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RetiredTender

Stick Length dilemma

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As a recently retired goaltender (within the past year and a half) I have not really paid much notice to my gear as I have just been loving the life of skating out and making plays. However, I am now noticing some things with my stick/hands.

I usually play with a shaft/wood blade combo. Stick length is about to my upper lip when on skates (I'm 6'3''), with a 2" wood extension.

Recently I came home for winter break and wasn't able to bring my sticks back and just picked up a $20 wood stick at a local PIAS. This stick only comes up to maybe my clavicle with skates on. I have noticed that my hands/puck handling ability is a lot better with it, but my shot is horrid. I can't get anything on it, and it certainly isn't from the fact that it is a wood stick. I just feel off balance shooting with such a short stick.

Could I benefit from a slightly shorter stick, i.e. take out my 2" extension, and use a different lie? Would this help me keep my shot, but gain that bonus of better puck skills of the shorter stick?

Any help, or advice is appreciated.

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i'm 6'3" as well and i recently cut down the length of my stick too - much better handling, but at first the shot wasnt as good. it took about a week to learn to tweak it just right, try to find a good balance for you. My sticks at 63" right now.

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Could I benefit from a slightly shorter stick, i.e. take out my 2" extension, and use a different lie? Would this help me keep my shot, but gain that bonus of better puck skills of the shorter stick?

Any help, or advice is appreciated.

You will most likely feel much more comfortable handling the puck with a shorter stick, it's just going to be a tradeoff with your shot. You should be able to find the sweet spot within a couple attempts.

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i tried something similar by accident. i have always used the standard length of the stick coming up to your chin while on skates. I picked up a pro stick a while back and didnt have any extensions but really wanted to try the stick out, the stick was about 3-4 inches shorter then normal and i hated it! my shot was affected and i didnt feel like i could stick handle that much better

I am with everyone else, take it out and try it, and if you can, have a back up that is back at your normal length just in case...

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It can never hurt to try especially if its just a plug. I just recently cut down a cheap wood stick just to try a shorter length and noticed the same exact effect with my shoot vs. stick handling. I played around with different length plugs in one of my ops and found a happy medium that was much better than with my original length which i thought was the "correct "length.

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Try it out and see what you think. The Sherwood 9950 wood sticks are the longest wood sticks that I have seen. That might be an option in the future. Though they are a bit more, around the 40-45 dollar range.

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I used to have a long stick, as a defenseman, but I cut it down and now my stick handling is a lot better and my shot has become just as good as it once was. i just gotta learn how to poke check more effectively now.

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I'd like to add that my stick handling has been ok with my Vapor XXX but my shots were horrible.

I cut an inch of my stick last night before training and its like playing with a different stick, my stick handling was soooo much better and it vastly improved my shots, stick was just too long for me clearly.

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I've gone both ways over the past couple years, I really find I need to toy around with length for a while when switching lies, thats why I'm trying to stick with the same curve for the forseeable future

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My stick is 1" under my chin, barefoot. I had experimented over the past year or so with different lengths and always come back to this sort of length. I say, as many others have, try it out for a bit and see if you like it.

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I have to agree with the concensus...gotta play with it. I am currently going through some experiments as well. I have been using the Thorton / Bergeron (P30) pattern for some time. My shots had decent velocity, but the toe curve and depth was just bugging me. This week I switched back to the more conservative Forsberg / Modano pattern after a 3 year hiatus....with a much longer shaft. I went from about a 64" stick to a 69" stick. The combination of the curve, lie, and length had immediate impact. On my first outing at a high level open skate my shot was harder, easier to aim, and felt like I had been using it for years. I also found that passing on D was much more accurate...it took a lot less effort to do what I was thinking...not to mention the fact that I have a backhand again. I am so glad I decided on a whim to grab an old z-carbon CNT Forsberg sitting in my garage!

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