Color coded teaching system

Abstract

The system provides a mat having indicia thereon to indicate foot placement for teaching various skills required for playing softball and baseball. Foot-marker pieces are disengageably attached to the mat, at selected locations, and the members of a pair thereof have features, such as contrasting colors, that enable them to be visually distinguished from one another. The system may additionally include shoe-marker elements, visually characterized to correspond with the foot-marker pieces, as well as similarly characterized bat-marker elements and hand-marker elements.

1 . A system for teaching at least one of softball and hardball playing skills, comprised of a double-sided panel having a face on both of the opposite sides thereof, and a pair of foot-marker pieces, said panel having indicia on one of said faces designed for teaching ball-pitching skills and comprising an elongated pitcher's rubber representation and a rectilinear power-line representation, said power-line representation extending from a location adjacent to said pitcher's rubber representation and perpendicular to a longitudinal axis thereof, said panel being constructed to enable disengageable attachment of said foot-marker pieces at least at a plurality of spaced locations along said pitcher's rubber representation and along said power-line representation; said panel having means on the other of said faces thereof indicating at least one area for placement of a student's feet adjacent to at least one edge of said panel for teaching at least one of batting skills and fielding skills; each of said foot-marker pieces of said pair having a visually distinguishing feature that enables it to be readily distinguished from the other foot-marker piece of said pair, and being constructed to enable disengageable attachment at least at said locations along said pitcher's rubber and power-line representations on said one face of said panel.  
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said panel is rectangular and is longer than it is wide, wherein said pitcher's rubber representation extends crosswise between lateral edges of said panel adjacent a narrow end thereof, and wherein said power-line representation extends lengthwise and generally centrally between said lateral edges.  
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said panel comprises a mat.  
   
   
       4 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said panel is constructed to enable disengageable attachment of said foot-marker pieces at least at a plurality of spaced locations on said other side of said panel and comprising said means indicating at least one area for placement of a student's feet.  
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said means indicating at least one area for placement of a student's feet includes indicia on said other side of said panel comprising a plurality of pairs of foot-marker representations disposed adjacent one edge of said panel, said foot-marker representations of each of said pairs being mutually spaced and readily distinguishable visually from one another, the respective mutual spacing between said foot-marker representations of each of said pairs being different.  
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 5  wherein said foot-marker representations of a relatively narrowly spaced inner pair are disposed between said foot-marker representations of a more widely spaced outer pair.  
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 6  wherein each of said foot-marker representations has a length dimension, wherein the two foot-marker representations of each pair have the same length dimension, and wherein the length dimension of said more widely spaced outer pair is greater than the length dimension of said relatively narrowly spaced inner pair.  
   
   
       8 . The system of  claim 5  wherein said indicia comprising a plurality of pairs of foot-marker representations are integral with, and non-removable from, said panel.  
   
   
       9 . The system of  claim 5  comprising three of said pairs of foot-marker representations.  
   
   
       10 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said means indicating at least one area for placement of a student's feet on said other of said panel faces is for teaching batting skills and comprises a batter's box representation.  
   
   
       11 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said other side of said panel has indicia thereon is for teaching ball-fielding skills and comprises an element designating a location for hand placement, said hand-placement element being spaced away from said at least one edge of said panel, forwardly toward an opposite edge thereof, said indicia on said other side of said panel additionally including a rectilinear throwing-line representation extending forwardly from said hand-placement element.  
   
   
       12 . The system of  claim 11  wherein said panel is constructed to enable disengageable attachment of said foot-marker pieces at least at a plurality of spaced locations on said other side of said panel along said throwing-line representation.  
   
   
       13 . The system of  claim 11  wherein said indicia on said other side of said panel includes a generally rectilinear element extending adjacent and generally along said one edge for designating locations for foot placement, said generally rectilinear element forming the base of an equilateral triangle having at its apex said hand-placement element.  
   
   
       14 . The system of  claim 11  wherein said panel is constructed to enable disengageable attachment of said foot-marker pieces at a plurality of spaced locations generally along said triangle base-forming rectilinear element.  
   
   
       15 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said visually distinguishing features of said foot-marker pieces comprise contrasting colors.  
   
   
       16 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said foot-marker pieces of said pair include a foot-direction feature for facilitating alignment of a student's feet with said foot-marker pieces.  
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 1  additionally including a pair of shoe-marker elements constructed for removable attachment to a student's shoes, each of said shoe-marker elements of said pair thereof having a visually distinguishing feature that enables it to be readily distinguished from the other shoe-marker element of said pair.  
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 17  wherein said visually distinguishing features of said shoe-marker elements substantially match said visually distinguishing features of said foot-marker pieces.  
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 10  additionally including a pair of bat-marking elements, constructed for removable attachment to a bat handle, and a pair of hand-marking elements constructed for application effectively to a student's hands, each of said bat-making elements of said pair thereof, and each of said hand-making elements of said pair thereof, having a visually distinguishing feature that enables it to be readily distinguished from the other element of each of said pairs, respectively, said visually distinguishing features of said bat-marking elements substantially matching said visually distinguishing features of said hand-marking elements, and said bat-marking elements being attachable to a bat in an arrangement for showing proper hand placement by matching, using said distinguishing features, said hand-marking elements with said bat-marking elements.  
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 19  wherein said bat-marking elements comprise strips of colored material, and wherein said hand-marking elements comprise gloves having color features that substantially match the colors of said bat-marking elements.  
   
   
       21 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said panel is constructed for ambidextrous applicability.  
   
   
       22 . A method for teaching at least one of softball and hardball pitching skills, comprising: 
 providing the system of  claim 17;     applying one of said shoe-marker pieces of said pair to each of a student's shoes;    applying said foot-marker pieces to said one panel face in proper locations, relative to said pitcher's rubber representation, for set-up for pitching actions;    instructing the student to place his feet on said foot-marker pieces, so positioned relative to said pitcher's rubber representation, such that said distinguishing feature on each of said shoe-marker elements matches said distinguishing feature on each of said foot-marker pieces;    thereafter applying said foot-marker pieces to said one panel face in proper locations, relative to said power-line representation, for a power phase pitching action; and    instructing the student to move his or her feet to place them on said foot-marker pieces, so positioned relative to said power-line representation, such that said distinguishing feature on each of said shoe-marker elements matches said distinguishing feature on each of said foot-marker pieces.