How does hockey tape affect your performance?

You have been taping your hockey stick for ages. So has your dad and his dad before. Hockey players have been using tape for more than 100 years. However, new research shows that applying tape to the blade of your stick might be a less than ideal solution.

„Why do you tape your hockey stick the way you currently do?“ A simple question that we asked dozens of professional players. And even though in hockey (just like in any other professional sport) performance is everything, when it comes to taping the hockey stick, the answers were quite un-performance-like.

"Superstition" "Not really sure" "Been doing the same thing forever" "Had a good game and stuck with it"

Is it a gimmick then? Or just a fancy way how to express your personality on the ice? Hockey tape helped protect the wooden blades of hockey sticks and prolonged the durability of the stick and also provided the necessary grip so the puck did not slide from the blade as it used to be finished with resin or other slippery material. Couple decades ago the whole hockey industry abandoned the wooden sticks (especially at the pro level) and the ultra-light and flexible sticks of today strive to give the top players the ultimate edge for their A-game. Especially the pro sticks are optimally balanced down to a single gram of weight, flexible in different kickpoints and usually made from graphite, carbon and other high-end materials.

The stick manufacturers of the likes of Bauer, CCM, True, Warrior and Fischer as well as all other brands compete to make the best and lightest sticks, yet they all leave the most important part of the stick to the players own imagination. And yes, the players add hockey tape to their blades in all possible patterns and styles. They cut it with scissors to match the shape of the blade. They wax it do keep the water away from the cloth-based tape. They use as little tape as possible to keep the blade lighter. They re-tape their sticks sometimes even during a game to get that „fresh“ feeling and to get rid of tape that has cuts and is damaged. Mostly without actually evaluating its effect on their performance. Buying a $250 hockey stick and wrapping the blade without thinking about it is the equivalent of buying a Roger Federer racket and stringing it with shoe laces. It just does not go together with top performance.

We have developed the Rezztek material with all of this on our mind. As thin and light as possible, we try not to add unnecessary weight to the most important part of the hockey stick: the blade. With its water resistance and water repellency feature it will stay that way also throughout your game. The surface structure provides an even, yet more grippy surface than any other hockey tape, allowing you to add more rotation to the puck as you shoot or pass. It does not cover the bottom edge of your blade – less friction allowing the blade to move without resistance or „bite“ when stickhandling even on choppy ice. Application and replacement is easy as it leaves no residue on the blade of your stick. So what does the Rezztek material and all of its features bring to the rink in terms of performance?

A team of scientists lead by Mr. Martin Plesch put Rezztek through a test and compared it to a traditional hockey tape.

A 3% increase of shot speed and a 6% increase of puck rotation are the average results across a group ranging from NHL players all the way down to skilled amateurs.

Let’s translate that percentage to distance. A Zee Chara slapshot from the blueline is actually 60cm (23 inches) sooner behind the goal line when shot with Rezztek on the blade as compared to traditional tape. I think you all agree that at the NHL level, this can be the difference between a goal and a save.

Already used in the Olympics, the World Hockey Championship, the NHL and elite hockey leagues all over the world, Rezztek aims to become the new standard in the game of hockey. As it is currently only distributed to professional players in North America, reach out to info@rezztek.com if you want to give it a try!