Hockey Stick Info

Testing a Stick’s Flex

Use your normal hand position on the stick and hold the stick with the blade on the floor. Now flex the shaft of the stick by holding your top hand stationary and pushing down and forward with your lower hand. You should be able to flex the stick about an inch or so without using full effort. If you can’t flex the stick this much then the flex of the stick is too high.

How Cutting a Stick’s Length Affects its Flex

If you cut too much of the length from a stick it will significantly increase the flex of the stick. How much is flex affected by cutting off 2 or 4 inches? Here is a chart that provides ROUGH guideline for how cutting your stick affects its flex.

TRON does not recommend that its sticks be cut down by more than six inches and as such do not provide a 30 day warranty on any of its sticks that have been reduced in length by more than six inches.

Basic Terminology used for Hockey Stick Blades

Heel
The heel of a hockey stick refers to the bottom of the stick at the back of the blade below where the blade and the shaft meet.

Toe
The toe of a hockey stick refers to the end of the blade. Toes generally come in two shapes: round and square.

Lie
The Lie of a blade describes the angle of the blade in reference to the shaft. A lie value of 5 corresponds to a 135° angle, and each additional lie value corresponds to a 2° smaller angle. With the bottom of the blade flat on the ice, a higher lie value causes the shaft to stand up straighter.

Typical values range from 5 to 7; most players today want sticks with a 5 to 6 lie which is reflected in the curves that TRON produces.

Pattern and Curve

Blade Patterns consist of the dimensions of right/left hand, curve type, curve depth, toe shape and face angle.

• Blade Curve Type describes where the main part of the curve is located on the blade. Curve types are Heel, Mid and Toe curves.
• Blade Curve Depth is the amount of curve in the blade. A simple way to measure the curve depth is to place the stick on a flat surface with the inside of the curve of the blade laying flat on the surface. You can then measure from the surface to the highest point inside the curve profile. Flat blades have a depth of zero. The most common depths range from 3/8″ to 1/2″ (9.5 to 13 mm).
• Blade Face Angle describes how much of the face (or front) of the blade you can see when looking down at the ice. Face angles are referred to as Open or Closed. The more open the blade is, (you can see more of the front of the blade when looking down) the easier it is to lift the puck. Slightly open or closed angles are better for stick handling, catching passes and using your backhand.

Hockey Stick Dictionary / Terminology

One Piece – One piece sticks are complete with shaft and blade fused together and don’t have to be assembled. This single piece configuration is the most common for hockey sticks and it guarantees that the stick meets the manufactures specifications.

Two Piece – The shaft and blades of two piece sticks come as separate units. This allows you to custom match a blade and shaft to your exact needs.

Butt End – The top end of the hockey stick.

Blade Heel – The heel of a hockey stick refers to the bottom of the stick at the back of the blade below where the blade and the shaft meet.

Blade Lie -The Lie of a blade describes the angle of the blade in reference to the shaft. A lie value of 5 corresponds to a 135° angle, and each additional lie value corresponds to a 2° smaller angle. With the bottom of the blade flat on the ice, a higher lie value causes the shaft to stand up straighter. Typical lie values range from 5 to 7; most sticks now are near 5 to 6. Players usually seek a lie that will put the blade flat on the ice while they are in their typical skating stance. A lower lie is best for skaters who lean forward closer to the ice or use a longer stick. Higher lies keep the puck closer to the body & are preferred by more upright skaters.

Blade Pattern and Curve - Blade Patterns consist of the dimensions of right/left hand, curve type, curve depth, toe shape and face angle. Patterns are often named after NHL players for marketing purposes

Blade Toe – The toe of a hockey stick refers to the end of the blade away from the shaft. Toes generally come in two shapes: round and square.

End Plugs – End plugs are shaft extensions that are glued into the butt end of a composite shaft and are used to increase the length of a hockey stick. Increasing your hockey stick length is useful if you can’t find a hockey stick long enough or if you cut your shaft down while replacing the blade. End plugs come in both wood and composite material and they usually come pre-glued with hot melt glue already on the end that gets inserted into the shaft. 
Flex – Hockey Stick Flex is a measure of how flexible a stick is when a force is applied to it. 
Grip vs Clear shaft – Hockey Stick Shafts come either as “clear” which is no additional texture added to the shaft or “grip”. Grip coatings come in a variety of textures but their purpose is to provide additional texture to improve your grip on the shaft.

Kick point – The kick point is where the shaft flexes when enough pressure is applied to bend it.

• Mid flex – Mid kick point, or mid/constant flex, sticks have a more traditional flex that allows the stick to be loaded from the bottom hand. This gives you a larger loading and potentially a higher velocity release. Wooden sticks have a constant flex profile that behaves in this manner.
• Low kick points – Composite sticks are often engineered to have low kick points on the shaft for a quicker release. The loading of the stick happens sooner since there is less distance for the stick to bend before it recoils back and whips the puck forward. This lower kick point is often created with shafts that have tapered ends near the blade.

Shaft – The Shaft of the hockey stick is the long length of the stick from the blade to the top of the stick.

Stick Wax – stick wax is a wax compound applied to the tape on the blade of a stick to;

• Keep moisture out of the tape and blade,
• Help change the feel of the puck on the stick blade.