Also, Dingo's mallets are crazy. He puts a huge amount of work into those and they are like 8" long mallet heads.
Offset mallet heads
I've been making mallets out of just about everything I can get my hands on these days. Everyone I know is on the lookout for ski poles.
I recently saw, on the wheel cover thread, a photo that included a mallet that was not only offset (shaft mounted to one side of the head) but angled as well, like a hockey stick. Revolutionary... Very nice work, Dingo. Sorry to hijack your photo...
What do you think? I know people have been playing offset mallets, but angled mallets?
I made one today and haven't played with it yet. Seems that to get a solid shot, I have to spin it around and use the short side (with acute angle). Perhaps a less severe angle would accommodate shooting with both sides of the mallet.
It looked like Dingo had also added a compensatory bend in the shaft to make the head and shaft closer to perpendicular:
Bent limp-dick mallets!
I made a mallet with an angled head. I felt like passing and ball handling were pretty good, maybe better. But, for some reason my shots kept going off to one side, I guess you could get used to it if you wanted to.
The jank is and will be forever.
I have settled on five degrees jank. Length I might vary depending on which position I would focus on with a team. 6" if goal tending and 4.5 for shooter. I'm far more moderate than Damon on both dimensions.
Yes, when playing with a janky mallet it matters which end you shoot from. It's necessary to anticipate the shot and hold the shaft accordingly.
I too was inspired by Damon, in Portland '09. Aden from London was playing with a mallet similar to mine in Berlin last year.
Damon's mallet was 180mm in this photo. He's down to 160mm now after feeling it was too heavy and cumbersome in Berlin/London last year.
That shaft would have been a Kerma "ergo bend" or something like that, and already had the bend in it. He's using a straight shaft now. I'll send him over to ellaborate...
Hey all, wow, havent been on lobp for months.
That was actually 20cm in 2009 (nearly 8 inches) I'm playing 16cm and heading to 15cm. (~6 inches) The angle is still the same, (2cm difference between the top and bottom hole.)
I liked the bent handle for a year but I got over that a while ago too. (still have a few lying around) though it was never about correcting for the angle, I just liked the way it sat in my palm.
The angle was straight from Pieter in East Van though I never actually tried it till I'd been playing for a year and moved back to Australia. Now theres a bunch of people who use angled mallets here in Melbourne.
D
I just stopped using them in October, with a length of about 130mm and a cap on the end.. The angle was the most important part, once you got the hang of shooting it felt really natural. I find straight mallets harder to shoot with now.
Where's Pieter!? He'll know what to tell us!
It's all right, I feel like it makes your angled shots srtronger but your straight on shot weaker. I've also heard some feelings that it makes ball handling a little more difficult.
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West and East squash the beef
That shit 's legit as fuck!