Shortening The Stick
Shorter sticks are easier to learn skills with. They are also easier to handle and faster. The best goal-scorers almost always use the shortest stick they can.
When you buy a stick, it is normally 40-42” long, measured from the top of the plastic head to bottom of the shaft. This is the ideal length for a short crosse (regular stick) in NCAA Division 1. Players in Lightning or Bantam are not as large, and do not need such long sticks.
- For Junior (Under 13 - 5th and 6th grades) and above, the minimum length is 40”.
- For Lightning (Under 11 3rd and 4th grades), the minimum length is 37”.
If your son is playing Lightning (and new to the game), please cut the shaft of his stick so the total length is 37-37½”. He will master stick skills quicker and have more fun. By the time he enters Junior, he can save enough allowance to buy a new stick.
To shorten the stick, remove the rubber butt end, measure twice, and cut once with a hacksaw. A miter box and clamps will make the task easier.
There are other types of sticks. Goalkeepers’ sticks are longer, and are provided by he club. Defensemen’s sticks (big stick, long crosse, D-pole) can be up to 72” long. The length extends a defenders’ reach, but makes stick work and control harder. As a matter of club policy, Magnolia United requires all players in Lightning and Bantam to play with a stick between 37” and 42”.
Tuning The Pocket
One of the biggest problems for throwing and catching is playing with a poorly adjusted pocket. This is particularly true for new players who do not know how the feeling of a sweet pocket. A shallow pocket makes it harder to catch and cradle. A “whip” pocket makes it harder to throw.
Shallow Pocket. New sticks are often strung too tightly. To create a deeper pocket, progressively loosen the strings that hold the bottom of the net to the stick head and the sidewall strings (the strings that hold the net to the sides of the stick head).
To determine whether the pocket is legal, hold the stick horizontally (as shown) and drop a lacrosse ball into the pocket. If you see daylight between the top of the ball and the bottom of the sidewall then it is illegal. Most players like to play with a pocket that is as deep as possible, but still legal. If the stick pocket is too deep, the referee will call a personal foul. Remember, a goal scored with an illegal stick can even be disallowed.
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Whip. After a new stick starts to get broken in, a whip often develops. After a couple weeks of successfully passing and shooting, the ball starts to dive to the ground. The problem is that the shooting strings have loosened, causing a whip.
Shooting strings are laced into the top of the net to shape the pocket so the ball has a clean exit when throwing. They run horizontally across the top of the net, either in a straight line or in an upside-down V pattern. The higher you go up the net from the pocket, the tighter each shooting string should be, creating a smooth, sculpted exit for the ball. Players sometimes lace up to 4 or 5 shooting strings to tune their pockets. Thick sneaker laces work well.
When a shooting string is too tight, the ball gets caught by the shooting string and “whips” out of the stick before it gets to the top of the net.
To correct a whip, adjust the shooting strings by untying, adjusting tightness and retying as needed so that the ball travels smoothly from the pocket through the entire length of the net before it is released from the stick. To test the shooting strings, take a ball in your hand and run it from the bottom of the pocket to the top of the head. If it feels like it is getting caught by a shooting string, that shooting string is probably too tight.
When is the whip corrected? Stand fifteen feet from a wall, shoot at an imaginary target, and follow through so the stick head is pointing at the target. If the ball hits the target, the whip is gone and the stick is shooting sweetly.
Magnolia United News