Breaking in Your Pocket

Breaking in the pocket is essential for you to be comfortable with the ball in your stick. Most players feel that by breaking in their pocket they have more control of the ball and the release of their passes and shots are more precise. The most natural way to break in a pocket is just by lots and lots of use, only after you have thrown, shot, and scooped with your stick for a week of so will the mesh naturally warp to perfection. Personally this is my favorite way to break in a pocket because I like the feel and control of brand new, hard gripping mesh. Others want to get right to the soft broken in pocket, and there are a few ways to do it.


One of the more common ways is by using hair conditioner. Just like it does for your hair, a little bit of condition rubbed into the mesh will soften the material and make it feel worn in. All you need to do is apply a nickel sized squirt into the pocket and rub it in, then let it sit.

A more natural way is by stretching the mesh, this will give a feel more like actually breaking it in. The process is simple; lightly rinse the pocket in water, place the ball where you want it to sit in the pocket and then wedge either a knife, chop stick, pencil or what ever over the ball and in between the sidewall strings and the plastic of the stick. Hopefully this will keep the ball propped in the mesh stretching it. Let it sit until the water dries. This is a simple and less time consuming alternative to pounding the pocket with your fist or a ball, which works just as well.


If you are a player who doesnt like their mesh soft but still wants the big pocket then you can loosen the side strings and back string. By loosening the string the pocket will become larger with out the mesh stretching at all. This accomplishes the goal however when the mesh does stretch, naturally, you ll have to tighten the strings back up to avoid a sagging pocket.