You're one chance

[Vermont Laxer]

with so many rules and new things and new innovations to the game if you could change one thing what would it be and why?

[Laxattack05]

first off, you used the wrong you're. should have used Your. and second, i really wish they wouldn't do the 2009 new stick rules. it's going to be my freshman year in college. and i already use a pinched PP as my starter and an Evo Pro as my backup. not going to be fun....

of the rules that are already in play, probably one handed wrap checks. you might think this is weird cause im an attackman, but i also live in idaho. and in idaho, they are trying to ban one handed checks. i can only play defense 1 handed, so it kinda f's me over when i get a minute for slashing for a wrap check that gets only stick and i get the ball back, when in mass or new york, youd get a high 5 for a strip.

[CHSLAX22x]

i like how now our officials are checking more sticks per game. I think this helps keep the game honest, but Im not a fan of the 09 stick rule. With more stick checks i am not so sure if it will be necessary. 2010 will be my freshman year playing in college so I will probably use a NCAA legal stick in high school senior year just to get used to it. Im sure it wont be a big deal or make a huge change in the game, but i just find it a little unnecessary


In terms of sticks, I love where stx is going with the crankshaft, but i would eliminate "unique" heads such as the liquid or the pulse, i just dont want to see kids in the future comparing sticks like, Hey dude, your stick stinks, it only has 2 reflex bands, a weight converter a flex point and some pepper spray to hurt the opponent. A lacrosse head should be just that, a head. Some say that without innovations, we would still be using wood sticks. That is a change in material, not in the product itself.

[lawrencelax18]

chslax how do u no ur gonna play in college if ur only a somphmore? just curious dude

[Paulvilax24]

Club...And if he works hard he can do whatever he wants.

[lawrencelax18]

i'm just asking becuase i have rarely ever heard of a somphmore commitment to play college ball so i am wondering if he is just being cocky or if he really is going to.

[m2daRizzle]

i'm just asking becuase i have rarely ever heard of a somphmore commitment to play college ball so i am wondering if he is just being cocky or if he really is going to.

He plans on playing in college. He never said he was for sure going to get recruited or anything, I dont think his post was cocky at all.

[Diesel4958]

I'd change the unnecessary roughness rule. If they have the ball roughness is very necessary. . .

[atacklax]

I'd change the unnecessary roughness rule. If they have the ball roughness is very necessary. . .
Or if they're in the way. Unfortunately, Unnecessary Roughness is a judgement call, so its hard to anticipate. But of all the penalties in lacrosse, none are worth the time in the box as much as Unnecessary Roughness.

I would like some kind of rule to keep teams from subbing out their middies with every change of possession.

[lawrencelax18]

alright please no hard feelings anyone i guess i just read it wrong. my bad chslax . but anyways i would change how the refs make calls on unnecessary roughness and holding penalties. for the ur penalty if a player hits someone "too hard" they call that a lot. it's just part of the physical game. and today one of our defensemen had his stick against a player's arm and got a holding penalty. kind of bs in my eyes.

and i think the new rule of '09 is a good rule becuase today players go thorugh double and triple teams with thier stick literally upside-down. its unbelievable how pinched and illegal sticks are today. it's like asking less-skilled players to do these impossible things and be good becuase they can walk up to the goal and be attacked by every defensemen and still get it in the net.

[laxn]

i dont like the two minute in the box thing at the end of the game, just causes a lot of bruises and such and you can't even score for satisfaction

[moondog]

Maybe I'm old-school, but I LOVE the idea of the 2009 stick rules. It's gotten WAY too hard to dislodge the ball these days, and defenders are put at a disadvantage.

I'd also like to see LESS subbing and specialization. We need more 2-way, versatile midfielders like in the old days, more fast breaks, more scoring--BRING BACK THE OLD-SCHOOL!

[CornerPicker22]

first off, you used the wrong you're. should have used Your.

Hahaha. I notice that too.

Anyway, I would say implement the shot clock in all levels of the game. Maybe 60-75 second shot clock in the college game would speed the game up. But too many college teams thrive off the possession game and I bet a lot of coaches would moan and complain to the NCAA if it were even considering it. Also you'd have to pay for the shot clock and someone to operate it, which some diii schools don't wanna shell out for.

[brunos13]

I'd also like to see LESS subbing and specialization. We need more 2-way, versatile midfielders like in the old days, more fast breaks, more scoring--BRING BACK THE OLD-SCHOOL! :worship:

Can't agree with your stick rule comment even though I play close D, but your second observation is right on. We are getting away from the fastest game on two feet and becoming the fastest game to sub on the fly. Plus, with the old school two way middies looking for breaks we wouldn't need a shot clock.

[tomtom]

I'd like to see middies allowed to use longer sticks again. Its nice having d-mids that have an extra bit of length to play d with, it keeps us poles from having to bail therm out when they go for the over the head checks, or wraps and have to commit so much and get burned.

Of course, this could be fixed with more controlled players, but itd still be nice.

[lawrencelax18]

dude you can have d middies with d-poles so long as you only have as much as four poles on the field at once.

[3rdPersonPlural]

I'd make the crease a foot larger in diameter. I'd eliminate the 'closest to the ball on a shot' rule and just give the ball back to the shooter's team. I'd eliminate faceoffs after a 3 goal differential has been established and give the ball at the faceoff X to the trailing team. I'd prohibit any substitutions except at a horn. I'd make any check that connects below the crotch a 1 minute foul. I'd make the 4th quarter 15 minutes running time (NFHS) and if it's tied at that point, 2 new time outs per team and shut off the clock until one team scores.

[RottingMind13]

I'd make the crease a foot larger in diameter. I'd eliminate the 'closest to the ball on a shot' rule and just give the ball back to the shooter's team. I'd eliminate faceoffs after a 3 goal differential has been established and give the ball at the faceoff X to the trailing team. I'd prohibit any substitutions except at a horn. I'd make any check that connects below the crotch a 1 minute foul. I'd make the 4th quarter 15 minutes running time (NFHS) and if it's tied at that point, 2 new time outs per team and shut off the clock until one team scores.

I cant tell if this is very sarcastic or very..not sarcastic

[3rdPersonPlural]

I'm serious. Each change would result in more lacrosse and less nonsense.

[Shorelax]

I like the stick of the future. I would get rid of the horn. Sub on the fly only.

[MaKiMaKi13]

that clear mouthgaurd jeunks yea i know the reasoning for it but i still like them

[qbymiddie5]

I'd make the crease a foot larger in diameter. I'd eliminate the 'closest to the ball on a shot' rule and just give the ball back to the shooter's team. I'd eliminate faceoffs after a 3 goal differential has been established and give the ball at the faceoff X to the trailing team. I'd prohibit any substitutions except at a horn. I'd make any check that connects below the crotch a 1 minute foul. I'd make the 4th quarter 15 minutes running time (NFHS) and if it's tied at that point, 2 new time outs per team and shut off the clock until one team scores.
haha i think you might need to make your own sport cuz you just made up alot of rules that would really change the game :wow:

[HarryPockets]

I agree with many of the stick changes. It will add skill back to the game and speed things up as above. It will also make the game safer. The leniency and ferocity that defensive players throw checks and push off on attakcmen has gone way up over the past 10 years. There was a time when if your gloves were a part and you pushed off on a player, it was a penalty. Now you can pretty much use the hold and push off cross check at will. I'd like to see the crosses opened up and the violent nature of the checks brought down. That is what box lacrosse is for. I love both, but let's not ruin the either game by trying to make it the other.

[roycegracie47]

A rule currently used in the ALL (and some other club sets). I'd eliminate alternate possession and replace it with a dead ball face-off. It'd cut down on confusion after scrums or questionable out of bounds and get play restarted a lot faster

**edit** as per laxcomm's comment, this IS NOT and ALL rule. It's still a rule I'd like to see, but my source is waaaaaaay wrong.

[CardinalPuff]

i love the international rule that starts the penalty time as soon as the penalized player sits down in a chair.....i would love to incorporate that into our post collegiate club rules....

[BlueJaysLaxFan]

3PP is actually quite serious, and in fact they're good suggestions. I would change the closest to the ball rule first and just give the ball back to the shooting team.

[3rdPersonPlural]

haha i think you might need to make your own sport cuz you just made up alot of rules that would really change the game :wow:

Not at all:

I'd make the crease a foot larger in diameter.


This would make 'The Crease' from a field play standpoint a larger area, enabling more controlled play close to the net. It also would make those awkward rebounds that lie a foot or less from the crease and create ugly chaos into crease protected possessions.

I'd eliminate the 'closest to the ball on a shot' rule and just give the ball back to the shooter's team.

Backing up shots and racing for the endline are tangental elements to the fundamental objectives of the game. This change would encourage more shooting and eliminate the temptation to take players out of the play as a calculated gamble to gain or retain possession on the cheap.

I'd eliminate faceoffs after a 3 goal differential has been established and give the ball at the faceoff X to the trailing team.



A great FOGO can turn a win into a rout simply by denying the opponent's offense the ball. If the lead is 3 or less, face it off, but if the lead is 4 or more, Award the ball to the losing team and let their offense have a go. This way a FOGO can protect a 3 point lead and a lousy defense, but not dominate a game and cause a lopsided score.

I'd prohibit any substitutions except at a horn.

On-the-fly subs slows the game down and encourages overspecialization, IMHO. Horn-only subs encourages and rewards conditioning, general skills, and fast transition play. This IS lacrosse to us old schoolers.

I'd make any check that connects below the crotch a 1 minute foul.

A pet peeve. I frown on back checks that turn into back-of-the-knee checks, and legs are conspicuously unpadded as well as vulnerable to serious injury.

I'd make the 4th quarter 15 minutes running time (NFHS) and if it's tied at that point, 2 new time outs per team and shut off the clock until one team scores.

This is no problem for games that are already decided by the 4th, but for close games this approach will make tight games exciting as well as tense. Maybe add an obligatory stall warning for the whole 15, so no one can sit on a lead. Coaches would hate this, but players and fans would love it.

[CardinalPuff]

I'd eliminate faceoffs after a 3 goal differential has been established and give the ball at the faceoff X to the trailing team.
i'd at least make them clear the ball.....trully crappy teams would never have to learn this important aspect of the game otherwise......

[okemosLAX]

i love the international rule that starts the penalty time as soon as the penalized player sits down in a chair.....i would love to incorporate that into our post collegiate club rules....

I agree.

Extra words

[RYU]

Maybe I'm old-school, but I LOVE the idea of the 2009 stick rules. It's gotten WAY too hard to dislodge the ball these days, and defenders are put at a disadvantage.I find it greatly amusing to read & hear all the grumblings & complaints from young players who balk about the impending rule change. All the guys who seriously have good stickwork have nothing to worry about. Ryan Powell did fine in last summer's World Games playing w/ an old Excalibur.

I'd also like to see LESS subbing and specialization. We need more 2-way, versatile midfielders like in the old days, more fast breaks, more scoring--BRING BACK THE OLD-SCHOOL!I have nothing against role specialization, but I hate the sub-on-the-horn rule. Why do we have to give teams 20 sec everytime the ball goes OOB on the sideline to sub players in & out? :ahhno:
If it was up to me, all substitutions would be on-the-fly. I believe most po-co club leagues plays this way, and I much prefer it.

[3rdPersonPlural]

i'd at least make them clear the ball.....trully crappy teams would never have to learn this important aspect of the game otherwise......

Young whippersnappers like yourself may not remember this, but when I played college ball, goals were followed by clears (for a year or two only, as I recall).

The game did not inalterably change.

[laxcomm]

Before I state on what new rule I would like to see implemented I have to correct "roycegracie47" and his comment about the ALL not using "alternate possession". If he has seen this not used I would like him to get in touch with me because IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE USED. I write the ALL rules and there is nothing in the ALL modifications that eliminates "alternate possession". At the start of the season I sent a letter to the assignors for the ALL in which I instructed them to remind the officials that a coin toss must be held in order to apply the "alternate possession" rule.

Now for my new rule. It is very simple. Eliminate the use of "horn" substitution except when a served time penalty is assessd.

[roycegracie47]

Before I state on what new rule I would like to see implemented I have to correct "roycegracie47" and his comment about the ALL not using "alternate possession". If he has seen this not used I would like him to get in touch with me because IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE USED. I write the ALL rules and there is nothing in the ALL modifications that eliminates "alternate possession". At the start of the season I sent a letter to the assignors for the ALL in which I instructed them to remind the officials that a coin toss must be held in order to apply the "alternate possession" rule.

Now for my new rule. It is very simple. Eliminate the use of "horn" substitution except when a served time penalty is assessd.
Ah, ok. I didn't know, when we began practicing back in february, the guy who runs both of our club teams (one new to the ALL, which I am NOT on, and an independent team) he worked it into several practices much to our confusion telling the ALL guys that's what they'd be doing, and over the course of scrimmages it came up several times. So I've been VERY misinformed for sometime then and retract my very misinformed statement. I can't really recall seeing a case of AP brought up in the few games I've been to either, so whether it did come up and I wasn't paying attention or not once in the whole game, I'm still wrong. Thanks for the correction.

I still would like to see AP done away with in favor of a dead ball face-off in it's place though.

[LaxRef]

A rule currently used in the ALL (and some other club sets). I'd eliminate alternate possession and replace it with a dead ball face-off. It'd cut down on confusion after scrums or questionable out of bounds and get play restarted a lot faster


I can't see how setting guys up for a faceoff is faster than just awarding the ball to one team or the other and blowing the whistle. In addition, I'd say I average using AP at most once every 5 games, and maybe less, so I don't see how eliminating AP could possibly save much time.

[roycegracie47]

I can't see how setting guys up for a faceoff is faster than just awarding the ball to one team or the other and blowing the whistle. In addition, I'd say I average using AP at most once every 5 games, and maybe less, so I don't see how eliminating AP could possibly save much time.
I guess I just don't like arbitrarily awarding the ball to one team. Both teams want to argue over possession, then let them re-establish it.

[LaxRef]

I guess I just don't like arbitrarily awarding the ball to one team. Both teams want to argue over possession, then let them re-establish it.

Like doing a jump ball in basketball after every made basket and current AP situation?

[laxcomm]

I totally agreee with laxref. Too much time would be spent properly aligning the players and getting everyone back five yards (especially with the running clock used in club lacrosse). Once the whistle blows there would be a great deal of time spent in a scrum due to the fact that there could be as many as 10 players within five yards of the faceoff. When the ball is faced at the center of the field, 4 players are 20 yards away. This allows for a more open situation to get possession of the ball once the whistle blows.

[laxcomm]

Cardinal Puff, I agree with you about when to start penalty time , BUT how many club games have scorers tables let alone chairs? In addition, there has to be a person on the sidelines that will start the penalty clock when the player sits down. How many club games have scorers, timers, and clocks or stop watches on the sideline? The officials on the field have to be watching play when the whistle blows for a restart. If an official is turned around waiting for the player to sit in the nonexistent chair that takes away from what is happening on the field.

[LaxRef]

Cardinal Puff, I agree with you about when to start penalty time , BUT how many club games have scorers tables let alone chairs? In addition, there has to be a person on the sidelines that will start the penalty clock when the player sits down. How many club games have scorers, timers, and clocks or stop watches on the sideline? The officials on the field have to be watching play when the whistle blows for a restart. If an official is turned around waiting for the player to sit in the nonexistent chair that takes away from what is happening on the field.

Sounds like they need to have and enforce a rule about having a timer and scorer. Club games are way too disorganized for my tastes.

[CardinalPuff]

Cardinal Puff, I agree with you about when to start penalty time , BUT how many club games have scorers tables let alone chairs? i agree, the logistics are troublesome....that said, my answer was in the spirit of the question.....i seriously don't expect club lacrosse to adopt the rule.....but hey, a guy can dream....

btw, our league, the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse League (RMLL), actually employs table personal for each game.....game time is kept on the field, penalty time at the table....

[laxcomm]

Laxref, by in large post college club teams are pretty well organized but their budgets are eaten up by paying for officials and field rental. The ALL requires 3 officials for their games so there is a big hit there. Unless teams have a local recreation facility owned by a municipality, field rental from schools in some cases is over $500 for a game and that does not take practices into account. At schools there is not too much of a problem getting table personnel. With clubs, people involved with teams want to play lacrosse, not work a scorers table.

Hiring a scorer and timer would increase team budgets which in turn would result in higher dues. Players supply their own sticks, helmets, gloves, etc. and pay for their own travel. In some areas teams have one way trips of over 200 miles. When equipment wears out, players have to replace it out of their pockets. Meals on the road are at the players expense.

While club ball might not be "to your taste" the 63 active teams in the ALL (58 of them in the corridor between Metropolitan New York City and Metropolitan Washington CDC) indicates a big interest in players participating in the game after they are out of school. POCO lacrosse is one of the few truly amateur sports in the US. Amateurs in most other sports get paid in one way or another.

[LaxRef]

I guess I just can't see why there isn't someone who can talk a friend or girlfriend into doing it. Most of the high schools and MCLA teams around here don't pay the table personnel, and yet they always seem to come up with people, and they're usually competent!

[laxcomm]

I agree laxref, but having been involved with club ball since 1961 I can tell you that while your solution sounds simple it is not. Wives at games are either watching the kids, talking to other wives, or doing both. Girl friends present a different problem. Players change them on a regular basis. You never know which girl friend will be at a game. As for guy friends of players, they want to sit in the sun and watch the game, something you can't really do when timing, and if allowable, drink their beer.

But the main thing is that there is a lacrosse game being played.

[spenny]

Like doing a jump ball in basketball after every made basket and current AP situation?

i'm not entirely sure which side you are arguing for, but thats a flawed analogy, there are far more goals in BB than in lax, plus its far easier to get the ball across mid-court than it is across midfield

[laxcomm]

The no face-off rule after a goal lasted all of one year. As often happens, the rule was a knee jerk reaction after a major playoff game, possibly the NCAA championship, where one team totally dominated the face-offs. Fortunately NY State Lacrosse Chairman, Jim Condon, never allowed that rule to be instituted in NY.

Jim was years ahead of his time. The current NCAA "slow whistle" rule that allows multiple shots was put into the NY State rules by Jim in the late 70's. He called it "the hockey rule" since that is what is allowed in hockey. It only took the NCAA 26 years to discover what a great rule Jim Condon put into the game. He left an enormous legacy in Nassau County and New York State Lacrosse.

[Stubs]

I'd like to go back to releasing a penalty when the down team can move the ball into the attack zone.

[LaxRef]

I'd like to go back to releasing a penalty when the down team can move the ball into the attack zone.

That will never happen; it just lets a team that's good at controlling the ball take lots of cheap shots with little repercussion.

[PlayOn]

I don't understand why people keep subbing the middies. It's so lame and it's not the point of the game or the position. Middies are your best players not second string attackmen. I didn't realize it was such a problem all over but I miss fast breaks and I hate the 20 second count.

Bring back the 10 Second Progression.

I like what people are saying about eliminating the horn. I hate when a coach starts whining about not having a full 20 seconds on the horn. IMHO if my buzzer is going off on a horn it's already been way too long. How about teaching your kids to hustle it up.

Also I don't think any stick should be allowed to have rubber in any are that can impact the way the ball moves. All these lame sticks with rubber bands and shock absorbers just take away from emphasis on good stick skills.