Lacrosse: Protection Equipments

By: Jason Petrina




Being a contact sport that lacrosse is, there are obviously equipments designed to keep the players safe. For players to play this exciting game and not get hurt there will be some basic equipment that everyone that should have before participating in a lacrosse game. First would be a lacrosse helmet. A lacrosse helmet will have face protection as well to keep the ball or the stick from ever hitting the face. The face guard will generally be made out of tough plastic and a wire mesh cage. An important aspect to the helmet is that it should be able to protect your throat from being hit by the stick. For extra protection there are more advanced helmets. One would be the four-point buckling system that you can get with a helmet to give yourself extra protection. Another thing would be to make your face guard stronger is to make sure you buy the one with a centre bar/wire running from top to bottom, as it will give it extra strength.

Another equipment that is a must have for all lacrosse players is a mouth guard. The mouth guard will help protect your teeth during a lacrosse game. Some may say they don’t need a mouth guard since they already have a helmet on, but the mouth guard does provide more than just protection for your teeth. It helps reduce the impact to the head, and will ultimately reduce the chance of concussion. To receive the maximum benefit of a mouth guard, you should have one customized to your mouth and teeth as it will provide even more protection than the default ones you can buy at a sport store. But if you decided to go with the sport stores one then you can get it to kind of mold to your mouth but simply making it warm by applying hot water to it when put it to your mouth for better comfort.

For lacrosse players the hand is what gets hit the most. As sometimes even a controlled stick check can easily hit the other player’s hand. A simple stick whack can break the bones in a hand. So to protect lacrosse players from these injuries the lacrosse gloves are made. Lacrosse gloves are almost like hockey gloves expect with a tighter fit and smaller in size compared to them. But the gloves must be able to protect you from finger tips to your wrist. Lacrosse gloves are heavily protected so it can help reduce the impact of the stick hitting the hand. And finding the lacrosse glove that fits is very important, as having it too small will not protect you from anything at all.

In a lacrosse game the upper torso will be given an extreme pounding for 48 minutes. It is necessary for every lacrosse player to wear padding that will protect the areas of the upper torso that will be under constant contact during play. First would be the lower back and ribs area. To protect these two vulnerable spot you will need to have wrap padding just for lacrosse. This will provide protection for the lower back when another player stick checks you in the back. The next equipment for upper body protection would be shoulder pads. Shoulder pads generally will help protect not only the shoulder but also the chest region too.

The arm is also a body part that is must be heavily protected during lacrosse games. The arms are constantly being whacked by lacrosse sticks and from body checks. There were elbow pads that will protect the whole arm. From elbow to upper arm and also the forearm. You don’t have to have your elbow pads cover all that area, you can buy ones those only cover specific parts of the arms. But in general most lacrosse players prefer the whole arm protection, even though it may hinder their movements. But forearm pads are consider the most important. You must use the forearm pads to protect the sensitive and open parts of the forearm.

Lacrosse sticks are the most important equipment for players to be able to participate in any lacrosse game. Lacrosse sticks comes in different materials, such as you can buy a stick that is aluminum, hard plastic or wood. And the mesh that holds the ball can vary in different material as well. Some of the mesh material that are out in the market is soft mesh, hard mesh, durra mesh and the traditional netting but using thongs. It all depends on the lacrosse players’ preference on what they want from their lacrosse sticks. As you can debate over what material is more superior but in the end of the day all that matters is if you like the feel of the stick.



Jason Petrina is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit - www.articleclick.com