Please see the following letter from John Grant Senior. If you are interested in getting on John's stick stringing list please contact me at haynzie@sympatico.ca and I will forward your name to John or you can email John directly at weezeeg@sympatico.ca

Hi all  

Happy New Year. Our season is fast approaching. Registrations will soon start springing up all over Ontario. One of the most important tools of our game is the stick. No matter where I have gone to watch or participate in lacrosse, I am always looking at kid's lacrosse sticks and I must say I am totally amazed how they manage to play with them. Just 2 years ago I had a couple of kids up to Sudbury for John Jr's ProSkills Camp and I couldn't believe how bad these sticks were. The crazy thing was....these kids were on the Peewee All-Ontario Team! I pulled out my stringing bag and sat down and redid their sticks and spoke of the importance of a properly maintained stick. I am afraid that nowadays kids are adjusting their shot to the size of their pocket. Indirectly, if the pocket is too deep, or the ball hooks out of the stick- they adjust their mechanics where they should be adjusting their stick. As a member of the Grassroots committee, I need your help in getting the message out to your Associations and teams about stick maintenance and the materials necessary for this.    

I have attached a summary of what I carry in a stick kit. I am also requesting names of stick stingers in every Zone/city so we can start a clinic format to work with coaches and players in Ontario. I'd like to get a contact list so we can establish the best way to utilize the Internet/You-tube/film/ etc. If you have any further suggestions beyond contact names and email addresses, I'd appreciate the help.  

Just think of how many parents, players and coaches that don't know how to lace, string, measure or tape a stick. Once we in Ontario do a better job educating people on the importance of the stick our game will continue to grow. It's a known fact, kids that fall in love with the game spend hours and hours with their stick. They have to see or have been shown the magic that they can produce with a properly maintained stick. Even in the Pros/Senior/Junior, our highest levels of the game, there are players that do not know how to fix or re-string their stick.  

You can change this at the Grassroots level. 

 Thanks in advance for your help  

John

Stick Stringing and Maintenance Kit