How to String a Lacrosse Head

Stringing a head looks like a dark art. It isn't. A pocket is four sets of strings, each with one job, tied in a sequence somebody already wrote down. If you can follow a pattern and tie a knot, you can string a head. This guide covers what each string actually does, how to prep your mesh, and why the whole process gets easier when the sidewall holes are numbered.

What you need

• A head
• A sheet of mesh
• A stringing kit: top string, two sidewall strings, a bottom string, and two or three shooting laces
• Scissors, plus a lighter to seal the cut ends so they don't fray
• A written pattern to follow — there are plenty online, and almost any of them will work

That's it. No special tools, no bench vise, no experience required.

Before you start

Two things before the first knot.

Stretch the mesh. Fresh mesh out of the bag is stiff and narrow, and if you string it that way the pocket breaks in unevenly. Grab the top row, pull it wide, and work your way down the sheet until the diamonds open up. A few minutes now saves you a restring later.

Find the front. Mesh has a front and a back, and the ball only rides right if the front faces out. On plain mesh you're stuck folding it in half and guessing. Our NETT mesh is semi-soft and color-coded so you don't guess: the solid black side is the back — the side the ball never touches — the white center channel marks the middle diamond, and the bottom strings run through the innermost black diamonds. Even if you're stringing something else, that's the checklist: know which side is the back, find your center, know where the bottom string goes.

The four parts of a pocket

The top string ties the mesh to the scoop. It sets how the mesh sits across the top of the head, and it takes more abuse than any other string because it scrapes the turf on every ground ball. String it tight and flat. When a pocket dies of old age, the top string usually goes first.

The sidewalls are the pattern. Two strings, one down each side, weaving between the mesh and the holes in the head. Every knot and every skipped hole decides where the pocket sits — high, mid, or low — and how the channel forms down the middle. When people talk about a stringing pattern, they mostly mean the sidewalls. This is where your time goes.

The bottom string closes the pocket off at the throat and sets the depth. Tighten it and the pocket gets shallower. Loosen it and the pocket drops. It's the easiest adjustment on the whole stick, which is convenient, because you'll be adjusting it after your first wall ball session.

Shooting strings are the tuning knobs. They run across the upper part of the pocket and shape the ramp the ball rolls up on its way out. Small changes in tension change where your passes go. String them last, and expect to fiddle with them for a week. Everyone does.

Why numbered holes change this

Here's the part nobody warns you about. Most patterns are written against a photo of somebody else's head. "Skip a hole, go through the next two" only works if you can tell which hole is which, and in practice you're counting tiny holes off a phone screen while holding three strings in tension. Miss by one and the pocket comes out crooked — and you usually don't find out until the whole side is done.

The RC1 family sidesteps this: all 20 sidewall holes are numbered. A written pattern becomes a list of hole numbers, and you follow the numbers instead of counting from a picture. It also works in reverse. Get a pocket you like, write down the numbers, and you can string the same pocket again next season — or put it on your backup in one sitting.

Legal-pocket basics

Every league has pocket rules, and the core check is the same everywhere: hold the stick out level, drop a ball in, and look at it from the side. The ball has to sit at or above the bottom edge of the sidewall. If it sinks below the sidewall, the pocket is too deep and a ref can flag it. Check depth while you string, not after — a bottom-string tweak at your desk beats a failed stick check at the field. Rules on shooting-string placement vary by level, so look up yours before a game that matters.

Expect to do it twice

Your first pocket will be bad. Not maybe — it will. It'll throw low, or the channel will lean, or the whole thing will bag out in a week. That's not a sign you did it wrong. It's how everyone learns. Cut it out and go again: the second attempt goes faster and comes out cleaner, and by the third you've mostly stopped checking the pattern.

Which is the real argument for learning on a head you're not precious about. An inexpensive head turns stringing into low-stakes practice — restring it five times, try a high pocket, then a low one, and the only cost is an evening. If you're starting from zero, pick something from our heads and make it the practice head.

Last point, and it's the practical one: a player who can string can also fix. When a bottom string pops the night before a tournament, you re-run it yourself instead of hunting for a stringer. Stringing isn't a craft project. It's a repair skill, and it pays for itself the first time something breaks at the wrong moment.