All female hockey players should use sticks with an 75 flex or less.

With no exceptions.

Your stick is supposed to bend when you shoot the puck.

And if it doesn’t, your shot and your game is going to suffer.

Here’s how to figure out what stick flex to use:

When choosing stick stiffness, the general rule of thumb is to go for a stick that is roughly half your weight.

Girls hockey players do not need to be using sticks with flexes in the triple digits. Every time I see a 14 year-old girl with a 110 flex stick, I cringe. Not only is this way too stiff of a stick for any female player, but after she cuts it down to the right height, the stiffness of the stick actually increases and she is probably using a 120 or 130 flex stick.

The women’s hockey players on the Canadian and American national team weigh an average 150 pounds – so a stick with a 75 flex would be perfect. Of all the elite female hockey players I know, most of them use a stick with an intermediate flex (70-80 flex).

Save me the story on how the more flex it is going to ruin your slap-shot. The “whip” in your stick is what gives your shot speed.

You know that to have a good slap shot, you should make contact with the ice a few inches before the puck. That is so you can pre-load the shaft, loading it full of potential energy, them to release it right before you make contact with the puck. If the stick doesn’t bend, it won’t get loaded up with energy and your shot speed will suffer. If you can only bend the stick off the ice by leaning all of your weight into it, what do you think is going to happen on the ice?

You need to be able to bend the stick when you shoot your slap-shot, wrist-shot and snap-shot.

So unless you weigh 200 pounds, stay away from the 100 flex sticks.

Stick with a 75 flex or less.

To take your shooting & stickhandling to the next level (no matter what your stick flex is), check out the Total Female Hockey Elite Shooting & Stickhandling Video Series HERE.

Your friend and coach,

~ Coach Kim