I can remember playing hockey at school (see ‘Introduction’ post) and using either totally plastic sticks….horrible, or ropey old wooden sticks with the torn cloth grips hanging off the bare wood. I didn’t know any better at the time, but the sticks were rubbish. I started playing around Easter time, and for my birthday in December I asked for, and got, my own hockey stick. I can still remember it now. I chose it from the sports shop myself; it was the first stick I owned and it carried me through to playing club level hockey. It was a wooden Sondico stick with a yellowish leather grip. I remember how fantastic it felt when I picked it up in the shop. It was a wonderful stick, with just one flaw, and almost certainly by now, you’ve guessed what it was…….the grip! While superb looking and great in the dry, as soon as it got wet, I might as well have been trying to play hockey with a slippery old eel, fresh from the sea. The number of times I lost grip of that stick while trying to hit the ball must have gone well in to treble figures…..nevertheless, I treasured it dearly, that is until I moved on….in terms of hockey sticks anyway.

The most amazing hockey stick I ever owned was a DFV 36″ platinum stick. It cost a small fortune and was nothing short of PERFECT!

The weight, the balance, the give, the size of the head…all just fantastic! Often I’d show team mates, etc and anyone who picked it up always said exactly the same thing……..that it was the best stick they’d ever seen or held. After that one I had another DFV, only this time a 38″ blue diamond. It suited me better, but it wasn’t as good as the platinum. I would often swap between the two, sometimes during games….depending on how I felt or how the game was going. Sadly both sticks were lost one day when I got injured during a game and had to be taken to hospital. My team mates, on picking me up from the hospital assured me that my sticks and kit had been picked up by the rest of the team, but disappointingly nobody knew where the sticks went, and try as I did, I never managed to find them again. That platinum stick was priceless in my mind, and I still think of it as an old friend.

Recently, although I couldn’t afford it, I went shopping for a new stick. I haven’t had a new one in probably ten years, and it certainly felt like that when I was trying all of the new sticks in the shop. Given that I did try nearly all of them, at first narrowing it down to four, then three, then two, and then oh boy did the problems start. Nothing changes. And it must be the same for most hockey players, I’m sure. Go into a shop with one-hundred sticks, try ninety-nine and know that they’re not for you, and then the instant you pick up number one-hundred BOOOOMMM!!! You know it’s the one. The weight, the feel…….everything about it is right. On this occasion, it was hard to choose between the two sticks I’d narrowed it down to. The cheaper one was the first stick I’d picked up on entering the shop. And it felt great. I kept going back to it and trying it out. It was a Kookaburra stick I think. The second, (a Dita stick) the one I choose, was just love at first touch, despite it being an inch and a half longer than the stick I’d been using. The weight (very light) was perfect, there was a slight curve in the shaft, it was just made for me. After lots of consideration, mainly because of the price, I had to have that one. And given how it performs in training and in a match, I couldn’t be happier.

So, why don’t you see if you can top all of that……over to you now.