For every advanced lacrosse player, the pocket of your stick is the most important piece of equipment you have. With the Optik, Maverik took this into account when designing the head to have an optimal design for a mid low pocket placement. I had the opportunity to test both the high school and universal spec versions and was quite impressed by both.
I strung the high school version of the Optik up with a mid low pocket using Stringking 3x. I strung the universal version using a very similar pocket with East Coast Dyes USA striker Hero Mesh. Both heads were a breeze to string up. There are plenty of sidewall holes giving you options for how you want to string up the pocket. The top three top sidewall holes are squared, giving you room to wrap the strings around and fit a few strings through. All six top string holes are nice and large. I was able to easily string a triangle top string and they’re definitely big enough for leathers (although some leathers may be a tight fit on the bottom string holes). The Level 2 bottom rail is great for stringing a mid low pocket as the offset comes to its deepest point right where the pocket should be.
I really like the face shapes of both Optik’s but each for their own reasons. The universal version has a nice wide face shape with a gradual pinch and flare, making it easy to catch with but still giving a good amount of precision when shooting and passing, which comes from the nice channel you get with a mid low pocket. The high school version has a tight pinched face shape giving you a ton of control right where your pocket is, as well as giving a ton of control and accuracy.
Both versions of the head perform very well, if you like a mid low pocket. I tried putting a higher pocket in the HS version for testing and quickly realized that it is not made for that. It performs the best with a mid low. The scoop is okay on the Optik, but not the best. I wish it was a little bit more rounded, but it does get the job done. Both heads are relatively stiff, with a little bit of flex to them when shooting to dial in your accuracy.
The Optik has a very nice look to it. The head has two aggressive looking struts on the sidewall and a mix of matte and glossy finishes on different parts of the head. It’s also quite lightweight and has a few cutouts on the inside of the sidewall to drop the weight while still staying durable. The Optik is available in a bunch of color options and is made entirely in the USA (‘Murica!!!).
Overall, I really liked the both the universal and high school versions of the Optik. I would highly recommend it to any player that likes a mid low pocket. I found it to be the best head to string a mid low pocket into and it gives you a ton of accuracy when shooting and feeding the ball.
