Long head: This can be advantageous for both offensive and defensive purposes. A long head is great for moves that go up and down the line. This is because there is simply more area to clamp and push the ball with. This extra area also means that if a player with longer head faces a quicker opponent that they have an advantage in that it is harder to push the ball around a longer head.

Short head: This is advantageous to a face-off player with quick hands and speedy moves. It allows less of a chance of getting caught up on his opponents head when pulling away from the face-off X. It can also work well if a player clamps and rotates the scoop of the head over the ball.

Narrow head: A narrow throat is a must for a majority of face-off players. The narrower the head, the less time it takes to get the head over the ball and the ball into the back of your pocket. A narrow head gives a great advantage when using most conventional face-off moves such as clamps, pushes, jumps and rakes.

Wide head: While most players see a wide head as a disadvantage some can use a wide head to their benefit. Players that like to use their fingers to grab the opponents head or players that like to jump over the ball with their head or hand and arm can use the wide head as a block to keep their opponent from sneaking under their jam to get the ball.

Flexible head: A flexible head can be good if after it flexes it returns to its normal shape. A face-off player does not want his head to flex to the side when taking a draw, only to stand up and have a crooked head that makes picking up the ball difficult. A flexible head allows a player to place the head flush to the ground at the start of the face-off and then to have the stick bend in order to get a slingshot effect when pushing or pulling the ball out and away from his opponents stick.

Stiff head: A stiff head is great for a player that uses his strength on a face-off and does not want to have his head move or bend due to his opponent shoving their stick against his. Many players prefer stiff heads for face-offs that involve lots of stick on stick contact.

Offset head: Offset heads have been so popular lately that it seems everybody uses them, however, not too many people use them for specific face-off purposes. Some players do like the manner in which the offset head brings the throat of the stick further away from the ball while the side-wall can be millimeters from the ball. This allows a player to use their right hand to push their opponents stick off the ball when they first get the clamp because their hand is higher off the ground due to the offset head.

Straight Head: The traditional straight head can still be spotted upon sticks of pure face-off specialists. It allows the player to get his right hand as closer to the ball when compared with an offset head. This allows the player to get his hand into the action of a draw just as quickly as his stick is involved.

2 inch sidewall: This has become the standard for most sticks on the market today. The large sidewall adds to a stick's stiffness and durability. Both are important qualities in a good face-off stick.

Smaller sidewall: A smaller sidewall means that the inside of the stick is a little closer the ball on a draw. This may give an advantage to a player with quick hands and a quick jump or clamp.

Thick throat and collar: This adds to the strength of a head and allows the player to use that to his advantage when taking draws. However, a thick collar means that the player cannot as comfortably sneak their right hand onto the plastic of the throat before a face-off.

Thin throat and collar: This allows the player to put their right hand onto the plastic before the whistle blows. The player can then better feel the flex of the throat of the stick after clamping onto the ball or his opponents stick.

Do you like to clamp the ball and flip it out to yourself or wing men? If so, you can use the plastic of the back of your stick to your advantage. In other words, some players like to loosen up parts of the pocket in order to create a lip under the plastic of the back of the scoop or under one of the top shooters. This can often greatly compromise one's ability to throw or shoot in a normal fashion if they are not used to the feeling. If a player can get used to the ball hitting the scoop on the way out of the stick then you've got no problem giving your stick a little lip. It's like this. If you want a lip, deal with the whip.

By lacing the sidewalls on the inside of the stick or doubling up on the sidewalls, you can create a throat that when a ball is placed in the back of the stick it will become lodged in because of the strings acting as a narrow throat. This often happens in narrow throated sticks with dura-mesh already in them.

Or one can simply weave nylon in and out of the holes in the mesh from top to bottom, pull them tight and you've got a new channel on the inside of the stick and a fierce clamp from the back of the stick. Players will also use a tightly strung V in the stick in order to give some grip to the ball when they have it clamped.

You can use the diamonds of your opponent's traditional pocket against them. How? Those diamonds make easy finger holes for you right index and middle fingers. Many players will just wait for their opponents to clamp and let them do so onto their fingers! Then, simply hold on and lift your opponents stick by the pocket off the ball. Think it's a dirty move? You might be surprised how often it happens in big NCAA games, that's right, it even happens in national championships!

The first step is going to be to alter the shape of the stick in a few dimensions. Using the directions from the article on baking a stick, you will need to secure the top at the legal limit before doing anything else.

Next, we are going alter the throat of the stick by baking to the point where it is only as wide as the ball from the throat to more than half the way up the head. This will allow you to get closer to the ball when you lay the stick onto the ground for a draw.

Then, we placed the head onto the shaft and heated up the throat again. When the plastic of the throat was hot and a bit more pliable the top of the head was pushed forward, creating a bend at the throat that tilts the scoop of the head up when looking at the stick from the side.

This means that when the formerly straight head lies on its side, it will now naturally and easily roll over onto the ball during a face-off. The player can quickly push the stick to roll over the ball.

Now for the pocket. We used a broken-in piece of dura mesh in the stick in order to give the pocket a softer, well used feel. The side walls were strung normally. But, because the head is now so narrow as soon as the sidewall string touches the ball, you've got it stuck right in there! The only thing to worry about is that it does not get stuck in the back of your stick. This is where having the softer mesh helps.

Then we placed shooting strings half-way down the stick. This created a healthy lip under the back of the stick between the top shooting string and the back of the scoop. We have almost made a second pocket from this. It's now possible to Indian scoop up the ball with the back of the stick. Not only is this a great trick to show your friends, it's also a great way to fling the ball in the air to a wing man on a draw. The only down side is that the stick has a very unnatural feeling toss. This was something that we needed to adjust, so we decided to place one loose shooting string half-way up the second pocket for a little better feel.