Update Jan 2011 – A few people who purchased this product had some problems with it. Sunlight will interfere with the camera and cause the on-screen puck to jump around. Please only purchase it if you have a low / no sunlight area in your house. In my video I used a room with no windows.
A while ago I stumbled across the QuickStickz product and website and was very intrigued. For those of you who do not know the QuickStickz is a stickhandling ball with a tracking system that displays on your television. When I saw some videos about it I instantly wanted to test it out so I sent an email to the company. They were very helpful and sent the product out for me to review.
QuickStickz Overview
What you get – The Quickstickz package comes with one stickhandling ball (with infrared light 
reflectors on it), One webcam / infrared light unit, a quick start guide, and a short USB cable to plug the device into your computer.
What it does – The webcam unit plugs into your computer and then sends out infrared light, this light is reflected by the stickhandling ball and sent back to the webcam unit. The unit then send the information to your computer which gets displayed on your screen. When you log into the QuickStickz website there are a number of drills and games you can complete, and you use the stickhandling ball as the controller
Price -The unit sells for $199 and you can get it on the QuickStickz website
QuickStickz Review
Set up – Setting up the QuickStickz was a lot easier than I thought. I figured there would be a CD and drivers and all that jazz, but all you have to do is log onto the QuickStickz site and then download the install program from there. This is a smart idea because it reduces waste, and they can update the program whenever they want.
The installation process takes about two minutes. Once you have the program installed you can plug in the camera / infrared unit and that’s it. Pick a drill that you want to try, and start stickhandling.
How to play – The system is really easy to use, but you have to be online to play any of the games. 
I talked to the owner of the company and he said that they are considering releasing a cd with some games and drills that people can use when they do not have an internet connection.
To do one of the drills, just log onto the QuickStickz site with your username and password, pick any drill, and go.
Does it work - The system worked fine for me, but I did notice a bit of a lag (it could be because my hands are as fast as lighting, haha 
) When I am just doing simple movement with the ball it was great, but if I was doing some quick stickhandling I noticed a bit of delay, it was not a huge problem though because it still registered each movement and I was able to hit the targets.
Overall Thoughts
Penalty box - There were a few things I wasn’t to keen about, so I will assess a few penalties here. The first one is the price, $200 is fairly steep, I am sure it would cost quite a bit to develop and produce the product, but it would still be nice to see it come down in price.
The next penalty is for the game-play. There was a bit of lag / delay from when I moved the ball to when the puck moved on the screen. This was not a big issue and I was still able to play the games and drills, but it would be nice to have better motion tracking. I also emailed the QuickStickz company and they said they said that there should not be any delay, so it could be an issue with my computer (or how lightning fast my hands are )
Warning: I would ONLY use this product if you have a low light area in your house. If any sunlight hits the IR camera the puck on the screen will jump around. This was an issue for me in the upstairs of my house, but I did not have a problem in my basement in a room away from the windows.
Score Sheet
There are a number of things that I really liked about the QuickStickz
- Very cool idea / concept
- A lot of fun to play with
- Drills and games are very well made with good graphics
- Drills are designed to teach skills like developing fast twitch muscles, teaching toe-drags, puck control, protecting the puck and more
- Having the drills on the screen will help teach heads-up hockey
- Great for beginner players to practice stickhandling at home
- Will turn slow hands into fast hands!
- Will provide a lot of motivation to practice stickhandling skills
QuickStickz Video Review
In this video I show you the product, hook it up, and give you a sneak peak at the games and drills that you can do.
Where to Buy the QuickStickz
if you want to buy the QuickStickz and get the 3 month free elite membership then visit the official QuickStickz website.
If you are looking for another review then check out the Quicstickz review on Hockey University.
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Jeremy Rupke
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{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi
Do you know if you need to have superfast internet connection for it to work? We have 1 step faster than a satellite.
Thanks
Helpful review, Jeremy! The PIP video works very well to show the lag. Can you tell us the video card and processor in your laptop?
Is it possible to hook this up through the PS3 so it can be played on a 50″ rather than a small computer monitor?
If you have a computer with HDMI output then just plug your computer into your t.v. That was my initial plan but there was too much light upstairs and it interfered with the ball.
Any competition out there doing the same thing? I would like to hook this up to a LCD in my basement and would the 4 x 8 shooting pad be enough room to play on for my 6 year old?
Normally I use a weight on my stick when I use this but, today I didn’t and during practice i noticed I had difficulties controlling the puck. Do you know of anything I could do different to prevent this?
Yes that is common if you over-do it with the weight. What I like to do is practice first with the weight, and then finish off with no weight, that way you build your muscles, but keep on training them the proper way.
Thanks! It is so much fun I have not stopped since I got it.
I got mine 2 days ago and the highscore boards are driving me crazy because I want to get up there so bad! Do you think the people up there actually got those scores or they just hacked it or something? I’ve played for almost 4 hours and the highest I got on soft touch was 213; 288 seems pretty hard to reach, and it is the same guy for almost all the basic 15 drills.
Thanks
Oh yeah they cheated for those scores. They probably just held the ball in their hand and moved it quickly to where the targets are, or accross the line for the line drill. Just measure your own improvements. 213 is pretty damn good!
I have purchased the system for my kid and we can’t make it work in any stable way. We have turned all the lights off, put blinds on windows, mats on floor to avoid shiny surface. The puck still move erratically (with lots of delay when it actually follows the ball). Most of the time the puck randomly jumps to the lower left corner of the screen at very high velocity back and forth (and of course messes up the score and game play) and/or disappear or the screen and only comes back when we restart the game. Did I mentioned that have a brand new laptop so I don’t think the computer has anything to do with the lack of performance. If anyone has any idea or suggestion to make this work. Overall it’s a great idea. I find it rather expensive for a setup that requires so much tuning up and adjustments.
Thanks Serge. I noticed this too, I think it is from the sunlight, I could only use it in the basement where there was not a lot of sunlight. It would be much better if they had a better tracking system.
Yikes! If you buy a PS3 for a comparable price you get free online gaming, and XBOX is roughly $4.00/month. Both do a lot more than this! Looks like I’ll have to see about developing a PSeye/Kinect stickhandling game/trainer!
Do you have to have a monthly membership to play the game? So are you on the hook for $199 plus a monthly fee?
Hey Matt, great question. Here is some info I found on their site
“With every purchase of a QuickStickz stickhandling training system you receive unlimited free access to our basic membership package of 15 drills and 5 video games.
Upgrade to QuickStickz VIP Membership and enjoy all of our features; including instant access to new games and drills, the ability to record your scores, track your progress, and compete with friends and teammates.
As an introductory offer, we provide 3 months of our QuickStickz VIP membership free with every system purchase. At the end of this free trial offer you will have the option to remain a VIP for only $9.99 per month. Should you decline membership your account will return to our free basic membership package.”
It looks like you will still get free access to all the basic drills, but they do have a VIP option.
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