This time, I want to introduce everyone Lacrosse ^o^/
・about LacrosseLacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh designed to catch and hold the lacrosse ball. Offensively, the objective of the game is to score by shooting the ball into an opponent's goal, using the lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball to do so. Defensively, the objective is to keep the opposing team from scoring and to dispossess them of the ball through the use of stick checking and body contact or positioning. The sport has four major types: men's field lacrosse, women's lacrosse, box lacrosse and intercrosse.
I introduce evryone men's field lacrosse, women's lacrosse, box lacrosse .
・history
Lacrosse, a relatively popular team sport in the Americas, may have developed as early as 1100 AD,. By the seventeenth century it was well-established and had been documented by Jesuit priests, although the game has undergone many modifications since that time. In the traditional Native Canadian version, each team consisted of about 100 to 1,000 men on a field that stretched from about 500 meters to 3 kilometers long. These lacrosse games lasted from sunup to sundown for two to three days straight. These games were played as part of ceremonial ritual to give thanks to the master.
・Field lacrosse
There are ten players on each team: three attack, three midfielders, three defenders and a goalie.
Each player carries a lacrosse stick (or crosse). A "short crosse" (or "short stick") measures between 40 inches (1.0 m) and 42 inches (1.1 m) long (head and shaft together) and is typically used by attackers or midfielders. A total of four players per team may carry a "long crosse" (sometimes called "long pole", "long stick" or "d-pole") which is 52 inches (1.3 m) to 72 inches (1.8 m) long; typically used by defenders or midfielders. The head of the crosse on both long and short crosses must be 6.5 inches (17 cm) or larger at its widest point. The throat of the lacrosse head for college must be at least 3 inches wide. There is no minimum width at its narrowest point in high school, the only provision is that the ball must roll out unimpeded. The designated goalkeeper is allowed to have a stick from 40 inches (1.0 m) to 72 inches (1.8 m) long and the head of a goalkeeper's crosse may measure up to 12 inches (30 cm) wide, significantly larger than field players' heads to assist in blocking shots. The field of play is 110 yards (100 m) long and 60 yards (55 m) wide. The goals are 6 feet (1.8 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m). The goal sits inside a circular "crease", measuring 18 feet (5.5 m) in diameter. Each offensive and defensive area is surrounded by a "restraining box." Each quarter, and after each goal scored, play is restarted with a face-off. During a face-off, two players lay their stick horizontally next to the ball, head of the stick inches from the ball and the butt-end pointing down the midfield line. Face-off-men scrap for the ball, often by “clamping” it under their stick and flicking it out to their teammates. Attackers and defenders cannot cross their “restraining line” until one player from the midfield takes possession of the ball or the ball crosses the restraining line. If a member of one team touches the ball and it travels outside of the playing area, play is restarted by awarding possession to the opposing team. During play, teams may substitute players in and out freely. Sometimes this is referred to as "on the fly" substitution. Substitution must occur within the designated exchange area in order to be legal.
For most penalties, the offending player is sent to the penalty box which is located between each team's bench. His team then must play without the player for a designated amount of time based upon the foul. (Most penalties are "releasable", that is, the penalty ends when a goal is scored by the non-offending team.) Technical fouls (such as offsides and holding) result in either a turnover or a player's suspension of 30 seconds, while personal fouls are generally penalized one minute (although some infractions, such as playing with a stick that does not meet the specifications of their designated level of play, may serve non-releasable penalties of up to three minutes). The team that has taken the penalty is said to be playing man down while the other team is on the man up. Teams will use various lacrosse strategies to attack and defend while a player is being penalized. Offsides is penalized by a 30 second penalty. It occurs when there are more than 7 players on the defensive side of the field, (three midfielders/three defensemen/one goalkeeper), or more than 6 players from one team on the offensive side of the field (three midfielders/three attack). The zones are separated by the midfield line.
・Box lacrosse
Box lacrosse is played at the highest level by the Senior A divisions of the Canadian Lacrosse Association and the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The National Lacrosse League employs some minor rule changes from the Canadien Lacrosse Association (CLA) rules. Notably, the games are played during the winter, the NLL games consist of four fifteen-minute quarters compared with three periods of twenty minutes each (similar to ice hockey) in CLA games (multiple 15-minute OT periods for tied games, until whoever scores first), and that NLL players may use only sticks with hollow shafts, while CLA permits solid wooden sticks.
The goals in box lacrosse are much smaller than field lacrosse, traditionally 4 feet (1.2 m) wide by 4 feet (1.2 m) tall in box, and 4.6 feet (1.4 m) wide by 4 feet (1.2 m) tall in the NLL. Also, the goaltender wears much more protective padding, including a massive chest protector and armguard combination known as "uppers", large shin guards known as leg pads (both of which must follow strict measurement guidelines), and ice hockey-style masks or lacrosse helmets. Also, at the professional level, box lacrosse goaltenders often use traditional wooden sticks outside of the NLL, which does not allow wooden sticks. This makes Box Lacrosse faster and rougher than the traditional Field Lacrosse.
The style of the game is quick, accelerated by the close confines of the floor and a shot clock. The shot clock requires the attacking team to take a shot on goal within 30 seconds of gaining possession of the ball. In addition, players must advance the ball from their own defensive end to the offensive side of the floor within 10 seconds.
Box lacrosse is also a much more physical game. Since cross checking is legal in box lacrosse players wear rib pads in addition to the shoulder and elbow pads that field lacrosse players wear. Box lacrosse players wear a different type of helmet as well. The helmet they wear is a hockey helmet with a box lacrosse cage.
For most penalties, the offending player is sent to the penalty box and his team has to play without him and with one less player for a short amount of time. Most penalties last for two minutes, unless a five minute major penalty has been assessed. What separates box lacrosse (and ice hockey) from other sports is that at the top levels of professional and junior lacrosse, a five-minute major penalty is given and the players are not ejected for participating in a fight.
・Women's lacrosse
The rules of women's lacrosse differ significantly from men's lacrosse, most notably by equipment and the degree of allowable physical contact. Women's lacrosse does not promote physical contact primarily because the only protective equipment worn for this sport is a mouth guard and face guard and sometimes thin gloves. Stick checking, and not body checking as in men's lacrosse, is permitted in women's lacrosse. Although sometimes checking can lead to body checking. While this is still not permitted in a women's game some referees will allow limited body checking. The first modern women's lacrosse game was held at St Leonards School in Scotland in 1890. It was introduced by the school's headmistress Louisa Lumsden after a visit to Quebec. The first women's lacrosse team in the United States was established at Bryn Mawr School in Baltimore, USA in 1926. Men’s and women’s lacrosse were played under virtually the same rules, with no protective equipment, until the mid-1930s.