[G] Stick Recommendation

[Dadabhoy_Muzzi]

I will finally be getting my first lacrosse stick. I don't know which one would be better for me so could some people give me some sticks they reccomend and where online I could buy it. So far I am thinking of buying:
head-> STX: Eclipse white/hard mesh
shaft-> DeBeer: db803

I will be buying it from lax.com

Any help would be reccomended.

[Trilax03]

my set up is the nemesis on a kpro shaft...works really well at least for me...i've heard good things about the eclipse and sry i don't know much about the db shaft...as for mesh i hav 12d which is good, but i recommend u get ur mesh from jimalax.com (great place) but if u need it pre-strung then go w/ lax.com or a few cheaper sites can b found off of laxshopper.com

[Garor]

You can't go wrong with the eclipse. And the DB803 is a highly reccommended shaft.
I have a Klyte.

[EndlesFimbulvet]

The Eclipse is a PERFECT choice for a begining goalie (or an expirienced one...I use only my Eclipse and will <3 it forever), but you may actually want to get a heavier shaft. Trust me, I have the same combo you want. The Eclipse, while still very light, is much heavier than the DB803. The result; your stick will feel a bit more top-heavy than usual, adding whip, I think.

[frkystyly36]

my brother has an eclipse with a KPro, and he loves it.

eclipse may be the way to go, but i would take some others' advise on which shaft to get. but i guess most of it has to do with preference.

[OldGoalie]

The Eclipse is a PERFECT choice for a begining goalie (or an expirienced one...I use only my Eclipse and will <3 it forever), but you may actually want to get a heavier shaft. Trust me, I have the same combo you want. The Eclipse, while still very light, is much heavier than the DB803. The result; your stick will feel a bit more top-heavy than usual, adding whip, I think.

You can counteract the "top-heavy" feeling with some balled up tape in the butt of the grip, or perhaps even adding some weight on the butt end. This will help create better propeller action with the stick for saves too.

[Expressgoalie01]

eclipse hands down. Go with 12 diamond from jimalax. All warrior shafts are great, but a good beginner shaft would be ignite/ignite supra.

[EndlesFimbulvet]

You can counteract the "top-heavy" feeling with some balled up tape in the butt of the grip, or perhaps even adding some weight on the butt end. This will help create better propeller action with the stick for saves too.

Excellent! Thank you, i'll try this out later tonight. I never thought to do that, not sure why...

[Palmettolax45]

good choice i used the eclipse when i was a goalie but it was on a attack levitation because i shared it with the coaches son who was about a foot shorter than me so it was hard but it gave me good experience so i think the 803 would be a perfict choice

[spenny]

i have to second the eclipse, but id buy it strung. dont learn to string on your first stick, that's just biting off more than you can chew.

[Dadabhoy_Muzzi]

I was planning on getting it strung. I don't know how to string sticks, there is noone in my area who can string a stick, and I am not going to string it myself.

I have another question. Would you reccomend getting the hard mesh or the soft. I am thinking of getting the hard mesh.

[RottingMind13]

when i had soft mesh in a goalie stick, it felt like a disaster. It threw awful, and was just a nightmare to use. When i was using hard mesh it felt really nice. But thats just my opinion.

[ragnut]

I think much more important than the type/brand of shaft is finding your favorite length of shaft. I'd suggest buying 2 inexpensive goalie shafts, and start cutting them down to different lengths. Find which length you like for the best combination of control with catches, and distance and accuracy with clears. The longer the shaft, the more likely the butt of it is to get caught on your jersey. Different lengths with have a different feel with throws. Also, I think the balance of the weight of head and shaft is more important than just trying to find the lightest shaft. As you are unlikely to be checked, don't get caught up too much with how strong the shaft is. That's more important for an attack or d-pole.

[spenny]

I think much more important than the type/brand of shaft is finding your favorite length of shaft.

i'd completely forgotten this until ragnut mentioned it.
what i recommend is buying a cheapo shaft and play with it. (not for 15 minutes but for a week's worth of playing) cut 2 inches off and play with it play with it again, and then cut it again. repeat this till the stick is uncomfortably short. buy a second shaft and cut it to your current length plus 2 inches. (i dont know your age, but the length you prefer will gange as you grow taller and gain more experience)
longer shafts will allow you you to pick off passes more effectively (something i was particularly good at and enjoyed)
i also believe that a longer shaft lets you make better outlet passes (but people disagree with me about this)

personally, i believe that you should only cut the shaft down if you are a little guy and the butt end is hitting the ground when you are making saves (but again a lot of quality keepers disagree with me about this)

Also, I think the balance of the weight of head and shaft is more important than just trying to find the lightest shaft. As you are unlikely to be checked, don't get caught up too much with how strong the shaft is. That's more important for an attack or d-pole.

quoted for turth and emphasis. balance is MUCH more importatnt than weight.

the whole $100-$200 for a shaft thing is STUPID :dummy: :dummy:

[Dadabhoy_Muzzi]

I am 5'11' so what size shaft would you reccomend? I think my parents would only let me buy one shaft so I can only have one try with it.

[laxgoalieking]

before u listen to cmm343ebh, do u play box or field?if you play box leave the shaft where it is if u play field go with what cmm just said.and y are u ordering online if proboss is like 45 minutes outside of scarborough

[laxngoalie]

If your gonna get an eclipse prestrung, you may wanna try www.lacrosseunlimited.com. The prestrung STX pockets are tennis rackets, they look nice, but there is absolutely no pocket.

[Dadabhoy_Muzzi]

I play field lacrosse. Where is proboss? First we were going to check around "play it again sports" and "The Lax Shack". If I don't find it there, then I am going to order it online.

[EndlesFimbulvet]

Go to "The lax shack", whatever it is, first. Theyre much more likely to have it than PIA.

[dram183]

im not sure about the goalie version, but the defense 803 is extremely heavy because db makes their d versions thicker and does not shave off metal on the inside. they might have done this with the goalie version too.

i would suggest getting a c405 shaft: kryptolyte or axe

[Dadabhoy_Muzzi]

I just went to the lax shack to get my stick. I got a STX Eclipse with a soft mesh and a aluminum shaft. I had to order it so I will be getting it in 10 business days. I may change the shaft and the mesh if I don't like the feel of it. Thank you for all the help.

[OldGoalie]

I would suggest buying a couple of pieces of hard mesh from Jimalax, print out some of the stringing instructions from this site, and giving it a try yourself. It will be way better than the factory stringing job, and will give you the knowledge to create the pocket you want. I just strung two Goalmasters for the first time in my 20 years of lacrosse, and they came out great. I cleaned up my old GM from college, and bought a used one from eBay and restrung both with 12D mesh. It's really not that hard to do once you follow the instructions. I ordered a cheap F10 Brine goalie shaft, which should be fine for a goalie, seeing as how my factory STX aluminum shaft from 1991 lasted my 2 1/2 years of college ball with only a slight bend and a few minor dents from hitting the pipe. And I wasn't shy about coming out of the crease...Good luck. You've chosen a great position!

[EndlesFimbulvet]

Youve chosen an excellent position, best of luck to you.

I HIGHLY suggest you take OldGoalie's advice, buy some hard mesh from somewhere. Theyre bound to have some at The "Lax Shack", but I doubt they have any at PIA. Who knows. If they dont, get it off Jimilax.

Your much better off stringing by yourself. Factory stringing always completly blows, and STX string jobs are even worse than the norm with goalie sticks. And besides, if you can string good enough you can earn some extra cash as a stick docor $$$.

The Outburst style goalie stringing is a personal favorite of mine, second only to double open sidewall (tut. up soon, hopefully)

[spenny]

OG, i cant agree. its too hard to learn to play with a stick that may or may not be strung right. you had a baseline of how a stick should play, so you had a pretty good idea of how the stick should look and feel before you strung it. Dadabhoy has no such baseline, hes not going to have any idea if its right or wrong, that makes stringing a LOT harder.
weve all seen a bazillion string jobs, even most kids that cant string can identify a bad string job,
i dont think he will be able to do that with his limited lax experience. his first order of priority should be to familarize himself with the basics of the game, and any factory strung stick will let him do that. later he should learn to string.

Dadabhoy, if you have the extra $$ to spend, you could buy an inexpensive unstrung head and teach yourself on that, but dont teach yourself to string on your only stick, while trying to learn the basics of the game.

also STX factory stringing will be more than adequate to get you started. i think the stick doctors wildly underestimate the quality of factory string jobs. i know i did when i was in college, so more teammates would pay me to re-string their sticks.

[Dadabhoy_Muzzi]

Yea I am saving up to buy and inexpensive unstrung head so I can practice stringing. I would first try to use it off the tutorials and see if that help me. But I am not going to string my only goalie stick yet.

[OldGoalie]

OG, i cant agree. its too hard to learn to play with a stick that may or may not be strung right. you had a baseline of how a stick should play, so you had a pretty good idea of how the stick should look and feel before you strung it. Dadabhoy has no such baseline, hes not going to have any idea if its right or wrong, that makes stringing a LOT harder.

spenny, you're right that he has no baseline and it should be more than fine to start with the factory job, but looking back on the beginning of my goalie career, I sure wish I had restrung (or had somebdy restring) my old Brine Shutout from the beginning. I realize now that I basically played with a less than optimal (factory) setup that had way too much whip and made accurate passes a bit of a challenge, and I didn't have a great sense of how to fix it. Now, maybe factory jobs have come a long way since then, and perhaps having a not-so-well strung stick actually helped me develop better technique, but I just hate to see someone get frustrated because the factory stringing job is what's actually causing a throwing problem rather than technique. With the huge amount of information out there on the Net and the wide availability of stringing kits, it's really not as difficult anymore, and learning more about the adjustments you can make on your strings to make throwing easier really teaches you a lot.

All that aside, I will agree that if you are just beginning and it's your only stick, factory will suffice.

[spenny]

i hear you loud and clear on that, i just figure that any factory stringing would be better than anything done by a complete newby.

Dadabhoy, i'm glad to hear you are going to get an inexpensive stick as a back up and as a test bed for stringning. learning to string is very important

[EndlesFimbulvet]

Yeah...for an inexpensive head, you could buy a Gaolmaster for 10 bucks off ebay. Or if you wanted to string a regular head, they have Rotors for cheap too.

[jaw22]

If your a beginner you'll be more comfortable learning with 12D mesh, which gives you better control and ive found its easier to break in.

[Trilax03]

yeah jaw22 is right, i sometimes use 12D and it's easy to break in and gives control of the ball, also it doesn't make such a ridiculously big pocket, so it'd a little bit easier to clear w/ ...it also holds up some rebounds w/ a decent pocket

[Dadabhoy_Muzzi]

I just got news that my stick just came in! Anyways. I will probably be able to get a new mesh if the factory stringing does not work. I will probably get a 12D mesh kit. First I am going to see if I can get it from "The Lax Shack". If not then I will probably orded it from jimalax.com

[lax17man]

u should go with a elcipse and krito pro(spelling) the best combo EVER!!! :agree:

[nptlaxgoalie121]

Dadabhoy congrats on the new stick i have 2 eclipses and love them both. you cant go wrong with them. Both of mine are on kryptos but im not hear to tell you what shaft is better b/c i have only used kryptos. what i wanted to tell you is i am about your hight maybe a little taller i dunno. my shaft size is 37 inches from top to bottom. I started out using a full size goalie shaft then cut it down. When i bought it the shaft was full sized and i just kept takeing off a couple of inches untill i found what i liked. At first i thought the shaft was too short but i got used to it and now i wouldn't have it any other way.

my advice to you is if you by an expencive shaft maybe instead of cutting it down put some tape and pretend that tape in the bottom of the shaft and try it that way. its just so you dont have to cut down the shaft too short. i know its going to be difficult and your still going to have the rest of the shaft there but its better then haveing to buy a new once since you cant buy to aluminum(sp) shafts. if i had some i would send them to you in the mail but i dont even have any. Also when i was a freshman the varsity back up goalie who was a starter was like 6'1 or 6'2 and he used an attack/middy shaft and he loved it. later on he switched to a longer shaft took him some getting used to but he then like the longer shaft. The shaft still wasn't full sized though. Its all about prefrence.
good luck

[NuKoN]

im not sure about the goalie version, but the defense 803 is extremely heavy


No, it's not.

[robi]

I think the db803 might be a good goalie shaft, although it will definitely be top-heavy. UVA's Kip Turner uses a db803 shaft I think.

[nofear45465]

defense 803 is extremely heavy because db makes their d versions thicker and does not shave off metal on the inside.

haha. its like .1 ounce heavier then 2 attack shafts weights added together. its still probably the lightest d shaft out there. i had bionic with a RP on an803 pole and alot of people were still talking about how light the thing was.

[JedimasterKyle]

Did you notice he asked this back in September? He has probably ordered whatever he got a long time ago, so there was no need to bring this thread back from the dead. Please don't do this stuff just to bring your post count up.

[celticlax28]

I have an eclipse with a No rebound 2 pocket(members.aol.com/westonlax/noreb.htm) i highly recondmend it

[BTlaxripper]

Why resurrect a thread that has been dead for nearly a year, and is against the rules?