Portable Adjustable Athletic Field Boundary

Abstract

A self-contained portable adjustable boundary marking system capable of use in a variety of athletic settings where a boundary, line, or demarcation is desirable is disclosed. The system is adapted for use indoors or outdoors, on hard surfaces or soft. The system is modifiable and adaptable, and capable of rapid setup and takedown, and the system is thus suited for use in a variety of athletic play and training situations. The system includes boundary markers which contain at least one extensible element such as a tape, string, cord, or cable that may be extended to any desirable length up to the maximum length of the extensible element and attached to other markers of the system or to the playing surface itself to delineate the boundaries of a playing surface or to mark some other meaningful line on the playing surface.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 816,298, filed Jun. 23, 2006.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to athletic field boundaries, and more particularly to a portable and adjustable field boundary that includes markers and retractable boundary marking tape or cord and that allows almost infinite adjustment and configuration of the adjustable field boundary. [0004] 2. Background and Related Art [0005] Many sports use a playing field or surface on which a large part of the action of the sport occurs. Often, the field or surface has defined boundaries, where certain events must take place within the boundaries, or certain events that take place outside the boundaries require certain effects. For example, in basketball and soccer, the ball must stay within the boundaries of the court or field, or if the ball crosses outside the court or fiel...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0013] The marker is self-contained, inexpensive to produce and own, and almost infinitely expandable. The marker is small and light enough that several may be carried by a single person in a bag or backpack, providing ready portability. Additionally, the marker may be manufactured in a stackable format and multiple markers carried in a dedicated carrier. Setup and takedown of an athletic boundary using the marker system is rapid and simple, lending itself to use in a variety of situations, such as training situations, informal spontaneous games, and formal team sports.

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, while many people enjoy playing sports, many sports are often limited in where they can conveniently be played.

This kind of informal play can lead to tension between the players such as when a dispute occurs as to whether a ball was in or out.

Furthermore, even if people have some sort of boundary system that they can take with them to set up a smaller field for soccer or to more clearly define the boundaries of their playing surface, different sports often use fields of different sizes and shapes; the boundary that works for one sport typically does not work for another.

Thus the recreational sport player, the one who tends to have the least amount of money to spend on properly defining boundaries, is forced into buying multiple costly setups for each of the sports in which he or she desires to participate.

Even assuming the player has the means to purchase multiple different boundary systems, the player must also have the space to store all the different systems, which can quickly grow burdensome.

Coaches of teams have related problems.

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