Mesh in the game

This post is from 2019 and there have been a number of new players in the game. I will update on the new span of mesh pockets (including Brine) in the future. Until them, this is what I know.

Mesh Runners
I have strung a lot of sticks with the East Coast Dye runner. I really like it! When properly installed, it gives the player an extremely tight sweet spot right under the shooting strings. With this mesh runner, the player has a very soft sweet spot with wide weaving that snuggles the ball where it should stay for cradles and shots. At the bottom, there is tighter controlled weaving to keep the ball above the sidewalls.One thing I will add. If the stick’s runner holes at the top are far apart, stretching the ECD runner top, it can be strung with a very high sweet spot, up into the crown of the stick. When the stick has runner holes that are not very wide, it is harder to set the sweet spot high in the stick, as the mesh stays longer at the top of the stick.

Mesh between the leathers
The issue I had with setting up the sweet spot is that the actual mesh down in the lower pocket of the stick has the same structure as the upper pocket and thus creates a natural low point that is a problem for keeping the ball above the sidewalls. I reworked this area by making the laces connect deeper inside the mesh. Still, I found it hard to set the sweet spot under the shooting strings.

Full Mesh
There are some amazing mesh pockets out now. The key detail that one needs to see is if the mesh has different diamond shapes within the pocket that gives us more control of where the ball sits in the sweet spot. The old full mesh were just mesh used in the men’s game. It did not allow for the ball to sit quietly in the sweet spot It did not stay between the “leathers” area. The newer mesh give us more control. It keeps the ball out of the base of the head and reduces the left/right movement of the ball in the pocket.

There are so many more coming out and it will be exciting how they work.