Portable soccer foot skill and agility training mat

Abstract

An apparatus to train athletes to increase control of a soccer ball, increase dribbling skills and develop foot speed and agility all essential to the sport. This apparatus consists of a mat with cones placed through it. The athlete dribbles the soccer ball in between the obstacles to develop foot control over the ball.

1 . Agility training and foot skill development are very important for athletes who want to improve their ability to play soccer, A very common way to do training for soccer is to place small plastic cones, resembling traffic cones in a pattern on a generally flat surface, The athlete in training either dribbles a soccer ball with his or her feet between the cones or simply runs in a zig-zag pattern around and among the cones, Such exercise aids muscular development, helps the athlete improve balance and improves the athlete's ability to change direction very quickly while running, Please see U.S. Pat. No. 5,669,883 for a description of the use of the plastic cones and some of the training methods used, Typically, these cones are about 250 mm tall and about 125 mm in diameter with a very blunt “point” at the top, A flange extending several inches from the base of the cone serves to add weight to the base of the cone to help it to stand up straight and stay in place,
 However, it becomes difficult to keep the cones in their desired positions as the athletes do their training, No matter how careful an athlete might be, he or she will eventually touch or kick a cone, causing it to move as the athlete tries to dribble the soccer ball or run zig-zag pattern between and around the cones, While it would be possible to attach the cones to the surface on which they are placed, such as a gym floor, mat or grass field, this extra step of attachment limits the portability of the training apparatus, Whenever the apparatus is disassembled for storage or assembled for use, whatever was used to anchor the cones must be detached or attached, perhaps with tools, Attaching the cones to a portable mat makes it very difficult to roll the mat up for transportation or storage, 
 The object of this invention is a portable soccer training mat which is very easy to set up and take down but provides a way to hold the cones in their desired positions without requiring attachment to the generally flat surface on which the mat is placed or directly to the mat itself.