page_title: Field hockey stick
section_title: Set-back heads, ball position & stopping
hierarchical_section_title: Field hockey stick / Set-back heads, ball position & stopping
caption_attribution_description: English: Comparison of setbacks 'recurve' and 'kinked shaft' sticks.
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 illustration called 'Stopping and Hitting' shows that when a vertical stick shaft is aligned to the centre of the ball part of the ball protrudes to the heel side, this would happen even if the heel was not a bend but a 90° corner and the only way to cover the entire ball with the shaft held vertical is to use a set-back head—that is a head that is set-back to the heel side of the shaft.
  A stick with a set-back head and toe-side protrusion, with the handle positioned vertically, covers substantially more of the ball and can reduce off heel deflection errors in stopping. Using the set-back head in the more comfortable or natural stopping angle puts a vertical area of shaft above the ball while at the same time aligning centre ball and a line projected through the centre of the handle.
  In the upright hitting position, which is generally between 15° and 25° off vertical, the heel bend of the Indian stick of the 1970s will cover the whole ball. As the heel bend gets tighter in the 1980s and 1990s the ball is controlled closer to the centre line of the stick but it is not until the setback stick appears that the centre of the shaft is aligned (or nearly so) with the centre of the ball. The ball appears to move back along the length of the various stick heads as the heads become shorter and the heel tighter, in fact the playing position of the ball is moved further and further from the feet as playing reach is increased.
  There are presently two styles of outfield set-back stick, the degree of setback to the head is a feature they have in common; they differ in that one has a 'kink' or shaft protrusion on the toe side above the head of the stick while the other does not. In the goalkeeper versions some also have the toe of the head cut flat (parallel to the handle) rather than rounded to allow the user to present  the stick closer to the ground when stopping in a horizontal position on the reverse side, this is to more easily prevent the ball from going under the handle of the stick.
caption: Setback comparison of "recurve" and "kinked shaft" sticks
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