Field Hockey Stick - The 'midi' Head

The 'midi' Head

The death knell of the ultra short head was sounded in 1986, due to the introduction of the 'midi' ‘head’ shape, produced with a laminating process; although of course many players continued to use 'one piece' short head sticks for many years after that date and many thousands more of them were manufactured. The reason for the continued use of the ‘one piece’ was that the 'midi' length was similar to that of the more popular 'one piece' stickheads that had been around for the previous ten or so years. Some 'one piece' constructions were still being produced on presses on which the central 'boss' had not been modified and the 'heel' bend was 'slower' than on that of the production of the more aware manufacturers, but the more 'go ahead' manufacturers were producing a 'one piece' that could compete well with the laminated 'midi' – at least as far as ‘playing functionality’ was concerned.

The biggest 'casualty' of the 'midi' was the patented 'Hook' produced by the same company. It had not 'taken off' in the UK culture of the short-head stick and for a number of years after the 'midi' was introduced the 'Hook' was seen as something of a novelty, even as an indoor stick or a stick exclusively for goalkeepers. In fact versions of it were produced specifically for goalkeepers, with a very extended toe (6" - 150mm or more) and that development continued until some were made with the 'toe' extending nearly the length of the handle and the FIH 'stepped in' and ruled that the vertical 'toe' limit was in future to be 4" - (100mm).

The 'Hook' was 124mm, measured horizontally across face of the stickhead, when the handle was held vertically; the 'midi’ was 113mm ; many 'one piece’ heads between 110mm and 115mm, and the unusable 'ultra short' 94mm. A difference of only 30mm between the head length of a stick that was considered cumbersome (although the 'Hook' also had the height of the 'toe' causing a feeling of imbalance) to one that was considered too short to easily play with. There were still many players playing quite happily with a stick with a head length of 7" (175mm), but players buying new sticks were now conscious of quite subtle differences in stick 'feel' and performance due to length, shape and the distribution of 'head' weight - not just the total ounce weight and the 'swing weight or balance' of the stick - and for the first time, in the years after 1986, were being offered a wide range of hockey sticks from a greatly increased number of manufacturers, from which to choose what suited them. After the arrival of the laminations, some brands were offering as many as ten different shapes or styles of stickhead on the traditional shaft. The arrival of 'composites' would complicate the picture further.

In the early 1990s there were an astonishing number and variety of hockey sticks on offer compared with what had been available ten years earlier. By 1992, hockey stick reinforcement was a big issue and 'composites' had been accepted into an (extended) FIH 'experimental trial period'(there was a great deal of concern about the power generated by these new reinforcements and the safety of players). There were also hockey sticks with metal handles and inserted ply-wood heads (made by the American company Eastons, better known for making baseball bats), as well as the wide range of 'one piece' head sticks still produced and an expanding range of laminated 'midi' and laminated 'shorties'. The metal handled sticks were later banned for 'safety reasons', in what was widely regarded as a 'political' move by the FIH.