How lacrosse progressed through the years

Lacrosse has progressed over the years from when it started as a religious practice by the Native Americans to the Canadians to the east coast to all around the world. The equipment, shoes, rules, and fields have changed in many different ways. The different ways that people can set up their defense and their offense is so broad that it is hard to describe. The original team set up was when the Indians played over expanses of 500 yard up to a mile. Then William George Beers created a club called the Montreal Lacrosse Club in eighteen fifty-six. Then about a decade later William George Beers produced a whole set of rules that included reducing the number of players to ten adding hitting penalties while also introducing a rubber ball and a new innovative plastic design for the lacrosse stick.

The development of the lacrosse stick is really interesting because it started off as a one piece of wood. The stick was handmade by chopping down a tree and carving each individual stick out of it. Then the Canadians made the stick making process several times easier and less expensive by reducing the manual labor. The first modern stick model was produced by a company STX that still produces lacrosse sticks today. STX invented the plastic head stick in 1964 but did not manufacture it until 1970. The new model introduced a stick with a lightweight, symmetrical, perfectly balanced triangular plastic head with leather shooting strings and a synthetic material pocket. The new head assembly was attached to a wooden pole. But later the company created aluminum and other metal composite poles for lighter and stronger shafts with different colors too. The creation was a great innovation in modern lacrosse because the pocket structure could create mo...

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... horn sounds to end a quarter as long as the shot was released before the horn.

The pocket is located in the stick’s head area. It will always be narrower near the shaft than it is at the top. Men’s sticks usually contain a mesh pocket. This is not always true because in some cases men use leather. The head of a men field player’s stick must be 6 to 10 inches wide at the widest point and at least 10 inches long. The head of a goalie stick must reach atleast 10 to 12 inches wide at its widest point and a maximum of 16 ½ inches long. The pocket can’t be strung too deeply in all ages if a stick is held horizontally, the top of a ball placed in the pocket can’t dip below the head’s side wall if it does the stick is rejected from the game and the player gets a thirty second penalty but if the head is replaced the referees may check it after every stoppage if necessary.