page_title: Field hockey stick
section_title: The "midi" head
hierarchical_section_title: Field hockey stick / The "midi" head
caption_attribution_description: Comparison of horizontal head length of original 'Hook' (from outline drawing made from one purchased in 1984 by the author) with the horizontal length of a 'one piece' a stick commonly termed a short head or 'shortie'. Author Martin Conlon
context_page_description: In field hockey, each player carries a stick and cannot take part in the game without it. The stick for an adult is usually in the range 89–95 cm long. A maximum length of 105 cm was stipulated from 2016. The maximum permitted weight is 737 grams. The majority of players use a stick in the range 19 oz to 22 oz. Traditionally hockey sticks were made of hickory, ash or mulberry wood with the head of the sticks being hand carved and therefore required skilled craftsmen to produce. Sticks made of wood continue to be made but the higher grade sticks are now manufactured from composite materials which were first permitted after 1992. These sticks usually contain a combination of fibreglass, aramid fiber and carbon fibre in varying proportions according to the characteristics required.
context_section_description: 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 stick heads 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 in—150 mm 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 in (100 mm).
  The hook was 124 mm, measured horizontally across face of the stick head, when the handle was held vertically; the midi was 113 mm; many one piece heads between 110 mm and 115 mm, and the unusable ultra short 94 mm. A difference of only 30 mm 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 in (175 mm), 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 stick head 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 plywood 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.
caption: Comparison of horizontal head length of "hook" and a standard short head stick
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