Customer Rating:      Summary: good starter set Comment: First, I love watching hockey, but have never played, so I'm not the person to look to for sound advice on the technical merits of these sticks. But I am a dad, and my 4 year old loves playing... that's the starting point of this review.
The sticks are pretty good for whacking the ball around, and seem durable enough. The edge is flat, and my son has used these sticks very well to learn "saucer" passes, wrist shots, backhand, and one-timers. There aren't many kids in the rural area where we live, so he has a daily challenge with any adult who will take him on, with the adult obligated to use one of these sticks. I must say that while they're about 2 feet too small for an adult, no one (including me: 6'4", 250#) comes away from a game feeling like we've been ringing a bell at Notre Dame Cathedral. The shafts are plastic wrapped in decorative tape, although the tape was gone in a couple of weeks (once it starts peeling, you can't help yourself). One of the sticks broke after 5 months, but that was me -- I was getting a little overzealous with my slapper.
I'll be buying 2 more sets to keep the games going. Oh, the ball... I bought a package of street hockey balls, but we prefer the one that came with this set over those. It doesn't bounce much (good), but is squishy enough not to leave welts on the shins of kids when you let 'em rip.
Highly recommended for people who want something that's pretty tough, but that's affordable for when they give out.
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