during the ring-pass test. For special pur-
poses, the thickened portion at the back o the hockey
stick can also be provided at a somewhat different place
if this proves more favourable during the handling, par-
ticularly of shorter sticks for smaller people. It is
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also possible to allow the outer marginal boundary
27 of the head to extend not over an arc but over
another curve.
