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Panthera Review from BossFHockey
After reviewing a range of Roku sticks last week, this week instagrams BossFHockey has reviewed the Panthera Valiant, Brave & L2 models.
The nice guys at Exclusive Hockey sent me 3 Panthera sticks to review:
Breakthrough Valiant – 90% Carbon, Extreme low bow, 24mm at 200mm
Breakthrough Brave – 90% Carbon, Low bow, 22mm at 200mm
L2 – 80% Carbon, Extreme low bow 24mm at 200mm
I am going to give a general review of all 3 but I will make some special notes as well.
Touch/Dribbling
8.5/10
All three sticks had a touch compound on the face of the head which gave very nice feel on the ball. The textured control area on the Breakthrough sticks continued all the way up the face of the stick, and while this sounds excessive I found it really good for getting flat and controlling the ball. All three sticks had a nice high balance point, making the head feel really light and making quick skills really easy, all 3 had a really nice bow for dribbling with and a thin head which made it easy to get under the ball for 3-D skills.
Flicking
8.5/10
The stand out was the Valiant and the L2, with both having the Extreme low bow it was so smooth to transfer power into the ball and fire it into the corners. I found it was still relatively easy with the Brave to lift the ball into the roof of the net and into the corners but it just required a little more effort then with the low bow.
Hitting
9/10
These sticks didn’t half put some oomph on the ball when you hit. All three sticks were pretty stiff for their relative carbon percentage. I found it really easy to transfer the power to the ball through the large sweet spot with little to no vibrations. The L2 was a bit softer then the Breakthrough but I didn’t fell like there was a substantial drop in power between the 2 ranges. With all these sticks being low bows obviously you need to adjust your technique to make sure the ball stays flat.
I also want to note that the textured face on the Breakthrough range made them fantastic for playing slider passes, I found I could get a lot of spin/whip through, even when performing a disguised pass to the right.
Reverse
8.5/10
Though the head of the stick is very thin the edge is fairly thick. I found it really easy to put direction on the ball and keep it really flat to the ground hitting where the coloured stripe met the reverse edge on the Breakthrough sticks. I found it a lot harder to control the height on reverse hits with the L2 stick because there was no visual reference to aim for. I am sure with more time with the stick I would either work out a visual reference or work out the reverse edge sweet spot and put some tape at this point to aim for. Even though I found it harder to control the height hitting on reverse with the L2 I still found it easy to put in into the edge of the goal (they would have been corners if I had more height control but most went into the side netting about knee to waist high).
Dragflick/Aerials
9/10
The stand out was the Breakthrough Valiant, the XLB and the textured face made it really easy to pick up the ball and gave some real whip to the the release. I also swear it got some curve onto the flicks as well but that is just my opinion. The L2 was also very nice to dragflick with and the Brave was good too but the Valiant was fantastic. With regards to aerials they are low bow sticks, so this made throwing overheads really easy, again the stand out was the Valiant, again the textured face on the Breakthrough sticks in my opinion added to the control of the ball on the stick and allowed for a better transfer of power
Summary
My personal favorite out of the three was the Valiant. For me the textured face really helped with control on the ball when playing slider passes or dragflicking. The sticks I used for reviewing were also the Exclusive hockey demo sticks and had some wear on the face and head but the textured face was still fantastic and there were no clips on the sticks that I could find.
Get yours at:
https://www.exclusivehockey.co.uk/collections/panthera-hockey
Roku Review from @bossfhockey
We recently sent a few sticks to Instagramer & stick review bossfhockey. Here's his reviews of the Roku X-Bow, Roku L-Bow & Roku Scoop.
Roku Hockey
I was sent 3 Roku sticks by Exclusive Hockey to try out and write a review. I was sent a X-Bow (low bow), a L-Bow (mid-low bow) and a Scoop (mid-low bow with a groove). This is a generalised review but I will call out anything I think is especially relevant
Touch/Dribbling
7.5/10
I started the testing feel on the ball. I found the ball wasn’t bouncing off, I could feel the ball on the end of the stick when moving it round. With this feel on the ball there was some negative feedback from misfits, but the stick felt quite alive in my hands when on the ball. The stick isn't super stiff but has a nice balanced feel.
Flicking
8/10
Flicking with the X-Bow was really nice, the low bow profile obviously is designed specifically for getting under the ball and elevating it into the up areas of the goal at pace. But the Scoop was also very good for flicking as long as you can get the ball into the groove on the shaft you can generate some real power on to your flicks and ping the ball into the top corners.
Hitting
8.5/10
These sticks all hit well, the sweet spot was not gigantic but was big enough. The power output was pretty good as well across the full range hitting techniques. The Groove didn't really have any effect on slapping (any more than any other groove can if you connect wrong). The full low bow was great for getting under the ball and rattling it off the underside of the bar.
Reverse
8.5/10
Fairly good reverse edge,I found it very easy to get direction on the reverse hits and I found across all 3 sticks I could generate quite alot of power. the edge was of a medium size not super square but also not too thin so getting the ball to lift was a really easy. It was a little bit thinner on the groove with made it easier to get under the ball which made controlled lifts more difficult.
Dragflick/Aerials
8.5/10
Obviously the X-Bow was the stand out of these three sticks the extra low bow.It was really easy to pick the ball up and get it to roll along the bow and fling it to the corners. Much like with flicking if you can get the ball into the groove then the scoop then it is also really easy to ping the ball of the end of the stick like a rocket. The L-Bow is the most challenging to dragflick with but with a little practice it was easy enough to get the ball where you wanted it to go but I don’t think i was able to generate the same power as with the scoop or the X-bow. Aerials were very similar in that the X-Bow made throwing a 30 yard over head super easy, if you made proper use of the scoop then it made it relatively easy to get under the ball and drop it 30 yards down the pitch to the end of a player’s stick. The L-Bow required a little more practice than the other two sticks to get the consistency and distance.
Summary
I think these would make good upper intermediate level sticks. They are on the softer side of the high carbon sticks. So they offer increased stiffness over 70% stick but are more forgiving then the top level high carbon sticks.
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We are hockey players ourselves and we understand that hockey is an expensive sport to play both in terms of subscriptions as well as the actual equipment. Therefore we have established Exclusive Hockey and have dedicated ourselves to the following ethos and mission -
“To supply the best quality hockey sticks and equipment at the best possible value from new and exciting brands from around the world”
