Use this guide to check your height to find the perfect stick for you or your hockey mate! Remember this is a guide only. If you can get in-store to measure yourself up and find the perfect stick size for you!
Stick Guide
This guide is designed to help you choose the perfect stick for you from the wide range we offer at the international performance end of our range, the Tour and Taboo series.
It’s common for players to think they should just choose the top model automatically. While the Tour is technically the most advanced and in that sense ‘best’ stick in our range, it doesn’t automatically follow that it is the right or best stick for you. This guide will explain our range and some of the considerations that lead you to choose your perfect GRYPHON stick. One thing we won’t talk about is material percentages. Carbon, for example, comes in various grades and qualities and unless you know you are comparing carbon of the same level any claim of how much is included is worthless since more of lower quality carbon will always be outperformed by less of better.
POWER & FEEL
Power comes from linear and torsional stiffness and our unique lay-up methods were developed to create the maximum power to weight output, i.e. stiffness, required at each level, enhanced by using the best materials and manufacturing processes.
Performance is not just power, it is perhaps even more so touch and feel, i.e. when the ball and stick come together how does that connection feel through your hands.
We make the touch you get on the ball a variable feature of all Gryphon sticks. Across our TOUR and TABOO Stick Series, the potential power will be much closer by comparison than the feel, which will vary greatly. This means you do not have to worry about power, the TOUR and TABOO Stick Series will give you that capability, but instead consider how that power will feel.
WEIGHT & BALANCE
The weight range of Gryphon sticks is typically from 510g to 540g. You want a stick that is heavy enough to maximise power but not so heavy that you can’t manoeuvre it well to perform other skills. The balance point determines the weight distribution. The midpoint of a stick as far as balance goes is 400mm and that means the pick-up is even as the weight is evenly distributed. Below 400mm (max depth 380mm) gives you a lower balance and a stick that is weighted towards the head, potentially making it less comfortable and slower to move. Above 400mm (max 410mm) means a stick that is weighted to the handle and picks up lighter in the head, potentially making it more manoeuvrable. The best way to evaluate this and get your best combination is to dribble the ball from side to side. If the stick and ball stay together and all feels good then your combination is right. If the ball is getting away from the stick then the weight is too high and/or the balance is too low as you are not moving the stick quickly enough. Conversely if the stick is getting away from the ball then the weight is too low and/or balance too high as you are moving it too quickly.
STICK SHAPES
There are 6 shapes to choose from at the top of the Gryphon range but not every shape is available on every model of hockey stick.
Think of a sliding scale where at one end you have the basic skills of the game (trapping, pushing etc) and at the other the more dynamic, such as 3D skills, overheads and dragflicking.
Each shape features somewhere on this scale to give you assistance in its area, while you have to adapt to do the rest (if you want to). You and the stick are a partnership, the stick will help you but you have to help it also.
