Lacrosse Sticks: The Complete Buying Guide (2026)
STX Stallion 50 Complete Stick
The default first stick most coaches name without hesitating
How to choose a stick
This is the page for the question that comes before “which stick should I buy”: how do you actually choose one? Complete stick or separate parts, what changes by position, when alloy stops being good enough, and what order to spend your money in.
If you already know what you’re looking for, the guide index at the bottom sends you straight to the ranked picks.
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Start Here: One Decision Does Most of the Work
Almost every lacrosse stick question collapses into a single fork. Are you buying a complete stick, which arrives assembled, strung, and playable, or are you building one from a head and a shaft you pick separately?
Get this right and the rest is detail. Get it wrong and you either waste money on parts a new player can’t use, or you buy a factory stick that a serious player outgrows in half a season.
| Complete stick | Head and shaft, bought separately | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it’s for | First season, unsure of position, growing fast, or buying for a kid | Second season and beyond, position settled, player can feel the difference |
| Setup | None. Open the box and play | You string the head, or pay a shop to do it |
| Total cost | Lower. Bundled pricing beats buying parts at the same quality tier | Higher, and you pay again every time you change your mind |
| Control you get | Whatever the factory chose | Head shape, shaft material, pocket depth, all yours |
| Biggest risk | Outgrowing it once skill outpaces the gear | Spending real money on a setup that doesn’t suit how you actually play |
The honest rule
If the player hasn’t finished a full season, buy a complete stick. There is no scenario where a first-year player is held back by a factory pocket, and plenty where they’re held back by a stick nobody strung properly.
If they’ve played a year or more and know their position, building your own is where the money starts being worth it.
The thing that surprises most people: heads and shafts are interchangeable across brands. A StringKing head bolts onto an STX shaft. That matters because it means upgrading isn’t all or nothing. You can keep the half of the stick you like and replace the other half, which is usually the cheapest real improvement available to you.
Find Your Situation
Four buckets cover almost everyone. Find yours, take the pick, then follow the link for the full ranking and the runners up.
STX Stallion 50 Complete Stick
The default first stick, and the one most coaches name without hesitating. The head has a wide face, which forgives catches that are slightly off target, and in the first month that’s most catches. One thing to check: the Amazon listing is the 39 inch youth length, so read the size section below before buying it for an older player.
StringKing Complete 2 Junior
Built and sized for 10U rather than shrunk down from an adult stick. That’s the difference that stops young players developing bad cradling mechanics just to manage something too long for them.
STX Stallion 200 Complete Stick
The attack and midfield configuration in a full length build. This is the stick to buy when a player is about to age out of a youth length and you’d rather not buy twice in one year.
StringKing Complete 2 Intermediate Attack
A step up from starter gear without jumping to a fully custom setup. Position specific shape, and a factory pocket consistent enough that you’re not fighting your own stick while you learn to shoot.
Buying for a girls’ or women’s player? That’s a genuinely different product, not a colour change. There’s a section on it further down.
Choosing a Shaft: Material Is the Real Decision
Length is set by your age group and position, and we cover that in the stick size chart. What’s actually a choice is what the shaft is made of, and there are three tiers.
Alloy
Aluminium based, heavier, cheap, and hard to kill. This is what nearly every complete stick ships with and what a lot of high school players are still using happily. Alloy dents rather than snapping, so it usually gives you warning before it fails.
Warrior Kryptolyte 14 Attacker Shaft, 30 inch
A straightforward alloy handle at the 30 inch length attack and midfield players use. This is the upgrade that makes sense when the shaft on a complete stick finally gives out but the head is still fine.
Composite
The middle tier. Lighter than alloy, and it doesn’t sting your hands the way bare metal does in early spring. A reasonable landing spot if carbon money isn’t available.
STX Fortress 700 Composite Handle
Composite construction without committing to a top tier carbon shaft. Worth a look if your hands hate March practices.
Carbon
Lightest, stiffest, most expensive. Carbon is a real upgrade for a player whose shot and quick stick are already good, and close to a waste of money for one whose aren’t. The trade off nobody advertises: carbon tends to fail suddenly rather than gradually.
ECD Carbon Pro 3.0, 30 inch
A carbon handle in the Power flex, for players who want the shaft to stay stiff and release rather than bend under them. This is upgrade gear, not starter gear.
Epoch Dragonfly Select, 30 inch
Mid flex rather than stiff, which suits players who like a bit of whip in the shaft on a shot. Same attack and midfield length.
Playing defense
Long poles are their own category and their own budget. Don’t buy one until a coach has actually told the player they’re playing defense. A long pole is a different skill set, and a player still splitting time between positions is better served by a short stick.
Brine 6000 Defense Shaft
A plain, durable alloy d-pole. Defensive shafts take more abuse than any other part of a lacrosse stick, so starting cheap and tough rather than light and expensive is the right instinct.
The full ranking, with runners up and where each one falls on price, is in best lacrosse shafts under $100. If you’re weighing the two main materials against each other specifically, we did that head to head in carbon vs alloy.
Choosing a Head: Position Decides It
Shafts are about material. Heads are about shape, and shape follows position. Two things drive it: how wide the face is, and where the ball sits in the pocket.
| Position | What the head has to do | What that looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Attack | Hold the ball through contact, release accurately from tight angles | Narrower face, deeper pocket, stiffer sidewall |
| Midfield | Everything, in both directions, for a whole shift | Middle of the road width, mid pocket, all round build |
| Defense | Survive checks, win ground balls, clear upfield | Wider face, stiff, built for durability over feel |
| Goalie | Stop shots | A completely different head, far wider. You can’t make a field head legal for goalie by changing the shaft |
StringKing Mark 2A Attack Head, unstrung
An attack specific head sold unstrung, so you or a shop choose the pocket. Buying unstrung is the point where you’ve officially stopped buying complete sticks.
Maverik Tactik 3 Head, unstrung
A midfield leaning head for players who do a bit of everything and don’t want to own three sticks. Also sold unstrung.
One warning about unstrung heads. An unstrung head is not a stick. You need mesh, stringing supplies, and either the skill or the budget to get it strung, and a badly strung pocket is worse than the factory pocket you were replacing. Budget for the stringing before you buy the head.
Position by position rankings live in best attack heads, best heads for middies, and best defense heads. The overview sits on our lacrosse heads guide.
Women’s Sticks Are a Different Product
This catches out a lot of parents buying their first stick. A women’s lacrosse stick is not a men’s stick in different colours. The rules are different, so the equipment is different. Women’s pockets are far shallower by rule, the head shape is its own thing, and a men’s stick simply isn’t legal in a women’s game.
The practical consequence: you can’t hand a girl a Stallion 50 and expect her to take the field with it, and you can’t fix that by restringing it.
STX Fortress 300 Girls Complete Stick
A complete women’s stick with a factory pocket that’s legal out of the box, which is the whole reason to buy complete at this stage.
Epoch Purpose 10 Degree Complete
A 10 degree angled complete stick for a player past the beginner stage who wants more hold without moving to a fully custom setup.
Full rankings are in best women’s lacrosse sticks.
What Size, and When to Upgrade
Length is set by rule, and it changes at 12U. We built a full lacrosse stick size chart by age rather than repeat it here, but one detail is worth flagging on this page because it costs families real money.
Check the length before you check the reviews
Several of the best selling beginner sticks measure 39 inches, including the Stallion 50 listing above. That’s legal at 8U and 10U, where the minimum is 37 inches. It is not legal from 12U up, where the minimum is 40.
If your player is moving up an age group within the year, buy the longer stick now. Slightly long for a few months beats illegal for a season. And if you already own a 39 inch stick that’s been outgrown, a longer shaft under the same head is usually the cheaper fix.
The upgrade order that actually makes sense
When a player is ready to move past their first stick, spend in this order:
- Restring or replace the mesh. Cheapest change, biggest effect on how the stick throws.
- New head. A position specific shape does more for your game than any shaft will.
- New shaft. Weight and feel, once the head is right.
Most players do this backwards. They buy a carbon shaft first because it’s the visible upgrade, then find the stick still throws badly, because the pocket was always the problem.
Common Questions
Can I put any head on any shaft?
Within the men’s game, essentially yes. Heads and shafts are interchangeable across brands and attach with a single screw. The exceptions are goalie heads, which need the wider goalie build, and women’s equipment, which doesn’t mix with men’s at all.
Do I have to string the head myself?
Only if you buy an unstrung head. Complete sticks come strung and legal. If you do buy unstrung, most local shops will string it for a fee, and that’s money well spent the first few times.
How much should a first stick cost?
Less than people expect. A first season stick is a durability and sizing purchase, not a performance one. Our sticks under $100 guide covers the range where nearly every beginner should be shopping.
What’s the difference between a complete stick and a starter stick?
Nothing consistent. Both mean head, shaft, and mesh sold together, ready to play. Brands use whichever word they prefer, so compare the actual specs rather than the label.
Is more expensive actually better for a beginner?
No, and it’s the mistake we see most. An expensive setup in the hands of a first year player performs no better than a basic complete stick, and it hurts a lot more when it gets left on a field.
My player hasn’t been given a position yet. What do I buy?
A short complete stick, every time. Don’t buy a long pole on a guess. If they end up on defense, a d-pole shaft under the head you already own is a cheap correction.
Every Stick Guide We’ve Written
Best Sticks for Beginners
The full ranking of complete sticks for new players, with pros, cons, and a comparison table.
Best Youth Lacrosse Sticks
Age appropriate complete sticks for U10, U12, and U14 players. Sized right, priced right, league legal.
Best Women’s Lacrosse Sticks
WLAX legal sticks for beginners through elite players, pocket depth, shaft length, and brand rankings.
Best Sticks Under $100
Five complete sticks worth buying in the price range where most players should actually be shopping.
Lacrosse Stick Size Chart by Age
What length stick your player is legally allowed to use, by age group, plus the 39 inch trap.
Best Lacrosse Shafts Under $100
Alloy and carbon shafts ranked by feel, weight, and durability, all under a hundred bucks.
Comparisons and deep dives
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Carbon vs Alloy Lacrosse Shaft (2026)The real difference in weight, stiffness, durability, and price, and which one is worth it at your level.
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STX Stallion 50 vs Maverik ChargerTwo of the best beginner complete sticks compared head to head. Which one should you buy?
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Lacrosse Heads: Complete Buying Guide by PositionOnce you’re ready to stop buying complete sticks, start here.
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Lacrosse Gear ChecklistEverything else a player needs, by age and level. The stick is only the first purchase.