Hockey stick balance?

[Boostinmister2 16]

I always here guys on the nhl talk about wanting their stick balanced by cutting the stick down and adding a plug. When they're talking about balance, do they mean they want it to balance out from the center as if you were to put your stick on your finger on the middle and have the blade and the end of the stick balance out evenly?

What's the benefit of this?

I tried searching and couldn't find anything.

Thanks!

[starsfan71 9]

I think it means having the whole stick feel like the same weight. Like for example the blade doesn't feel heavier than the butt end of the shaft.

Better balanced sticks feel lighter and at least in my case help with my windup because it makes it more effortless.

[Chadd 916]

I prefer when the balance point of my stick is higher up the shaft, above my bottom hand. It makes the stick feel lighter than a stick of the same weight with the balance point that is lower than my bottom hand.

[Rustpot 1]

Having the bulk of the mass of the stick between the hands will allow you to move it easier. Having the stick weighted blade-heavy means you've got more mass further out and you're working against that inertia every time you move it.

One of the drills I liked to do at home that I got from an NHL behind the scenes video was tape a few pucks at the taper of the shaft and do simple stickhandling drills. It gets you used to moving a much more resistant stick so switching back to a normal stick your movements and reactions to the puck are faster.

Do that, then tape the pucks up between your hands and you'll immediately see hoe balance effects the way a stick will react and handle.

[chippa13 1844]

Your movements aren't faster, you only perceive them that way.

http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/exce...ase-swing-speed

For years it has been the practice of baseball batters to swing a weighted bat before taking their turn to hit. The thinking was that this type of warm-up activity would lighten the feel of the regular (i.e., unweighted) bat and improve the speed of the swing. Research examining the validity of this notion suggests that, although swinging a weighted bat may alter batters’ perceptions of bat heaviness and swing speed, it does not influence actual swing speed (Otsuji, Abe, & Kinoshita, 2002).

[Neo5370 132]

I think it's also important for the OP to consider that whatever the "correct" definition of stick balance is; it is important to also realize that (maybe unfortunately as far as standardization is concerned), one's personal preference is king.

i.e., some people prefer a stick to feel "blade heavy (ask Kovalev), while others prefer a stick to feel "blade light" (ask people that are looking forward to the next generation of Easton SE's, the Control Freak concept that lets the player counterbalance their stick w/ differently weighted end plugs).

[Rustpot 1]

Your movements aren't faster, you only perceive them that way.

http://www.humankinetics.com/excerpts/exce...ase-swing-speed

If you train with weighted equipment you will be faster. Using it just to warm up it's perceived like you said.

[Krev 86]

Balance does help, but personal preference will almost always take over. Like mine, for example. I prefer my sticks to be slightly blade heavy. With the way I tape my handles, the stick is almost balanced anyway, without an endplug.

[djinferno 2]

i think its more of the feel that the stick has uniform weight...

Like Easton is very good at making a stick that has the same weight all over, sticks like the first rbk stick with holes was very blade heavy, that makes you lose fell for the puck in my opinion, this being said, I have found lately that I like a tiny bit of weight on my blade, I use a S17 and a ST from easton and for the life of me, I cant seem to get use to the lightness of the s17 wen I take a slapshot, my ST has better balance for me...

[chippa13 1844]

Actually, I think for a stick to "feel" balanced, the weight has to be distributed so that the heaviest portion extends from hand to hand and the stick lightens as it moves down towards the blade. I think a stick with the same weight all over would give you the feeling of a blade heavy stick.

[Speedz98 15]

i think its more of the feel that the stick has uniform weight...

Like Easton is very good at making a stick that has the same weight all over, sticks like the first rbk stick with holes was very blade heavy, that makes you lose fell for the puck in my opinion, this being said, I have found lately that I like a tiny bit of weight on my blade, I use a S17 and a ST from easton and for the life of me, I cant seem to get use to the lightness of the s17 wen I take a slapshot, my ST has better balance for me...

I know what you mean, yesterday I was using my one 95 for the majority of the game I was playing, got there late so I missed warmups.

Tried my S17 last 5 minutes of the game, and it felt weird. It almost felt heavier in a sense, or took more effort to use, because of how much better balanced the one95 was and how it had a little more weight in the bottom where as the s17 felt like the top hand was doing a little more work.

[Jarick 5]

I prefer the stick a little blade heavy, but the balance of a wood stick is probably why they don't feel as heavy as they are. Meanwhile the old 9k's with the O-tech felt like a tree trunk...lots of weight below the bottom hand.

[Hidious 0]

Wouldn't using lead tape be quicker and easier if the only purpose of cutting and adding a plug is to balance the stick right?

A majority of tennis players balance their rackets with lead and i believe some golfers do the same but i've never seen/heard anything about it in hockey...

[Chadd 916]

Depends on how much you want to change the weight.