The parlor game of “pool,” also often referred to as “billiards” and “pocket pool,” is a well-known game of skill played by millions of persons around the world, and will hereinafter be referred to as the “game” in this application. The game consists of a series of steps in which a player uses a “cue stick” to propel a white or off-white, non-numbered cue ball to impact fifteen other numbered game balls, first racked tightly into a triangular configuration by a standard racking triangle frame, into pockets on a table designed specifically for this game, and includes a list of rules for play. There are recreational game players, as well as dedicated professional players from around the globe. This invention addresses specifically on the importance and difficulty practicing the first action of any new game, the all-important square hit of a “break shot,” also commonly known as “breaking.”
“Play Great Pool: The Definitive Textbook for Teaching Yourself the Sport of Pocket Billiards,” written by the professional pool player and holder of the current prestigious post of the USA Mosconi Captain, Mark Wilson, notes the following important points about the central importance of a break shot and challenges presented in practicing them (emphasis added):                (1) The opening shot of each pool game is known as the break. In many games, your objective will be to powerfully strike the rack and drive one or more object balls into a pocket. To successfully achieve this objective, you will need both accuracy and power—the reason the break stroke [shot] is one of the most difficult shots in pool.        (2) Because it is difficult to combine extreme power with extreme accuracy, you must be willing to devote significant time to practicing.        (3) For a week before any important tournament, I would hire a “racker” to set up the balls for me, and practice nothing but breaking for 30 minutes every day for the entire week.1 1“Play Great Pool: The Definitive Textbook for Teaching Yourself the Sport of Pocket Billiards” by Mark Wilson, is available from Blue Book Publications, Inc., 2013, ISBN-13: 978-1936120376. The Masconi Cup is an annual pool tournament between the USA and Europe, and has been played since 1994. It grants an annual trophy named after an American Player named Willie Mosconi. This tournament has been compared to the Ryder Cup in golf (source cited: http://wikiwand.com/en/Mosconi_Cup).                    Like Wilson states, the “break shot” requires a difficult combination of accuracy and power that requires a significant time practicing for competitive play. Also, the problem of potentially finding a “racker (helper)” to set up 15 balls for this “break shot” practice, or alternatively using a lot of the player's actual time and energy to setup a 15-ball rack of balls for practicing breaking, means any player of the game must spend an inordinate amount of time setting up the balls for doing a practice break shot session or be forced to employ others to repeatedly, efficiently, practice their break shots in a defined period of time. This essential need for practicing this critical game shot and the desire to have as many practice break shots done in an given of time, is a serious problem for any player of the game, considering the work to setup a full set of balls in a traditional triangular racks.            In addition to the problems in accomplishing successive practice break shots in practice sessions noted above, it must be noted that repeatedly practicing this break shot also provides a player with the ability to monitor and learn to control the probable cue ball positioning after the completed break shot motion, an essential for developing better play strategies. It also allows a player to practice doing an effective “choked-up” hand grip on their cue stick to maximize power and control in the shot.            Break practice allows the practicing player to see where the “head ball (often labeled #1),” the single ball positioned in the configured 15-ball triangle, which is the target of the break shot, travels after the break shot, as to know how this ball can be controlled even when doing a very powerful break shot. For example, the head ball may be above, below, or right into a side pocket, affecting numerous aspects of the game; one namely being if one or more of the non-cue balls other than the #8 ball go into a pocket the same player continues with further shots of the cue ball to continue on their turn. Knowing where the cue and the head balls seem to travel when perfecting a powerful and accurate break shot requires as many as possible practice breaks repetitions for observing trends of leaving balls in certain places, but most of all—overcoming the terrible problem of time used in re-racking all 15 balls of the game to know physical resistance exists like in any full pool game.            Information relevant to attempts to address these problems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,466,038 and 6,860,816 B2, and Japanese Patent No. 2014226522A. However, each one of these references suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages:            (1) the apparatus claimed is very mechanically complex;            (2) the apparatus is made up of too many parts—making maintenance, failure, or its cost of production high;            (3) the device is too large for easy stowage or storage;            (4) the device is heavier than desirable for a game player;            (5) the apparatus is not very aesthetically appealing;            (6) the apparatus does not allow break shot practice as quickly as desirable by a player;            (7) the apparatus may be difficult for a novice to use.            (8) the equipment (apparatus) does not allow for the use of genuine object game balls in practice break shots.            (9) the apparatus may simply not be allowed in many pool halls by owners of these establishments because of a fear or high lack of confidence that the heavy equipment or hard component parts may damage the felt surface or other parts of a game table by regular use of the apparatus, improper use of apparatus, or extensive assembly and disassembly of the apparatus.                        
For the forgoing reasons, there is a need for a lightweight, easy to use, simple to transport training apparatus that allows for more break shot practices to be accomplished very quickly, requiring as little racking as possible, to develop a player's breaking skills by seeing their que and head ball travels in more iterations, without the use of any “racker” person assisting or spending inordinate amount of times assembling a 15-ball rack of balls over and over again, but accomplishing the same physical practice as a typical game's physical setup assembly.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds