The Hockey Stick
Hockey
sticks come in many different shapes, sizes, and curves. All
three of these characteristics can drastically effect ones puck
handling, passing, and shooting skills. First lets start off with
the curve of the blade, if the blade has an intense curve it is going
to be easier to make the puck airborne and a straighter curve will make
it harder to get the puck off the ice. If one makes a lot of
passes, which is generally the defense, they should have a small curve
to help them keep the puck on the ice while passing or taking a hard
shot from the blue line without taking out there team mates. The
offense usually have more of a curve so they can shoot up into the
upper corners of the net with relative ease.
The size of the hockey stick more importantly the
length plays a big role also. Like a pendulum the longer it is
the faster the end has to go to keep up with top end of the stick which
is moving fast at all. Basically the longer the stick the faster
ones shot will be, but if its too long it can be hard to control, and
one can't go past a certain length because of the rules. Also
theres the lie of a stick; the lie of a stick is the angle between the
shaft and the blade. The lie needs to be high enought to were the
blade of the stick is constantly on the ice in any stance. With
out this it would be hard to effectively pass and shoot, also this
helps with the bowing of the stick which comes to the matter of flex.
Last of all is the flex of the stick, this is
probaly the most important part of the stick. If a player has to
much flex their shot will not have much power to it at all because the
stick first hits the ice flexes, then springs back and hits the puck
with extra velocity. If there isn't enough flex the stick has a
great possiblity of snapping in half, and shots and passes will be
unaccurate.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/hockey/shooting1.html
http://johnochwat.wordpress.com/2008/01/
http://hockeystickexpert.com/hockey-stick-lie-better-puck-control/