What Is Lacrosse?

By: Jason Petrina




The sport of lacrosse is a very simple easy to learn game. It is just like most sports; try to score the most goals in a game to win. But lacrosse is a very physical sport, as there will be lots of contact that will happen. A lacrosse playing field can either be outdoors or indoors as well. The NLL (National Lacrosse League) games are all played indoors, in a hockey arena which has the ice replaced with turf. But most amateur lacrosse leagues will not have the privilege of playing indoors then most of them are held at football or soccer fields. There will be two nets that will be used for each team to score. The lacrosse nets are square shaped, which means the length and the height are all the same. Generally the nets would 6 feet high and wide.

Lacrosse is one of Canada’s national sports alongside of hockey. As the game of lacrosse first originated from the Native Indians of North American, it is only popular within the continent. But majority of professional lacrosse players are Canadians. The sport lacrosse requires a team of at least ten players. There are four positions that these ten players will fill. A team will require one goaltender, three defensemen, three midfielders and three attack/forwards. The forward is generally the position that scores the goals for the team since all his playing area will be in the offensive end of the playing field. The defensemen’s duty is to defend against the other team’s forwards to ensure that the chance of the other team scoring is kept at the minimum. Their playing fields will be strictly in their own end. While the midfielders are the only one that have to cover the entire playing field. And the goaltender is the only person left to defend the ball from going into the goal.

During a game of lacrosse there are a few basic rules that must be followed. First rule to know is that each team must have a minimum of three players not including the goaltender in the defensive end. Also for the offensive half of the field there can be three players, and only three midfielders may play the entire playing field of a lacrosse game. The length of a lacrosse game may vary depending on the league you are playing in. But in lacrosse game there will have two halves. Each half will have two quarters of play in them, so each time a quarter ends the teams will switch sides. To decide on who plays on which side, a coin toss will be taken place. The winner of the coin toss will get to choose the side of the field it wants to defend first. But most amateur lacrosse games will be 48 minutes long. Splitting the 48 minutes into four quarters will give you 12 minutes a quarter to play in.

To gain possession of the ball, the teams will have to fight for it in the face off. Face offs in lacrosse will always be held in the centre of the field unless specified by the referee. The face off occurs at the beginning of each quarter and also when a team has scored. In lacrosse face offs the ball will be placed in between the sticks of two players. These players will be in a squatting position, when the referee blows the whistle, then play will officially begin. The two players will have to try and control the ball over the other player. All players must stay in their position except for the wingers, until the face off is completed.

Lacrosse is a contact sport and can be one of the roughest sports anyone has played. In lacrosse players are allowed to try and gain possession of the ball by stick checking the ball out of the opposition’s crosse. The player is allowed to stick check the other player as long as it is a controlled poking and slapping on the stick and gloved hands in order to gain possession of the ball. Another way of getting possession of the ball or just plain putting the player with the ball off his or her feet is by body checking. Body checking is only legal when the player checks the other player with possession of the ball. But there are very rigid rules in body checking as it can easily cause injury to the player being checked. First is body checks can only occur in the front and the side of players never from behind. A penalty will be given out in respect to that action. Also a body check must be above the waist and below the shoulders. Players may stick check another player’s crosse as long as they are within five yards or if it is a loose ball.

Lacrosse’s rules are generally almost the same as what you expect from the game of hockey as well. There are actually a lot of similarities between the two. But the main difference between these two sports is that in lacrosse you will be on foot and running while in hockey players are to be on skate. Another difference between the two is that lacrosse you have the ball in your crosse which has a net to hold the ball, and you are suppose to try and swing the ball out of the crosse to score. If you think that means lacrosse must be a slow sport because players can easily just hold on to the ball for the whole match then your wrong. There is a time limit just like in basketball which has a shot clock it is the same for lacrosse. The teams only have a certain amount of time for each possession to try and score on the other team.



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