Whilst wandering around the world of Octopush (or Underwater Hockey (UWH) as our international brethren refer to the game) in search of ways of recruiting more players in York, I came accross a link to an article on UWH stick design by Benson Taylor. It's a rather long and reasonably in-depth article (OK, it's very in depth - I'm being picky because he didn't discuss structural properties of wood versus plastic - ie limitations in design imposed by wood and it's grain structure - but that's about all he seems to have missed!), and looks at commonly used stick (or pusher) designs available commercially or hacked together by people like me in their spare time.

The article was rather timely, as we spent half an hour at last nights training session practising flicking. I took the opportunity to compare the various bats I have, and the britbats that the York University club has bought. The first thing to say is that having properly tried the Britbats (I've used them occaisionally before, but not done a back-to-back comparison with mine), I discovered that I hate them. I think it comes down partly to their lack of mass (so it's difficuly to impart energy and hence momentum to the puck), and partly the curved front edge which seems to end up dropping the puck off it, rather than propelling it forward. Maybe it's just me, or maybe I'm just used to my own bats, but I really, really couldn't get on with them. This got me to thinking it might be time for a trip to the local timber merchant, and asking if I can borrow my mate's bandsaw and make the club some decent bats. (They need goals, caps and gloves too - if anyone's interested in sponsorship or making a donation!)

Hence the article was rather useful. Armed with this enhanced knowledge, I'm at the very least going to experiment with making some more bats to try and refine my design (which I don't think Benson would approve of).

The article, as a 1 Mb PDF file, is available here:

It's also worth noting the site I found this on, Underwater Hockey World. I haven't had a very long look round, but there did seem to be interesting info on equipment and technique, and if you're that way inclined, the politics of UWH.

Edit: The original link to Benson's document is now broken. I've updated it with the last good link I have, but I've also stuck a copy on this site as well.