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Stick Science - Stringing Mesh

Submitted by Walax on Mon, 2006-04-10 00:31

One of the most unique aspects of lacrosse, is the stick. Bad sticks can make great players play poorly, and poor players play great depending on their stick.  Here, is an opportunity to learn how to string a basic mesh pocket in this first segment of the series.

Hopefully these articles, will answer everything you want to know about stringing sticks. But if they don’t, or if you have questions about this article, feel free to send your questions to stickdr@walax.com.

 

Picking out the stringing supplies:

 
o       Mesh:
First of all, picking out the piece of mesh is really important. Hard mesh is always the best choice. I do not recommend ultra mesh, soft mesh, and any other type of mesh, especially for the stringing beginner. However, just any piece of hard mesh will not do. You are best off buying the Gait by debeer stringing kits for their mesh. Warrior, Brine, and STX stringing kits do not have the quality that these Gait kits have.
o       Sidewall, Top lace, and Shooting strings:
Although you can work with I would also recommend investing in two spools of string. Get one spool of the skinnier nylon string and one spool of the thicker nylon shooting string. Also, if you need more hockey lace shooting strings (different than nylon shooting strings), go to Big 5 or your local sporting goods store. They usually sell shoelaces made for unwaxed hockey skates that are 96” long. This will give you plenty of material to string and restring stick after stick.
 
 
Spools available through Breakaway Sports
 
 
  
Stringing the top string:
 
Okay so now that you have all of the supplies it is time to string. The first component of the stick to string is the top string. This is the easiest string to put in a stick. The top string is the string that, logically, goes across the top of the head. You want to have a string of about 30”. This will leave plenty of extra string, because it is better to have extra string than too little string.
 
The first thing to do for this string is to tie a simple knot leaving about an inch and a half of extra string for possible adjustments. Put this string through the top hole on the left side of the head and leave it be for a second. Now take your piece of mesh. The way mesh comes it is all stuck together, so take it out and stretch one side of it until it wide and somewhat loosened up. Regular mesh comes with alternating rows of nine and ten holes. Make sure the top row of mesh has nine holes on it. Now, bend this row of nine over so that it doubles up the first row of ten holes so it lines up like so:
 
Now, take that top string that is through the top hole on the left side of the head and stick it through the far left hole on the doubled up row of mesh.
 
Then go back through the outside of the same hole in the lead so that the mesh is pulled tight to the left side of the head. 
 

 

Now count two holes of mesh over and stick the string from the back through the front of the doubled up row of mesh.
 
 
Do this four times:
Repeat the first step of doubling up in the top right hole on the side of the stick.
 
Back side of finished top string:
 

 
Front side of finished top string:
 
 

 
Stringing the sidewalls:
 
Sidewalls are one of the most essential components of stringing. How you string these two strings determines how shallow or deep the pocket will be and how the stick will throw. The common misconception in that it is the shooting strings determine how a stick throws, but truly, it is how the sidewalls are strung.
 
Unlike the top string, sidewalls must be customized to the stick. This is because heads are different widths, lengths, and have different numbers of holes to put strings in. Therefore, this demonstration will show you a technique on how to string sidewalls for this STX P2, but it may not necessarily work on the stick you are trying to string.
 
(Note: I will show you how to do one side, the other side should be a perfect mirror image of the one side)
 
Start out by putting the sidewall string in the hole below the one that the top string went through. Then, stick the string through the inside of the mesh on the second row of 10 holes on the hole farthest to the left (if stringing the left side) and then the outside of the next row of 10 holes. (See picture: this is hard to explain and much easier to understand when you look at the pictures)
 
 
For the next hole, I used a slightly different technique that I continued throughout the rest of the stick. I brought the sidewall string through the inside of the mesh, then put the string through the hole. Then I brought the string back through the area between the sting and the sidewall of the stick, continuing this all the way down the stick.
 

 
Finally, it looks like this:
 
 
Then, I repeated this on the other side so that the stick looks like this:
 
 
Bottom string:
 
Doing the bottom string is more of a personal preference thing. The only important aspect of it is that it ties up the bottom of the pocket with out leaving it too tight or too loose. Here are the pictures of how I did it on the STX P2:
 
 
 
The final stick:
 
 
That’s it!!! I know this is very difficult to follow, so if you have any questions be sure to send them to stickdr@walax.com
 
 
What’s up next in the Stick Science Article Series:
1.      Stringing mesh
2.      Shooting strings
3.      Stick/Pocket Maintenance
4.      Picking out a new stick
5.      Back-Up Sticks and pockets
6.    Weather's Effects and Care
7.    Readers Questions Answered
8.    Readers Questions Answered pt II
9.    Readers Questions Answered pt III
10.  Tuning Your Stick 


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