Racket having a cushioning shaft portion

Claim 1

A racket comprising: a head portion; a striking netting in said head portion extending substantially in a plane; a shaft portion comprising a throat end portion, a bottom end opposite said throat end portion, a first pair of spaced side plates each extending substantially parallel to said plane of said striking netting, a second pair of spaced side plates each extending substantially perpendicular to said plane of said striking netting and connected respectively with said first pair of spaced side plates to encompass therebetween a parallelepiped shaped cavity; a throat portion between and connecting said head portion and said throat end portion of said shaft portion; a traverse window through each of said second pair of spaced side plates substantially oppositely disposed with respect to each other in said throat end portion of said shaft portion and communicating with said cavity; a grip portion around said shaft portion from said bottom end to an upper end of said grip portion at said throat end portion, but not on said throat end portion; and a synthetic foamed core of impact absorbing material having a shape suitable to be received in said parallelepiped cavity and positioned in said throat end portion, said foamed core extending in the longitudinal direction of said shaft portion for the full length of said window in said longitudinal direction and having a length greater than the length of said window, said foamed core extending part way into said cavity.