With the onset of the winter season, outdoor enthusiasts begin to think about how they spend their leisure time. Someone loves skiing, and someone hockey. For any sports game you need your own attributes. It is quite difficult for fans to play professional hockey, but on the box, near the house, just right. To do this, you need skates and a club. If everything is clear with the skates, we select the size, then not everyone knows how to choose a club.
Before you decide on a purchase, you need to play with different clubs. Short and long, with right-handed and left-handed. And only after that, having decided, go to a sports store and make purchases.
Sticks are divided into 4 types: adults - after 17 years of age, youthful - from 14 to 17 years old, teenage - from 7 to 14 years old, and children's - children from 4 to 7 years old.
Sometimes adult players play clubs for young men. This is convenient for those who are not tall.
For defenders, for example, the length of a hockey stick is critical. The longer the player’s stick, the greater the ability to take the puck from the opponent. For the attacker, on the contrary: the shorter the stick, the more maneuverable the player.
Selecting a club is a responsible and serious matter. If you buy a very short stick, you will not enjoy the game. But a long club can be shortened and adjusted to suit you. But do not overdo it. The shorter the stick cut, the less flexible it will become. Therefore, look for a middle ground.
Sticks are available for both left-handed players and right-handed players. Holding the club in this position is called a grip. So all the same, how to choose a club if you really do not know which side it is more convenient to hold.
If when grabbing a stick with both hands, your right hand is lower than your left and it’s convenient for you to play, then you are right-handed for hockey, if your left hand is lower than your right, you are a left-handed hockey player. If you are interested, statistics say that in Russia and Ukraine the bulk of hockey players are left-handed.
Usually professional hockey sticks wrap hockey players with electrical tape. Not many hockey fans can guess what for? The answer is simple. Firstly, the black puck merges with the color of the electrical tape, and it is more difficult for the goalkeeper to sort out. Secondly, due to the roughness of the cloth tape, the adhesion of the puck with the club increases.
But all this concerns professionals, we are interested in ordinary amateurs, adults and children. How long to choose a club figured out, now let's figure out how to choose a club by the composition of the material from which it is made.
There are enough nuances here. If you buy a wooden club, then win in price, but lose in its durability. In addition, the wooden club is heavy, and the player quickly gets tired and tired. It’s better to overpay, but buy a composite club. It is much lighter than wood and its service life is long.
And that's not all. Sticks are collapsible and non-collapsible. Non-demountable, you guessed it, wooden clubs, and collapsible - composite. A collapsible club consists of two parts: a shovel or a hook and a hollow pipe. If a wooden stick breaks, then it is usually changed, and if a composite stick breaks, then it can be restored. In sports stores, hooks and pipes are sold separately. Having bought a new hook, using special glue we connect it to the pipe.
There is such a parameter as the rigidity of a hockey stick. It is determined from the calculation of the weight of the hockey player. Basically, all professional clubs have a stiffness of 40 to 120 on the Easton scale. The strength of the throw depends on the rigidity of the club. The softer the stick, the less effort is put into the shot. And the harder the stick, respectively, more efforts must be made. Remember that when the length of the club decreases, its rigidity increases, which means that you will have to work harder on the field.
Now you clearly know and understand not only how to choose a club, but also how to fix it yourself.