Based mostly on comfort and personal preference, the proper hockey stick length will be relative to the height of the player, their most common skating stance, and their position or style.

Hockey Stick Sizes

Off the rack, hockey stick sizes are categorized Adult, Intermediate, Junior. These categories do not only apply to the length of the stick, but also the flexibility and circumference of the shaft, and the blade size. It is not beneficial to skill development to buy hockey stick size too big hoping to grow in to it.

Choose Correct Hockey Stick Length

Begin by selecting a stick that is made for the category you are in by age/body size. For players that are 11 years old or younger, the correct hockey stick length will probably be a Junior hockey stick size. Once you become too tall for a Junior stick, get an Intermediate one. A small, light player with smaller hands should not use an adult hockey stick size.

• The circumference will be too big for the grip;
• A lot will be cut off the shaft so its flex will be too stiff;
• The blade will be too big and awkward.

Special note about correct hockey stick length: If you buy too big and have to cut the shaft, you’ll make the stick stiffer. Read about hockey stick flex here.

Measuring Proper Hockey Stick Length

Generally speaking, to measure yourself for the proper hockey stick length in a store without skates on:

1. Stand up straight with your feet flat on the ground.
2. Rest the toe of the stick in front of your feet on the floor.
3. Look straight ahead.
4. Mark the butt end of the shaft at the tip of your nose. With skates on, this will come to your bottom lip or so.

The proper hockey stick length for stickhandlers may be shorter for puck control and hand quickness; and longer for defense for stick checking.

Length of Hockey Stick

The length of hockey stick you use should represent your style. Crouched over players will play with shorter sticks, and upright skaters will use longer ones. Stickhandlers will use shorter sticks unless they like to reach far to keep the puck away from attackers. Defense will want to have longer sticks so they can reach for pucks. Those are just general guidelines.

How To Choose Hockey Stick Flex

Stronger, heavier players should have a higher flex. Smaller, weaker players should have a lower flex. How to choose hockey stick flex by the rating? A hockey stick flex rating number is a relative thing. A youth stick rated 45 flex will be a flexible stick for a light weight player, like an 8 or 10 year old who weighs less than 75 pounds, while it may seem stiff to a player under 55 pounds.

Please keep in mind that the flex number is assigned to the hockey stick at full length. If you cut the shaft shorter, you make it stiffer. As a player grows, their comfortable shaft stiffness rating will have to increase.

What Does Hockey Stick Flex Rating Number Represent?

Hockey stick flex rating number represents the number of pounds of force it takes to bend the shaft 1 inch with top hand at the top of the stick and the bottom hand applying pressure to the middle of the shaft.

A 85 flex shaft requires 85 lbs of force to flex 1” at the full length of the new ice hockey stick. Remember that you may cut your sticks down to size, and when you do, they become stiffer. Take a stick off the rack and hold your top hand where you’d be cutting it and then try to flex it.

How Does Hockey Stick Flex Affect A Shot?

Stiffer sticks, as long as they still flex, will deliver a harder slapshot. Flex is important in the force of a shot because energy is stored in the flexed shaft and released when the stick moves forward and the flex unwinds and whips the puck. Too flexible is too mushy and absorbs too much of the shot. If you watch a slow motion video of a hockey stick shooting a puck, you’ll see the shaft flex a bit on impact. When it bends, energy is spring loaded into the shaft of the hockey stick and that energy is released upon the puck with the follow through. The force your body and arms put on the stick is the pounds of force, and that changes with the type of shot just like the pounds of force on your ankles changes between standing and running.

For example, if a 100 pound person is standing, there’s 100 pounds of pressure on the ankles. If they jump or run they increase that force or pressure on the ankles significantly. The same applies to the hockey stick. More rigorous movement creates more force, pressure, or pounds per inch on the shaft of the hockey stick.

Using a stick that is too flexible will cause mushy sluggish stickhandling and weaker shots. Too stiff will also weaken shots because you won’t be able to get enough energy penned up on the flexed shaft.

Does Hockey Stick Construction Change The Flex?

No. Remember the flex rating is in pounds. 85 pounds are 85 pounds regardless of what material they’re applied to. Flex is the same regardless of what type materials are used to make a hockey stick. A wood stick with a flex of 100 has the same stiffness as a composite stick with a flex of 100. They both require 100 pounds of pressure to bend the hockey stick an inch.

The blade of ice hockey sticks can be different sizes, usually have some sort of curve, vary in the angle they lie on the ice compared to the shaft of the hockey stick, and have different shapes. Each feature serves a different function. Hockey tape can add even more characteristics to them.

You should mix and match hockey stick blade features to your size, skill, style, position. Memorize the specifics of your preferred blade so purchases of future hockey sticks will be easier.

The blade of a hockey stick is comprised of the heel, the back part of the blade that is closest to your feet when holding your hockey stick straight in front of you with the blade touching the ground; the face, which is the front of the blade that most often comes in contact with the puck; and the toe, the end of the blade that is farthest from you when holding your hockey stick straight in front of you with the blade touching the ground. Hey, you’re holding that stick with both hands, right? Good!

Hockey Stick Curves

The first thing most players think about on the blade is the curve. Curves can be configured differently. They can start close to the heel, the toe, or in the middle. A curve can be a big hook, or the blade can be straight.

Beginning players should buy straight blades to learn puck control when playing hockey. Stick blades directly affect stickhandling, passing, and shooting in a variety of ways.

Curve Size

Huge Curves:
• Will impede one’s ability to let a backhand shot go.
• Make stickhandling interesting, as the puck bounces at different angles from different points off the back of the curve.
• Make less point of contact for the puck when it’s on the back of the stick blade, so it’s harder to control.
• Passes become a little more difficult to keep down on the ice.
• Forehand shots become unpredictable for defense and goalies.
• Deep pocket makes it easier to cup the puck and will make pass reception easier.
• A defined pocket usually keeps the puck in the same place on the blade.
• Put more of a spin on the puck with forehand shots, and possibly more speed.
• Less of a curve is better for stickhandling, dekes, dangles, and setting up plays with brilliant passes.

Where The Curve Starts
If the curve commences near the toe, you’ll have a lot more straight blade before the curve, which is good for stickhandling.

The Face Of The Blade
The face is the way the blade tilts and can make the blade lean forward or backward. It’s another key feature that affects shots, dekes, and stickhandling. The face of the blade can appear kind of twisted, and that twist can begin near the heel, the toe, or the mid section. Stickhandlers will probably avoid blades where the lean or begins at the middle because that may impede puck control.

The angle of the face of the blade can change the loft of the puck when performing forehand shots; open face having the same effect as a golf pitching wedge — it makes high shots easier.

Lie
The lie you need will depend on whether you’re an upright or leaning skater. You want as much of the bottom of the blade on the ice as possible because any tilt up off the ice can allow the puck to go under, and it can allow opponents to get their blades under yours to take the puck away if you have it. A flat lie will keep more of the hockey stick blade on the puck when stickhandling.

Blade Size
Some blades are bigger. Obviously adult blades are bigger than youth blades; both longer and taller. One adult blade can even be longer than another adult blade, and can also be higher. In fact, it can be not so high at the heel and higher at the toe, or the other way around. The size of the blade will add to the weight at the end of the stick and affect the balance.

Toe Shape
The toe of the blade can be rounded or squared. Rounded will often help stickhandlers with toe maneuvers like the “toe drag”. Can you comment on any reasons to choose squared over rounded blades?

Hockey Tape
Yes hockey tape will hold the puck better, as will the grain of the tape. Some tapes are stickier on the outside than others for more grip on the puck, some are even textured. The grain of the tape is the direction you wind it onto the blade. Wrapping hockey tape from heel to toe makes layers that grip pucks better. Pucks have a knurl around the edge that your blade contacts, and tape can help hold on to it. Therefor it is good to tape the part of the blade that you usually use to control the puck, which may be the entire blade. Color may help camouflage the puck, or id you to your team mates. Stickhandlers often prefer white tape because it shows them, in their peripheral vision, where the puck is so they don’t have to look down at it.

You can customize hockey stick blades using heat and a vise. Just heat the blade until it’s flexible enough to be bent, then apply pressure to shape it as desired, and let it cool. A vise or clamps may be necessary. Keep in mind that the league you play in likely has restrictions on blades. The NHL imposes the following measurement restrictions on hockey sticks.
NHL Rule 10 (http://www.nhl.com/ice/page.htm?id=26286) states the following:

• blade length 12 1/2″ heel to the end of the blade
• blade height 2″ – 3″
• curve 3/4″ perpendicular line intersecting straight line between heel and toe