My Sticks

Like any player, I love my sticks. And like any gamma I love customising them. I started off small with just trying my hand at stringing and then branched out into dying. My latest project, which I hope to video, will be a two tone marble dye on a Warrior Evo Pro so keep your eyes fixed here.

 

USA, the ‘Here and Now’. UK, the ‘There and Maybe Later’!

The Problem

For a sports fan such as myself, watching the game is almost as good as playing it. Ever since I started watching lacrosse, every other team sport seems really slow and nothing quite compares to it (with possibly the exception of ice hockey). And there’s a significant problem with this; watching good quality full length matches this side of the pond is really hard and expensive.

It isn’t impossible to watch lacrosse matches here but you will end up paying for it and, depending on the video quality, it’s a lucky dip as to if it is worth the money. Sky is one option in conjunction with ESPN which offer some coverage. From what I gather they show the odd MLL game and follow the NCAA season quite closely. As a student, this option is rather unobtainable much like the matches one desires. I know I would never be able to afford Sky on my maintenance loan.

Last year I decided to pay out for ESPN’s online and on demand option. For £99 a year (or £17.99  a month) you are granted access to the entire NCAA seasons games whenever you are free to watch them. Or so I thought.

Having paid out for the last month of the season, I assumed I would have access to all previous matches that I may or may not have watched, but come the end of the season ‘content is currently unavailable’. Also, as far as usability is concerned, the website was awful to navigate to a game. There were no quick search features or a decent scroll option. Since the package contains NCAA games from Basketball to American Football, from Softball to Baseball, trawling through the copious amounts of material was really tedious. More to the point, I don’t watch those sports so I end up paying for coverage of sports I don’t watch!

It seems over in the USA there are far more opportunities to obtain and watch lacrosse games. When clicking on links on the MLL website taking me to other sites where games were being shown, I would repeatedly get redirected to a UK version of the site offering me generic sports like football rather than the lacrosse I wanted to watch. Why isn’t this option available to all?

TLN do a brilliant job of bringing LXM Pro to the masses and now they are offering the up and coming NLL season too. It would be fantastic to see them growing and branching out to other tournaments like the Lake Placid Summit, which from what I read have some pretty explosive games.

The Future?

In reality, without a large injection of cash into the sport, it is unlikely that lacrosse will make it onto mainstream UK channels. I don’t know the exact dynamics of the system but the next step for game coverage, in my opinion, would be via the Internet. ESPN has proved it can work, albeit in rather primitive and rudimental form.

What I would love to see is a system more akin to the USA College game implemented here in the UK. I think with a little bit of effort and hard work it has great potential to be successful.

For example BUCS matches offer brilliantly tense games and with players coming and going through the universities, no two seasons will ever be the same. As part of a university community, there are likely to be a number of societies that are enthusiastic about TV and film, filming, recording and general media. Aberystwyth University has Aber Media Productions, which would be ideal to utilise. That particular society would gain experience in recording and broadcasting matches and the lacrosse community in the UK (or the World) would get a regular series of games to watch. It would seem a sensible match between the sports club and society. In practice, there are likely to be a lot more complications, but innovative ideas have never been easy to get off the ground.

For the meantime, I guess I will have to stick to Youtube and reading up on other websites. Hopefully, lacrosse continues to grow and its media reach will encapsulate more of the globe. On the lighter side, the future can only get better!

The Alumni Match: Old Boys 2012

This gallery contains 10 photos.

Just a few photos from the match hosted on 27/10/2012.

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The Lacrosse World Unravelled.

I started this sport just over 1 year ago and I was instantly hooked, even though for the first month I couldn’t cradle and run with the ball. There is something about the game that is addictive, I couldn’t get enough of it. At a glance if you aren’t training or playing wall ball it might seem that your addiction hits a dead end. Wrong!

I am here to fuel your addiction. There are plenty of ways to further your understanding of the game and get an insight to what is happening in the Lacrosse World, you just have to know where to look.

Since the sport is predominantly played in the States and Canada it can be hard to know where to start looking. The key is to find the right websites with good quality advice and tips.

Now, for UK or European players one of the best sites available that has helped me out a lot is laxforums.co.uk. It is a UK based community and is the best place to find out about the rules of the game, player experiences, UK tournaments and buying and selling gear (my favourite section). Basically in short, if something slightly lacrosse related is happening in the UK it will find its way on to this site.

There are a few more websites that hold a copious amount of information. They do apply slightly more to the United States, however, it’s all the same game at the heart of it. Below is a brief overview of the sites.

Major League Lacrosse – The highest form of field lacrosse is played in this league, whilst the site is very US specific it gives a great idea of what is going on.

Inside Lacrosse – This is THE lacrosse magazine, tips on how to play the game, gear and updates on the Pro leagues, College and High school can all be found here. It is a brilliant resource with articles from All-American’s and previous NCAA and MLL players. It also has a great gear section to keep you up to date on the latest and greatest.

LaxAllStars – I love this site. Everything they do is to further the game. They aim to get it growing all over the world. The articles they post have the fun of lacrosse at the centre of them making it really enjoyable to learn about the sport. There are some awesome gear reviews as well from custom head dyes to string tips (keep your eyes posted here for more on stringing soon).

So far I have covered the online literature for lacrosse, but a great way to gain some sort of match experience without having to have years worth of matches under your belt is to watch the game. If you watch footage from high school all the way up to the pro leagues you’ll begin to understand how the best in the game got to where they are.

Of course I can’t forget to mention the importance of tutorial videos. I have practiced various techniques from these to help my game and some of the colleges post videos of drills they do which could help any coaches out there.

Youtube is your friend. In fact, it’s everybody’s friend and subscribing to the right pages and checking out their videos is a great way to improve your game if you can’t get outside and play. Here are what I think are the best channels to subscribe to.

1. LaxAllStars – From stick tricks to game highlights they have it all.

2. TheLacrosseNetwork – Quite possibly my favourite channel not only because they have such good content but they also cover the LXM Pro games. A brilliant way to watch entire matches this channel deserves your attention.

3. uslacrosse8 – With player interviews from before and after various matches you can really get into the game from their perspective.

4. InsideLacrosseTV – The guys at Inside Lacrosse bring you videos to support their website.

5. LAXnews – is a great channel for keeping up to date with the MLL.

These are superb places to start and once you know what kind of players you like to watch don’t forget to give them a search too. I found I really enjoyed learning about face offs from Chris Eck and Greg Gurenlian which lead me to EcksFactorLacrosse and GregGurenlian.

This should help those of you new to the sport find your feet online. Try to watch as many matches as possible and, don’t forget to practice.

So remember, no matter where you are in the world you can always stay clued up and connected.