Lacrosse words · Intermediate

The words that make the commentary make sense. They build on the beginner words.

I · Intermediate · 36 words · Step 2 of 2

General terms

Roster

No more than twelve players on a team's active roster, including at least one goalkeeper. The head coach lists the eligible players before the game and the list cannot be changed.

See also: Goalkeeper

Captain

The one player each team appoints who alone may discuss questions of rule interpretation with the head official.

In-home

A player other than the goalkeeper, named by the head coach before the game, who serves penalties that are not assigned to a specific player: fouls by coaching staff, the goalkeeper, or expulsion time.

See also: Goalkeeper

The field and goals

Goal line extended

The imaginary line running through the goal line from sideline to sideline. A shot only counts if the head of the stick is above it when the ball is released.

Also called: GLE

Penalty dot

A permanent marking 2 m from the center-line and 5 m from the sideline, on the table side of the field. After a foul that carries penalty time, the non-offending team restarts with the ball there, in its offensive zone.

Substitution area

A 10 m long area, 5 m deep from the sideline, between the team benches. Players may substitute at any time on the fly, on either side of the center-line, except a goalkeeper-to-goalkeeper change, which must be in the defensive zone.

See also: Goalkeeper

Time and clocks

Overtime

When the score is tied after four quarters, play continues in three-minute periods of stopped time, with a two-minute break before each, until one team leads at the end of a period.

Game clock

Starts at the whistle for the center draw. It stops on timeouts, while penalties are administered, at the end of a quarter, and on every whistle in the last two minutes of the fourth quarter and in overtime.

See also: Quarter, Overtime, Center draw

Timeout

Each team gets one 60-second timeout per half. A coach or the player with the ball can request it when in possession in their offensive zone, or during a dead ball when entitled to possession.

See also: Possession

Injury timeout

Play stops at once for a serious injury, bleeding or risk of further injury. Otherwise the official delays the whistle, using the slow whistle approach if a scoring play is imminent. An injured player must leave the field before the next play unless a timeout is used.

Starting and restarting play

Draw positions

In the women's draw the two players stand with sticks held in the air back to back above hip level, and the ball must rise higher than both players' heads. In the men's draw the sticks and gloved hands rest on the ground with the stick heads perpendicular to the surface.

Alternate possession

When the officials cannot decide which team should get the ball, possession alternates between the teams. The team that wins the opening coin toss chooses the goal to defend or the first alternate possession.

See also: Possession

Restart

Play resumes from the spot where the ball was in the defensive zone, or 2 m inside the closest boundary in the offensive zone. Opponents within 3 m of the player with the ball may not defend it until they reach 3 m. After a goal, the goalkeeper must retrieve the ball within five seconds.

See also: Goalkeeper

Play terms

Shot on goal

A valid shot is one in which a player uses the stick, with its head above the goal line extended, to throw the ball at the opponent's goal with intent to score. It must leave the stick before the shot clock expires.

Over and back

Once the ball is in the offensive zone, the offensive team may not cause it to touch or cross the center-line back into the defensive zone. It is a change of possession. A valid shot leaving the zone is not a violation.

See also: Possession

Ten-second count

A team gaining possession in its defensive half has ten seconds to get the ball across the center-line, which means both feet of the player with the ball in the offensive half or the ball in flight across the line. After a stoppage the count is renewed, but the shot clock continues.

Ball stuck

If the ball is stuck in a player's uniform or equipment, possession goes by alternate possession. If it is stuck in the stick, the ball goes to the opponent, except for the goalkeeper in the crease, where the defence keeps it.

Pick

A legal block of an opponent's path, set by standing with the feet planted before contact, usually about shoulder width, with hands and stick close to the body. The player setting the pick cannot lean into or initiate contact with the defender. Blind picks are legal in Sixes.

Clearing

The clearing team is the team trying to move the ball from its defensive end of the field to its offensive end.

Fouls and penalties

Expulsion foul

The most serious foul, which ejects the player for the rest of the game, with the in-home serving two minutes. Examples are contact to an opponent's head or neck, spearing, and fighting.

Fouling out

A player with three or more major fouls, or an expulsion foul, is out of the game. A substitute may enter when the fouled-out player would have been allowed back.

Interference

A minor foul: interfering with an opponent trying to reach a loose ball, except when both are within 3 m of it, hindering a player chasing the ball carrier, or guarding an opponent so closely that they cannot move freely.

Illegal body check

A major foul. Body-checking is prohibited in any form: initiating body contact to disrupt, impede or dislodge an opponent, from the front, side or rear. Incidental contact of equal pressure, legal holds and legal pushes for a loose ball are not meant to be penalised.

Slashing

A major foul: swinging the stick at an opponent's stick with intentional aggression or reckless disregard, whether or not contact is made. In the men's game, striking an opponent on the helmet or neck, or any part of the body except the gloved hand holding the stick, is also illegal.

Cross-check and tripping

Major fouls. A cross-check is checking an opponent with the part of the shaft between the hands. Tripping is intentionally tripping an opponent with the stick or body.

Walling

A major foul in which two or more defenders form a stationary stack or wall in front of the goal or in the crease to block scoring chances instead of actively defending an opponent.

Pushing and holding

Minor fouls. In the women's game a player must not displace, detain or push an opponent. In the men's game pushing from behind is a foul, though a push from the front or side is allowed against a player with the ball or within 3 m of a loose ball. Holding or pinning an opponent or their stick is a foul.

Withholding the ball

A minor foul: lying on a loose ball, trapping it with the stick longer than needed, shielding it with the stick against the body, or letting it become caught in the stick or equipment.

Play-on

A signal for a minor loose-ball foul when no scoring chance is imminent and the other team might be disadvantaged by stopping play. The whistle is withheld until the offended team gains possession; if it does not, the whistle sounds and it is awarded the ball.

See also: Possession

Slow whistle

When a defender fouls and the attack has the ball, the official raises an arm and holds the whistle until a goal, the ball goes out of bounds, possession changes, the attack fouls, or the shot clock or quarter expires. If a goal is scored, minor fouls are not served, but major and expulsion fouls still are.

Coincidental fouls

Fouls on players of both teams during a live ball, or a dead ball when the order cannot be told. If all are minor they offset and no time is served; if a major foul occurs, all penalised players serve their time. The team with less total penalty time gets the ball.

Penalty time served

A player with a time-serving foul reports to the timer's table and stays in the penalty area until the penalty timekeeper releases them, then returns through the substitution area. Foul time runs with playing time and is not served during timeouts.

Foul cards

The official shows a green card for a minor foul of 30 seconds, a yellow card for a major foul of one minute, and a red card for an expulsion foul.

Goalkeeper terms

Goalkeeper privileges

In the crease the goalkeeper may stop or block the ball with the stick or body, and bat or direct a ground ball with the hand, but not hold, catch or pick it up with the hand. No opponent may initiate contact with the goalkeeper or their stick there, though an attacker may reach in to play a loose ball.

Crease restrictions

An attacker may not be in the opponent's crease or touch the goal while the ball is live in the opponent's defensive half. A team may not intentionally return the ball to its crease after it has left. Men's defenders may stay in the crease with the ball in their team's possession; women's defenders may stay only if guarding the ball carrier within a stick's length.

See also: Possession

Five-second crease count

A goalkeeper or defensive-zone player in the crease may not possess the ball for more than five seconds. Dropping and picking up the ball to avoid the count, or throwing it into the crease to reset it, is a foul. After a goal, the goalkeeper has five seconds to retrieve the ball.

See also: Goalkeeper

All Lacrosse words