Differences Between Men's and Women's Lacrosse

There has been many speculations between the differences of men's and women's lacrosse for several years now. It has always come up in conversation and if you are not a regular in the lax world, you may too be asking this very popular question so don't feel like you are the only one. To the outsider they may seem very similar, but this will give the 4 top differences between them. 1. Face-offs/Draws: To start the play of the game, there is always something. In men's, both players are on the ground, with the ball placed in middle of the two guys, one from each team. Whoever can get to it first, has the quickest reflexes, will be the winner after the whistle is blown. This is known as a face-off. In women's, the ball is placed in between the two girls' sticks, while holding it in between their heads in the air. When the whistle is blown, the two players draw the ball up in the air and a certain direction that they place the ball. This is known as a draw. 2. Equipment: The lacrosse sticks and certain equipment that is worn is completely different, too. Compared to each other, the men's lacrosse stick has a deep pocket to catch and carry the ball. They have different sized sticks, long poles (60") for the defenders to get the ball away and short sticks for the attackers to make them more agile (30"). They also have to wear a certain level of padding for their safety including helmets, elbow pads, shoulder pads, and gloves. In women's, the stick is a more of a tight net designed to move, pass, or hit the ball instead of carrying it over a long distance. It is more of a finesse sport with less padding needed. Women only wear goggles and mouth guards. 3. Physicality: Men's teams are allowed to have a significant amount of body contact during the game, hence the amount of much more needed padding. This is illegal in women's, since they do not have as much padding. Stick checks are allowed in the women's game, but they have a variety of rules applied to it. They have to be quick and it cannot be in the women's invisible head sphere, which can be highly dangerous. No body-checks are allowed either. 4. Number of Players: For the men, only 10 field players are allowed on the field at any given time. Each position has a certain name and function whereas for the women, there are two more players allowed on the field. The women players work in three different groups in a similar fashion, attack, midfield, and defense. Other than these differences, the two games are quite similar and have the same goal in mind... get the ball in the net and have the higher amount of points.