Lacrosse throwing strings. Ultimate Guide to Lacrosse Goalie Shooting Strings: Boost Your Performance

How do shooting strings affect a lacrosse goalie’s performance. What are the best materials for shooting strings. How should shooting strings be configured for optimal results. What impact do shooting strings have on rebound control.

The Purpose and Importance of Shooting Strings in Lacrosse Goalie Sticks

Shooting strings play a crucial role in a lacrosse goalie’s stick setup, significantly impacting throwing ability and overall pocket performance. Their primary purpose is to create a smooth and consistent release of the ball during outlet passes and clears.

Without shooting strings, the ball would travel up the mesh and make contact with the top lip of the plastic head, resulting in an undesirable “click” effect. This can lead to inconsistent outlet passes and reduced throwing accuracy and distance.

Properly configured shooting strings tighten the top of the mesh, allowing the ball to zip out of the pocket with precision. They provide a controlled release point, enabling goalies to feel where the ball is going and maintain accuracy in their passes.

Finding the Right Balance

Achieving the ideal shooting string setup requires finding the perfect balance. Strings that are too tight can cause the ball to “float,” making it difficult to gauge the release point. Conversely, strings that are too loose may not provide enough control over the ball’s trajectory.

For lacrosse goalies, the focus should be on creating a setup that facilitates smooth and accurate outlet passes without introducing unnecessary whip or hold. This balance is crucial, as goalies need to prioritize both making saves and executing precise passes to their teammates.

Nylon vs. Cotton: Choosing the Right Material for Shooting Strings

When it comes to shooting string materials, lacrosse goalies have two primary options: nylon and cotton (ice hockey laces). Each material offers distinct characteristics that can affect the stick’s performance.

Nylon Shooting Strings

Nylon strings are harder and provide a firmer surface for the ball to contact. This results in a stronger, more defined release. Many goalies choose to use nylon strings closest to the top of the pocket to create a crisp and powerful throw.

Cotton Shooting Strings

Cotton hockey laces are softer and don’t “grab” the ball as much as it travels up the mesh. They play a crucial role in creating a smooth release by tempering the speed of the ball as it moves through the pocket. Without cotton strings, the ball might travel up the mesh too quickly and be yanked down by tight nylon strings, resulting in throws that go straight into the ground.

Combining Materials for Optimal Performance

Many goalies opt for a combination of both materials in their stick setup. A common configuration involves using cotton laces for the lower shooting strings and a nylon string at the top. This arrangement aims to balance the soft control of cotton with the crisp release of nylon.

Some goalies, however, choose to forgo the nylon string entirely and use only cotton shooters. The choice ultimately depends on personal preference and the specific feel a goalie is trying to achieve with their stick.

Shooting String Configurations: Shapes and Styles

Beyond material selection, the shape and style of shooting string configuration can significantly impact a goalie’s stick performance. Let’s explore the most common setups and their potential benefits.

Straight Across Configuration

The most basic shooting string setup involves stringing them straight across the pocket, following the rows of diamonds in the mesh. This configuration provides a consistent release across the entire width of the pocket.

U-Shape Configuration

U-shaped shooting strings follow the natural channel of the pocket, creating a more defined path for the ball to travel. This setup can potentially offer better control and a more predictable release point.

V-Shape Configuration

Similar to the U-shape, V-shaped shooting strings create a channel for the ball. The primary difference lies in the angle of the strings, with the V-shape featuring a more pronounced point at the center of the pocket.

Tightness and Stringing Techniques

In addition to shape, the tightness of the shooting strings and various stringing techniques can further customize the stick’s performance. Options include:

• Rolled strings
• Barreled strings
• Weaved strings

Each technique offers a different level of grip and feel on the ball. Generally, tighter strings provide more grip, while looser strings allow for a smoother release. Many goalies opt for a graduated tightness, with looser strings at the bottom and tighter strings towards the top of the pocket.

Impact of Shooting Strings on Rebound Control

While the primary focus of shooting strings is on throwing and passing, they can also play a role in rebound control – a critical aspect of goalie performance. The configuration of shooting strings can influence how the ball behaves upon impact with the pocket.

U-Shaped Strings for Enhanced Rebound Control

Observations of professional lacrosse goalies, particularly in the Premier Lacrosse League, suggest that U-shaped shooting string configurations may offer superior rebound control. The U-shape helps guide the ball into the center of the pocket, potentially reducing errant rebounds and improving ball retention.

Balancing Rebound Control and Throwing Performance

While optimizing for rebound control is important, it’s crucial to maintain a balance that doesn’t compromise throwing ability. Goalies must find a configuration that allows for both effective saves and accurate outlet passes.

It’s worth noting that soft hands and a well-strung pocket remain the primary factors in rebound control. Shooting strings should be viewed as a complementary element rather than the sole solution to managing rebounds.

Customizing Your Shooting String Setup: Finding What Works for You

With the various options available for shooting string materials, shapes, and configurations, finding the ideal setup often comes down to personal preference and experimentation. Here are some tips for customizing your shooting string setup:

1. Start with a standard configuration and make small adjustments
2. Experiment with different materials and combinations
3. Try various shapes (straight, U, V) to find what feels most comfortable
4. Adjust string tightness to fine-tune ball control and release
5. Seek feedback from coaches and teammates on your throwing performance
6. Be patient and allow time to adapt to each new configuration

Remember that what works for one goalie may not be the best solution for another. Your ideal setup will depend on factors such as your playing style, physical attributes, and the specific demands of your team’s defensive strategy.

Advanced Techniques: Fine-Tuning Your Shooting Strings for Peak Performance

For goalies looking to take their stick setup to the next level, there are several advanced techniques to consider when fine-tuning shooting strings:

Graduated Tension

Instead of uniform tightness across all shooting strings, experiment with graduated tension. This involves having looser strings at the bottom of the pocket and progressively tighter strings towards the top. This configuration can create a smooth acceleration of the ball as it moves up the pocket, resulting in a powerful yet controlled release.

Hybrid Materials

While nylon and cotton are the most common materials, some goalies experiment with hybrid setups. For example, using a synthetic blend string that combines the firmness of nylon with the softness of cotton. These hybrid materials can offer a unique feel and performance characteristic.

Asymmetrical Configurations

For goalies who tend to throw predominantly to one side, consider an asymmetrical shooting string setup. This might involve having slightly tighter strings on the dominant throwing side to enhance control and accuracy for those frequent passes.

Weather-Specific Setups

Advanced players might have different shooting string configurations for various weather conditions. For instance, a setup with more nylon strings might be preferred in wet conditions to maintain a crisp release, while a softer, cotton-heavy setup might be favored in dry conditions for enhanced feel and control.

Maintaining and Adjusting Your Shooting Strings

Proper maintenance and regular adjustment of your shooting strings are crucial for consistent performance. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

Regular Inspection

Frequently check your shooting strings for signs of wear, fraying, or loosening. Replace worn strings promptly to maintain optimal performance.

Cleaning

Clean your shooting strings periodically, especially after playing in muddy or wet conditions. Use a mild soap and water solution, gently scrubbing the strings to remove dirt and debris.

Tension Adjustments

Be prepared to make minor tension adjustments as your strings naturally loosen over time. Keep a consistent feel by tightening strings slightly as needed.

Seasonal Considerations

Different weather conditions may require adjustments to your shooting string setup. Be prepared to make changes as you transition between indoor and outdoor play or between seasons.

Documentation

Keep a record of different shooting string configurations you’ve tried, noting what worked well and what didn’t. This can be invaluable when fine-tuning your setup or if you need to replicate a successful configuration in the future.

The Future of Shooting String Technology in Lacrosse

As lacrosse equipment continues to evolve, we may see advancements in shooting string technology that could revolutionize stick performance for goalies. Some potential developments to watch for include:

Smart Materials

Future shooting strings might incorporate smart materials that can adapt to different throwing situations or weather conditions, providing optimal performance in various scenarios.

Custom 3D-Printed Solutions

Advancements in 3D printing technology could lead to custom-designed shooting string configurations tailored to individual goalie preferences and playing styles.

Integrated Performance Tracking

We might see the development of shooting strings with built-in sensors that can track metrics like ball speed, release point, and throw accuracy, providing valuable data for performance analysis and improvement.

Eco-Friendly Options

As sustainability becomes increasingly important in sports equipment manufacturing, we may see the introduction of biodegradable or recycled materials for shooting strings, offering high performance with a reduced environmental impact.

While these advancements are speculative, they highlight the potential for continued innovation in lacrosse equipment. Goalies should stay informed about new developments and be open to experimenting with cutting-edge technologies as they become available.

Complete Guide to Lacrosse Goalie Shooting Strings

A few weeks back I wrote a post analyzing the stick setups of the PLL starters.

Everyone is going with the STX Eclipse 2 head these days so one of the only variances among the stick heads is the shooting string setup.

Shooting strings in a goalie stick are sometimes an afterthought when stringing up a goalie head. But they impact your throwing ability heavily and the overall performance of the pocket.

Between nylons and hockey laces, straight across and U’s, high and low placement there are lot of options.

So what’s the ideal setup of shooting strings for a goalie head?

Let’s go.

What’s the purpose of shootings strings?

Before we discuss the ideal shooting string setup let me clarify the purpose of the shooting strings in the goalie pocket in the first place.

Without shooting strings when you attempt to throw, the ball would travel up the mesh and make contact with the top lip of the plastic. “Click” off the plastic as we like say.

This click is not good. You do not want the click. It creates inconsistence outlet passes and it also hampers the distance you’re able to throw accurately.

Therefore the shooting strings in a goalie stick serve to tighten the top of the mesh and create a release out of the stick that is both smooth and consistent every time.

At the same time, you don’t want the shooters wound so tight that the ball “floats”. Meaning you can’t really feel the release point. That is also bad as you have no idea where the ball is going.

An ideal shooting string setup allows the ball to zip out the pocket.

When you have a look at a picture of a goalie with a release in motion you can really see what the shooting strings do:

See how the shooters “grip” the ball and provide a smooth release that’s not off the top of plastic.

The tighter the shooters the more grip or whip you will have. Attackman may want whip because it helps improve their hold and increase shot speed but it is definitely a burden in the passing game.

As a goalies, our two main purposes are:

1. making saves
2. making outlet passes

We can’t afford any burden in the passing game. So you don’t want any whip in your stick in my opinion.

Nylon vs. Cotton Strings In Goalie Heads

For shooting string options you essentially have two choices in material: nylon (same material as the side laces) or cotton (ice hockey laces).

I guess the world of choices is really unlimited. You could put a wet spaghetti noodle in there but for pure function: it’s nylon and cotton hockey laces.

Nylon is harder. The ball is going to hit off them harder. As a result, most uses of nylon have it closest to the top so that it creates a strong release.

The hockey laces are softer and won’t “grab” the ball as much as it travels up the mesh.

They are however extremely important for creating a smooth release. Without them the ball would travel up the mesh really fast and get yanked down by the tight nylon creating a stick that throws right into the ground.

Many goalie string stick setups looks like this with cotton laces and a nylon at the top:

Some goalies choose to bypass the nylon string at the top and go with only cotton shooters.

In additional to the material you can also tie the strings in various degrees of tightness and designs such as rolled, barreled, or weaved.

Here’s an older from ECD Greg discussing the theory of each stringing style in attack heads. But same theory applies for goalie shooters:

Tightly wound shooters again are going grip the ball more. If you’re going to use varying levelness of tightness the bottom strings should be looser and get tighter as you move towards the top of the head.

Shooting String Shape

After determining the material, the next question is in what shape do you put your shooting strings?

The basic shape is to put your shooting strings straight across. Following the row the diamonds.

The other option is to string it in the shape of a U.

Sometimes called a V depending on how flat (or lack thereof) you put the top.

U’s and V’s are setup to follow the natural channel of the pocket.

People ask me all the time: what’s the best shape for goalie shooting strings?

I typically responded with it’s all preference. Each stringing type offers a different release, a different feel so it’s about finding what feels best for you.

So a shooting string is all about your personal preference.

But the more I watch these Premier League Lacrosse goalies the more I wonder if U’s are not the definitive way go.

Purely for controlling rebounds.

Now the best method to control rebounds is soft hands combined with a well strung pocket. In fact, I wrote an entire post on rebound control to discusses those methods.

But all things being equal, I believe U’s control rebounds better than straight across shooting strings.

They outlawed U’s in attackmen’s heads because the level of hold was too high so why not take advantage and put them in your goalie stick?

One of the great things about the PLL is the cool slow motion footage of their cameras.

Check out this save by Atlas goalie Jack Concannon which demonstrates my point about the U’s. See them “grip” the ball as it begins to slide up his mesh.

Instead of popping out of the stick, the rebound is controlled and the Atlas are on their way to a break.

If stringing is mainly about personal preference,  right now my preference is U’s for the hockey laces.

I think it’s safe to say you want that top nylon straight across always to control that release. But that said, I’m sure someone will send me a picture with a U nylon.

Goalie Shooting String Spacing

The final variable when it comes to goalie shooting strings setup is spacing.

Both the spacing between each shooting string and the spacing in the mesh (closer to the top vs. closer to the pocket).

Here’s an example with 2 hockey laces strung very close to the top:

Here’s an example where the shooting strings are closer to the pocket:

Like the Goldielocks and the 3 bears, I like my shooting strings just right. Not too close to the top and not too low.

Typically this means starting at the 3rd row of diamonds from the top. Depending on the number of total strings sometimes that means starting on the 2nd row of diamonds.

Spacing of the shooters is all about the feel of the release. Too high and I think the shooters don’t help control that release enough. Too low and they grip too much and perhaps create that dreaded feelingless release.

Just right and you’re zipping 30 yard dimes and sipping sweet champagne while your team scores a fastbreak goal.

Different Goalie Shooting String Combinations

Given the combination of:

• nylons and hockey laces
• straight across vs. U’s
• positioning within the particular row of diamonds

You can imagine there’s quite a few possibilities of shooting string combinations for us goalies.

So explore some different sticks in terms of their shooting string setup.

2 Nylons / 2 Hockey Laces, All Straight Across, Each spaced a row apart

2 Loose Cotton Strings Towards the Top

One Nylon and one U Shooter

3 Cottons and a Nylon – All Straight Across

Plus a no look pass from Blaze Riorden?

2 Cottons and a Nylon – All Straight Across

3 Cotton – 2 Straight Across, 1 in a U

2 Cotton V’s and 1 Nylon

2 Cotton V’s and 2 Nylons

Conclusion

While sometimes shooting strings in a goalie stick can be seem like afterthought, they’re actually really important for controlling how a goalie stick throws.

With type of material, shape of design, and number of shootings strings, there are infinite ways to string up the shooters into your new goalie head.

Ultimately, then its a personal preference on how you like your goalie head to perform. If you have a stick setup that throws dimes, nobody can knock that.

But in watching slow mo PLL highlights my current belief is U’s are the way to go.

Until next time! Coach Damon

Role call! What’s your goalie shooting string setup? Leave me a comment down below. Anything else you’d add to this goalie shooting strings guide? 

Why Your Lacrosse Stick Throws Down (& How to Fix It!) – Lacrosse Pack

There is one common fault with lacrosse sticks that plagues many players. If improperly strung, lacrosse sticks throw straight into the ground. There are a great deal of lacrosse players that are completely unaware of this fault. They believe that these throwing issues lie with themselves and not their lacrosse stick.

Lacrosse sticks throw down into the ground when they have too much whip. The problem of too much whip originates from stringing issues with the lacrosse pocket. Some prominent examples of these stringing issues include broken nylon threads, excessive pocket depth, or extremely tight shooting strings.

These are just a few of the potential factors that could be causing your stick to throw the ball into the dirt. To truly analyze every stringing aspect of your lacrosse pocket that could be hindering the accuracy of your throws, keep reading further.

The Main Problem: Too Much Whip in Your Lacrosse Stick

The overarching problem that is impairing your throwing ability is excessive whip. Now you are probably asking yourself, “What is whip?”

The Basic Gist of Whip

Whip is a generic term that lacrosse players use to characterize how a lacrosse stick throws. The more whip a lacrosse stick has, the more likely it is to throw into the ground. The less whip a lacrosse stick has, the less likely it is to throw into the ground.

To read up more on the basic theories behind whip, check out my article A Full Breakdown of What Whip Actually Means in Lacrosse where I sum up everything you need to know about whip.

Extreme Whip Typically Results from Stringing Issues

As aforementioned, excessive whip primarily stems from stringing complications with the lacrosse pocket.

There are such a considerable amount of different strings involved in the creation of the lacrosse pocket. To just rattle them off real quick, there is the mesh, the top string, two sidewall strings, the bottom string, and the shooting strings. Any of these strands could potentially be affecting the throwing accuracy of your stick.

For this reason, it is necessary to investigate how the nature of each string in detail to determine whether or not it is the culprit of your throwing dilemma.

To make this process easier on you, I compiled a comprehensive checklist of every possible stringing factor that could be impacting the excessive whip in your lacrosse stick. I listed the most common stringing problems towards the top of the list and the more rare stringing issues toward the bottom. This checklist can be found under the subheading “Stringing Factors that are Potentially Causing the Whip in Your Lacrosse Stick.”

Before we dive into that list, let us first verify that the throwing issue is not some underlying problem with the lacrosse head or the lacrosse shaft.

Possible Explanations Other than Stringing Complications

Broken Lacrosse Head: First, check to make sure that there are no physical breaks in the plastic of the lacrosse head. Sometimes, you may not even realize that your lacrosse head is broken until viewing it after the fact.

Lacrosse heads can only withstand so much force. A hard check or even taking a bad angle on a ground ball can provide a sufficient amount of force to snap a lacrosse head. This damage can have a tremendous impact on how your lacrosse stick throws.

Warped Lacrosse Head: In addition, many lacrosse heads grow warped over time. When I say that the lacrosse head gets warped, I mean that the lacrosse head bends, pinches in, and changes shape without me purposefully doing so.

The effects of warping are more pronounced when the lacrosse head has been exposed to excessive heat, overuse, and face-offs. This structural change in the lacrosse head can increase the likelihood of your stick throwing the ball into the dirt.

Defective Lacrosse Shaft: You should also analyze your lacrosse shaft to see if it is bent in any way. Just like the lacrosse head, in game circumstances can alter the structural form of the lacrosse shaft.

For example, rather than being perfectly straight, the shaft may veer off a degree or two in one direction after a certain point. One hard check has the power to knock a shaft off kilter.

How to Resolve These Problems: Unfortunately, since the problem lies with the material of the gear itself, your best bet is to invest in other equipment. Unlike stringing, there is no real quick fix to these sorts of equipment issues.

Stringing Factors that are Potentially Causing the Whip in Your Lacrosse Stick

One of the Strings is Broken

Task: Analyze the top string, two sidewall strings, the bottom string, and the shooting strings to see if there are any tears.

Explanation of Problem: Broken threads on your lacrosse pocket can compromise the integrity of the pocket itself. All it takes is one deficient string to sabotage the throwing prowess of the lacrosse pocket.

This is a common occurrence in lacrosse because the durability of these threads are tested every time a player steps onto the field. These strings have to stand up to every catch, ground ball, face-off, and more!

How to Resolve this Problem: Once you identify a tear in a particular string, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that you are going to have to replace that string. The good news is that you do not have to replace the entire pocket itself, just that one particular string.

Ask around and find a knowledgable stringer to replace this string for you. Most teammates or coaches are up to the task of helping a fellow lacrosse player out.

Too Much Pocket Depth

Task: Determine if the ball lies too deep within your lacrosse pocket to throw adequately.

Explanation of Problem: Lacrosse pockets that have too much depth hold onto the ball for too long during the throwing release. This additional hold causes the ball to release out of the lacrosse stick later in the throwing motion, which is why the ball is being directed toward the ground.

As players break in their lacrosse sticks, the depth of their lacrosse stick increases. The repetition of catching balls constantly hammers the lacrosse pocket deeper and deeper until the ball sits too low in the pocket.

How to Resolve this Problem: An easy way to make your lacrosse pocket shallower is to tighten up the bottom string. Tightening up the bottom string will pull the bottom of the mesh down and considerably reduce how low the ball sits in the pocket.

The picture below illustrates what an adequate pocket depth looks like.

Pocket Channel is Too Tight

Task: Determine whether or not the channel of the lacrosse pocket resembles too much of a V-shape.

Explanation of Problem: The pocket channel is the exit pathway that the ball takes during the throwing motion. The purpose of the channel is to direct the ball down the center of the lacrosse head. To do this, the strings hug the side of the ball and force it down the middle point of the head.

An adequate channel increases throwing accuracy. However, if the tightness of the channel is taken too far, the ball can get stuck midway through the exit pathway. This causes the ball to remain in the stick for an extra half second longer, which ultimately results in your stick throwing downward.

How to Resolve this Problem: First, ensure that the channel of your pocket is the approximate width of a ball for the majority of the exit pathway. If the ball gets caught midway through the channel, this is likely what is impacting your throwing capabilities.

To resolve this issue, the knots on the sidewall strings must be altered in order to expand the width of the channel. Modifying the sidewall pattern to definitely requires some baseline stringing knowledge. For this reason, it is imperative that you find a seasoned stringing veteran to fix this problem for you.

A picture of what a proper channel looks like is shown below.

Too Many Shooting Strings

Task: Identify how many shooting strings you are using. Any more than two to three shooting strings typically results in excessive whip.

Explanation of Problem: Think of shooting strings as bumps on the road that the ball must fight through on its way out of the pocket. The more bumps in the road there are, the longer it takes for the ball to travel out of the pocket.

This additional time in the pocket translates to a later release. Later releases typically result in a greater probability of the ball throwing down.

How to Resolve this Problem: Take one or two shooting strings out of your lacrosse pocket entirely. Experiment with your modified lacrosse pocket and see if your throwing accuracy has improved.

Shooting Strings are Placed Too Low

Task: Determine the exact location of where the lowest shooting string sits on your lacrosse pocket. Any strings that lie below the second 10 diamond row may be contributing to the excessive whip of your lacrosse stick.

Explanation of Problem: Using the bumps in the road analogy from before, lower shooting strings slow down the lacrosse ball early in the throwing motion.

This delays the amount of time it takes for the ball to reach terminal velocity and exit the lacrosse pocket. Later releases translate into downward throws.

How to Resolve this Problem: Move up all of your shooting strings or completely remove the lowest string. Again, this fix really only works if your shooting strings are below the second 10 diamond row.

Shooting Strings are Too Tight

Task: Determine whether or not your shooting strings are too taut.

Explanation of Problem: Every lacrosse pocket has a natural catch point where the ball physically loses contact with the pocket and begins its flight path. Shooting strings have the power to shift this catch point depending on how tight they are.

Tight shooting strings serve as an impenetrable wall that the ball cannot drive past to reach its natural catch point. As a result, the ball reaches this impenetrable wall and sits there until the force of the throw is sufficient enough to overcome this obstacle.

This later release translates into a downward throw.

How to Resolve this Problem: Put a little bit more slack into each individual shooting string, especially the lowest shooting string. This extra slack will deter the ball on its way out of the lacrosse stick, which will result into a higher throw.

Use of Nylon Shooting Strings

Task: Identify how many nylon shooting strings you are using, if you are using any at all.

Explanation of Problem: Cotton shooting strings lie flat against the mesh. Nylon shooting strings, on the other hand, protrude out from the mesh. Thus, nylon shooting strings provide more resistance to the ball as it flies out of the lacrosse stick compared to cotton shooting strings.

This extra resistance prolongs the release of the lacrosse ball. A later release equates to a lower throw.

How to Resolve this Problem: Trade out the nylon shooting strings for cotton shooting strings. Experiment with your throwing motion to test out if this had any significant effect on the whip of the lacrosse stick.

The difference between a nylon shooting string and a cotton shooting string is depicted below.

Too Defined of a Pocket

Task: Establish whether you lacrosse pocket is defined or baggy.

Explanation of Problem: Defined lacrosse pockets follow the outline of the ball much more closely relative to baggy lacrosse pockets. Thus, defined pockets have more contact points with the ball. This additional contact allows the ball to better nestle within the pocket.

Since the ball clings in the pocket for a longer period of time with defined pockets, the ball comes out later. This extra hold results in excessive whip.

How to Resolve this Problem: The knots of your sidewall pattern will have to be adjusted in order to disperse the mesh more equally throughout the surface of the pocket. Changing the knot configuration requires stringing experience.

For this reason, I would seek out someone who knows their way around a lacrosse pocket to solve this issue. The discrepancy between what a defined pocket and what a baggy pocket looks like is shown below.

Pocket Placement is Too High

Task: Determine where the deepest point of your lacrosse pocket lies relative to the midline of the lacrosse head. If the pocket falls above the midline near the top of the lacrosse head, consider lowering the placement of your pocket.

Explanation of Problem: Lacrosse pockets with high placement have an extremely aggressive slope to the channel. Low pockets showcase a much more gradually sloped channel.

Channels that have a rather extreme slope cause the ball to catch in the pocket and whip in the dirt. Gradually sloped channels typically do not have this complication.

How to Resolve this Problem: The sidewall pattern will have to be modified to lower the placement of your pocket. This requires a knowledgable stringer.

Examples of the various types of pocket placement are illustrated below.

Mesh is Excessively Grippy

Task: Determine what type of mesh you are using in your lacrosse stick.

Explanation of Problem: As a general rule of thumb, more sizable diamond configurations on mesh equates to extra hold. Furthermore, wax infused mesh also enhances the grip of the pocket.

This extra hold retains the ball in the pocket for longer, which angles the throwing motion downward.

How to Resolve this Problem: If you are using larger sized diamond mesh or wax mesh, make the switch to semi-soft performance mesh. This kind of mesh minimizes the amount of hold on the ball, which allows the ball to release earlier in the throwing motion.

The only drawback is that implementing a change of mesh would require the complete restringing of your lacrosse stick. If you are truly desperate to fix the problem, this is an option to at least acknowledge.

The image below illustrates the drastic difference in diamond size between standard 10 diamond mesh and 6 diamond mesh.

Top String is Too Loose

Task: Make sure the top of the mesh is secured tightly to the top of the lacrosse head.

Explanation of Problem: The purpose of the top string is to fasten the top of the mesh securely to the top plastic of the lacrosse head. In order for this to happen, the top string needs to be extremely taut.

A loose top string leaves a gap between the mesh and the plastic of the lacrosse head. As the ball travels out of the lacrosse stick, the ball clicks off of the plastic as it bridges this gap. This click off of the plastic alters the trajectory of the ball, further angling it to the ground.

How to Resolve this Problem: The top string either needs to be tightened or replaced. Replacing the top string does not require a full restringing of the entire lacrosse pocket, just the top string itself.

To give you an idea of what a taut top string looks like, I included the image below.

Are U Strings Illegal in Lacrosse? (New Rule Update) – Lacrosse Pack

The lacrosse stringing rules can seem a bit convoluted, especially with all of the rule changes that have recently been instituted. To help clear up some of this confusion, I took it upon myself to analyze one particular part of lacrosse stringing that has been rapidly evolving as of late: the legality of the “U” string.

U shooting strings are illegal at the youth, high school, and collegiate lacrosse levels. U shooting strings used to be legal at all levels, but this changed when the NCAA enacted a rule where all shooting strings must fall within 4″ from the top of the scoop in 2013. The NFHS followed suit in 2015.

The institution of the 4″ rule changed the very landscape of lacrosse. Like every major change from tradition, this regulation was initially met with backlash. But as the years have gone on, players have begun to adapt to this rule. This article will investigate the exact reasons as to why the lacrosse community decided to take this bold action. I will also offer some helpful advice on how to string your lacrosse pocket to fit these new statutes.

The Legality of U Shooting String Setups in Lacrosse

The NCAA and NFHS removed U shooting string setups from the game of lacrosse by installing one rule: the 4″ rule. The exact wording of the groundbreaking 4″ rule goes as follows.

Any additional strings or laces (e.g., shooting strings) must be located within 4” of top of the crosse (this prohibition does not apply to the goalkeeper’s crosse).

NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Rulebook (Section 19)

Initially, the NCAA planned to make all shooting strings fall within 3.5″ from the top of the scoop. After a great deal of petitioning from lacrosse players and coaches, the NCAA let up an additional half inch.

How the 4″ Rule Effectively Eliminated U Shooting String Setups

All U shooting string setups fail to fall within this 4″ threshold. The laces are located from the head’s midline all the way up to the head’s top third. This stringent regulation eliminated any possibility for nifty stringers to find a loophole within the system.

This came as a shock to lacrosse players everywhere. There were individuals that had played practically their entire career with a U shooting string setup up until the rule change. Some lacrosse players were furious with the rule change, while others welcomed it.

No matter what sentiment that these players held toward this rule change, they all had to transition over to an altogether different shooting string setup if they currently had U shooting strings in their pocket.

In order to have a high caliber shooting setup to get the most throwing precision and accuracy out of the pocket, straight shooters became widely popularized within the lacrosse community. These straight laces felt smooth, fine tuned the throwing release, and even looked aesthetically pleasing.

Example of Illegal U Shooting String Setup

I was actually one of the players directly effected by all of this transitional chaos. The shooting string setup pictured below was the one I personally used for all my gameplay. The string job was inspired by one of my all time favorite players, Kyle Harrison.

Although I did have a particular affinity for this shooting string setup, it was not meant to be. I had to abandon this setup for something else. Luckily, as soon as the rumors came out that the NFHS was trending in this direction, I started to look at other options. Eventually, I settled on a shooting string setup that featured two straight laces and one stacked nylon. Once the rules came into formal effect, I had already played with my new shooting string setup for several months.

From my personal experience, I strongly disliked these new stringing rules when they first came to light. After playing with my same U shooting string setup for multiple seasons, I saw no reason why they were forcing me to change a part of my game that didn’t appear to have a problem in the first place.

Over time, this dislike gave way to tolerance, and that tolerance gave way to fondness. Soon, I realized that these unusual shooting string regulations had more merit to them than I initially thought. They benefited the sport of lacrosse far more than I had ever considered possible.

What were these benefits? To understand how these rules favored the growth of lacrosse, it is necessary to discern why shooting string setups were eliminated from the game to begin with.

Why Were U Shooting String Setups Banned in the First Place?

There were two primary reasons as to why U shooting string setups were phased out of lacrosse. The first reason was to mitigate excessive hold and the second reason was to make the game more up tempo.

Prevents Excessive Hold

If strung properly, a U shooting setup offers a tremendous advantage over a purely straight shooting setup in terms of hold.

The U string would clutch the ball more tightly as it rested in the pocket. It was far more likely that the ball would stay nestled within the U shape when cradling, even in the face of defensive checks. Consequently, ball carriers that featured U string pockets could eat up defensive pressure and will their way to the cage without really having to worry about turning the ball over.

Obviously, defensemen were not too fond of matching up against opponents that would exploit the U string to its fullest advantage. Defensemen have a tough enough job already with managing the unrestricted movement of offensive players and keeping tabs on the vast amount of open field that ball carriers have to work with.

This stringing rule update helped to level the playing field between offense and defense, making for a more fair game overall.

Speeds Up the Sport

Wiping out U shooting string setups also had a direct effect on the pace of lacrosse games.

Prior to the 4″ rule, ball carriers had a tendency to hog the ball and take the ball to the cage themselves. Since the U shooting string setup was so overpowered, even the most talented defensemen encountered trouble fending off ball carriers who abused this setup. As a result, if a ball carrier failed to find purchase with one dodge, they would back out of the set and re-dodge again. Sometimes, a ball carrier would perform two or three re-dodges before finally blowing by the defender.

Needless to say, this slowed down the tempo of the game quite a bit. Lacrosse was not meant to be a one man show on offense. Every facet of the sport was meant to place a heavy emphasis on the team.

Plus, nobody wants to spectate a sport that favors the notion of one ball carrier tediously attacking and re-attacking every single play. That sort of play is boring to watch.

Players, coaches, and fans want to see the ball rapidly moving around the player carousel, so that each teammate receives a touch. They want to witness the ball flying all different directions so that the defense is constantly rotating. This sort of speedy play style is the sport that lacrosse fans know and love.

Say what you want about the NCAA and the NFHS. But at the end of the day, the removal of U shooting string setups did help to promote this kind of accelerated game play.

What Shooting String Setup Should You Use Now?

With the advent of a new age of shooting string setups, you are likely wondering what shooting string setup to call your own. Fear not. There are still a number of viable options when it comes to selecting what shooter setup works best for you and your play style.

Shooting String Setup #1: Three Laces Across

This is a shooting string setup that was popular even before the removal of U strings was formally issued.

With three laces strung straight across the top of the head, the ball releases very smoothly as it travels across each lace. Since there are three shooters total, you can still generate a decent amount of hold with this type of setup. This extra hold translates to superior ball possession and shot power. Although it may not compare to the hold offered by the U shooting string, it is one of the best legal shooting string setups available today.

Shooting String Setup #2: Two Laces Across

This setup is extremely similar to the one we just discussed. Rather than featuring three shooting strings however, it only features two.

By removing one of the shooting strings, you do sacrifice some hold. However, you are able to release the ball a fraction of a second quicker for passes and shots. This is because two shooting strings present less resistance to the ball than three shooting strings. If you rely more on quickness and deception rather than brute power, this may provide the advantage you are looking for.

In my opinion, this is one of the more favorable options for attackmen because the quick release functions so well in and around the crease. At the attack position, every fraction of a second counts. That split second difference in your pass and shot release will certainly come in handy.

Shooting String Setup #3: Two Laces Across, One Stacked Nylon

This is actually the shooting string setup I like to use with my mesh pockets today. With the fusion of the laced shooters and the nylon shooters into one stringing setup, you are able to get a wicked feel for the ball as it releases from the pocket.

The laced shooters promote a nice, smooth release as the ball rides near the scoop. Then, when the ball hits the heavy nylon shooter, the ball physically snaps off of this shooter and out of the pocket. I personally prefer a snappy release to a smooth release, so this has always been ideal for me.

It is a solid all around setup in that it provides a moderate amount of hold and a moderate release timing. This setup does not lean too hard one way or the other. To start out, I recommend experimenting with this shooting string setup first to get a feel for which direction you want to branch out to.

Of course, there is a manifold of various different shooting string setups out there, but the ones above are the most common setups that I’ve seen actually used on the playing field. Don’t be afraid to test the waters. There are plenty of suitable stringing options that will accentuate your particular play style. It is just a matter of going out and finding them.

Final Thoughts

As a final note, don’t treat the end of U shooting strings as the end of lacrosse. Trust me, lacrosse will go on. Although there will be growing pains during this adjustment period, it is nothing that cannot be overcome.

Sources: 1 2

Lacrosse Pocket Tips — Big Head Lacrosse

1. Hit the Wall: This tip is probably the oldest in the book, but it’s still worth mentioning due to how well it works. Playing catch with a friend or throwing against a wall will not only help break in the pocket, it will break in the areas of the mesh that are most used, while helping you get acquainted with your new set up. Plus, a little practice never hurt anybody.

2. Steal Your Mom’s Hair Conditioner: To help soften up the mesh on your new pocket just give it a bath. Soak the stick in hot water and rub some hair conditioner into the mesh so that the whole pocket has absorbed your hair product of choice. Let the lacrosse head dry for 20 minutes before thoroughly rinsing out the conditioner in hot water. Make sure all of the conditioner has been washed off to avoid a crusty, stiff pocket–then dry it off with a hair dryer on high heat.

3. Butter It Up: Although this tip is great for breaking in new pockets, you should be doing this with any lacrosse heads you aren’t using a few times a week to help them keep their shape. Simply take a lacrosse ball and put it into the deepest part of your pocket. Next grab a butter knife and slide through the sides of your lacrosse head so that it goes across the top of the ball, keeping it firmly in the pocket.

4. Pound It: This tip might require a little bit more elbow grease, but it can be great for dusting off an old pocket you haven’t used in a while or breaking in some of the firmer pockets. You can find a lacrosse pocket pounder online or at your local lacrosse shop, but you can also make your own. If you choose the latter, it’s easiest to grab an old lacrosse ball and stick a screwdriver into the middle of it so that you have a handle attached to the ball. Next, spend the following 20-30 minutes taking all of your pent-up aggression out on your lacrosse head by pounding the ball into the mesh while you watch your favorite T.V. show or find yourself on a long car ride. Just make sure you aren’t driving.

5. Do a Nice Deep Stretch: For this tip, we recommend removing your shooting strings. Like the hair conditioner step, this one usually works best when you soak your lacrosse head in hot water. Once you have removed the shooting strings and soaked the mesh, pull on different parts of the pocket to help stretch out the areas that need the most improvement, but make sure you don’t pull to the point that you are putting too much strain on your lacrosse head. Finally dry it off with a hair dryer and restring your shooting strings.

We hope these steps help you break in your new pockets. Remember to keep up to date on our tips and tricks for all types of lacrosse wisdom.

String Theory | Alex Poole Lacrosse

POCKET PLACEMENT

Mid: Ball sits in the center portion of the head. The most popular choice by players for its ability to have the benefits of both “low” and “high” pockets.

Low: Ball sits in the lower portion of the head – towards the throat. Excellent for vertical 1-handed cradling. Has a longer release point, allowing for smoothness and a good follow through.

High: Ball sits in the upper portion of the head – towards the scoop. Excellent for 1-handed horizontal cradling (toe-drag). Has a shorter release point, allowing for a quick release and faster catch-to-shot.

SHOOTING STRINGS

Also known as “Shooters”, dictate the flight of the ball out of your stick.

ex) If the lowest shooter is tight, the ball will catch onto that and throw lower. If the lowest shooter is loose, the ball won’t snag and it will throw higher. If you don’t use any shooters, the ball will likely fly out sporadically seeing as there’s nothing to guide its flight path.

SHOOTING NYLONS

Nylons dictate the feel of the ball’s release – providing “snap” “pop” “click”, etc.

ex) If you have a tight shooting nylon, once the ball gets past the shooters – it will “snap” off of the nylon providing a unique feel. Some players like a smooth release – some like a snappy release.

TOP STRING

This string attaches the top of the mesh to the scoop, done on either the 9 or 10 diamond row. There are many different top string variations, such as: triangle, Chenango, Iroquois, drop-top, Jedi, etc. 99% of the time I will do a standard 9-diamond top string.

SIDEWALL STRING

This string attaches the left and right side of the mesh to the head and creates the pocket. By manipulating the sidewall “pattern” you can create different pocket placements, release points, hold, and whip levels.

THROAT STRING

The most simple, yet most important string. This string attaches the mesh to the bottom of the head – it is also the main string used to adjust pocket depth.

Looser throat string = deeper pocket

Tighter throat string = shallower pocket

WHIP

Common lacrosse term referring to how the stick throws “up” or “down”. Essentially it is how long the ball can stay in your stick from the beginning of your wind-up, to your release point.

More whip = throws lower, more shot power

No whip = throws higher, smoother release

​

HOLD

Another common lacrosse term referring to how well the ball can stay in your pocket under pressure. Taking checks, high level dodges, stick fakes, etc. Too much hold can result in an illegal stick – so it is important to stay on the correct side of the line.

ILLEGAL STICK

Something you will never have to worry about here – but it’s important to get familiar with the rules and regulations.

A stick becomes illegal if it is too deep (if you can see the top of the ball from underneath the sidewall while held at eye-level), if it has too much hold (ball must roll out while held at a 90 degree angle), or if your shooting strings/nylons are configured incorrectly (for high school & NCAA play: shooters can not be placed below 4″ from the top of the scoop)

Stick stringing plays a hidden key role for Syracuse

Sergio Salcido expected a regular day shagging balls and handing out water bottles as Winter Park (Florida) High School’s ball boy, but 10 minutes before a rivalry game a defender, Mike McKeever, called on the then-middle schooler for a skill far more valuable.

The sidewall stringing in McKeever’s stick had ripped, and he didn’t know how to fix it. So, he ran to the eighth grader.

“I’m sitting there,” Salcido said, “cranking this thing out a minute before the game starts.”

McKeever guarded one of the best midfielders in the state and scored a goal later in the game. Salcido helped make it possible. The redshirt senior is one of several players who strings sticks on No. 2 Syracuse (7-1, 3-0 Atlantic Coast), continuing a long SU tradition. But as lacrosse continues its rapid growth and equipment trickles into sporting goods stores nationwide, standardized sticks and strings have pushed out elements of nuance.

“It’s a lost art,” SU head coach John Desko said. “It’s a real niche, if you know how to do it.”

Syracuse, a school sponsored by Nike and STX, is lucky to have a number of stringers. Tyson and Brendan Bomberry, Nick Mariano, Salcido, Ben Williams and David Lipka each string differently: The Bomberry cousins know a traditional leather style taught in their Native American upbringing. Mariano aligns his strings so the ball smacks off the plastic head when he shoots. Salcido likes his pocket in the middle of his stick so the ball doesn’t jiggle around. Williams uses a softer mesh and doesn’t have a “channel” — the pinching of the mesh that causes more direct throws — so it’s easier for him to scoop the ball on faceoffs. Williams doesn’t use a head made by STX or Nike because his position requires one with particular flex points. Upperclassmen who care less about the netting usually assign the task to Lipka, a freshman who had to learn to string SU sponsors’ sticks because he hadn’t previously specialized with them.

Ally Moreo | Photo Editor

Each of the stringers understands the importance of his job. It’s a facet of the game rarely discussed outside of lacrosse circles and almost invisible to the fan, but stick prep is key.

“It’s a huge deal the way your stick is strung,” Lipka said. “… I can’t even express how big of a deal a string job is.”

Typically, attacks play with a pocket lower down in the head to better carry the ball. Midfielders often use a mid-to-high pocket while defenders tend to use a high pocket. But based on a player’s style, a stringer can identify the most suitable pocket per player. Lipka noticed redshirt freshman attack Stephen Rehfuss passed with a quick release and an over-the-top motion, as well as carry the ball high in his stick. So, when Lipka strung Rehfuss’ stick, he wound a high pocket with a smooth release and no “whip,” which describes the angle the ball leaves the head. More whip and the ball will travel downward when thrown — less whip and it’ll sail.

Derek DeJoe, a Syracuse midfielder from 2013-16, had a similar reputation as Lipka his freshman year. He wanted to keep his stringing skills a secret “because you don’t want to be the guy.” Once word got out, DeJoe strung as many as six sticks a night. By the time he was a senior, he started telling people he no longer strung sticks.

Emma Comtois | Digital Design Editor

DeJoe learned how to string from his dad. Salcido, from a knowledgeable neighbor and an STX stringing manual. Lipka, by constantly copying patterns from teammates’ sticks. He’s settled on the same style as Mariano. They can all complete a stringing job in about 20 minutes, down from hours when they began learning.

“You can tell who strings sticks and who doesn’t string sticks based on how they treat their stick. It’s a lot of people’s baby,” DeJoe said. “… It’s a piece of art. The people that don’t string their sticks, they’ll hang it in their locker and go on with their day.”

Some Syracuse players, freshman Logan Wisnauskas said, place their sticks upright in their locker only because upside down sticks would cause the future goals to drop out overnight. Others refuse to put it underneath the team bus because they want an eye on it at all times.

Lipka has experimented with others’ sticks throughout the year as he’s emerged as the Orange’s go-to stringer. Lipka plans on redshirting this season, so he’s found another way to contribute. Wisnauskas, the “test bunny,” gives Lipka feedback. When redshirt senior Joe Gillis scored on March 25, Lipka knew he played a small role in the goal.

“Usually you find a freshman who does it,” Salcido said of non-stick stringers. “‘You got nothing better to do, here you go.’”

The hardest part of stringing for others, players said, is learning their tendencies. Stringing for yourself is easy because you already know. But, especially for a freshman like Lipka, it’s hard to know who wants what.

“There’s no other sport where the gear differs so drastically from person to person,” said Greg Kenneally, president and co-founder of East Coast Dyes, a company that sells stringing equipment. “There literally isn’t a stick that’s identical to another … It just adds an extra element of customization.”

Two years ago, an NCAA rule change eliminated the use of the “U” shaped shooting strings, forcing every player to use horizontal shooting strings. The new stringing decreased the sticks’ hold on the ball and increased turnovers. The struggle only worsened in the elements, which also alter sticks and add another challenge for stringers.

During an outdoor practice last week, Lipka didn’t bring his main stick because he feared rain would damage its condition. He didn’t want the pocket to “bag out.” When the pocket stretches, it loses its grip on the ball while cradling and throwing accuracy is diminished because of the lack of control. Lipka instead used his rain stick, one of his three or four backups. Many of his teammates have a similar arsenal.

Emma Comtois | Digital Design Editor

Lipka’s rain stick has less of a pocket and less of a channel for the ball to hook when the mesh gets heavy. He tightens the nylon string at the top of the head so the ball rolls off easier. With a regular string job, the pocket would expand and likely get crusty once inside. It’s a cost of playing in the wet conditions made tolerable by playing with a secondary stick. While rain expands mesh, cold weather contracts it.

“You have to adapt to those elements,” DeJoe said. “You’re playing a game where it’s sunny in Virginia and then you come home in early February at Cornell, your stick’s definitely going to be tightened up. It’s definitely going to be different.”

As lacrosse spreads from traditional hotbeds, fewer lacrosse-specific stores are in places where the game is being played. And, in turn, fewer people with strong stick-stringing skills. At the youth level, Desko and Salcido pointed out, poorly strung sticks can lead to poor fundamentals. At the same time, online stringing manuals and YouTube tutorials have helped educate aspiring stick stringers.

“Some people relate it to tying your shoe,” Kenneally said. “It’s definitely not that easy. You’re basically taking a rectangular piece of mesh and trying to fit it into a circle frame and create a pocket all at the same time. It’s not perfectly intuitive.”

Still, a stick doesn’t make a player. There’s a common phrase among lacrosse players: “It’s not the wand, it’s the magician.”

But a magician isn’t a magician without his wand.

Published on April 3, 2017 at 11:03 pm

Contact Paul: [email protected] | @pschweds

How To Maintain A Lacrosse Pocket
– SHOC

It’s a question almost as old as the game itself. The pocket in the head of your stick has a massive effect on how well you perform in your game. If you don’t know how to maintain your Lacrosse Pocket then you will not be able to physically control the ball as well as if you had a well maintained pocket.

WHAT MATERIAL IS YOUR POCKET MADE FROM?

First you need to figure out what material your Lacrosse pocket is made from. Pockets can be of woven nylon, polyester, leather strands and/or cotton materials. During the game these materials can absorb moisture from the mud and ground and get covered in dirt. This causes the pocket to become tight and lose its shape. This then makes it a whole lot harder to throw and catch a ball due to the inconsistency of the shape of the Lacrosse pocket.

MAINTAINING THE LACROSSE POCKET

The first solution is to rinse the head and pocket thoroughly after a muddy game in warm water. This will clear out dirt and a lot of the mud from your pocket. To preserve the shape of your pocket its best practice to place a ball in the head of the lacrosse pocket. Then slide a butter knife or similar implement in between the plastic of the Lacrosse head and the pocket on either side of the head to keep the ball in place. Then let it dry for at least 10-15 minutes. Don’t make the pocket too deep though as can become and illegal pocket.

The next problem of maintaining the Lacrosse pocket is the amount of use of your Lacrosse stick. Lacrosse pockets can tighten up when not used regularly. To ensure your stick stays broken in have regular practice sessions. A few regular sessions of wall ball for 20 minutes each morning and/or night should ensure your lacrosse pocket stays well broken in. This will help keep it’s shape and you will stay on top of your game.

Every good player gives their Lacrosse stick a good once over before and after each practice and game. You should check the pocket knots to see if they are not coming loose or the ends of the strings are not fraying. If you find any loose knots just simply tighten them. To prevent fraying, use a lighter and burn the ends of the strings and make sure the ends of the strings are black. This will keep them from fraying and your Lacrosse pocket from falling apart.

90,000 Origin stories of famous sports games

Whether you play them or just watch as a spectator, sports are a significant part of many people’s lives. In addition to being a sight to behold, sports games are also linked to the national identity of many countries, being a billion dollar industry.

Have you ever wondered how these sports games originated? Even if you think you know, the most interesting thing is that the origin stories of sports games are filled with myths and legends.Here are the true stories of how these favorite games came to be:

10. Lacrosse

Lacrosse is the oldest sports team game in North America, originating among the Native Americans of East Woodland and some of the Indian tribes of the Great Plains. The game was played by the warriors of the tribe to keep fit. Many of the rules were different from modern lacrosse.

In addition to keeping the warriors in good shape, this game was also important to society, helping to strengthen diplomatic alliances and maintaining social conformity.In addition, they used it as a form of worshiping the gods.

In the 1840s, Europeans became interested in the game, and in August 1844 the first match took place between a team from Europe and the Mohawk Indians.

In 1856, the Montreal Lacrosse Club was formed in Quebec, Canada. After a visit to Montreal by the Prince of Wales in August 1860, the popularity of lacrosse increased even more.

A month after the Prince’s visit, a dentist named William George Beers wrote the first official rules of the game and instructions and replaced the buckskin ball with a rubber version.Since then, the game has grown in popularity and there are currently two professional lacrosse leagues in North America.

9. Golf

The origins of golf are hotly debated. All the credit is attributed to themselves by the Scots and, I must say, they have a certain right to this. The modern education of the game began in the middle of the 15th century in Scotland. The rules of the time included swinging the club over the ball and moving it from point A to point B using as few moves as possible.

However, there is evidence that the roots of the game go back to the small town of Loenen aan de Vecht in the Netherlands, when the game was played there in 1297. This year was the start of an annual tradition where on Boxing Day (December 26), the townspeople played a game called “colf”. The game consisted of two teams of 4 people who took turns hitting a wooden ball with a wooden stick in the direction of several consecutive targets.

In addition to the 1927 mention of “kolfe”, there is other evidence of golf-like games played throughout the Netherlands centuries before the first mention of golf in Scottish literature in 1636. However, as stated earlier, there is a heated debate on this issue, and many Scots do not believe that this is true.

8. Hockey (on ice)

Canadians are generally regarded as polite and humble people. However, one thing that many Canadians can proudly and emotionally boast about is that ice hockey is their national heritage.According to them, this is their game. They are the best at it, and they came up with it.

However, according to one book published in 2014, hockey probably originated in England. There are references to this game dating back to the early 1790s, and furthermore, it remains unclear who exactly invented the game. The game is known to have been popular in England for centuries. Famous people who played hockey include King Edward VII and Charles Darwin.

With regard to why the game was named that way, there is a theory that a cork plug was originally used as a puck.Corks were commonly used as stoppers for beer kegs, and the popular drink of the time was hock ale.

The reason Canada is often associated with hockey is because the first public match was staged in Montreal on March 3, 1875. Before that, this game was just played on the occasion.

7. Rugby

The game of rugby allegedly got its start in 1876 when 16-year-old William Webb Ellis, playing football at the Rugby School in Warwickshire, England, picked up the ball and ran together. with him.Unfortunately, this story cannot be true, because Ellis died in 1872, that is, 4 years before the events that are attributed to him.

In reality, the game actually originated in a school in the city of Rugby, and this was facilitated by the head of the school, Thomas Arnold. The rules were first written in 1845 and the game is believed to have grown out of football, but it remains unclear who was the first person to pick up the ball and run with it.

After graduating from school, the students who learned the game wanted to continue playing it as adults.This was how the first inter-county games were organized, leading to the formation of the first clubs, which in turn led to the formation of the International Rugby Football Board in 1884.

6. Cricket

For many North Americans, cricket is a bit of a mystery and seems like a rather complicated game. However, cricket is loved in many other countries around the world, attracting billions of spectators. In fact, it is the second most popular sport in the world.

Cricket is believed to have originated in the 13th century in the English countryside, where it was played by shepherds. The goal was the gate of a sheep pen, and a ball made of rags or wool was driven into the target. The opposing player had to use a curved shepherd’s cane to hit the ball and prevent it from hitting the target.

The game gained popularity throughout the region and continued to be played for centuries. The first recorded cricket match (with 11 players on each team) took place in 1697 in Sussex.His prize fund was 50 guineas.

Eight years later, the first inter-counties match took place with the teams of Kent and Surrey. Probably, the rules already existed at that time, but the oldest rules of the game known to experts date back to 1744.

5. Tennis

It is believed that even the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans played a peculiar form of tennis. However, the origins of modern tennis date back to around 1000 BC.AD, when in one French monastery monks began to play it. They played with their hands and a wooden ball, so the game was more like volleyball.

The netting was usually a rope stretched across the courtyard. This is also where the name of this sports game was born. During the game, the monks shouted “shadows” (“tenez”), which in French means “hold!”, While throwing the ball.

Over the next two centuries, the game gained popularity throughout Europe, and by the 13th century there were already 1,800 indoor courts.By 1500, wooden racket frames tied with strings made from sheep’s intestines, as well as balls made of cork, became widespread.

However, that game was significantly different from modern tennis, which appeared in 1873, when the rules of the game were first published. In 1877, the first tennis tournament was held in Wimbledon, at which a decision was made on the form of refereeing and the tennis method of scoring was adopted.

4. Basketball

We bet it came as no surprise to you that Canadians claim to be the inventors of hockey.However, did you know that Canadians actually invented one of America’s most beloved sports games, basketball?

Dr. James Naismith of Almonte, Ontario, was born in 1861. After several years as a lumberjack, he earned a degree in physical education from McGill University in Montreal. After graduation, he moved to the United States, where he got a job at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.

There he was instructed to find a suitable occupation for a group of “irreparable”. Winters in New England were chilly and the boys were forced to stay indoors: they quickly got bored with indoor games they played all day. Naismith developed basketball from a game called “Duck on a Rock”, which he played as a child. Naismith took two fruit baskets from the janitor, which he hung on opposite sides of the gym, and used a soccer ball.

The first game took place on December 21, 1891 and ended 1-0. In the end, holes were cut at the bottom of the baskets, because the janitor was tired of going up the stairs every time to take out the ball.

Since then, the game has grown in popularity and Naismith lived to see basketball became an Olympic sport in 1936 in Berlin. The creator of this sports game passed away on November 28, 1939.

3. Baseball

The most common legend about baseball’s origins is that it was invented in Cooperstown, New York, in the summer of 1839 by Abner Doubleday.Having come up with the game, Doubleday went further and became a hero of the American Civil War. The only problem is that it’s not true. In 1839, a man with that name and surname lived in West Point (West Point).

Baseball probably evolved from two English games. The first game, called English rounders, was a children’s game that came to New England with the colonists, and the second was cricket.

The founding year of modern baseball is 1845, when a group of New Yorkers formed the New York Knickerbocker Baseball Club.The most influential member of the club was a bank clerk named Alexander Joy Cartwright, who came up with many of the rules that became the foundation of baseball.

2. American Football

The first game, which would eventually become American football, was played between Princeton and Rutgers on November 6, 1869. However, it was more of a football match. After the game, the Yale people developed their own sports game and called it “The Boston Game”.

It looked a bit like football, but if a player was chased by an opponent, he could pick up the oval ball and run with it, or throw it away, or pass it. If a player from the opposing team did not run after him, then he should have kicked the ball.

On May 14 and 15, 1874, the Yale hosted the McGill University team from Montreal, which also had their own set of rules for football. On the first day, they played the Boston Game. On the second day, they played a “McGill version” of football, which had more rugby elements.Each team had 11 players, they played with an oval ball, and the player could pick up the ball and run with it at any time.

After two games, the Yale team decided they liked the McGill University version better and accepted the rules. Yes, you read that correctly: the fundamentals of American football were developed by a Canadian university.

1. Football

Football is the most popular sports game in the world today, and perhaps because it is an innate part of human life.Games like soccer can be dated as far back as 2500 BC, when people in ancient Egypt kicked a ball during a fertility festival.

In China from 476 to 221 BC people played a game called “jichu”, which roughly translates to “kicking the ball.” The idea of ​​the game was to throw a leather ball stuffed with feathers through a cloth hung between two posts. Players could use any part of their body except for the hands. Warriors played this game to keep fit.

A similar game was also played in ancient Rome. Each team had 27 players, and all they had to do was get the ball into the other team’s goal. And since the action took place in ancient Rome, people were often injured and killed while playing, which sounds much more exciting than watching modern football.

Football-like games continued to be played until the Middle Ages, and the modern era of football began in 1863. Then rugby football and football split from each other, and the Football Association was formed in England.This governing body has developed most of the rules and guidelines that gave birth to modern football.

Tractor idyll | Musical life

This opus was created based on the famous novel, and the apologists of the great writer should not look for literal correspondence to the verbal “score” of Leo Tolstoy in the performance and libretto. The pioneer here was Maya Plisetskaya (together with Natalia Ryzhenko and Viktor Smirnov-Golovanov), whose 1972 ballet remains the best and most artistically convincing choreographic interpretation of the cult novel.Numerous directors of subsequent years (Andre Prokovsky, Christian Spuk, Boris Eifman, Alexei Ratmansky, etc.) drew and are drawing ideas and stage solutions from this performance of the Bolshoi Theater, willingly and unwittingly. And the artistic dictatorship of Plisetskaya’s genius talent is such that in the role of Anna Karenina she convinced unconditionally and was unsurpassed. Her performance was transferred to Novosibirsk, Tashkent, Odessa, Vilnius and Sverdlovsk. On the stage of the Bolshoi Theater, it was a huge success and in thirteen years it passed 103 times (this record has not been broken)! And on tour in Germany in 1973, the ovation after the performance lasted thirty-five minutes, while the third act of the ballet lasts only twenty-three minutes.

It is striking that in the ballet Anna Karenina by John Neumeier, who, according to him, is not familiar with the performance of Shchedrin-Plisetskaya, there are paradoxically leitmotifically traced parallels with the Bolshevik primary source. The director’s framework and some of the plastic moves and codes of geniuses clearly coincide. But let’s leave these comparisons: of course, Neumeier created an original, modern and controversial performance, universally playing the multifaceted role of “one for all” – librettist, choreographer, stage designer, costume designer (only for Anna Karenina they were created by Albert Kraimler), author of the concept lighting design and a virtuoso composer-collageist of the score from the opuses of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Alfred Schnittke and Kat Stevens (Yusuf Islam).The music of each of the composers polyphonically sounded, respectively, lyric sensuality, spiritual chaos and Levin’s universe with his search for truth and emotional balance. The strong musical fragments (from films and cartoons) chosen by Neumeier from Alfred Schnittke to convey the torment of the characters and some plot twists are incredibly atmospheric, intonational and intensely identical to those of Shchedrin, but still Rodion Shchedrin’s score is symphonically more authentic and irrefutable, or even counterpoint more sophisticated (I consider Shchedrin’s passionate and full of anxiety episode “The Fall of Anna” to be a kind of aesthetically standard model).Neumeier makes abundant use of the most beautiful Suite No. 1 by Tchaikovsky (along with his other compositions), as well as folk ballads by Kat Stevens (“The Shadow of the Moon”, “The Sad Lisa”, “The Morning Has Come”, “We Live for Today”), which stir up feelings and the choreographer’s fantasy.

Neumeier built the ballet with his trademark pedantically verified psychologism, love and reverence for stage and emotional-acting details, richness of eloquent metaphors, minimalism of moving decorative transforming constructions.And if Maya Plisetskaya made a performance about a woman driven into a dead end by circumstances, Neumeier is interested in the psychological dramas of three families, the crisis in the fate of the characters and the ways to overcome it, and the theme of motherhood finds an expanded sound in his performance.

Olga Smirnova – Anna,
Artem Ovcharenko – Vronsky

The ballet is done in an unusual way: it begins with the election of Alexei Karenin, a successful politician running for an important state post; instead of horse racing, a game of lacrosse, exotic for Russia, is wittily presented; the mobile phone breaks not in the auditorium, but on the stage with Anna; a brand new life-size green tractor drives around right there; Alexei Vronsky’s team trains in the gym on apparatus; at the theater, Anna, unexpectedly for the audience, listens to Tatiana’s Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin, correlating with the Singer; suddenly a road worker in an orange robe falls to death from the grate; a toy train will rush along the children’s railway at the edge of the orchestra pit, with its crash in a second heralds the death of Anna, who does not throw herself under the wheels on the rails, but falls through the hatch under the stage.In the opus about modern life, there is no temporal-spatial reference and specifics, “the beautiful horror of a blizzard”, the fatal colossus of a train, but on the sharp turns of loneliness, toil and despair in the theatrical expansively and with an alarm bell of waves of heartache, the feelings of the characters slip and rush as a locomotive. The contrasting scenes of the performance lasting about three hours change with cinematic rapidity, flowing over each other. The walls moved by the extras in the black dismember the action into pictures, while modifying into Seryozha’s bedroom, Karenin’s office, gym, Steva’s house, sanatorium, salon … Characters literally beat against the walls from despair and loneliness or are tragically nailed to them in love.These white walls with a seamy side seem to frame the life that flows in them – secular and seamy. And the doors – they enter and exit, quietly closing and opening or loudly banging them: they swing open, introducing a draft into the chronicle of life, metronomically counting the moments of life and slamming shut in front of Anna …

The politician Karenin is “armed” with a wonderful and winning rear – a happy family in the person of a stylish, beautiful wife, Anna, and a glorious mobile son, accompanying him in the election marathon.A whole tribune of supporters with a swaying sea of ​​portraits of Karenin calls to vote for their candidate. At home, the spouse is alien to Anna’s sensual appeals, preferring her to read the news bulletin of the fresh press. The cell phone rings, Anna urgently calls from St. Petersburg to Moscow her brother Steve Oblonsky, caught by his wife Dolly of treason with the governess, to settle the family conflict and reconcile the spouses. The scandal is gaining momentum: Dolly’s bags are flying at Steve with baguettes scattering across the stage, and he tries in vain to make amends in a duet with his wife in jeans hastily pulled on one leg.Their children are also involved in the conflict. But nothing can stop Steve, and later he will switch to flirting with the sequel with the tall ballerinas of the Bolshoi Theater in white tutus …

At the railway station, Anna meets for the first time Vronsky jogging, preparing for a lacrosse competition. Their meeting is overshadowed by a bad omen: the station worker is dying (according to the libretto – Man). In this plastically “reanimated” character a sense of destiny seems to materialize, he is a fate and at the same time a reminder of sin, “disgusting and devastating the soul,” and of inevitable retribution.The peasant repeatedly appears next to Anna, appears to Vronsky. And before the scene of the death of the heroine, both Karenin and Vronsky will appear in the play in the orange clothes of a Peasant. The artists portray this semi-real character not so frighteningly ominous, as a mystical gloomy homeless tramp with a heavy white bag symbolizing either Anna’s metaphorical body, or the heroine’s feelings of guilt and oppressive shame. And each of the Men – Eric Svolkin, Denis Savin, Arsen Karakozov – harmoniously corresponds with the soloists of their composition.

Olga Smirnova – Anna, Artem Ovcharenko – Vronsky

Friends will celebrate the betrothal of Kitty and Vronsky, Anna will play enough with her son Serezha, indulge in dreams of Vronsky, the Karenin family will watch a game of lacrosse. And – the emotional point of highest tension in the middle of the somewhat disciplined, rational and slow flow of the performance: Kitty suffers a nervous breakdown, Levin, who is in love, visits her. On the huge glass installed in front of the seamy side of the wall with the door open, a close-up video image paints Kitty’s melancholy face, as if tormented by torment at the junction of changing times of love.And in reality – her solo, sharp, like broken glass, with falling to the floor and pulling a chair over her head, and a piercing duet with Levin, allowing one to see the animated poetic text with her own eyes: “her eyes are like glass over which rain is streaming / she lowered her head, and her tears are dripping on my shirt / open the door, do not hide in the dark, you are lost in it, but trust me … “

With obvious sympathy, Neumeier painted Levin’s bold image as a land-loving American farmer dressed like a cowboy in a wide-brimmed hat, red plaid shirt and rubber boots.Levin’s dance is phonogram dubbed by Kat Stevens’ folk-rock ballads. A huge vitally painted tractor on the move, a tall haystack, from which Levin rolls down, like from a meditational Everest, into the hospitable embrace of a nurse-earth, create an entourage for a charming and humane hero, standing firmly on the ground, preferring a bird in the sky with a tit in his hands and with the patient persistence of Kitty, seeking reciprocity. He literally nurses her in a sanatorium after breaking up with Vronsky. Levin in the play is not only Tolstoy’s alter ego, but also, it seems, Neumeier, who created the “tractor” idyll of Levin, Kitty and their child as a psychologically reliable idealistic sketch of happiness.

The play is replete with symbols and materialized metaphors. Here Vronsky in the episode “playing with fire” brings a lighted lighter to Anna’s cigarette, and from this spark between them, just about ready to flare up passion, a love flame will kindle. Anna’s scarlet handbag, which for some reason she did not want to take with her, falling into the abyss in the finale, seemed to be aflame with heart and soul pain, hiding secrets. And through transparent plastic chairs, falling in the disorder of life or establishing order (they grab hold of them as a saving straw to resist), as if through a glass prism, a veil-shell of her soul, the heroine tries to look inside herself, hiding the inside from outside eyes.

The scene of Anna’s birth, crucified by a white cross with long sheets in the hands of a quartet of midwives, on a huge bed turns into a trio of intertwining bodies with Karenin and Vronsky, in the finale of which Anna unsuccessfully tries to reconcile one with the other. The child remains with Karenin – both are abandoned. The performance as a whole is permeated with total loneliness. People, people .., with their dissimilarity and trouble. Nobody is uniting. Everyone has their own way. All are lonely orphans. Both Karenin and Vronsky. And, moralizing, Neumeier (who sympathizes with everyone and does not judge anyone), in conclusion, instructs Levin, to whom Kitty is slowly heading, to instruct young Seryozha on the path of truth and goodness.

This interesting ballet is not easy for the audience: someone is unprepared, someone is puzzled by a new non-classical reading, someone has a complicated language of the choreographer with its lengths, pedantic oversaturation of particulars and small details (up to Anna’s abuse of narcotic pills), straightforward, but flawlessly affecting the public with effects and sometimes frontal metaphors, and someone generally perceives a number of episodes as superfluous or alien. But, like all performances by Neumeier, Anna Karenina is not bypassed by the richness of roles and characters, which provides a fertile ground for dancers’ self-expression and a plurality of interpretations.And the ballet was inspired by the artists of the Bolshoi – without exaggeration, the best ballet company in the world. In Neumayer’s opus, they presented a grandiose scattering of the most interesting acting works, and each artist from the three cast strove to appropriate the character he was playing for himself.

Svetlana Zakharova – Anna,
Denis Rodkin – Vronsky,
Semyon Chudin – Karenin

Anna performed by Kristina Kretova and Olga Smirnova and their partners do not make you bored: in their performance you can feel Neumeier’s psychological “beading”, jewelry detailing of images, emotional “turns” within the ensembles.Anna Kretovoy, “invisible” at first, changes in duets with Vronsky, rushes into love like a whirlpool. In a duet with the Peasant, he demonstrates not only horror, but also masochistic pleasure, which she herself is frightened of. Olga Smirnova first paints a whole palette of nuances in her introversion; in the second act with fury, openly she seeks loneliness in love itself under an avalanche of harsh reality. With full dedication and in her own way, Svetlana Zakharova plays this role in the first cast, focusing on the side from psychologism to the graphic image: sharp pointe handwriting, poeticization of high arabesques, picture fixation of raised vertically beautiful legs with chiseled feet, curved outlines of a long neck in thrown back supports emphasize Anna’s external catchiness and attractiveness.The author deprives Vronsky of his uncommon character, he is important as a support partner – in the literal and figurative sense of the word. And yet Vronsky’s performers found their colors: Denis Rodkin, who swallowed eroticism, appeared as an imposing handsome man with a superficial brilliance, Artemy Belyakov – romantically passionate and gentle, and Artyom Ovcharenko is seriously immersed in himself and his experiences. The prim Karenin performed by Semyon Chudin is demonstratively stern, doomed to suffering and forced to suffer, with Andrey Merkuryev he is rigidly despotic and authoritarian, and you sincerely sympathize with Alexander Volchkov, who understands Karenin.The artists of the Bolshoi played “secondary” roles according to the rules of first-class skill. All three Levins – Denis Savin, Georgy Gusev, Artemy Belyakov – are great, and they are all different. A capacious memorable image, interesting for its depth of interpretation, was created by the experienced master-polystylist Savin. Gusev stood out for his sincerity and indefatigable plastic mobility, bringing the brightest living colors to the role. Belyakov, on the other hand, did not just play, but in some natural, one understandable way was all the time in the state of his attractive hero.And his solo dreams, and all the episodes with him – ready-made full-fledged video clips. In three parts of Kitty, respectively, were performed by the touching Daria Khokhlova, the fragile Evgenia Savarskaya, and the young Ekaterina Fateeva was not lost as an actor.

Mikhail Lobukhin in the role of Stiva appeared as a brutal and imperturbable voluptuary, waltzing through life. In the role of Dolly, Anastasia Stashkevich was frantic, rushing about, Nina Kaptsova won over with her clever work and the absolute truthfulness of the image, Ekaterina Shipulina – with her naturalness and touchingness in her mother’s manifestations with children.The role of Seryozha, drawn into adult games, was played by the lively, memorable, beautifully non-ballet dancer, with agile plasticity, the ballet dancer Grigory Ikonnikov, boldly and deftly managing in a duet with the famous Svetlana Zakharova. Artem Kalistratov and Alexei Putintsev distinguished themselves in this game by their nimble habits, prescribed by age.

Three teams of performers were trained. And some soloists even learned two roles each, performing them in different compositions. Ballet is a form of emotion, and only the artistry of great dancers will make the performance long-lived.

Tennis racquet string tension

The tension at which a tennis racket is tensioned has a profound effect on how it plays. Most of those who have played the game for any significant amount of time have a preference for how firmly the racquet should be tensioned. For beginners, however, it can be difficult to know which string tension is right for their skill level. Teach yourself some of the basics and the solution should be clearer.

How string tension works

Tension on the string on the tennis racket is applied evenly across all strings.Each of the main strings going from top to bottom and transverse strings going from side to side are stretched to the set tension on the rocket string machine. String tension is measured in pounds, with higher pound tension resulting in stiffer strings. Rackets typically stretch up to 55 pounds or 80 pounds.

Harder versus Weaker Tension

Tighter string tension, 70 pounds and above, provides more control when firing shots, but requires more force from the player to generate power.Weaker tension leads to the opposite. Rackets weighing less than 65 pounds make it easier to generate pace, but harder to control the ball. Average string tension is 64 to 67 pounds. There you can find a happy environment for adequate control and the desired strength.

Racket size

There was a time when racket sizes were roughly the same for all models and brands. The advent of composites, including graphite, has brought a greater variety of sizes.The 90-square-inch-faced racquets, commonly referred to as the medium-sized, 70-pound tension, have a different feel and play than the oversized racquets, which are 110-square-inches stretched at the same tension. A professional or sporting goods store that can stretch your racquet should give you an estimate of the most effective string tension for different racquet sizes.

Tennis String Types

Tennis thread used to be only natural gut, mainly from cows and sheep.Less expensive options have been developed. Synthetic gut, nylon and Kevlar are all popular as durable alternatives to natural gut at a reasonable cost.

Synthetic gut is the most popular alternative. It can maintain the desired string tension longer than nylon or Kevlar string. It tends to break faster, but any thread loses tension over time. There comes a point where durability is a less desirable quality.

Ideal string tension

If you are unsure of the best string tension for your skill level and playing style, start with a tension of about 65 pounds.Playing with the string tension should indicate that 65 pounds is too tight, too loose, or optimal for your playing. If you decide to increase or decrease the string tension, do so in moderation, about 3 or 4 pounds at a time.

Racket (sports equipment)

Squash racket and ball Racket and ball for racquetball

A racket or racket ^[1] is a sports equipment consisting of a frame with a handle and an open hoop through which it is tightly pulled a net of ropes or catgut.It is used to hit the ball or shuttlecock in games such as pushing, tennis, racquetball, racket, badminton and paddle. Collectively, these games are known as rackets. The design and manufacture of rackets has changed significantly over the centuries.

Racket frames for all sports have traditionally been made from solid wood (later glued wood) and animal gut thread known as catgut. The traditional racquet size was limited by the strength and weight of a wooden frame, which had to be strong enough to hold the strings and stiff enough to hit a ball or shuttle.Manufacturers began adding non-wood laminates to wooden rackets to increase rigidity. Non-wood rackets were made first from steel, then from aluminum, and then from carbon fiber composites. The tree is still used today for real tennis, rackets, and xare. Most racquets nowadays are made from composite materials, including carbon fiber or fiberglass, metals such as titanium alloys, or ceramics.

Catgut has been partially replaced by synthetic materials, including nylon, polyamide, and other polymers.The rackets are tugged as needed, which can be after each match for professionals. Despite the name, “catgut” has never been made from any part of the cat.

Writing

Racket standard spelling of the word. Racket alternative spelling ^{[2] [3]} is more commonly used in certain sports (push, racquetball, badminton) and less often in others. The International Tennis Federation uses the racket exclusively. Racket is the old spelling and the prevailing spelling by a wide margin; ^[1] has been in use since the 16th century, with racket only introduced in the 19th century as a variant of the French racket . ^[1]

Etymology

The origin of the term “racketeering” is unclear. According to popular belief, first published by tennis player Malcolm Whitman in 1932, this expression comes from the Arabic term rahat al-yad , which means palm. ^[4] However, current research views this thesis in a highly dubious light. ^[5] Instead, the term most likely derives from the Flemish word “racatzen”, which itself is derived from the Middle French “rachasser”, which means “to hit (the ball) back.” ^[6]

Badminton

Badminton Rackets

Badminton Rackets are lightweight, with high quality rackets weighing from 70 to 95 grams (with insides). Modern racquets are made of carbon fiber (plastic reinforced with graphite), which can be supplemented with various materials.Carbon fiber has an excellent strength-to-weight ratio, is tough and gives excellent performance. kinetic energy transfer. Before the introduction of carbon fiber composite, racquets were made of wood due to their excessive weight and cost.

There is a wide variety of racket designs, although the size and shape of the badminton racket is limited by Laws. Different rackets have playing characteristics that will appeal to different players. The traditional oval head shape is still available, but the isometric head shape is increasingly seen in newer racquets.Various companies have emerged, but Yonex from Japan and Li-Ning from China are the dominant players in the market. These companies sponsor most of the top tournaments. These companies introduce new technologies every year, but in most cases, all rackets are made from carbon-graphite composite.

Rackets

This is the forerunner of the modern squash game, rackets, played with 30 ¹ ⁄ ₂ -inch (770 mm) wooden rackets. In the past century, squash equipment has changed, but racquet equipment has not changed much.

Racquetball

According to the current racquetball rule ^[7] there is no weight limit for racquetball.

1. The racket, including the bumper guard and all rigid parts of the handle, shall not exceed 22 inches in length.
2. The racket frame may be any material deemed safe.
3. The racket frame must have a cord that must be securely attached to the player’s wrist.
4. The string of the racket must be made of gut, monofilament, nylon, graphite, plastic, metal, or a combination thereof, and must not leave marks or distort the ball.
5. Using an illegal racket will void the current game or, if found between games, void the previous game.

Racquets for racquetball, unlike many other types, usually have a small neck or no neck at all, and the handle connects directly to the head. They also tend to have a noticeably wider head shape at the top, and some older rackets look almost triangular or teardrop-shaped.

Real Tennis

Real Tennis Rackets and Balls

Real Tennis The 27 ” (686 mm) rackets are made of wood and have very tight strings to handle heavy balls in play.The racquet heads are slightly curved to make it easier to hit the ball near the floor or in corners.

Crush

The standard to crush the racket is governed by the rules of the game. Traditionally, they were made from laminated veneer lumber (usually Ash) with a small area of ​​string stretched from natural intestines. ^[8] Following a rule change in the mid-1980s, they are almost always made from composite materials such as carbon fiber or metals (graphite, Kevlar, titanium, and / or boron) with synthetic strings. ^[8] Modern racquets are 70 cm long, have a maximum tension area of ​​500 square centimeters (approximately 75 square inches) and a weight of 90 to 200 grams (4-7 ounces).

Table tennis

Table tennis racket with celluloid ball in 3 different sizes

Table tennis uses table tennis racket made of glued wood, covered with rubber on one or both sides depending on the player’s grip. Unlike a regular racquet, it does not contain strings stretched over an open frame.This is called a racket, racket, or bat depending on the region. In the US, the term “paddle” is common, in Europe the term “bat”, and the official ITTF is the term “racketeer”.

Specifications for table tennis rackets are defined in section 2.04 of the ITTF Manual. ^[9] and currently include the following.

Tennis

Popular Lawn Tennis Rackets differ mainly in length, weight, balance point, stiffness, beam thickness, string pattern, string density and head size. As a rule, they conform to unofficial standards that differ from the previous ones.Nowadays, almost all adult racquets are manufactured by companies such as Prince Sports, Yonex, Wilson, Babolat, Dunlop Sport, Head, Tecnifibre, and Völkl made from graphite composite. Made from wood (the original material of the racket body), steel, fiberglass or aluminum are considered obsolete, although these materials are technically allowed to play. Inexpensive racquets often have poor performance characteristics such as excessive flexibility and underweight. None of the recent manufacturers have used single-pass beams, although Prince tried to reintroduce the single-throat design in the 1990s: the only professional to use them was Mirjana Lucic.Rackets made from braided graphite were considered high-end until recently, and molded rackets have been the norm for a while. Molding is cheaper to manufacture and has high rigidity. Graphite composite rackets are the industry standard in professional tennis today.

In terms of length, 21 to 26 inches (53 to 66 cm) is typically used for juniors and 27 inches (69 cm) for stronger and more physically mature players. Some are also available in lengths from 27.5 to 29 inches (70 to 74 cm).The Gamma Big Bubba was produced with a length of 32 inches (81 cm), but this length is no longer allowed. Gamma responded by changing the length of the racket handle to continue selling. The length limitation was based on fears that such long rackets would make the serve too dominant, but this concern has never been objectively confirmed by testing. Moreover, some players, such as John Isner, are much taller and have longer arms than average pros (especially those with short statures), which gives them a much greater advantage in terms of height for service than is possible with a racquet length of several inches.This makes the length limitation more questionable. Finally, pros who almost always prefer to use the longest racquets tend to choose them because they use both left and right hand hits on the ground, using the extra length to improve reach. An example is Marion Bartoli. Since this type of player does not dominate the sport and is not even close to the average per capita performance, the length limitation seems even more unnecessary.Despite Prince’s attempt to sell longer “long-body” rackets in the 1990s, standard length remains the overwhelming choice of players, further refuting the length limitation argument. When most players who choose a racket over 27 “(69 cm) long choose one, they usually only use the 27.5” (70 cm) model, not a model around 30 “(76 cm). Longer racquets were introduced by Dunlop ^[10]

Racket weights also range from 7 ounces (200g) with the strings taut to 12.6 ounces (360g) with the strings taut.Until the 1980s, “medium weight” racquets were produced. “Heavy” racquets were produced during the height of the wood age (for example, in the 1960s), very economically. The “medium” weight is heavier than any of the racquets produced since the companies were discontinued. Many pros have increased the weight of their racquets to improve stability. Many continue to do so. Pete Sampras is added to lead the tape so that his racket weighs 14 ounces (400 g) and Venus Williams is known for using a modified frame to be quite heavy compared to recent times.By contrast, Andy Roddick Many were surprised when he said he was using the standard Pro Drive series, a series of racquets that were lightweight compared to the rackets used by most top pros. In both recreational and professional tennis, there is a tendency to move away from heavy racquets to lighter ones, despite the disadvantages of lightweight racquets, such as increased twisting. The tennis rackets were initially widened at the bottom of the handle to prevent slipping.The rounded bottom was named the crustal bottom after its inventor Matthew Barker. But by 1947, this style had become redundant. ^{[ clarification required ]} The large mass gives the racket a plow, the momentum continues when the player has managed to set the racket in motion and is more resistant to stopping due to the momentum of the ball. This can give the impression that the racket is hitting with more power, although this is usually made more difficult by hitting more slowly. A large mass usually requires a slower swing, but requires more energy to perform it.The high mass also provides more cushioning from ball impacts, a source of injuries such as tennis elbow. However, the large mass of the racket can cause fatigue in the shoulder area. It is generally safer for the body to have more mass. In addition, the greater mass provides greater stability. This makes the racket more resistant to twisting forces and recoil. The disadvantages are that heavier racquets have less maneuverability (shortening reaction times) and require more energy to move.As the racquet gets heavier, it becomes more difficult for the player to take quick retaliatory strikes, such as quick volleys and rebounds. However, the extra mass can help with the return of the serve, in particular by making the racket more resistant to kinking from a powerful serve. Lightweight racquets have the additional disadvantage that it is easier for novice players to use inappropriate strikes with a dominant wrist, which often leads to injury. This is because poor hitting mechanics are easier to achieve with a light racquet, such as using your wrist to swing the racket mostly.An extremely common mistake for beginner players is to gag heavily on the racket (to try to compensate for the twist of the light racket, as well as the racquet angle too much on impact) and using the wrist too much. The only known professional player to have achieved success with a severely relaxed grip is Zina Garrison.

Head size plays a very important role in the performance of the racket. Generally, a larger head size means more power and a larger sweet spot size.This is an area in the bed of the string that is partially more forgiving when hitting off-center and which gives more reflectivity to the ball due to the deformation of the string, known as the trampoline effect. However, large head sizes can increase curl, which stops. Center strikes are harder to control and can reduce the player’s overall energy output as the game compensates for the extra internal power, usually with stiffer strings, to reduce the increased string deformation for larger heads.A smaller head size usually provides more control for many shots, especially serve and ground shots aimed near the lines, but can result in more hits (wild misses, hits in the frame, or sweet spot misses). This disadvantage is also most common for professional players who use a topspin with one hand from behind. As for amateur players and older players playing at the goal. The shaking due to the small size of the head of the racket is usually aggravated by the weight of the racket, which slows down the reaction time as well as the degree, the point of balance of the racket.In professional tennis, the racket head sizes currently in use range from 95 to 115 square inches (610-740 cm). ² ), with most players choosing one of 98-108 square inches (630-700 cm ² ). Rackets with smaller and larger head sizes, 85 and 120-137 square inches (550 and 770-880 cm ² ), are still produced but not used by professionals. A very small number of professionals, such as Monica Seles, have used 125 square inches (810 cm ² ) rackets at some point in their careers.Rackets with heads less than 85 square inches (550 cm ² ) have not been manufactured since the 1980s, and rackets with heads larger than 137 square inches (880 cm ² ) are currently not permitted for this sport, although only seniors players generally prefer to use rackets over 115 square inches (740 cm). ² ), and it is almost unheard of for the serious under-aged player to choose a racket over 125 square inches (810 cm). ² ). The WEED company, founded by Ted Weed, specializes in the production of very large racquets, primarily for the elderly. Rackets with moderately higher performance, moderately lighter weight, moderately large size, and generally slightly heavy head balance are often referred to as “racquets”. rackets for teenagers. “ ^[11] The smallest head racquets in use today carry the most weight, and headlights or even a balance beam are called” player rackets. “Rackets are large in size, typically 110 square inches (710 cm). ² ) in size, once pejoratively referred to as “grandma’s sticks,” but resistance to being seen as illegal rackets for young players has diminished dramatically with the successful use of these rackets by a small number of professionals such as Andre Agassi and Pam Shriver. … Initially, even medium-sized frames (85 square inches (550 cm ² )) were considered jumbo, and some top players such as Martina Navratilova and Rod Laver said they should be banned for oversimplifying the sport.Later, these same professionals, including John McEnroe, signed a letter supporting the switch to wood frames or limiting the original standard size to approximately 65 square inches (420 cm ² ). Perhaps the last pro to use a standard-sized racket in professional tennis was Aaron Krikstein, best known for his match with Connors at the 1991 US Open. He used a standard sized Wilson Ultra-II graphite racket, which was also used in the 1980s by strong teenagers.Andrea Jager. The first oversize, a fiberglass Bentley Fortissimo from Germany, was highly praised by racquet designers, but considered too large to be taken seriously by the few players it was exposed to.

One way to hold a tennis racket.

Headlight Balance Point is less common in professional tennis than it once was, as the sport evolved into larger rackets, harder racquets, stiffer strings, more western handles and a corresponding number of strokes, and more overhead spins.The headlight balance point is best for serving style and continental grip volleyball. Serve and Volley are no longer a viable option for almost all pros as this is the game mode for getting the most points in a match. Head-weighted rackets have become popular, mainly among amateur players, primarily with the introduction of the Wilson ProFile wide-body racket. The balance of the headlight makes it easier to fire and fire while hitting the ground is less stable.The balance with a heavy headbutt makes the ground strikes more stable, which usually increases the player’s swing comfort to add strength, but makes serves and volleys more cumbersome. Balancing with a heavy load on the head also increases the load on the elbows and shoulders. ^[12]

Vibration dampers (also sometimes known as “gummies”) may be interlaced in the proximal part of the string array to reduce the impact of the ball hitting the strings and / or reduce perceived vibration.However, they do not significantly reduce shock loading and therefore do not represent a safety value. ^[13] Some professionals, such as Andrei Agassi, used rubber bands instead of specialized mufflers. Dampers are of two main types. The first uses two center main strings to hold it in place. The second is sometimes called the “worm” and is woven between many of the main strings. The dampers are almost always very close to the base of the racquet string.

As racquets have become lighter, harder and larger-headed, professional play has largely moved completely from softer and more flexible string materials to stiffer materials. This is largely done in order to reduce the additional energy potential of “modern” rackets. However, this is also due to the tendency of various string materials to budge when hitting hard topspin. Polyester is the string of choice today because of this resistance, despite its increased stiffness (harder to touch and more aggravating joints) and reduced ability to hold tension (compared to a string like natural gut, which is superior in this).The best pros of the 1970s and earlier, despite access to tougher materials like nylon, almost always preferred to use highly flexible natural intestines instead. The stiffness of the string bed can be increased by using stiffer materials such as Kevlar and polyester, increasing the density of the string pattern, and tightening the strings with greater tension. Racket makers and players have experimented with very tight string patterns and very “open” patterns, starting with the Snauwaert Hi Ten, which had just 12 base and 13 crosses.Doubles excellent Mark Woodford used one of them. ^[14] Recently, Grigor Dimitrov is known for playing with a very open racket throughout his career. The choice of string in terms of both thickness and material, string tension, string pattern and string density can have a very large impact on the performance of the racket.

For most of tennis history, most racquets were made of laminated wood with heads of about 65 square inches (420 cm). ² ). A small number of these were made of metal, such as the 1920s Dayton racket. ^[15] Some, occasionally, also had metal strings. In the late 1960s. Wilson popularized the T-2000 steel racket with wire wrapped around a frame to make string loops after purchasing the design from Rene Lacoste, who produced the first more limited edition racket. It was popularized by the best American player. Jimmy Connors and before Connors used it, Billie Jean King early in her career.Many players said it lacked control, but had more power than the wood frames of the period. Connors used a rarer “hard” model that had additional welds to increase rigidity. In 1968, Spaulding released an aluminum racket called The Smasher. Aluminum, while lighter and more flexible than steel, was sometimes less accurate than wood. The biggest complaint, however, was that the metal rackets were causing severe damage to the tennis elbow, especially those that had string holes directly in the frame rather than using an outer wire wrap like the T-2000.In particular, due to this shortcoming, most of the top players still preferred wooden frames. ^[16]

By 1975, improvements to the aluminum construction allowed the first American “oversized” racket to be produced by the Weed Company. The prince popularized an oversized racket with a head measuring approximately 110 square inches (710 cm). ² ). Howard Head was able to obtain a broad Prince patent despite prior art from Bentley Fortissimo (the first oversized made in Germany made of fiberglass) and weed.The patent was rejected by Germany but approved in the United States. A side effect of the popularity of Prince aluminum oversized rackets has been the popularization of rackets with other non-standard head sizes, such as the medium size 85-90 square inches (550-580 cm). ² ) and medium plus 95–98 square inches (610–630 cm ² ). Quite quickly, medium-sized frames became the most used on professional tours. Martina Navratilova popularized the medium-sized graphite racket, winning victories using the Yonex R-7, the first medium-sized graphite racket created by Yonex.However, at about the same time, she said that “giant” rackets (including medium-sized ones) should be removed from the sport to make the task easier. She said she would only use them because other players can, as they are allowed to tournaments. Fewer players chose to use oversized racquets, and some switched to medium-sized frames after starting their careers for more control. Fiberglass frames were also not popular for a short period of time, less so than aluminum.In addition, the earliest composites, such as the Head Competition series used by Arthur Ash, were made without graphite. They were more flexible than typical early graphite composite, but stiffer than wood, fiberglass, and aluminum.

In the early 1980s, “graphite” (carbon fiber) composites were introduced and other materials were added to the composite, including ceramics, fiberglass, boron, and titanium. Some of the earliest models usually contained 20% or more fiberglass to make them more flexible.Most players generally dislike hard racquets due to their familiarity with the comfortable softness of wood. These early models were generally very flexible and not very powerful, although they were an improvement in power over wood and metal rackets. Wilson created the Jack Kramer Pro Staff, a graphite version of the wooden racket of the same name that was extremely popular in the late 70s and early 80s. This is how the hugely influential Wilson Pro Staff 85 was born. Chris Evert The first graphite racket was the Jack Kramer version, which was 20% fiberglass.This was not successful in the market and she and everyone else quickly replaced it with the stiffer Pro Staff 85, which was 20% Kevlar. It used the same shape and the same graphite braid, but with a significant improvement in power. The highly popular Prince original graphite size in its most popular form was also quite influential and was used by many professionals, especially juniors. Jennifer Capriati and Monica Seles, for example, used the Prince’s graphite to challenge their influential 1991 Wimbledon match, which was often hailed as the start of the main game in the WTA, although the claim is somewhat hyperbolic and largely due to errors.The impression was that the players were hitting much harder when in fact the rackets were more powerful. However, the very large head size compared to the average and especially the old “standard” size made it easier to generate power. The racket also had an open string pattern. The “original” graphite name Prince is rather a misnomer, as it has undergone significant design changes during its existence. For example, the truly original model was shaped like an inverted teardrop, which was not the case in subsequent versions.Stiffer composite rackets compared to first and second generation graphite composites are the current standard. The last wooden racket to appear at Wimbledon came in 1987, long after it had been abandoned by almost all the pros. ^[17] After retiring prematurely, Borg attempted to organize a comeback with his standard wooden racket, but this quickly ended in failure as the standard wooden racket was not suitable for use with medium-sized hard graphite.It is also often argued that Chris Evert could have beaten Martina Navratilova in the latter’s most dominant period if she had switched from a wooden racket a few years earlier. In addition, the latest influential wood racket, Prince Woodie, had layers of graphite to increase rigidity and was oversized. It has been used by Tommy Haas, Gabriela Sabatinia and many others. It was very low power, but had a much larger surface area than a standard size wooden frame. Sabatini found this useful over the smaller racquets due to the heavy topspins she showed.The only woman to beat Martina Navratilova in 1984, Kathleen Horvath “Prince Woody” is one of six defeats Navratilova has suffered over a three-year period of 260 matches. ^[18]

Tennis racket from the USA in the 1970s.

It is often believed that a denser pattern provides more control at the expense of the rotation potential. It is often believed that a more open pattern gives more potential for strength and rotation. However, how much power a player produces can be greatly influenced by how the player adapts to the characteristics of the racket.Some players can hit harder with a tight string pattern, firing faster shots due to the added control of the tight pattern. Rackets, including many wooden ones, are labeled with the recommended string tension range. The general rule of thumb is that lower tension creates more power (due to the trampoline effect), and higher tension on the string creates more control (less deformation of the string, resulting in more predictable force and angle from the base of the string).Some professionals have used racquets with a small head and strings of flexible material (natural gut), taut at a very high tension. Examples include Pete Sampras and Björn Borg. Some used rackets with a large head and strings of a very inflexible material (Kevlar). Andrey Agassi is an example. Many professionals in the era of standard wood thread pulled strings at relatively low tension and used natural gut strings; Both solutions were to enhance the trampoline effect for more power.In contrast, today almost every professional player uses a much stiffer polyester string in their stiffer racquets, which also have larger heads and tend to be lighter. Madeline Hauptman sold the MAD RAQ line of racquets, which featured a Star of David pattern (a six-pointed figure made up of two intertwined equilateral triangles) because three strings were used to pull the racket instead of two. This pattern is used in snowshoes. This string pattern is said to have fewer nicks on the strings, which increases their lifespan.It has even been argued that many professional shops refused to wear a racket because fewer string breaks would reduce sales of strings and stringing services. It has also been stated that it is more difficult to string the strings on a racket than on a two-string. However, a racquet like the Wilson T-2000 takes much longer to tighten than a regular racket, and this series was very popular. Whatever the reason for the market failure of MAD RAQ, this was the only time a snowshoe pattern was used in tennis.Hauptman changed the racket line to a two-string diamond pattern (PowerAngle). This pattern was already used in much earlier racquets, but did not have much popularity. The strings are said to be simpler than the MAD RAQ, but it does not have the benefit of reducing string notches, at least to a lesser extent. This diagonal pattern is said to provide more comfort than the traditional square pattern.

The toughest graphite racket sold – Prince More Game MP, rated 80 RA by the industry standard.Babolat measuring equipment. The Prince More series used two pieces (top and bottom sides of the racket or left and right sides) and no padding. Prince briefly used a linerless design in an early version of its “original” oversized graphite. The most famous user of the More racket was Martina Navratilova, who returned to doubles at the age of 40, using the Prince More Control (Medium Plus) database for her first mixed doubles victories at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.Leander Paes. Before that, she used the harder More Game MP. Later, Navratilova switched to a design by Warren Bosworth (founder of Bosworth Tennis) with an individual asymmetric grip and an unusual geometric head shape.