How to Play Lacrosse by the Rules
Lacrosse is a field sport with 10 players on each side. Each player carries a lacrosse stick, or crosse--a stick with a short, netted frame that holds a lacrosse ball. The ball is small and made of hard rubber. Each of the 10 players on a team has a role: a goalie; three midfielders, who can run through the entire field of play; three defenders, who are restricted to the defensive area; and three attackers, who are restricted to the attacking area of play. To play lacrosse properly, you need to know and abide by the rules.
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Instructions
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Set up a lacrosse field--a regulation field is 110 yards long by 60 yards wide. A wing area 10 yards wide spans the length of the field and shoulders the defensive and attacking areas, which abut the goalkeepers box and are each 40 yards wide by 35 yards long. The goals are 15 yards from the end line and are surrounded by a circle three yards in diameter.
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Begin play with a face-off between one player from each team. The ball is between them. The players face each other. The referee tells the players to come down, come together and face off. This signals that the players move onto the balls of their feet, nearly squatting, their sticks parallel to each other and on the field. The players vie to gain control of the ball and pass it to a teammate.
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Gain control of the ball by scooping it out of the air, off the ground or out of your opponent's stick. Knock the ball out of your opponent's stick by stick checking--that is, hitting the stick; or by shoulder checking--knocking your opponent off balance with your shoulder. Do not hit from behind; this is a penalty and the ball will be awarded to the other team.
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Pass the ball to your teammates and work to get near your opponent's goal. Score by shooting the ball with your stick past the opponent's goalie and over the goal line. Each goal is worth one point, and a face-off is held after each goal. Do not step inside the circle, called the "crease," surrounding your opponent's goal--if a player enters the opposing team's crease, the player's team loses possession of the ball.
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Make the goalie throw the ball to a teammate within four seconds after saving a goal. If not, the referee will award the ball to the opposing team.
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Move the ball across midfield within 20 seconds and move into the attacking area within 10 seconds after that. If not, the referee will award the ball to the opposing team.
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Keep at least four defensive players on your side of the midfield line or referee will award the ball to the opposing team.
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Observe personal fouls when they occur and charge penalties for them. A personal foul occurs when a player slashes, trips, cross checks (hits another player with the portion of the stick held between the hands), unnecessary roughness, unsportsmanlike conduct (such as taunting or obscene language), body checking below the waist or using illegal gloves (gloves that have cut-off fingers and palms). Suspend a player who has committed a personal foul for up to three minutes and expel him or her from the game if that player commits five personal fouls.
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Observe the penalties for technical fouls, which have less consequence than personal fouls. Suspend a player from play for 30 seconds if he or she commits a technical foul such as: holding another player; interfering with another player's movements who doesn't have the ball or is within five yards of the ball; being offsides (meaning four defensive players aren't on the defensive side or three attacking players aren't on the attacking side); stalling, meaning a team purposefully stalls play; and warding off, meaning a player with the ball holds another player back with his or her hand.
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10
Play the game for four quarters. The team with the most goals at the end of four quarters wins (if there's a tie, the teams play overtime until one scores). Youth quarters are usually 10-12 minutes long, depending on age (sometimes with a running clock); high schools play 12-minute quarters, while colleges and pros have quarters that are 15 minutes long.
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