I know that I’m speaking for the masses out there when I start to question the reasoning behind some of the rules in girls’ lacrosse. Now I’m well aware, 100% supportive and understand the need to protect the players. That, to me, is priority #1. But… as I watch the games at the HS level, some things just don’t make sense.

If a girl gets carded and has to leave the field her team plays “man-down”. Unlike boys lacrosse or hockey, you’re still able to keep 7 defenders back to match up against the 7 attackers. The “man-down” gets taken off the offensive end. So it’s still a 7-7 situation… so where is the advantage and motivation to not commit those types of fouls? What if… both teams still had to keep 4 players back? That way, the defense would be “man-down” and there would be a 7v6 situation. The only thing that the current interpretation of the rule gets is confusion. Some proponents say that in transition the man down team gets hurt? Not sure? Change the rule to truly penalize the team that commits a foul by forcing each team to keep 4 players on the other side.

Here’s another rule that makes no sense. A girl goes in and scores but the defense is guilty of a “shooting space” foul and the whistle blows after the goal is scored. So what happens? The goal gets taken off the scoreboard and the offensive player gets an 8M shot. Then what happens? 7 out of 10 times they miss the shot. So, the offense scores a goal but the goal gets taken away because of a defensive foul and the burden is placed back on the offense to score again? Who gets penalized here, the defense or the offense? Supporters, meaning the referees, say that they need to teach safety and that committing shooting space fouls is dangerous (which it is). I was at a Jr level game over the weekend, where one team scored but the other team was offside. Logic suggests that you count the goal and continue. But no…not in girls lacrosse. The referees took the goal off the board and gave the offense an 8M shot. And guess what happened? They missed! Was safety an issue in an offside situation? Makes no sense.

How about this?
You penalize the shooting space infraction by carding the girl who committed the foul and then have them play man-down. If the team scored on that play, you count the goal and the team gets a man-up situation. Or count the goal and the offense still gets an 8M shot. Possibly offense walks away with 2 goals. Believe me, you would see a decrease in shooting space fouls. However, right now, what’s the incentive to NOT commit a shooting space foul?

Check out what the rules say about Shooting Space and how to properly teach how to avoid this call by going to Howard University Coach Jessie Morgans videos on Kudda. Click hereShooting Space