The leather or plastic netting fibers of a lacrosse stick head often tighten up, especially in wet weather conditions. The netting pocket then loses its elasticity and concavity.
Prior art has addressed this problem or similar ones for other sports with devices for stretching the netting.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,541 of Ambros shows a hand-held lacrosse stick pocket former that uses a hemispheric form of similar radius to a lacrosse ball attached to one end of a threaded rod which is also engaged with a threaded bracing crosspiece which braces across the frame of the head. Once the desired location for the ball pocket is selected by placing the hemisphere over the spot, the threaded rod is turned by a knob at the distal end thereby driving the hemisphere into the net. Upon information and belief, this product is sold as the “Brine Pocket Stretcher”, item number MS 1031204 at sporting goods stores.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,897 of Breuner describes a mallet tool and method whereby the tool with a spherical shape and size as the ball used in the sport at one end is used to pound a sports glove repeatedly to break it in. This was designed for the sports of baseball or softball, but subsequently a similar device has been commercialized for use with lacrosse heads in the “Warrior Lacrosse Pocket Pounder”, sold at Dicks Sporting Goods® and other sporting goods establishments.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,244,200 of Goldberg reveals a hand-held lacrosse stick pocket creator using a short stick with a ball at one end and a cross rod that is inserted transversely under the lacrosse head frame. By employing a lever action using the cross rod as a fulcrum, the ball end is driven into the mesh of the net to stretch it and form a pocket.
No prior art noted above describes a self-supporting pocket molding device for lacrosse sticks.