DonnieUtah
10-29-2007, 11:55 AM
Hi all,
Last week I received my new Warrior Wall from SportStop (6 days delivered to Ire!!), and promised I’d post a review. Apologies for the slow response, I’ve been up to my eyes in work all week and weekend.
So, first impressions:
This thing is huge!! Makes my old Brine look like an attack stick.
The shaft that comes with it is waaay too long. It’s a standard goalie length shaft, but attached to this head it’s literally up to eyeball level. No biggie though, just bust out the hacksaw. :)
Very soft mesh. Personally I like soft mesh for goalie, but putting it out there to make you aware.
Flex, what flex? Seriously, there’s the tiniest bit when you really lean on it, but nothing like the cheddar cheese softness of the field heads.
I used the stick at my regular league game on Wednesday, and loaned it to another goalie in the first game. Watching him play, and then using it myself, I would say that the head itself didn’t make a huge difference. I think that its biggest advantage though was physiological. The opposing teams in the first game and in mine simply didn’t even try to shoot at the 5-hole. This led to a lot of bottom-left and bottom-right shots. The nice thing is that because the head is so wide at the bottom, it allows me to spread my feet a bit further, cutting off that angle just a tad. Doesn’t seem like much, but it ups the confidence level a whole lot. You just feel really ‘wide’ with it. I also noticed I didn't spend nearly as much time 'butterflying' for low shots.
The shaft definitely needs to be chopped, but that’s really no big deal (but still, the shaft is matched to the head, you'd think the designers realized the head is about twice the length of a regular head?). The only thing that really bugged me was that with full gear I had a hard time staying ‘squared’ and keeping the head ‘flat’. I ended up stepping out a bit with my right foot, and choking down with my right arm. The problem here is that is exposes my upper right a bit. I solved this by switching to my old shaft, which had a slight bend to the right, and is really short (about length of an attack shaft). Short shaft + bend + tall head = perfect. The only thing that bugs me now is the bottom corners of the head. Yes, they really maximize the protective area, but I found that when having to switch sides and get set very quickly, the right corner would sometimes catch. Luckily it’s didn’t allow for any goals, but I can see it as a slow-down that a good attack will eventually notice and exploit. I may take a file to the right bottom, just taking off a tad to allow for quicker turning.
Throwing is a good bit different. Once broken in the soft mesh became a hugely deep pocket. There’s really no channel though. There’s also no whip at all. I’ll be messing with the shooting stings this week to get it to throw a bit more predictably. The soft mesh doesn’t cause a lot of bounce though. My old hard mesh would bounce the ball a few feet on direct impact. This only pops it out a bit, allowing me a chance to trap the ball in the crease. The head itself is not heavy at all. In fact, it feels a bit lighter than the old brine. When throwing though, it feels a lot heavier due to the simple air resistance. I’ve found that the swing is a lot shorter though due to the deep throat. It definitely takes some getting used to, but doesn’t take long. I’ve never had the chance to use a woodie unfortunately, so can’t compare to that.
That’s about it. Bottom line is, I like it. :-) If I’ve missed anything, please post it up. Pics below:
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN5615_sm.jpg
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN5617_sm.jpg
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN5618_sm.jpg
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN9596_sm.jpg
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN9597_sm.jpg
approved by roycegracie47
Last week I received my new Warrior Wall from SportStop (6 days delivered to Ire!!), and promised I’d post a review. Apologies for the slow response, I’ve been up to my eyes in work all week and weekend.
So, first impressions:
This thing is huge!! Makes my old Brine look like an attack stick.
The shaft that comes with it is waaay too long. It’s a standard goalie length shaft, but attached to this head it’s literally up to eyeball level. No biggie though, just bust out the hacksaw. :)
Very soft mesh. Personally I like soft mesh for goalie, but putting it out there to make you aware.
Flex, what flex? Seriously, there’s the tiniest bit when you really lean on it, but nothing like the cheddar cheese softness of the field heads.
I used the stick at my regular league game on Wednesday, and loaned it to another goalie in the first game. Watching him play, and then using it myself, I would say that the head itself didn’t make a huge difference. I think that its biggest advantage though was physiological. The opposing teams in the first game and in mine simply didn’t even try to shoot at the 5-hole. This led to a lot of bottom-left and bottom-right shots. The nice thing is that because the head is so wide at the bottom, it allows me to spread my feet a bit further, cutting off that angle just a tad. Doesn’t seem like much, but it ups the confidence level a whole lot. You just feel really ‘wide’ with it. I also noticed I didn't spend nearly as much time 'butterflying' for low shots.
The shaft definitely needs to be chopped, but that’s really no big deal (but still, the shaft is matched to the head, you'd think the designers realized the head is about twice the length of a regular head?). The only thing that really bugged me was that with full gear I had a hard time staying ‘squared’ and keeping the head ‘flat’. I ended up stepping out a bit with my right foot, and choking down with my right arm. The problem here is that is exposes my upper right a bit. I solved this by switching to my old shaft, which had a slight bend to the right, and is really short (about length of an attack shaft). Short shaft + bend + tall head = perfect. The only thing that bugs me now is the bottom corners of the head. Yes, they really maximize the protective area, but I found that when having to switch sides and get set very quickly, the right corner would sometimes catch. Luckily it’s didn’t allow for any goals, but I can see it as a slow-down that a good attack will eventually notice and exploit. I may take a file to the right bottom, just taking off a tad to allow for quicker turning.
Throwing is a good bit different. Once broken in the soft mesh became a hugely deep pocket. There’s really no channel though. There’s also no whip at all. I’ll be messing with the shooting stings this week to get it to throw a bit more predictably. The soft mesh doesn’t cause a lot of bounce though. My old hard mesh would bounce the ball a few feet on direct impact. This only pops it out a bit, allowing me a chance to trap the ball in the crease. The head itself is not heavy at all. In fact, it feels a bit lighter than the old brine. When throwing though, it feels a lot heavier due to the simple air resistance. I’ve found that the swing is a lot shorter though due to the deep throat. It definitely takes some getting used to, but doesn’t take long. I’ve never had the chance to use a woodie unfortunately, so can’t compare to that.
That’s about it. Bottom line is, I like it. :-) If I’ve missed anything, please post it up. Pics below:
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN5615_sm.jpg
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN5617_sm.jpg
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN5618_sm.jpg
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN9596_sm.jpg
http://www.fokust.com/images/wall/DSCN9597_sm.jpg
approved by roycegracie47