Ballistik 52 Caliber

[ponty 0]

My stick came in the mail this week and I hope to use it later today.

I received the Ballistik 52 Caliber and I too had very good first impressions.

Very surprised on how light the thing was and the radius of the shaft was similar to the old Mission Metamorphic shafts. Graphics are very simple (black w/ white and grey lettering) which is great for an old fart like myself who grew up when orange, yellow and lime green were not "jiggy" .

My only knock, and its not fair as I have not even used the stick yet, is it seems to be a touch blade heavy. Nothing horrible just a touch but that probably wont translate into on-ice action.

Anyhow I am around 5' 6" tall and weight 160ish so I will provide the compact person version of this review

[ponty 0]

I got to try the stick out last night so here are my thoughts after ONLY one use.

The stick I asked for has the Drury style curve which had a bit more of a hook so it took a little bit to get use to. After I figured out that I had to roll over my bottom hand a bit more for shots the field goals stopped :).

The overall feel of the stick is great. Very light and well balanced. Yes, my first impression of bottom heavy was incorrect. The puck explodes off the stick for every shot type (e.g. slap. snap and wrist) and goalies seem to take notice. Due to the overall feel and weight distribution of the blade stick handling is very good as well.

The one area where I had a bit of difficulty was receiving passes. Like I said earlier the blade is VERY lively and this also translates into the puck bouncing a bit when you get a hard pass. This may be due to pretty bad ice last night compounded with the fact this is just the first time for me and this stick. It will be interesting to see how I adapt. Receiving passes did get better when I figured out how much I had to 'cup' my bottom hand.

Durability? Hell ... its only one game. All I can say is that the paint looks like it will hold up very well! :)

[ponty 0]

Got the third use in today. Gotta say that this stick is EVERY REASON why you should never judge gear after a single use or first impressions. I did as I was asked too :)

Anyhow. Better ice today and a faster game so much less opportunity to "over-think" the stick. Blade feel for stick handling and passing was much better as their was minimal bouncing.

So far, for reasons indicated here and prior, I think this is a great stick. It performs North of the old Synergy and Inno lines but a touch south of the SL and Fuel. I will stress its a very small touch south and the 'kicker' will be durablity. So far the thing is solid.

In short I have to say I am very suprised about this stick. Being an old schooler I did not think Ballistik would be very good. So far I have been proven very wrong.

[ponty 0]

Sorry for no updates in a while as I wanted to wait for a few uses so I could say something new.

The total uses to date is about 14 games over 2 month period.

Everything I said about the stick earlier still applies with the addition of a couple notes.

The durability of this stick is excellent. As stated earlier, I have used this stick for about 14 games and the only minor damage is chipping at the toe of the blade. The damage does not affect performance at all.

I did have to stop using this stick as massive tennis elbow appeared on both arms after 10 or so uses. At times the pain became so bad that I had trouble gripping my stick during games. I know it was the stick causing these issues as the pain got worst during uses and has disappeared after using other products for about a month.

This issue could be something specific to me but I had to make note. Also note that the flex was 85 which should have been fine.