I've used a 30'' stick from another brand for about 15 years, and my daughter now also uses the same stick. Have found more advantages than disadvantages, particularly with aerial saves. Got the first stick as a demo from a mate who had a sporting goods shop. Have had to import the last couple, but would find it really hard to play with anything else now!

I did the same thing ten years ago with one of my Mercians Zig Zag sticks. I cut the tip off, maybe a little less, and found that the equilibrium point went more into the head; impossible to feel comfortable. I discarded that stick after two or three training routines...

The main disadvantage, imho, is a one on one and having to go to ground. Most keepers i know extend their stick (so they are holding it further to the top) so that they have a further reach to stop a player going round them. Obviously i imagine the higher level you get to the less you'd actually face many one on ones.

If the stick was made to be balanced with a long handle then surely it would be very head heavy and feel awkward once cut making aerial saves worse, not necessarily better. I guess if it was like the Mercian Znake that is designed short then it would be ok and much lighter/faster. I would just worry there wouldnt be enough weight behind it to allow strong deflections and stick tackles which is why I use a Fatboy now after a few issues with lighter sticks.

Sometimes in my personal opinion using a shorter stick made it heavier on the hook, due to that the balance which is thought for the 36", on a 32" i feel it unbalanced. I used to use shorter sticks but I'm not convinced anymore. I rather the length of 36". In addition 36" now helps you out for the shoot-outs.

I find the Mercian Znake 30" gives me more control and strength. My daughter who is 16y.o. and has played keeper for three years also now prefers it, but 19y.o. son prefers a 37'' even though he has used the 30. Given that, is this 32'' from OBO commercially available?

I believe that I've found a happy medium to both of these issues. Being an engineer I'm thinking about kit design all the time. How I see it there are 3 issues relating to keeper stick, as follows Power - We need to be able to propel the ball sufficiently and mass helps with this Balance – We need good mass distribution and a low overall mass to help reactions Reach - We want to be able to reach as far as possible. This is kind of obvious but important These three issues become mutually exclusive when we start to push the limits of what we want. The short stick may give better power but will lose out on items 2 & 3. I believe that the emphasis we place on each of 1 to 3 depends on our style or play had physical build. Being a short arse keeper at only 5'8" I found that I was lacking on item 3 particularly when logging on short corners. I then started to think that unlike an outfield we don’t use the majority of the handle of the stick and most of it is dead weight. Therefore in order to improve reach but maintain balance and power I've basically added a counter weight to the top of my handle in the form of tape bound to a diameter of 2”. This is given me a 4” further reach for ground work, maintained a good balance point for aerial work and also maintained head weight for power. As with all sticks though I have to move the stick in my hand for optimisation of the various skills The next modification I intend to make is to replace the grip with a tennis racquet grip as the length of this approximates to the changes I need to make when moving my stick in my hand and it also gives me tactile markers to know exactly where the stick is in my hand without looking. My thoughts are that if this was to be taken to a further extreme Obo could look to thin out the stick in areas where it’s not needed further improve mass distribution. I now find it very odd to use sticks without the balance enhancement and everyone who’s tried it finds it easy to adapt. If my browser was behaving I'd upload a picture but its pretty easy to understand

With regards to the balance issue, how sensitive is the balance? is more tape around the top of the handle enough to significantly sway the balance towards the handle? I've got a TK GT stick and the balance is quite forward for my liking, basically a few inches back from the kink. Would taping it like that be enough to send it back on to the forward end of the grip do you think?

In regards to the balance issue that is talked about here and the OBO facebook page. I have not found this an issue, however I will be trying a counter weight as Billy talked about on the handle in the form of tape when I get a chance so i will let you know how it goes.