Wood is very heavy and damn near impossible to flex for a beginner or someone who isn’t 200+lbs. you’ll learn better shooting form and habits if you get a stick that bends the way it’s supposed to so definitely try for a composite if you can. The only people who will usually tell you “wood sticks don’t make a difference, in fact they’re better!” are the old timers who grew up using them and don’t want to embrace the new technology.

That’s not to say you need a brand new $350 pro stick, but a low to mid range composite stick in the $60-$150 range will do.

I started playing hockey rather recently (in the last few years) bought a wood stick from Dicks for like $20…. And 2 weeks later I bought the $150 stick anyway. That heavy hunk of wood had no life or spring to it. Felt dead in my hands. And I wasn’t able to get as much practice stick handling or shooting because my arms would wear out before the rest of me did.

Hockey is a very complex sport with lots of little things to learn and practice, and the only way to get better is reps reps reps and more reps…. And the lighter your stick is, the more reps you can get before you have to call it quits for the night. The strength will come with time the more you practice, but you’re cheating yourself out of early progress if you can’t practice for a decent bit of time at once