A hockey stick is a long, curved piece of wood used by players to propel the puck. The stick’s shaft and blade are made of a variety of materials. Many players customize their sticks to suit their personal playing style. Some of these customizations include shaft thickness (adding flex), head shape and size, lie, and vertical angle and curve of the blade. The most common material for the shaft is ash, which has natural elasticity and provides the feel of a traditional wooden stick. However, other options are available as well, including maple, birch, and eucalyptus. Some manufacturers use carbon fiber composites that offer the stiffness of a wooden stick while adding greater torsional stability.
There have been a number of important developments in the construction and use of the hockey stick. The development of the laminated stick in the 1940s and the introduction of fiberglass and carbon fiber reinforcement in the 1960s have made significant impacts on the physics of how the puck travels through and around the stick, as well as on player performance.
Historically, hockey sticks have had a rounded or ‘English’ shape, and have been made from ash, a very durable wood. A key feature of this type of stick was the ability to have a very steep shaft curve for maximum energy transfer. This was achieved by having a large, ‘upturned’ toe (or ‘upturn’) on the shaft near the head.
The ‘English’ style stick also tended to have a very deep bow, which allowed for very high speeds in the drag-flick stroke. This was accomplished by increasing the head height above the ‘upturn’ on the shaft, which is called the ‘face’, and decreasing the shaft width near the ‘heel’. This is also referred to as the ‘face angle’, and increasing it increases the effective area of the reversed stick head for contact with the ball.
One of the problems with these extremely bowed sticks was that stopping a ball with them on the ground was difficult, especially if the handle was held vertically. This can be seen in the illustration at the top of this article, which shows that if the stick is held with the heel on the ground (red) the head will disappear into the ground, and contact with the ball will not be possible.
There were attempts to solve this problem by introducing a more shallow bow, such as the ‘low bow’ that was introduced in 2005, and by adjusting the position of the maximum bow on the shaft (the permitted maximum was originally 50 mm). However, it is now believed that these changes will not help to solve the problem. It is hoped that further research will be carried out to find a solution to this problem. In the meantime, there are techniques that players can use to reduce the effect of an excessively bowed stick, such as cutting part of the reversed head to make it less tall, and rounding the end of the stick (although this will do little to increase the strength of the ‘heel bend’). A curved head is also useful for controlling the direction of the ball when hitting it on a forward swing.