Hockey stick
Encyclopedia
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
, ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
or roller hockey
Roller hockey
Roller Hockey is a form of hockey played on a dry surface using skates with wheels. The term "Roller Hockey" is often used interchangeably to refer to two variant forms chiefly differentiated by the type of skate used. There is traditional "Roller Hockey," played with quad roller skates, and...
to move the ball or puck.
Field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
sticks have an end which varies in shape, often depending on the players position. In general there are four main variations on head:
The 'shorti' is mainly used by players wishing extreme control over the ball, and increase their maneuverability. This specific head is most associated with the mid-field position.
The 'Midi' is used by players who will be hitting the ball often and need to be strong on their 'reverse side'. This specific head is most associated with the striker, or 'up-front' position.
The 'Maxi' is similar to the 'Midi' as it has an increased surface area which is useful for hitting. However its strength allows it to be used much more effectively for stopping the ball. This head is used by 'defenders' and 'attackers'.
The 'J Hook' again has a large surface area. However does not have the effectiveness of the 'Midi' for striking the ball, it has an increased thickness making it ideal for stopping the ball. This head is most commonly used by 'defenders'
Field hockey sticks vary widely in length, ranging from 26" to 38.5", and from $30 (Australian) to $580. The main brands of sticks include Rage, Grays, Mazon, Voodoo, Gryphon, Zoppo, Mercian, Malik, Adidas, Dita,TK, Über and Nedstar.
The size of the stick that is most effective for a specific player is judged by that players height.
A 28" stick would be used by a player under 4' most commonly, whereas a 38" stick would be used mainly by players over 5'10". However 'defenders' often like to have a longer stick than 'attackers' as this can be used for a greater reach when stopping a moving ball. The 'attackers' prefer a shorter stick as it allows greater control of the ball.
Ice hockey
Sticks are approximately 150-200 cm long, composed of a long, slender shaft and a flat extension at one end called the blade. The curved part where the blade and the shaft meet is called a taper. The blade is the part of the stick used to contact the puck, and is typically 10 to 15 inches long. Stick dimensions can vary widely, as they are usually built to suit a particular player's size. Taller players usually use longer sticks. There is some variance on the height of the stick in preference of the player. A player favouring fast stick handling and good puckPuck (sports)
A puck is a disk used in various games serving the same functions as a ball does in ball games. The best-known use of pucks is in ice hockey, a major international sport.- Etymology :The origin of the word "puck" is obscure...
control would opt for a shorter stick, while a player wanting a harder, faster shot would opt for a longer stick. The blade's angle depends on the height of the stick, but is usually positioned around 45 degrees. The blade is often curved in the direction toward which the skater moves forward, to aid in retaining or lifting the puck off the playing surface. This curvature of the stick greatly increases the speed of the player's shot. The downside to the increased curvature is that shots on the backhand side of the stick are more difficult to execute and are less accurate and/or not as hard. The shaft of the stick is fairly rigid, but it has some flexibility to benefit some shots. Common ice hockey shots include: wrist shot, slap shot, snap shot and backhand.
Sticks have traditionally been made from wood, but in recent years, sticks made of more expensive materials such as Aluminum, Aramid
Aramid
Aramid fibers are a class of heat-resistant and strong synthetic fibers. They are used in aerospace and military applications, for ballistic rated body armor fabric and ballistic composites, in bicycle tires, and as an asbestos substitute. The name is a portmanteau of "aromatic polyamide"...
(kevlar), fiberglass
Fiberglass
Glass fiber is a material consisting of numerous extremely fine fibers of glass.Glassmakers throughout history have experimented with glass fibers, but mass manufacture of glass fiber was only made possible with the invention of finer machine tooling...
, carbon fiber, and other composite material
Composite material
Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or...
s have become common. In addition to weighing less, composite sticks can be manufactured with more consistent flexibility properties than their wooden counterparts. They also do not have the natural variations that wooden sticks possess therefore a batch of the same sticks will all perform roughly the same. There are die-hard NHL professionals that still like the feel of wood sticks such as Paul Stastny (Son of ice hockey Hall-of-Famer Peter Stastny). Some of these sticks have replaceable wood or composite blades, while others are one piece sticks without a replaceable blade. Composite sticks, despite their greater expense, are now commonplace at nearly all competitive levels of the sport, including youth ice hockey. Some of the top brands of composite sticks include Bauer, Easton, Reebok, and Warrior.
Many professionals are using composite stick technology rather than wooden sticks. These new sticks are lighter and provide a quicker release of the puck, resulting in a harder, more accurate shot. Although the new materials do enable harder shots, the improved durability and lighter materials can make the transition from wooden to composite stick more difficult for less experienced players. A shortcut used by numerous players is to use a weighted system, such as kwik hands, to quickly adjust to the new sticks. More expensive ice hockey sticks (such as the Vapor APX, Supreme TotalOne, Reebok 11k, Stealth S19, Synergy Elite (SE16), Warrior Dolomite) usually are the lightest sticks on the market (390-470 grams in a senior stick). In addition to the increased torque that these composite sticks possess, the sticks do not warp or absorb moisture like their wooden counterparts.
In culture
In the danceDance
Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....
s Cha Cha Cha
Cha-cha-cha (dance)
The Cha-cha-cha is the name of a dance of Cuban origin.It is danced to the music of the same name introduced by Cuban composer and violinist Enrique Jorrín in 1953...
and Rumba
Rumba (dance)
Rumba is a dance term with two quite different meanings.In some contexts, "rumba" is used as shorthand for Afro-Cuban rumba, a group of dances related to the rumba genre of Afro-Cuban music. The most common Afro-Cuban rumba is the guaguancó...
, a "hockey stick" is a figure in which the woman moves along a straight line, with an angled turn at the end.