Hey all, this is mainly aimed at people in the UK but hockey players elsewhere are more than welcome to chip in.
We (at Southampton) are currently using some very cheap and functional goals that, although they’re better than nothing, are too small, light and the net lets the ball through.
What goals are teams in the rest of the UK using? Are you putting up with goals that are too big or small, modifying football nets to work properly, or just buying Roger’s £240 ice hockey nets? Where are you getting your alternatives from?
I’ve looked into making some cheaper ice-hockey style nets, using spare ice hockey nets from crazykennys.com, and 40mm solvent-weld waste pipe. These should be light, tough as a normal net and easy to fold, dismantle and store. I’ve costed and I should be able to make a pair for £100-£140, the main cost being £60 for the ice hockey netting. They’ll be exactly the right size and will be the same tubular construction as a metal hockey net. Would any UK teams be interested in me making them a pair? They’ll be cheaper if I make more, as I have to buy the tubing in 30m packs, and a pair only uses 20m.
You could cheap out and use some sort of garden netting, it wouldn’t be as durable but dramatically cheaper. This would be enough for atleast one goal, and costs £3.
If it is not a tournament so what if the ball goes through? It should be pretty obvious if a goal was scored.
At Lunis we have only once bothered to put up the proper goals on our weekly meets, they might be quick to assemble however it is even quicker just to use the football goals already present with a netball post used to set a realistic width.
Other than for the goalie wouldn’t it be beneficial to train with a smaller than standard goal?
I have been looking at alternative netting, probably held on with tag-ties. I’m sure there’s somewhere we can get ‘normal’ netting that we can fit to a frame somehow, I’m pretty annoyed that its £26 for something that can’t cost more than £2 to make. After some further research I’ve found this that should do the job for a fraction of the cost.
This is something we’ve discussed, but we think our goals are a bit too small, and with a smaller goal you can’t practice flicked high shots into the top corners, and unless (as we play) you have no specific goalie then the wheel fills the space and there’s little chance to score. The smaller the goal the more shots are concentrated in the ‘wheel area’, and the easier they are for a skilled goalie to defend. Also, the easier way to train a goalie is to have something for them to hang on to, and currently our little goals offer no support, and the ball is forever being caught in the netting.
With the UK league just starting up, I thought there might be a small market for full-size, cheap and portable goals. I agree with the ‘passing through’, sometimes it is in fact easier to retrieve the ball if it is allowed to pass through the goal and off the back wall, rather than trying to hook it out of the back of the goal while staying mounted.
Although leaning on the goals is usually tolerated in scratch tournaments etc. it’s better to encourage players not to lean on the goals as the unicycle hockey rules states;
There may be a patent pending (well probably not) as we at EMU’s already have goals made from cheap polypropylene waste pipe and fittings (50mm I think). If any parts should break they’re easy to replace and putting them together/transporting them is quick and easy (having a Roland really helps with this ). As a side benefit they bend easily which makes leaning on them useless and so encouraging players not to lean on them.
Oh and in the unlikely event that someone should crash into them they are forgiving (the goal that is).
What are you using as nets? I agree with the not being able to lean statement for competitions, but we have players that would benefit, initially, from the stability offered by a handy pole to lean on during training.
I’ve looked up some websites and made some calculations, and can probably get nets for 2 goals for around £20, bringing the overall cost down to £80 a pair.
We’ll try and post a picture of the goals from tonights practise - using the non-welded fittings makes it nice and easy to dismantle and transport - I can’t remember exactly where I got the netting from but it was somewhere off the “Net” I’ll have a look and see if I can find an email from them or a reciept to get some contact details.
). As a side benefit they bend easily which makes leaning on them useless and so encouraging players not to lean on them.
they are forgiving (the goal that is).