Lacrosse Gear

"You gotta look good to play good" -- MLL all-star

Mandatory lacrosse gear for men's lacrosse includes a helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, gloves, and a mouth guard. Rib pads are optional, as is a protective cup. While cups are optional, they are highly recommended. For an entertaining story that illustrates the importance of wearing a cup, please read the article titled "Every Man's Worst Nightmare".

Lacrosse padding is generally about half an inch thick and because players sweat in their pads while they're worn, the pads can become extremely smelly, especially if they're not aired out after being worn. Luckily, most pads can be washed on the gentle cycle of a washing machine. After being washed, they should be dried on low heat in the dryer or hung up to air dry.

Lacrosse gear does a great job of protecting the player on parts of the body where padding is worn. This means a player generally has adequate protection for their shoulders, elbows, hands, and head. The rest of the body is essentially "exposed" as there is no required padding. Gloves offer adequate protection for the hands, fingers, and wrists, although sometimes a player may have bruised knuckles because the padding along the joints of the fingers is flexible and can allow a stick check to slightly penetrate the padding. Elbow pads come in different sizes and offer different levels of coverage for player's arms. Larger elbow pads cover the elbow as well as most of the arm. Smaller elbow pads cover only the elbow and leave most of the forearm and upper arm exposed. Shoulder pads also offer different amounts of body coverage. All shoulder pads protect the tops of the shoulders and the clavicle, but some shoulder pads cover the sides of the shoulder and upper arm while others do not. The difference between the two styles of padding is clearly visible when looking at the pads.

Lacrosse players wear significantly less protective gear than football players and hockey players. Lacrosse gear is smaller, thinner, and more flexible than padding worn for other contact sports. Consequently, players can expect to be left with some bumps and bruises after a practice or game.

Lacrosse gear for youth vs. lacrosse gear for men

As lacrosse players get older, they also get bigger and stronger, and the game gets increasingly physical. The high school level is more physical than the middle school level, which is more physical than the youth level. Despite the increasingly powerful blows, it seems that as lacrosse players get older, they prefer to wear protective gear with less coverage. As players get older, they demand more mobility in their shoulders, arms, and hands, so they often purchase smaller pads that don't cover as much of their arms and shoulders. Generally speaking, the age of players and the amount of padding they wear is inversely related. For example, most youth players wear shoulder pads that cover both their shoulder and their upper arm, while virtually all collegiate players wear shoulder pads that cover only their shoulders, leaving the upper arm fully exposed. Older players prefer smaller shoulder pads because they are less restrictive. Many high school players begin to find that the increased range of motion in their shoulders, elbows, and wrists is worth the risk of having less protective gear, and the trend of less and less padding and protection continues all the way up through the collegiate and professional levels (except attackmen, who generally wear bulky arm pads - at all age levels - to thoroughly protect their arms).

In one sense, it is a little ironic that youth players tend to be those wearing the most padded lacrosse gear, because youth games are the least physical. Obviously, parents of youth players want them to be adequately protected, and thus they often buy the bulkiest, most protective lacrosse gear possible. The result is youth players running around in oversized pads to the point that they can't move their arms to pass or cradle. In these youth leagues, it's often the players with the most protective, bulky (and often most expensive) lacrosse gear, that all the other players want to emulate. At this level, it seems like the "coolest" pads are those which protect the players so much that they look like little tanks. Like a tank, players covered with these pads are hardly troubled by stick checks and hits, but on the other hand, the pads greatly hinder agility, mobility, and nimbleness.