Sticking It To The Man
There are two types of hockey sticks, sticks made out of wood and sticks made out of composite materials. Wooden sticks are usually the cheapest ones on the market and readily available in most sporting goods stores. Wooden sticks, however, break much more easily than composite hockey sticks. Also, wooden sticks are more prone to disfiguration and rotting. The good thing about wooden sticks, aside from their prices, is their customizability. Wooden sticks can be sanded down to the right size and weight that a player desires. This kind of flexibility is not seen in composite hockey sticks. There are several different types of composite sticks. One of the most common is probably aluminum. Aluminum is a light metal that is also relatively strong. The actual blade of the hockey stick is still wood whereas the shaft is replaced with aluminum. This creates a stick that’s less likely to break with harder hits. The drawback is that aluminum can be quite expensive. Another type of composite stick is the fiberglass stick. These are more of a mod of the wooden stick than a separate type. Basically, the fiberglass is coated over the wood to provide extra strength. Imaginably, since the base material hasn’t changed, the overall strength of the stick has not improved much as well. The last type of composite hockey stick is Kevlar. Kevlar sticks are considered to be the lightest and strongest hockey sticks on the market. However, with that comes the biggest price tag as well. To find the perfect hockey stick, a balance of price, strength, and weight needs to be achieved.
