The ONLY Hockey Stick Guide

There are so many variables in buying hockey sticks these days, most players give up completely and buy whatever looks the coolest. But this is obviously the wrong thing to do unless you think sticks are meant strictly for ornamental purposes. If you want to be an informed buyer, then read on...

The first thing you'll notice about a stick is its height. The proper height is generally around your lips to nose in street shoes and around the chin in skates. Shorter sticks make it a little easier to stick handle for beginning players but may hurt your shot , face-off ability and defensive prowess. If a stick is coming above your nose in skates, it's way too long for you. This brings us to a related issue, flex.

Flex or stiffness indicates how much force is required to bend or "load up" a stick. Obviously, bigger, stronger guys will need stiffer sticks, but it's not that simple. The most important question to ask yourself is what type of shot do I take the most? If you take exclusively wrist shots, and are say, 6'0, 190 lbs, an 85 flex might be ideal for you. But if you're 6'2. 170 lbs and only take slapshots, you may want to use a 100 flex stick. Why? Because slap and snap shots naturally allow for more loading, due to mechanics and technique. The old saying is, "divide your weight by two to determine the flex for you." That's very simplistic but still works sometimes. And what happens when you cut a stick? For every inch you cut off a senior stick, add 4.5% more flex. So if you cut your 100 flex stick down 2 inches, you now have a 109-110.

But what about material? Higher end composite sticks are made almost exclusively of carbon fiber, often with a kevlar outer wrap to reduce vibration. Lower end composite sticks are predominantly fiberglass and while durable, totally lack in the performance arena. You can grab a lower end composite on close out for $30, but it won't perform better than a wooden stick, although it will almost certainly last longer.