A park or a ground with a grown-up

Lacrosse at home

A stick, a ball and a wall; the full game at a club.

2 cards at home 3 for a park or court 2 for the club

What should we practise today?

Tell us where you are and who is playing. You get one card and the reason.

Where are you?

Who is playing?

Start a session

New to lacrosse? The game in a minute

Read this once before the first card.

The game in short: Players carry a small rubber ball in the net of a long stick, pass it to team-mates and shoot it into the other team's goal. Only the goalkeeper may touch the ball with the hands.
Versions: Men's and women's field lacrosse are played outdoors with 10 and 12 a side; box lacrosse is indoors; sixes, the Olympic version, is six a side on a small field with a shot clock. The rules on body contact differ a lot between versions.
How a game is won: The team with more goals at the end wins.
Rules children break first: No touching the ball with the hands.
No hitting a player with the stick or the ball; in school and home play, no body contact at all.
Keep the stick away from faces.
Cradle: keep the stick moving gently so the ball stays in the net.
At home you start with a wall: Holding the stick, cradling, scooping a ball off the ground and wall ball; then passing with a partner and small no-contact games.

Words you will hear (23, in plain language)

Stick: The lacrosse stick: a shaft with a head at the top.
Head: The head is the frame at the top of the stick; the pocket is the net inside it that holds the ball.
Shaft: The long handle.
Cradle: Gently rocking the stick to keep the ball in the pocket while moving.
Scoop: Picking a ball up off the ground with the stick; a ground ball is a loose ball on the ground.
Overhand throw: A throw with the stick coming over the shoulder.
Off-hand: Throwing and catching with the hands swapped on the stick.
Wall ball: Throwing at a wall and catching the rebound.
Soft hands: Letting the stick move back a little as the ball arrives, so it stays in.
Give and go: Pass to a team-mate, run into space and get the ball back.
Fast break: Attacking quickly with more attackers than defenders.
Dodge: Ways of getting past a defender: running straight past (bull), switching hands and direction (split), swinging the stick across the face to protect it (face), rolling off a defender (roll).
Check: A defender's stick move to knock the ball out of a stick.
Body-check: Body contact allowed in some versions only.
Pick: An attacker standing still to block a defender's path for a team-mate.
Clear: Moving the ball from defence to attack, and the other team trying to stop it.
Face-off: The restart at the centre where two players fight for the ball.
Man-up: Having one more or one fewer player after a penalty.
Goalkeeper: The player who guards the goal; at school and home, the goal is left empty.
Shooting circle: In school play, a 5 m circle round the empty goal; shots come from outside it.
Sof-crosse: A no-contact school version with plastic sticks and a soft ball.
Goggles: Eye protection and a soft tooth guard.
Keep-ball: A passing game to keep the ball from the other team; a game where a catch behind a line scores.

Try it, nothing to buy

Mark the space once. Every card starts from it.

A suggested first ten sessions (optional)

The cards, level by level

Nobody is late. A beginner of any age starts at Basic.

Basic 4 cards · show· hide Holding the stick, cradling (keeping the ball in the net), catching and throwing against a wall, scooping a ground ball, and playing small tag-style games. Young children learn best in small-sided games and chasing games.

Move on when the child meets the self-checks on b1 to b3 (b4 when a group is available).

Intermediate 2 cards · show· hide Passing under pressure, shooting, off-hand skill, dodges (bull, split, face, roll), defending position and field positions; body-checking, where a version allows it, comes later and matters less.

Move on when the player can take part in a 3 on 3 game.

Advanced 1 cards · show· hide Play with both hands, behind-the-back skills, shooting from many angles, fast clears, team systems (double-teaming, presses, quick changes from defence to attack) and specialists such as the face-off player.

a1 Systems and specialists At a club what the coach teaches, what to ask

Teaching this at home

More space and a second person. A grown-up can run every card.

You do not need to know the sport. Each card tells you where to stand, what to say and what to look at. Pick one thing to say in a session and say only that. The first week looks messy; that is normal. End every session on one that works.

Cards marked At a club are taught by a coach. They tell you what the coach teaches, what is safe at home, and what to ask the club before your child joins.

How to warm up before playing is at workonfitness.com. The rules of the game are at sportsmaze.com.