It’s fast, powerful and crafty. For Abi Jackson, the Sixes discipline presents more opportunities than it does drawbacks.

Last weekend, Athletes Unlimited sent 12 pros to The St. James in Virginia for an exhibition game in the Sixes format, the first time AU pros have competed outside the season and the first time AU has dabbled in Sixes.

To say the results were encouraging would be an understatement. Jackson, the director of sport for lacrosse at Athletes Unlimited, estimated about 500 people watched the exhibition. They weren’t just passerby. Engaged and enthused by the lacrosse product, the fans were kept entertained throughout.

Sammy Jo Tracy is one of a handful of Athletes Unlimited pros with significant Sixes experience. She represented Team Israel in The World Games and told World Lacrosse after last weekend’s contest that it’s quickly becoming a personal favorite.

“I just love to play it and wish we could play it more,” she said.

Whether or not Athletes Unlimited finds more ways to implement Sixes remains to be seen, but Jackson and her team are committed to evolving the AU Lacrosse experience. That includes another out-of-season exhibition on January 14 in Indio, Calif. That game will be representative of AU’s full-field, but still innovative, product.

“It’s a brand-new expansion of AU,” Jackson said. “Softball had their traditional season and then AUX, which was a condensed, ultra-competitive season. It was another opportunity to play, another opportunity to earn, and there was demand. Same thing with volleyball.

“In my mind, which is sort of at the core of Athletes Unlimited in general, is we’re always looking to expand consumption of women’s sports.”

Events like the Sixes game allow for fans to consume lacrosse in a fun, different way. Jackson said the product was crisp, even as the athletes learned the discipline somewhat on the fly. They’re smart enough and supremely athletic enough, she said, to make it work.

“These women are elite players. You list out the rules, they think through it a little bit and they go from there,” Jackson said. “We had straight attackers playing D and vice versa. It’s a testament to the deep knowledge these players have of the game.”

Jackson, who spent 11 years as the head coach at Union College before stepping down to take her current role with Athletes Unlimited, has an immense coaching background. While she can still coach the AU pros, she admitted that, in many ways, there’s only so many things you can teach a crop of players that largely coaches college or high level high school lacrosse themselves.

Instead, Jackson wants to help them usher women’s lacrosse into a new era. She wants to help with individual player branding and expanding each athlete’s footprint.

“I don’t have anything in terms of skills to tell any of these pro women, ‘Hey, you should shoot like this,’” Jackson said. “But I think it’s more of figuring out ways and helping athletes come to different solutions on how they can expand their opportunities and individual brands.

“Fighting for their interests. Fighting for their preferences. Fighting for continued equity in women’s sports across the board. Athletes Unlimited is precisely the company that matches those ideals.”