At this articles, we would show you 6 steps to put on a hockey stick grip. Whenever you buy a hockey stick, it usually comes with a basic hockey stick grip. This original grip is almost similar to a tennis grip, which has a quite good quality. However, if the grip gets wet, it starts to slide a little bit at a time.
That’s why I prefer something called a chamois grip, shammy grip, or zeempje grip. This grip absorbs water super well, and that’s why it’s super important. In today’s discussion, I am showing you how to grip your stick with a chamois grip. I use it myself, and this is how I put it on.
Step 1: Preparation
The biggest mistake people make when doing a hockey stick grip is that they make it not symmetrical. As a result, it tends to slide, and you get little gaps that whenever water comes in, it gets really messy. In this case, you definitely need a chamois grip. To have a chamois grip on your stick, first, you need a simple hockey chamois tape, which you can get anywhere in any hockey store online or offline.
Next, depending on whether you prefer the thickness of the chamois grip over your normal grip or not, you can choose whether to take the original grip off or leave it on, and you put the new tape over. I prefer to put the chamois tape over the basics one because it gives me exactly the right thickness that I like for my hockey stick grip.
Step 2: The Tape
Before you start, you need to make sure that once you continue, the grip doesn’t keep on sliding. To prevent that from happening, what I often do is to take a little piece of tape, just a small bit which you don’t want to see. You don’t want too much tape because otherwise, the thickness at the top is going to be different than the rest of the stick.
The process is simple. First, you get the right side of the tape, and then you just put it out a little bit longer than the grip and make sure it doesn’t have the exact thickness of the grip itself. Next, what you want to do is that you want to place the grip at the top, and then you want to stick this small piece of tape. That’s it! So now when you pull, it’s held and that it won’t slide. (Image 2:30)
Step 3: The Top Part
When tape is stable, you can start to go around. The first lap you make needs to be entirely on the same height as where you started. Don’t go down yet because then you will get an ugly bit at the top, which you won’t like, and you will have to fix it with tape. And the problem with tape is when it gets wet, it slides as well. So the first lap is one whole round on the top so that you get the first beautiful overlap of about one centimeter.
With the first overlap done, you pull the grip really tight, and then go down diagonally. Try your best to pull really tight, and then pull down. When this is finished, you get the first lap at where you started, and one more lap downward. From there on, I’m going to go downwards, and that’s when you decide how you want the overlap at the body part to be.
Step 4: The Body Part
Make sure you pull nice and tight to prevent any bubbles in the grip. And then from here on, you can decide how far you want to overlap to be. So do you want to go overlap really wide, or do you want to make it really thin? I like it really thin. Note that the total distance of the grip isn’t that long, so if you go thick, it might not be able to go all the way to the bottom. I like it to be just about a few millimeters overlap.
Every time you pull, press your thumb down to make sure that it doesn’t slide. From there on, you just keep going all the way down, but make sure you pull tight and press with your thumb. And then when you do that you can go down. Adjust your hand so that the distance between every lap is the same from top to bottom.
Step 5: The Bottom Part
When there is not much left of the grip, you have to decide on the next thing: how far down you want to go. Some people like to go as far as they can to the bottom while the others just go half the way. There can be many different possibilities. However, it might make the weight distribution of the stick feel different. What I often do is I actually go to the bottom of where the old grip was. Around that is where I want to cut it off, because that sort of makes the weight distribution the way I like it.
So when you get to the end, cut the grip off using scissors. Or, in my case, I like to rip it off because I can. And then you take a piece of tape and make sure that when you place the tape on the grip, it’s precisely on the same line as the grip. Don’t do it differently because then you will get an ugly bit of tape. Make sure it’s precisely on end, and make sure you press down and then from here on, let it go nice and tight. Check if it sticks well, and then finish off with a few final laps.
The final result you get is an adorable grip that has precisely the same distance between every lap and feels totally comfortable in your hand. So I’ve just instructed you guys to put on a hockey stick grip as good as you can to make sure it feels perfect for the games. Thank you for reading, and kindly share it with your hockey friends if you find it useful. Until next time!
