A Guide to Hockey Sticks

Although all leading brands retain a range of traditional wooden sticks, the majority of sticks now offered are composite: a mix of man-made materials, with the aim of providing a powerful performance while retaining balance and feel.

In simple terms the composites are a mix of Kevlar, carbon and fibreglass, with the carbon element providing the strength and power, but in doing so also increasing the rigidity of the stick.

With upper end sticks now containing 95% carbon, much of the technology involves reducing the shock and vibration in using such rigid sticks, and ensuring players still get good feel and control.

The other main variant in selecting a stick is the shape of the shaft. With a maximum permitted bow of 24.5mm, there is a trend towards having this lower down, nearer the head of the stick (low bow), which aids the development of aerial skills, in particular the drag-flicking technique.

All the leading brands supplied by Chiltern Sports will offer extensive ranges of both low-bowed sticks and the more traditional straighter profile sticks, which may be preferable particularly for players new to the sport who are seeking to develop core skills.

Junior Hockey Sticks

For young players, wooden sticks still provide a good option as a starter stick for an introduction to the game; indeed, for those requiring particularly short sticks (26’’ or 28’’), there will be a wider choice in wood. Today’s wooden sticks are fully gloss painted in bright, vibrant colours and are favourably priced in comparison to composites.

The step up from wood is to low-end composite sticks, which have the straighter, less pronounced medium bow. Usually containing no more than 10% carbon they retain excellent control and playability features.

Moving up in composite quality, the carbon content increases between 20% and 50% (the higher carbon percentage is reflected in the price of the stick), thus providing greater power and performance.

Selecting a suitable size of stick is also important. For length the hip has been used as a traditional guideline, but it is worth consulting your coach, particularly if your standard of plays points towards a better quality stick, which are sometimes offered in the longer sizes (34’’ and upwards).