Help with sticks & pockets for new player

[OHLAXMom]

My daughter is playing for the first time this year. She's just learning the game and the one coach suggested a stick with a trackker pocket. They had suggested spending more on the head than the shaft. The one complete stick we looked at had a STX Level head. Is this a good one to start with and does it have the trackker pocket? I've read some of the advice about traditional vs. trackker. I'm still a little lost with it all and want to make sure I get all the info before I drop a chunk of change for the gear and it's not very useful to her.
She is only a freshman in high school and I think the biggest thing in her head right now, thanks to a few girls on the team, is the color. Ugh

[CTLaxer]

Debeer Tempest, www.sportsherway.com $35. I HIGHLY recomend you get Traditional stringing and not trakker.

[Kerosene]

Tempests are good sticks. I first played with an Apex and loved it. It did have a Trakker pocket and I found it to work perfectly fine for me, but it's really all about prefrence. Impulses are nice as well and I know that they come in pink, if I'm not mistaken. The Apexs also come in island colors as well.

ETA: I guess I should say the "main" reason I enjoy the Trakker so much is because of the weather changes and rain we can get around here. It works better for me durability-wise.

[OHLAXMom]

Thanks for the advice you two. I had checked out www.sportsherway.com this weekend and did see prices alot better than our local stores. I managed to get to Dick's sporting goods today and check them out. All the sticks they had in stock had the WebX type stringing. I did get a better idea on the differences of the stringing looking at those and saw a difference versus the ones we saw at the local shop. I didn't care much for the WebX as it looked like things could pull apart.
Coach called today and suggested we wait on buying her something since she had several extra and they were all different. She's going to let the monster try them out and see what works. She does have some that have the traditional stringing.
As for the color part of it, if she could find one that was all black then she'd be pretty happy. I think the days of pink and purple are long gone now for her.

[ICLax32]

Web-X and Trakker are both synthetic pockets. Neither are going to come apart and both can hold up to bad weather. the Web-X is designed to play more like traditional stringing so it flexes more at different points vs. the Trakker which is the same all over. The best way to choose a new stick is to try everyone else's first. Depending on your daughter's age you may want to choose different sticks - choosing a really advanced stick may not help if she's younger but if she's older she'll want to start with what her teammates have.

[mclax12]

If color is that big of a concern, your daughter can dye her head. Either at a store or she can do it herself.

[CTLaxer]

choosing a really advanced stick may not help if she's younger but if she's older she'll want to start with what her teammates have.

This is a philosophy that I do not agree with. Infact, I believe it's one of the things holding back the growth of young ladies in the sport compared to their male counterparts. This leads to having to reteach/relearn how to do the most important aspect of our sport, catch and throw. Personally, as a coach, I don't like having to reteach things and break old habits. Personally, as a player, I think it would be extremely frustrating to do the same.

All of my brand new players this year have a tempest or other "advanced" stick. It takes a little extra work to learn with it, yeah, but the pay off in the long run is well worth it for them as players and for me as a coach.

[goalLAX]

As for the color part of it, if she could find one that was all black then she'd be pretty happy. I think the days of pink and purple are long gone now for her.

This is the only all black stick you are going to find unless as others have said you dye the head black and you buy a black shft. Just thought you may like to know. As you can see they are very expensive to. :crying:

[ICLax32]

I see your poitn but I also think you're more apt to get bad habits from using a stick that you can't control. Again, I'm not talking about girls in HS I'm talking younger youth players. Isn't it just as hard for a coach to convince a player w/ a huge pocket because her stick is offset that she has to give more because under pressure she will? Also, isn't it frustrating for a younger player who is having a hard time catching to use a stick that's more narrow? And - let's not forget that with the exception of the Tempest that is on sale everywhere becasue it's discontinued that if you ask some youth players families to fork out $80-$90 for a stick when they don't know if she's going to keep playing is nuts.

[RYU]

The Tempest is my favorite wlax stick (as well as the Northwestern Wildcats') and a bargain from SHW. But... IMO, it's a terrible stick for beginners and cringe whenever I see beginners using them.

I agree w/ everything ICL32 posted above. As far as reteaching/relearning... if you learned good fundamentals to begin with, then the transition between different kinds of sticks should be smooth and painless. I've seen it time & again. The players w/ the most solid fundamentals are the ones adjust the best to different kinds of sticks, be it men's or women's, wood or plastic, short or long stick, straight or offset, box or field, goalie stick... whatever. It's the players who rely on stick technology who have the most trouble w/ adjusting between sticks and developing good fundamentals.

[OHLAXMom]

Thanks everyone for all the advice. I did go ahead and order her the Tempest from SHW. The coaches on her team are very nice but really wanted the trackker pocket. Something about helping guide the ball down the throat better or something? We'll see how that works out, any way there are a couple of the guys coaches who know how to sting heads. If that stringing is not working out for her then I ask them to help restring it to traditional.

goalLAX- did you mean to post a link or name of a stick thats all black? I didn't see what you're talking about. I just suggested the all black because it's one of her favorite colors. I did notice that there is an STX one that is all black and found one on e-bay the other day. I'll worry about the whole dye thing once this freshmen can catch and throw alot better.

I see the point on learning to catch and throw correctly, but being that she has never played. She can't do either very well right now which bugs her to no end. Coach is talking about trying her out in the attack position because she has a feeling about her. Now to go bone up on my field positions so I can help her here at home. Again thanks all.