I think we need to set up a slapshot side event at the NACCCs. Get a radar gun or measure out how far you can smack the ball or something. Points added for distance out, subtracted for distance off the center line.

I haven't seen this Alexis play, but I know that Joe has mushroomed the end of his mallet from all the hard hitting.

I used a file to bevel the edges of the caps on the already assembled mallets, they don't catch each other now. I'll use a router bit at the shop tomorrow on the rest and send one off to Madison, where some one will certainly have a gram scale. You can weigh the capped head against open pipe of equal diameter.

I also thought of dishing the heads inward, concave, but there isn't enough material. I thought if I could come a little closer to the curve of the ball, I could put that much more material behind a hard shot. Like how Alexis could theoretically get a whole ring of contact on the inside of a 2 1/2" pipe. With a flat or domed end, you can only make tangential contact. (This assumes that the ball doesn't deform at all upon contact with the mallet, which can't be true.)

Because I've been playing with the prototype, I have never even attempted the ball joint. So I'll just keep on missing that one.

KG: You're probably aware of this already, but there are 2-4 games of polo a week going on 2 hours west of you, if you'd like to set up some friendlies. http://www.myspace.com/sfbayareabikepolo