Do you think people tape the top hand of their stick more out of tradition than need.

[All Flash 49]

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/m92cp0zfc3y03ic/AACXzRbnFjbV0ghYotFwwUMXa?dl=0

IMHO it is a traditional/habit thing. Ppl hate change. Superstitious ppl really hate it. Which leads to athletes who have or get into routines and don't want things to be different if it worked at least a cpl of times. But my understanding of a big knob on the end was probably more of a " so my stick cannot just be ripped out of your hand" kinda thing when it was first done. Lol Imagine the first guy to put the big knob on the end and all the players laughing at him.

[GoalForFun 176]

I’ve been playing without a knob on the end for almost 5 years now for 3 big reasons:

1. The grip does the job just fine for tackiness
2. My palm doesn’t have a lot of surface area so a knob would make the grip weaker

3. Next to no wear on my palms

The only con is that I get calluses on my palm more easily, but those naturally go away if I don’t play for a couple months.

[VegasHockey 1280]

2 hours ago, GoalForFun said:

I’ve been playing without a knob on the end for almost 5 years now for 3 big reasons:

1. The grip does the job just fine for tackiness
2. My palm doesn’t have a lot of surface area so a knob would make the grip weaker

3. Next to no wear on my palms

The only con is that I get calluses on my palm more easily, but those naturally go away if I don’t play for a couple months.

Do you have no knob or anything at all? Its just a bare stick? 

[Stewie 721]

For my entire life ages 7-35 I taped the whole top because up until 25 I almost solely used wood or aluminum sticks without grip coating, plus it was what the pros did, and for the next ten years I just taped it out of habit. Then Two years ago I saw some pro players with just their top knob portion taped, and decided to give it a try. It’s been much easier on the hands, and just made more sense to me to just cut out the extra work and use the stick’s grip coating. 

[start_today 770]

I started doing just a width-of-tape knob last spring or so, and it’s been great (and by great I mean it’s fine and I don’t think about it.)

Prior to that, when I taped a handle, I kept toying with different options of rubbing it with a puck, wax, melting the wax, and baby powder, and it would always be too grippy or not grippy enough. At some point I wondered why I was doing all that work to never quite be satisfied, when everything my heart wanted was already right in front of me underneath that tape. And I haven’t looked back since! 

(I do miss being able to tape my handle with some stupid bright neon color because I’m secretly 12 years old.)