How do I follow up on last week’s edition of #TheGopherProject of the spotlight on Max McCool? Easy! Here’s my take on the Corner Pocket. This has been a staple for men for decades and just recently introduced to the women’s game.
When done properly, the corner pocket provides both hold and accuracy. Since a majority of the pocket is mesh, there is very little maintenance to this once you have it set to your style of play. From 2000 to probably 2003 I used a variant of this pocket as one of my gamers. Now, I’m going to see how I can make some changes.
#TheGopherProject Stringing Scale: I’ll rate the difficulty on stringing these pockets from 1 to 5. 1 being fairly easy and 5 being the most difficult. With my version and the twists I use, I’m giving this a 3.
Here is what you are going to need for the Corner Pocket on #TheGopherProject:
- A lacrosse head. Purple Laxdip dyed Maverik Kinetik
- 2 Leathers. Yellow and Purple faded Gopher Leathers.
- A piece of mesh. Purple Striker Hero 2.0
- Crosslace. Two six-foot pieces (will leave plenty of extra)
- Sidewall. Three pieces. Normal top and sidewall length
- Bottom string. I used sidewall but choose your preferred bottom string.
- Shooters. One used three purple.
Step 1:
Cut the mesh. I selected Hero because of the striker pattern made it easy to cut. Now, if you are cutting mesh, you need to take it slow and think every cut. One wrong cut and you’ve wasted the mesh. I left the little white nubs on the mesh to give the crosslace an area to bite into. Make sure you singe the mesh after cutting to keep from fraying. If you have a rope cutter, this process will go quicker.
Step 2:
Attach the mesh to the scoop. Start with a tie off on the first scoop hole. With this five-diamond piece of mesh, I attached the second and fourth diamond to the two middle scoop holes. Tie off on the other side.
Step 3:
Start on the second hole and skip every other hole. Here I used a double interlock knot on each sidewall hole. I feel this keeps the sidewall from shifting. I use this in every traditional pocket I can…
Step 4:
Bottom String time! Tie off on the same diamond row you normally would (if this was just mesh). Make sure you pull it tighter than you normally would for a tie off.
Step 5:
Here’s where I use a pocket stretcher (a Traditree would also work here) to make sure the mesh is pulled tight at the bottom and insert the leathers on each side. I want the top of the leather to come up to the bottom of the stretcher
Step 6:
Here we are going to use Rockit Pocket inspired sidewall twist. This will be the only tricky part if you’ve never done these before. You need to take your time; you don’t want these coiling or wrapping around each other. It’s a twist. Now how do you do this? Simple, give the line a little bit of slack. It’s not like crosslace where you want the line super tight each pass. You need some slack for the twist to lay flat. Practice a few times and you’ll get the hang.
Start from the first white nub diamond and double interlock the knot. Run the crosslace under the leather and around the sidewall (leaving slack). Then twist the crosslace and work the back of the leather. Bring it down to the diamond below and double interlock. originally started from the sidewall and worked to the mesh but the sage advice from Phil (Spawn of Pipo) suggested the pocket would perform better the other way (it did).
Step 7:
Ideally you want to do one knot on the left and go and do the other knot on the right side of the mesh. This will allow you do get perfect symmetry on the pocket. If you don’t, you’ll need to go back and adjust when you finish. Make sure the area around where you build your pocket is not pulled to tight. If you do the twist too tight here, your pocket will not break in properly. It’ll be shallow, treat this how you would mesh for pocket placement.
Step 8:
Shooters….place per your preference (weaved or rolled)
Thanks for reading! Use #TheGopherProject on your string ups to earn a future spotlight or string up of the week!
