Choosing a hockey stick — length, flex, curve, lie and kick point
Five numbers decide how a stick plays, and only two of them matter much when you are starting. What flex really measures, why cutting a stick changes it, and what the rulebooks actually limit.
Sticks are the most over-specified purchase in hockey. Five variables, endless marketing, and for most players only two of them — length and flex — will change anything you can feel.
Length
Standing in skates, with the toe of the blade on the floor and the stick upright, the butt of the shaft should reach somewhere between your chin and your nose. In shoes, add an inch or two, because skates lift you.
Within that range:
- Shorter (toward the chin, or below) helps puck handling, quick releases and keeping the puck close in traffic. Modern coaching has drifted shorter over the last decade.
- Longer (toward the nose) helps reach, poke-checks and shooting from distance. Defenders often prefer it.
If you are new, err short. A stick that is too long makes every part of stickhandling harder and encourages standing upright, which is the one habit that most slows down adult beginners.
Flex — the number everyone quotes and few explain
Flex is the number of pounds of force needed to bend the shaft one inch. An 85-flex stick takes about 85 pounds to deflect an inch. Lower is softer.
The traditional starting point is about half your body weight in pounds — a 160-pound player starts around an 80 flex. Treat that as an upper bound rather than a target. On modern composite sticks it tends to run stiff, particularly for lighter players, newer players and anyone who shoots mostly in tight. A stick you cannot actually load does nothing for you: the whole point of flex is that the shaft bends and springs back into the shot.
Two things that surprise people:
- Cutting a stick makes it stiffer — roughly 3 to 5 flex points per inch removed. If you plan to cut four inches off a senior stick, buy softer than you think.
- Flex numbers are not standardised between brands. An 85 in one line can feel like a 75 in another. Borrow a team-mate's stick in a warm-up if you can.
Junior and intermediate sticks are shorter and softer. For a smaller or lighter player they are the right product, not a downgrade.
Curve, lie and kick point
Curve (pattern) changes how the puck leaves the blade. Open-face curves lift the puck easily and suit shooting; flatter curves are easier to receive passes and backhand with. Patterns are named by code — P92, P88, P28 and so on — and the same code means roughly, but not exactly, the same shape between brands. If you are new, take a mid-curve and stop thinking about it.
Lie is the angle between the shaft and the blade: it decides whether the whole blade sits flat on the ice in your stance. Look at the wear on the tape after a few skates. Wear concentrated at the toe means your lie is too low for you; wear at the heel means it is too high. A player who skates upright generally wants a higher lie than one who skates low and bent.
Kick point is where the shaft loads when you shoot. Low kick releases quickest and suits snap shots and shooting in tight; mid kick loads more slowly and suits heavier shots from distance; hybrids split the difference. It is a real difference, and it is also the last thing that will limit you.
What the rules actually limit
Competitive rulebooks cap stick dimensions, and the numbers differ slightly between bodies:
- IIHF (Rule 38): blade no more than 32 cm (12.5 in) along the bottom, 5–7.62 cm (2–3 in) in height, curve no more than 1.5 cm (5/8 in).
- USA Hockey: blade no more than 12.5 in long, between 2 and 3 in wide, curve no more than 3/4 in at maximum curvature.
- Hockey Canada (Rule 3.3): shaft no more than 1.60 m (63 in) from heel to butt, blade no more than 31.75 cm (12.5 in), blade width 5.08–7.62 cm (2–3 in). A goaltender's stick has its own limits: shaft up to 1.4 m (55 in), blade up to 39.37 cm (15.5 in).
Retail sticks are made to comply, so unless you are buying something custom this matters only if you play at a level with stick measurement — which, in beer league, you do not.
Left or right?
Not the hand you write with. In hockey, the bottom hand does most of the work, and the convention is that your dominant hand goes on top for control. That is why plenty of right-handed people shoot left. The genuinely reliable test is to borrow both and see which feels natural — most people know within five minutes.
Sources. Flex definition and the half-body-weight rule of thumb from manufacturer and retailer fitting guidance; the stiffening-per-inch figure from the same. Stick dimension limits from the IIHF Official Rule Book (Rule 38), USA Hockey's rulebook and Hockey Canada's Rule 3.3 as recorded in our research notes. Checked September 2026; our note on the Hockey Canada blade-curve maximum specifically could not be confirmed directly, so it is not quoted here.