puckpilot

If you check YouTube they have a few former NHL players plug it, but I never found a video of any of them actually using it.

You're 100% right. What's really making my face scrunch up from that is they say this is a player that's known for his shot with offers to play college and AHL. So when a player with pedigree like that shoots muffins, something doesn't feel right. With a regular stick his slapshot is 98 kph. That's 60 mph. I shoot that fast with my wrist and snapshots, and I am about as far from that level as one can get. So when they say he's known for his shot, do they mean his poor shot, or is that guy taking it easy with the regular stick to put on a better show? My skeptic radar makes me wonder if he isn't also taking it easy with the airblade, too. If they want people to mistake kph for mph 98 and 119 make for better looking and believable numbers than, say, 130 or 140. But that's just me wildly speculating without any proof.. I have no idea how effective that blade truly is, but lots of red flags and concerns that would make me stay away until more solid info is available. And I agree, that the puck feel and blade durability claims are more interesting than the increase in shot velocity.

Just looking at their page and watching the youtube video, I'm not seeing anything that makes me think that this stick gives me anything that a standard stick by the usual suspects doesn't. Here are some things that I kind of picked out. First, they talk about swing speed because of aerodynamics, but don't standard sticks deal with swing speed already, by raising the balance point of the stick? Second, a stick is more than just the blade. The other half of things is the shaft. Kick points and all the differing properties along the shaft are just as important, maybe more so in terms of shooting velocity. So even if the blade is everything they claim, the shaft of their stick doesn't appear to be anything special. It doesn't appear that they even offer a kick point choice, so I'm assuming it's a mid-kick, so that's not helping to win over anyone who prefers low-kick. Maybe they should have tried offering just the blade for sale. The lower price point makes it more tempting for those who would want to just try it out. Because for almost $300 there are so many other options. Also now that blades only are becoming scarcer, if they offer a wide selection of curves, they might be more attractive. And one final note, I wasn't so impressed when the video showing how hard the stick can shoot decided to use kph instead of mph. It feels deceptive. But regardless, it's easy enough to ask google do the conversion and see that a 119 kph slapshot is just under 74 mph, a decent beer league shot, but nothing make my panties moist.

I did a rough test on how much my gear weighs a little while back by putting it on and stepping on a scale. I then took it off and weighed myself again. The gear weighed around 20lbs. To the OP, there's a difference between being able to do something during practice and being able to do it during a game and at game speed. During practice, for the most part, you're free of distractions. No worry about someone stepping up to give you a bump. You can focus on doing your skating stuff. But during a game, you have to worry about puckhandling, opposing players, where you're positioned, etc., on top of just skating. IMHO, to incorporate something new into your game, you have to practice it until you can execute it with barely a thought. Most of it should be drilled in so it's all instinctual. During a game you should be focused on playing the game, not consciously thinking about executing what ever skating move you want to do.

For me, it's less about eating. Don't get me wrong, some carbs and/or a little something something a couple of hours before does me some good. BUT for me, the most important thing is getting a nice warm up before I hit the ice. Get the blood flowing, muscles moving, etc. I try to get to the rink at least 45 min before a game--idealy and hour. I do some stickhandling with a ball, and then I do some foot work, cariokas, a few lunges, jumping jacks anything that gets my feet moving, so I get a light sweat and can feel my heart pumping.. Five minutes of warm up on the ice is not enough for me. With that limited time, the engine is cold and definitely not ready to go.

I got the QX on release day. I was using a Super Tacks 2.0 and compared to that the QX blade felt definitely softer. Heck, the whole stick felt a bit soft. But CCM has IMHO one of the stiffest, if not the most stiff, blades and shafts on the market. But after a few ice times fooling around with the QX, I liked it more and more. Yeah, the blade doesn't have as much pop as say the Super Tacks 2.0, but I find I can shoot just as hard if not harder. And the blade doesn't affect my accuracy at all. Definitely doesn't feel like its opening up.

If I sound hostile, that's not my intent to anyone. I'm just trying to be as clear as I can and stay on point, which I guess can lead to things sounding curt and short. If you're picking up hostility, then totally my bad. I'll try to pay a little more attention the tone in my posts. The only thing I'm interested in are the points being brought up. Nothing personal should be involved. First, I'm not saying that doing hockey drills is going to build you into some sort of muscled monster. I'm saying in order to do certain drills/movements properly in hockey you need a prerequisite amount of muscle/strength/ what ever you want to call it. That's all. And IMHO a lot of people don't have that when they're starting off. Second, there are noticeable attributes to a hockey player, forearms, groins, and calves. Now are these attributes developed exclusively by hockey? No. But people who have played a long time will have these attributes. Three, I never said anything about hockey skill or ability to play hockey. All I've been talking about is the ability to execute a hockey drill/movement properly. You can have really good hockey players who can't do certain powerskating drills, and you can have players who can do every powerskating drill on the planet properly that stink at hockey. Like I said, this has nothing to do with having muscles out the wazzzoo. It's about having enough muscle in your legs to do something like say a one foot, outside edge stop at game speed. I don't believe that anyone off the street has the prerequisite strength to do that. They need to build up to it, learning technique and building strength. And here's the rub, I never said the primary benefit was to build muscle tissue. All I've been saying was pretty much what you said in your first sentence there. In any skating drill you do, you need a certain amount of strength to perform it. Repetition of that drill along with enough stress put on your muscles while doing it will do two things, improve technique and strength. Just because someone has skated for a while doesn't mean they've developed all the muscles they'll need for all drills, especially if they don't practice. Everyone is different, so it doesn't make sense to make blanket statement like this. It's like saying all Canadians are good at hockey. Just one look at my game and that's disproved. So after all that practice nobody developed any of their muscles. That being able to take a hockey turn sharper at speed has nothing to do with strength. It's all technique. That doesn't sound right to me. A fat Drew Doughty in his draft year IMHO was still very strong when compared to someone off the street. If skating doesn't develop strength, then where did all his speed and strength come from before his draft year? This is a tricky thing to call because he grew up playing hockey. The demands of hockey were placed on his body at an early age. Did his body develop to fit the demands of hockey, or would he have had the same strength if he didn't play hockey, 20% body fat or not? How are you defining skating ability? If it's more of a big picture thing involving pucks and game situations and putting all together, then that's not what I'm talking about. All I'm talking about is for a specific drill you will need a perquisite amount of strength to execute it. And in executing that drill at a certain intensity, you will develop enough strength to be more proficient at it, as in being able to execute it at game speed. You will not gain a body builders physique from simply skating. You will gain enough to do what you need to do. After this point, I think I'll just be repeating myself. Agree with me or not, I've laid out my points. Feel free to rebut them. Before I go, I'd just like to make it clear, I consider this a discussion. I don't take it personal, and I hope nobody else does either. If anything reads as hostile, again, that's not my intent, and I'll apologise for that.

You do realise that when you do hockey drills you're developing your muscles right? And I never said one is more applicable than the other. You're just not processing my words correctly. In my initial post that triggered all this I said drills are basically muscle building exercises. And then In my next post I said muscle and coordination go hand and hand. Let me ask you something. What does weight lifting, stick handling and skating drills all have in common? They're all repetitive actions. What happens when you repeat an motion over and over and stress the muscles while you do that motion? You build muscle. In weight lifting the stress applied are the weights. In stick handling the stress is the weight of stick and puck. In skating the stress is applied by the body's weight when you're changing direction while travelling at a certain velocity. Now tell me. Where my thinking is wrong here?

Muscle and coordination work hand in hand. One without the other will get you now where. If you have the right muscles developed, you'll get further faster, but most people don't have the muscle, because skating uses muscles that we don't normally depend on a whole lot or use them in ways that aren't like running and walking. Ask an average person to get into a deep hockey stance and walk around holding that stance for a few minutes. I bet their thighs will be burning within 30 seconds. With these prospects, how long did it take for them to figure out the drill and execute it correctly? My guess, not too long. But even if they couldn't execute the drill, just because someone can skate at a certain level doesn't mean they've developed all the muscles they'll ever need to do every drill in the world. Also could you define smallest and weakest and what you mean by skate just fine? I'm short and have the upper-body strength of an infant, but my leg strength is pretty good. I push players way taller and heavier off pucks all the time. Does that make me weak or strong? Does that make those bigger players weak or strong? If strength is so insignificant, why is it that when I lost all that muscle, I couldn't skate worth a damn. I've been skating for over thirty years, but once that muscle was gone, I couldn't do a one foot slalom, which I could do for ages. When I tried, my foot would wobble and buckle. It was the same for every aspect of skating. Forwards or backwards crossovers forget it. Every time I leaned onto edges and tried to push off with any meaningful amount of power, my skate would wobble, buckle, or slip. My brain didn't forget how to do these things. The only thing that changed was muscle mass. Funny thing was as soon as I regained enough muscle, I could suddenly do all these things again, most of the drills without ever having practised in between. The thing I did was go back to basics and just do all the simple drills they teach you when you're learning to skate, things like basic c-cuts. I used these things to regaining my strength. And once i had that strength, things started to fall back into place. For another example, I had a friend who was a competitive biker. Never skated in his life. One day in his mid-twenties, he decided to pick up speed skating. Within a year, not only was he pretty good, he was good enough that the Taiwanese national team was looking at him. How did he get so good so fast? IMHO it was because he had the right muscle strength, so all he had to do was work on technique. One thing I see at the rink all the time is people executing what look like "proper" c-cuts, but there's no power behind it. They don't push into the ice. They just kind of glide. So they get nowhere, because they're not developing strength. I see the same thing with things like crossovers. One foot goes over the other and they push off a little, but there's really no power behind it because they don't have the strength to get down in a proper crouch and they don't have the strength to hold an edge to really lean into that under push.

If I don't mind me adding a couple of things to that list for people learning on their own time. - at the beginning keep it simple. You'll get the most mileage out of the simple basic drills like single leg c-cuts. Get a good handle on them before moving up. Trying to jump ahead to the more advanced stuff before you're ready will only gain you bad habits, a poor stride, and a lot of wasted time. - keep in mind all drills are basically muscle building drills. Often the reason someone can't execute an advanced manoeuvre is because they don't have the strength to do it, not because they aren't coordinated enough or don't understand the mechanics. These are two of the things I learned a few years ago when health issues robbed me of 20lbs of muscle. I'd been skating since I was a kid, but once that muscle was gone, I could barely stand up on my skates . Had to literally teach myself to skate again.

Ditto on the wide head. I went with a Warrior Krown. It's adjustable in all four directions. No more headaches during or after games. I think at least one other brand has a helmet that can adjust in all directions, but I don't recall which.

Wow, I just skimmed through this thread, and it's pretty cool to see you make progress. Boo on the nay sayers. As someone who when through some health issues a few years back and had to literally relearn how to skate, shoot, and stick handle I empathise a lot with your struggles. As I was skimming through this thread, I took notice of something about your stick handling, and I thought this video I found on youtube might help. It was extremely helpful to me in not only getting me back to where I was before my health issues. It helped me surpass my previous skill level. The instructor works with a lot of NHL players, and is I believe a skills coach for the Maple Leafs. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgEHrq59czk Oh, if you're looking for open ice in Vancouver, check out Richmond Ice Center. They usually have stick and puck every day from 9am-3pm. Cheers.

Nertz... the per stick price is reasonable enough, but I was hoping I could experiment with different specs. Oh well. Thanks for the response. Saved me a trip down to the shop to ask.

Was thinking about maybe trying a Warrior custom. Do the custom sticks cost more than buying stock?