Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport very popular in Canada and is becoming more and more well-liked in the USA.
Lacrosse can be played either outdoor or indoor (box lacrosse).Women also have their own competitions. The aim of each team is to score goals. The stick is used to pass and catch a rubber ball. Each goal enables the team to gain one point, the team which has the most points at the end of the match wins. The field on which lacrosse is practised is a field of grass, artificial turf, or field turf which is 110 yards (100 m) long and 60 yards (54 m) wide. The field will be a bit smaller in indoor lacrosse. A team is divided through 3 attack men, 3 midfielders, 3 defenders and 1 goaltender. Even if today’s sport is less brutal than at its origins, pretty much all the parts of the player’s body need to be protected by equipment since “checking” (hitting opponents’stick or body) is allowed.
Nevertheless there are fouls for which penalty can be given: for instance, spending time in the penalty box for a personal foul (such as insults or not permitted strikes). As for a technical foul it will only be 30 seconds off the match. For women the rules are quite the same except that there are 2 more players. The other difference in comparison to men is that women’s lacrosse is less rough, so that they need less protective equipment. The time of play is also reduced in comparison to men.
The name “lacrosse” comes from french origin, the French word “crosse” is “a general word for any type of bat or stick used in a ball game”. The game was in fact invented by native North Americans. It is the oldest sport in North America: it first appeared in the fifteenth century among indigenous tribes. Yet it remaind unknown to the outside world until its discovery in the seventeeth century by French missionaries. This game was highly symbolical for Indians as it occupied an important part in their traditions. Sometimes the teams competing against each other happened to be rival tribes; consequently the game turned into violent fights. Yet, by the ninetenth century, rules were introduced and in the twentieth century colleges and universities began practising it. Several factors have been the trigger of the success of this sport. First of all the invention in the seventies of plastic heads for the sticks. In this way they were lightened, wich made the gameplay easier. Secondly, interest for lacrosse strongly increased in the late eighties, thanks to the amazing performances of the twin brothers Paul and Gary Gait. They were the first lacrosse players to achieve such a fame and this considerably contributed to lacrosse popularity. The game received large media attention and more and more players. Now lacrosse is getting known at an international level especially in Europe and east Asia. There is even a film round lacrosse to be released this year.

Jonathan and Nathalie