Stick length? Been experimenting and was hoping for others to provide feedback

[VegasHockey 1256]

Ever since I was young I have used a shorter stick than most. Probably to my collar bone when on skates and slightly under my chin when off skates. Obviously, over the last couple decades hockey stick technology has advanced tremendously and I find that a very short stick, while beneficial in some cases, also has limitations when it comes to shooting.

Shots with a longer stick are far more powerful as you have more leverage to load the stick. The added length also allows you to change the angle when you are shooting as well which you cant really do properly with a short stick.  

That being said, I keep trying to lengthen my stick, I tried to lengthen it 1" and struggled with puck handling, shooting was great though. I figured I would give it time and I would be able to adjust but after about 10 hours of ice time I found myself still struggling with puck handling. I always feel like the puck is too far away and I don't have proper control. The added length also makes the stick feel heavier and more unwieldy when compared to the shorter stick.

Have any of you changed from a short stick to a longer stick? If so, how long did it take for you to adjust, if you ever did adjust? I find myself getting so frustrated as my playing has been awful as of late and I desperately want to go back to the shorter stick but I don't want to have to restart the "adjustment process" again from scratch. 

Suggestions, tips, hints, all are welcome. 

Thanks!

[althoma1 574]

If you're going with a longer stick you may also want to change to a curve with a lower lie. This may help with stick handling. 

[VegasHockey 1256]

3 hours ago, althoma1 said:

If you're going with a longer stick you may also want to change to a curve with a lower lie. This may help with stick handling. 

I have experimented with different lie and even curve pattern, changed flex and such too. The lie seems fine if I look at the wear on the blade. 

[Vet88 673]

I have gone up and down the scale. A big change in length is really hard to do, even an inch makes a big difference. When I started I found the only way to do it is you have to make the adjustments around 1cm  at a time, play with that for a while till it feels comfortable and then add / shorten as required. It means you may need more sticks / butt ends but the transition over time is reasonably painless. Now that I've spent a while doing this I find that when I pick up any of the sticks I played with for a while I settle in really quickly even if it is a couple of inches different from my current stick. But this is part of my training now, I'm always swapping sticks / lengths, generally working with 3 or 4 sticks in a one hour period. 

[puckpilot 312]

Over the years, I've gone from a stick that was an inch below my chin to one that's at my eyebrows to one that's about my nose to one that's at my chin to collar bone right back to where I started just an inch below my chin. I went to a longer stick because I wanted to shoot better and the whip I got off the longer stick was great, and the extra reach wasn't too bad either, but even though I stuck with it for years, I could not get used to the length. There were always instances where I'd loose the puck because I couldn't stickhandle in close, and it was very frustrating. In hindsight, it kind of screwed up my stickhandling in tight quarters.

 

Now, I'm not saying I was Datsyuk, far from it, but before I started using the longer stick, at my level, which isn't high, I could tuck pucks by players and step around on a regular basis. And when I went back to the short stick, I was still struggling with pucks in close. It's been years since I went back to a short stick, and I think I'm only now beginning to feel a little more like my old self.

In terms of shot and being able to change the angle while shooting. I found that dropping flex mitigates that loss of leverage. Personally, I wish I'd done that in the first place instead of going for the longer stick. 

The one positive I can think of is, after all the drastic changes, I can now tweak the length of my stick to be anywhere between my collarbone and chin and still be relatively comfortable with it. Depending on how things are going, I'll either take an inch or two off or add one or two. This seems to be a thing I do now. I either do this by changing butt ends or by taping the knob lower on the stick and leaving a small tale so to speak.

Edited November 24, 2019 by puckpilot

[VegasHockey 1256]

On 11/19/2019 at 3:07 PM, Vet88 said:

I have gone up and down the scale. A big change in length is really hard to do, even an inch makes a big difference. When I started I found the only way to do it is you have to make the adjustments around 1cm  at a time, play with that for a while till it feels comfortable and then add / shorten as required. It means you may need more sticks / butt ends but the transition over time is reasonably painless. Now that I've spent a while doing this I find that when I pick up any of the sticks I played with for a while I settle in really quickly even if it is a couple of inches different from my current stick. But this is part of my training now, I'm always swapping sticks / lengths, generally working with 3 or 4 sticks in a one hour period. 

Ive been using one of these so it allows me to mss with length on the fly. It does add a little weight though, which is expected. 

https://www.thehockeyshop.com/products/butt-end-blue-adjustick-comp

 

On 11/24/2019 at 3:39 AM, puckpilot said:

Over the years, I've gone from a stick that was an inch below my chin to one that's at my eyebrows to one that's about my nose to one that's at my chin to collar bone right back to where I started just an inch below my chin. I went to a longer stick because I wanted to shoot better and the whip I got off the longer stick was great, and the extra reach wasn't too bad either, but even though I stuck with it for years, I could not get used to the length. There were always instances where I'd loose the puck because I couldn't stickhandle in close, and it was very frustrating. In hindsight, it kind of screwed up my stickhandling in tight quarters.

 

Now, I'm not saying I was Datsyuk, far from it, but before I started using the longer stick, at my level, which isn't high, I could tuck pucks by players and step around on a regular basis. And when I went back to the short stick, I was still struggling with pucks in close. It's been years since I went back to a short stick, and I think I'm only now beginning to feel a little more like my old self.

In terms of shot and being able to change the angle while shooting. I found that dropping flex mitigates that loss of leverage. Personally, I wish I'd done that in the first place instead of going for the longer stick. 

The one positive I can think of is, after all the drastic changes, I can now tweak the length of my stick to be anywhere between my collarbone and chin and still be relatively comfortable with it. Depending on how things are going, I'll either take an inch or two off or add one or two. This seems to be a thing I do now. I either do this by changing butt ends or by taping the knob lower on the stick and leaving a small tale so to speak.

At this point I think I have gone ful circle and am back at where I started. A short stick. I would rather give up some power when shooting to have better control and more leverage with a shorter stick. Ive already dropped to a flex point that I dont think can really go much lower. I am using a 68 flex, with a stick length of 56", but the low flex really makes puck battles along the boards, faceoffs, and receiving hard passes a pain in the butt. Also, taking a one-time shot many times results in a muffin of a shot if I don't hit the puck square on. I scored a goal today off a one-time shot and it was a muffin to. the max and it looked hilarious.... but it did go in 😉

 I'll keep messing around and see if I can find the right combination. 

[caveman27 208]

Odd you should say that. I compared an old all-wood stick I have and it's shorter than my current sticks, I can't even imagine cutting my current sticks down an extra 2+ inches.

[cougarscaptain87 11]

From age 12-27 I used a 57" stick that was to my collar bones on skates, I always kept the puck near my feet and I'm tall with long arms so I could still get leverage on shots but I was also more flexible and in shape. When my younger son started playing I took my old stick out and thought everything was going to be good to go, wrong. I was over skating pucks, missing passes, and wiffing over the top of the puck on some shots, I realized my age had reduced my flexibility and athleticism and I went to a 60" full length adult stick, that was a lot better but I still felt I could use a bit longer, I sourced a 65" warrior and quickly realized that was too long cut it down to 63" and liked that a lot more but pucks in my feet were tough and shots seemed to take a while to get off with so much stick to get through the puck so I went down to 61" and I've bounced between 60-61" depending on the stick and application for the last 3+ years. I've added velocity to my shot, I'm a bigger target for a pass and I've got a better reach to get around people, or stop people from getting around me. Stick handling was a transitional period, but with some adjustment I've had more success stick handling now than I did when I was younger but I also switched from a p91 to a p88M or p38 type curve so we're not exactly apples to apples on that comparison. Like anything new it feels weird at first but I do think if you take your time and realize it's going to not be fun for a little while as you relearn to do things you already know how to do it will benefit you in the long run.

[Paddy 11]

This is coming from a bottom-level beer leaguer who started a couple years ago brand new to hockey.  I started with a short stick, liked it, then went shorter, and liked it more; but only in feel, puck control, puck battles, etc.  Overall, I noticed my game suffered more often than not because I was always coming up short with poke checks, tips, pass interceptions, and such. Eventually, I decided I needed to try longer (and lower flex).  The added light flex with length was too much, though I liked the "feel" of the lighter flex; as someone else mentioned, when actually playing the game, it seemed I was getting screwed by the flex when taking passes and fighting on the boards.  I went a season like this, and decided to stick with the length since I was breaking up more plays, but to up my flex to the light end of "real adult flexes". When I got my new stick, I said screw it, and left it uncut (I'm 5' 11", fwiw).  I ended up paying attention to where my top hand ended up on the shaft, both by looking at where it naturally ended up after the whistle and before faceoffs, and there was a noticeable wear mark on the white grip. I don't have the height, or the lie wasn't correct to use it at full length, though I did force myself to try. I cut it at the top of the wear mark, and haven't looked back.

 

Puckhandling, and catching passes at my feet was unnatural for probably 15-20 games if I'm honest (straight up whiffing catching passes), but overall I think my game is better with the appropriately longer stick. Also, finding the RIGHT stick with low flex was key for me. I've got one of the PMT models, not top of the line, and it remains whippy without the downfalls of my older Sherwood low flex stick.

 

Cliff's notes: I looked like an idiot when I jumped way up in length, but after adjusting I'm really happy with the switch. Even got positive compliments on my "twisted wrister"...

[Sniper9 517]

On 12/3/2019 at 8:26 PM, SkateWorksPNW said:

Ive been using one of these so it allows me to mss with length on the fly. It does add a little weight though, which is expected. 

https://www.thehockeyshop.com/products/butt-end-blue-adjustick-comp

 

At this point I think I have gone ful circle and am back at where I started. A short stick. I would rather give up some power when shooting to have better control and more leverage with a shorter stick. Ive already dropped to a flex point that I dont think can really go much lower. I am using a 68 flex, with a stick length of 56", but the low flex really makes puck battles along the boards, faceoffs, and receiving hard passes a pain in the butt. Also, taking a one-time shot many times results in a muffin of a shot if I don't hit the puck square on. I scored a goal today off a one-time shot and it was a muffin to. the max and it looked hilarious.... but it did go in 😉

 I'll keep messing around and see if I can find the right combination. 

What's your height and weight. 

[VegasHockey 1256]

On 12/28/2019 at 4:10 PM, Sniper9 said:

What's your height and weight. 

5'11" and 185lbs.

[Sniper9 517]

2 hours ago, SkateWorksPNW said:

5'11" and 185lbs.

I'm 5'10 165.  I cut my sticks 2.5" from the standard 60".  Interested to see how the 68 flex works for me. Used the 75 flex true a6.0ht yesterday and was very happy with it coming off of the ek365 75 flex which played more like an 80-85. Clappers with the ek was better, prob the best with any stick I've used. The true 75 was good as well but def felt the stick bend a lot more and although velocity seemed to be there I rarely gor it over 2-3 feet off the ice, whereas with the ek365 it was bar down almost every time. I guess it's a give and take going with diff flexes.