Lacrosse Playground

Jesse Hubbard is one of the most decorated players in all of lacrosse. He won three NCAA Championships with Princeton, was a three-time All-American in college, was a five-time MLL All-Star and won a World Lacrosse Championship with Team USA.

Oh, and he knows his equipment. So we thought we’d talk to Jesse about all-things lax. In part one of a three-part series, today we discuss the pocket. With so much experience in the sport, Hubbard is an expert on stringing your spoon. Since Hubbard used traditional leather for much of his career before switching to mesh several years ago, we thought we’d get his take on how pockets have evolved and have him chime in on the mesh vs. traditional debate. >>READ MORE

Will traditional stringing cease to exist permanently? The New England Lax Journal delves deep into prose. Lax Journal’s Kyle Devitte poses a widely speculated notion that many have considered for quite some time; that mesh has taken the place of traditional. It is not the subject that captivates you, the reader and lacrosse player, but really the metaphorical style that which he writes about the traditional pocket past and present.

“The King was greatly loved by all his peoples – in his time. He was respected as a visionary far beyond the many teams over which he reigned. Yet, as of late, we thought of him as a novelty. We thought of him when we wanted attention, or appreciation from our peers. We used him selfishly to our own ends. We would like to think we held him in an esteem without ambition, or want of self-confidence, as he assumed the heavy burden of the Jester and was succeeded by his sister whom he loved and to whom he had rendered perfect loyalty, despite her largely synthetic defection.”

As summer draws to a close we have to face the fact that it won’t always be bright and sunny outside. Rain can do the worst things to your lacrosse stick, from making it throw like a windsock to destroying your strings with the resulting mud. There are a few steps you can take to ensure that your pocket will actually throw the next day, and it just involves giving your head a little TLC. These things will also make sure your pocket lasts as long as possible, so it’s really worth taking the extra few minutes when you get home from a drencher.

There’s no right or wrong way to break mesh in as long as you are trying.  There are, however, some tricks to get that new stringing job ready for use.  Many players believe that your wand is game-ready, but they are sadly mistaken.  Just like baseball players and their weathered gloves, we must pay close [...]