Hearing a lacrosse ball ping off the post and into a corner of a net gives every lacrosse player a moment of pure bliss. That sensation drives players to practice their shot. Everyone wants that feeling! It’s the best!

I’m going to list below how to string up your pocket to make you pick corners over and over again.

1)Top String- The top string is the foundation of a good pocket. If it’s not tight with even tension across the scoop, then the pocket won’t form properly and you’ll be lipping the ball off the scoop. This will likely make you sad.

2)Pocket Placement - High? Mid? Low? We talk to a lot of players about their pocket placement and most have no idea what they want. Don’t follow trends. Find the placement that feels right for YOU. If you can shoot with a certain pocket but can’t pass to save your life, you have the wrong pocket type.

3)Sidewall Set Up - Creating a pocket depends of how you set up your sidewalls. Skipping 1 to 2 holes then gapping the diamonds helps create the “V” shape in a pocket. If you do it right, you wont need a V string.

4)Shooters - Many guys put too many shooters in their stick. If you have the sidewalls done properly, you only need 2 maybe 3 shooters. When installing the shooters, the lowest one should have the most slack. If you are throwing down chances are, your bottom shooter is too tight.

5)Shoot Overhand - Far too many players want to shoot side arm and underhand. This bad habit prevents them from shooting overhand. Learn to snipe overhand left and right. If you want to be great, use the pocket that's right for you and gain ridiculously, solid stick skills.

Happy shooting!

After all that practice, it’s game time and you are ready. Clean uniform, sturdy pads and grab your stick. Any old stick will do. Wait...What!? Any old stick? Is that some kind of sick joke? All those hours of wall ball. All the banged up elbows and knees and you grab ‘any old stick’? That’s just wrong. You need - no, you deserve, a stick strung for your game, your position and your pocket preference.

Think about it this statement: “Any old stick will do”. Many of our lacrosse guys play both hockey and lacrosse. If one of your hockey teammates walked into the locker room and said, “oh, I don’t care, anyone old stick will”, you would have to assume that he has suffered a blunt force trauma to the head. Yet in lacrosse, we see players from youth to elite high school and beyond say, “Oh, any old stick will do” all the time. Any old stick won’t do. If you don’t know what you want in a pocket or head, figure it out. If your stick is not helping your game, talk to your coach. A bad pocket or a bad stick is a solid barrier to you becoming the best player you can be. Don’t be embarrassed and don’t be afraid to say that your stick is not working for you and you don’t know how to fix it.

Getting the pocket just right is not easy. Getting the pocket channel, depth and pocket position all adjusted perfectly is tricky business. If you are not happy, like really happy, with your pocket and your stick, make a change. Get it right. Dial it in. You will see such a difference in your game. At Stinson Mellor, we literally see this change every day.

Do the work. Make the sacrifice. Be healthy and be smart. But never ever think that ‘any old stick’ will do. Find your stick with your pocket for your game. When it’s game time, you won’t say, ‘any old stick will do’, instead, you will say, ‘I need MY stick ‘cause I’m about to play the best I can’.

We have found that this is absolutely true in the lacrosse world. Lacrosse players and coaches love the game. They love all aspects of the game and they especially love to help a player with enthusiasm, guts and the willingness to learn.

One of our guys told us a story about when he was in 7th grade, just learning the game, and put masking tape (you know, like shipping tape) on the butt end of his stick. He had always been a hockey player and had some buddies who played so he thought he would give lacrosse a try. His stick? Well, it’s better if we just don’t talk about the stick. It is fair to say that if he brought that stick into Stinson Mellor today, we would have all gone running out of the building with panicked looks on our faces. Anyways, he had lost the butt end of that stick before his first game. One of his teammates said, “hey, you have to cover your butt end (ha ha, of the stick). You gotta put some tape on it dude, it’s a rule”. Well, the only thing he could find was some masking tape from an old science fair project. That would have to do, so he put a end cap of masking tape on the stick.

The end cap was a complete trainwreck. Luckily, he had a coach who saw it and pulled him aside and told him what he needed to do. The coach also told his parents that he needed a decent stick and that with some practice and dedication he could be a solid player. That kid went on to play four years of high school Lacrosse and four years at D1 college level.

The bottom line, don’t be afraid to ask someone who knows about gear and knows about the game. If you are unsure what you need, ask. If you want to move to a different position or move to a starter rank and are not sure how, ask. Make sure you put yourself in the right spot to maximize your talents. If you you need a little help or guidance to achieve this goal, do not be afraid to ask. Remember, in lacrosse, as in life, these is always someone willing help - we guarantee it.