laxn
02-21-2006, 08:34 PM
I know there was another thread on this but.. this is a review. I am a member of on the site and they sent me a free issue of there new magazine Lax.
The first thing I noticed about the magazine is that it is a lot thicker than inside lacrosse, (but not the same wide format). Also as I flipped through the magazien I saw great bright pictures much better than the cross-check to the neck picture that was rediculed in the other thread from the first issue. The main articles in it were on the top 20 DI teams, top 20 DIII teams, Kyle Sweeney and the wings, making a DI lacrosse team and than the second half of the magazine was the new gear for 2006 (including pictures of the new team stuff).
The top 20 lists for both DI and DIII (last time i checked there was a DII as well but not according to this magazine) were not accurate. For all you UNC fans they were 20th (behind Stony Brook and Denver!) and Delaware wasnt even on it. Duke was at #1 followed by Maryland #2 and Virginia #3 with Syracuse as #4. Salisbury was at #2 behind Middlebury as well. However although the order may have been somewhat confused the setup and information for each team was informative, accurate and interesting to read and made a great referance for the teams's rosters for 2006. I also enjoyed the pictures for each team. The full list can be found at Lax.com (http://www.lax.com/stories/1516) and I personally completely agree with the top 7 picks, which are much more accurate than the coaches poll that inside lacrosse conducted.
The Kyle Sweeney article seemed to be a pretty solid documentary of one Wings game through the eyes of Kyle Sweeney
The article about being a walkon and making a D1 team, seemed to be a realistic, down to earth retrospective on what it really means to play for a tp team in college.
The "On The Fly" section is very similair to Inside Lacrosse's "headlines in the lacrosse world" feature
However this is were the threat to Inside Lacrosse comes to an abrupt end. There were a few useless articles including an article on taping your stick (preferance) and an article on shooting strings which seemed to be completely pointless. The article did not explain how to string shooting strings, instead it said that nylons should always be rolled and all shooters should be rolled in big-hole mesh inorder to avoid shifting in the pocket, a valid point but not entirely accurate, shooters can be weaved imbetween diamonds in the mesh to avoid this problem. There was an interview with Mikey Powell that was okay if u worship mikey powell, but if you just respect him as a good player you may find it rather pointless. The last pointless part of the magazine was the huge section about the new products. It offered no further insight than what can be found from any lacrosse store about the new stuff however I did enjoy the pics of the new customized team gear (including Princeton's all black mac-daddys~very cool).
In conclusion Lax does seem to be a worthy opponent to Inside Lacrosse however it did not make me think twice about cancelling my subscription. You could call me biased for loving Inside Lacrosse well before this review but I can't help it, and I have a good reason to be bias. But this is not to say that Lax doesn't deserve a look by everyone, and also this review is just of 1 issue, so it's unfair to base too many assumptions off of this review. I hope this helps to clear any misconceptions about the magazine and provide an actual referance for the magazine's credibility. Thankyou for taking the time to read this and respecting my opinion.
The first thing I noticed about the magazine is that it is a lot thicker than inside lacrosse, (but not the same wide format). Also as I flipped through the magazien I saw great bright pictures much better than the cross-check to the neck picture that was rediculed in the other thread from the first issue. The main articles in it were on the top 20 DI teams, top 20 DIII teams, Kyle Sweeney and the wings, making a DI lacrosse team and than the second half of the magazine was the new gear for 2006 (including pictures of the new team stuff).
The top 20 lists for both DI and DIII (last time i checked there was a DII as well but not according to this magazine) were not accurate. For all you UNC fans they were 20th (behind Stony Brook and Denver!) and Delaware wasnt even on it. Duke was at #1 followed by Maryland #2 and Virginia #3 with Syracuse as #4. Salisbury was at #2 behind Middlebury as well. However although the order may have been somewhat confused the setup and information for each team was informative, accurate and interesting to read and made a great referance for the teams's rosters for 2006. I also enjoyed the pictures for each team. The full list can be found at Lax.com (http://www.lax.com/stories/1516) and I personally completely agree with the top 7 picks, which are much more accurate than the coaches poll that inside lacrosse conducted.
The Kyle Sweeney article seemed to be a pretty solid documentary of one Wings game through the eyes of Kyle Sweeney
The article about being a walkon and making a D1 team, seemed to be a realistic, down to earth retrospective on what it really means to play for a tp team in college.
The "On The Fly" section is very similair to Inside Lacrosse's "headlines in the lacrosse world" feature
However this is were the threat to Inside Lacrosse comes to an abrupt end. There were a few useless articles including an article on taping your stick (preferance) and an article on shooting strings which seemed to be completely pointless. The article did not explain how to string shooting strings, instead it said that nylons should always be rolled and all shooters should be rolled in big-hole mesh inorder to avoid shifting in the pocket, a valid point but not entirely accurate, shooters can be weaved imbetween diamonds in the mesh to avoid this problem. There was an interview with Mikey Powell that was okay if u worship mikey powell, but if you just respect him as a good player you may find it rather pointless. The last pointless part of the magazine was the huge section about the new products. It offered no further insight than what can be found from any lacrosse store about the new stuff however I did enjoy the pics of the new customized team gear (including Princeton's all black mac-daddys~very cool).
In conclusion Lax does seem to be a worthy opponent to Inside Lacrosse however it did not make me think twice about cancelling my subscription. You could call me biased for loving Inside Lacrosse well before this review but I can't help it, and I have a good reason to be bias. But this is not to say that Lax doesn't deserve a look by everyone, and also this review is just of 1 issue, so it's unfair to base too many assumptions off of this review. I hope this helps to clear any misconceptions about the magazine and provide an actual referance for the magazine's credibility. Thankyou for taking the time to read this and respecting my opinion.