Lacrosse ball

“ Who has not seen every part of the anatomy maimed by cricket and base ball, and eyes gouged out by racket balls. The worst accident yet known from Lacrosse was the fracture of the radius of an arm by a fall. No one was ever maimed for life, though it is hard to go earnestly into the game and entirely escape some slight skin cuts and scratches. Many players have their own blood upon their heads by persistent attempts to dodge when they cannot dodge; but after all no game is worth a fig if it has not some spice of danger. ”

“ I admit the pleasure of the good swipe in cricket, the excitement of the runs, the delight of blocking a treacherous slow ball, the rapture of catching out a good player, and the feverish anxiety of a close-run game, but still I hold that cricket cannot hold a candle to Lacrosse for variety, ingenuity and interest. ”

“ How determinedly, how earnestly they work; how they put their hearts into the pleasure, and even enjoy their own misfortunes; letting out the most demonstrative proof of sound lung and limb ever developed by field game, and realizing something of the rush and thrill of a genuine battle. Nature may send born poets into the world, but she never sends Lacrosse players; at least, not in any white community. There is nothing more amusing to a good player than to watch the first attempts of a tyro, with a crosse and a ball. ”

“ The lacrosse field is a level piece of ground with net or wire goals at each end. The players strive to hurl the ball into their opponents’ goal by means of a lacrosse stick or “crosse.” This is a peculiar bent stick with a shallow gut net at one end. It somewhat resembles a tennis racket, but is more like a snowshoe with a handle. The game originated with the Indians and is much played in Canada.
In playing, the ball must not be touched with the hands, but is hurled from one player to another by the “lacrosses” until it is possible to attempt for a goal. ”

“ The players of the opposite side pursued him and did what they could to prevent him from accomplishing his object. When it was evident that the runner could gain no more ground, he would pass the ball, if possible, to some player upon the same side and his success in accomplishing this was dependent largely upon his skill. The game is probably not so old as lacrosse, for the ball is described as being larger and softer than the one used in lacrosse, thus indicating that it belonged to the period when the stuffed deer-skin ball was used in that game. ”

“ We knew a home-man, whose forte it was to stand near goal, and tip the ball to the flags if it condescended to come within the reach of his crosse. He was the laziest mortal ever seen on a Lacrosse field; he was never known to disturb his equanimity by a run, but, if the ball came anywhere within the circuit of his crosse, it was generally caught on the wing, or hooked from the ground and tipped into the flags like a shot. A quick tip from a short distance is more puzzling to a goal-keeper than a clean throw. ”

“ Sometimes the ball was laid on the ground in the centre of the field, and at a signal from the game director, a general rush was made towards it, amid a glorious clatter and scramble,—the best man at a hundred yards generally picking it up, and making off with it like a deer followed by the hounds. The most common way, however, was to throw it high into the air in the centre of the field, which altered the appearance of this part of the game, as the players reached the centre before the ball fell, and leaped at it en masse to catch or strike it away. ”

“ In the throwing, catching, checking, running, and dodging which the game calls for, every muscle and sinew is given fullest exercise, and every man in the team has a share of the work. There is no "loafing" possible in lacrosse, as there is in base-ball and cricket, when the out-field are getting nothing to do. Even the goal-keeper has plenty of hard work, for whenever the ball goes behind the goal-posts he must go after it, and struggle for it until he can send it either to one of his own side or far down the field. ”

“ All the play, the running, dodging, leaping, twisting, throwing, is simply to get the ball through the goal. This part of it is easily learned. Of course it requires practice to enable one to handle the crosse well. But any active lad can soon get the hang of that, and once learned, it is doubtful if he will give up lacrosse for base-ball, with its broken fingers and sprained thumbs, or for foot-ball, with its kicked shins and sometimes broken ribs.
But lacrosse is no girls' play. There is sufficient hard work and danger to make it quite exciting enough for anybody ”

“ In a sport, however, contingencies and casual circumstances occur, which lead off from some theories into new ones, and such science can never be unalterable and certain.
Is the art of Lacrosse based on a science? Not entirely so, not as much so as cricket; but that there is science in the game is proved by the fact that many throws, dodges, checks, &c., are explained by fixed principles, from which no one can deviate and be successful. The throw of the ball, for instance, unlike that of a die, is not under the doctrine of chance. ”

“ At his shout of "Play," the two centres strive, by a sharp, sudden twist of the crosse, each to draw the ball in his own direction. The successful one immediately passes it to the nearest fielder on his own side, who is instantly pounced upon by his "cover," and then the fun begins in fierce earnest.
It is quite out of the question to convey through the medium of print any adequate conception of the interest and excitement that a game of lacrosse between two well-matched teams affords. ”

“ The aim of Lacrosse is so evident and simple that a child looker-on can intuitively understand it. It has no elaborate nomenclature to make it puzzling; its science and beauty need but eyes for discovery. The players are divided into two equal sides; each has a goal to defend and one to attack; certain men are posted in certain positions; the ball is placed midway on the field and faced for by the centres. The object of both sides is to put the ball through the goal of the opponent and prevent him getting it through theirs ”

“ It should leave the crosse at the bend, or if the throw is short, a little below. The ball should have a ring painted around it, by which you can see the spin. If the ball and crosse are wet, the spin is greater. If a perfect twist could be given to the ball, so that it would spin from right to left, or left to right, when it is blocked, there is no doubt but that "blocking" such shots would be almost as risky as trying to catch them. Here is a chance for invention—how to make the ball twist on its own axis with certainty; for we do not say we have discovered the correct principle. ”

“ Base-ball perfected rounders; cricket, club-ball; and the laws of Lacrosse supplied the deficiencies existing before they were formed. The game can never change from its present character as it did from its original; it is not desirable that it should. Neither can old methods of play ever become useless, unless the game becomes so revolutionized that it will no longer be the attractive game it is. If old styles of throwing, dodging and checking were ever good, they can never become obsolete; nor can any developments of science ever make a good hard player a nonentity. ”

“ One grand element in Lacrosse is its native attraction and amusement to spectators—and how soon it converts them into players! The indefatigable running and fascinating contests between opponents wherever the ball goes; the excitement of dodging and of battles around the goals, are watched with breathless interest, while the frequent sudden upsets and somersaults would make even a Plato laugh, and the moroseness of an Antisthenes take flight for ever. ”

“ The fact that an opponent, seen or unseen, is on your track, is likely to excite and confuse you, and sometimes spoil your throw.
“Following the ball” in Lacrosse is not a general chase after it;—that would be as absurd as an entire “Eleven” chasing a cricket-ball. No man is restrained from following it, in accordance with his own judgment, and that of his captain; but, as we said before, position should never be sacrificed, nor defence weakened, by too much skirmishing. ”

“ The arm should hang at full length, and the stick at the lowest level at which the ball will not fall off. The arm and wrist alone should control the crosse; the body should not be contorted. It is a common play to dandle the ball on the netting when running, and otherwise add variety to the plain carry; and we would recommend players cultivating this dandling of the ball, when carrying near an opponent, and even in many carried dodges. Recently some players have resorted to ingenious constructions of the wooden part of the crosse, to get over the restrictions about bagging the netting. ”

“ Nothing in Lacrosse offers more scope for development than the throwing of the ball, and yet nothing has been more neglected in theory and practice. The number of useless and miscalculated shots, the mistakes in timing and speed, are far beyond the aggregate of throws that are successful ”

“ Dodging—Is the art of carrying the ball past one or more checkers. It is the ostentation and glitter of the game; and though important, has been too often made a sort of saturnalia, where the dodger ran a gauntlet of merciless swipers, after the Indian fashion of the gauntlet for captives. Its absolute necessity is of rare recurrence, but common custom and young blood, has made it an indelible and prominent feature of Lacrosse. There is a madness in its most difficult feats, spiced with a smack of danger, that must always make it a tempting attraction. ”

“ When a rush is made for it, depress the handle of your crosse so as to bring it almost level with the ball, holding it down stiff so as to secure it. Your antagonist, if running at any speed, will make an attempt to pick up under your crosse, but the instant he attempts it, depress your stick, and the probability is that his will slide over yours, and before he can recover you can pick up without opposition. The crosse must be first kept as seen in the illustration, to deceive your opponent and invite him to thrust at the ball ”

“ If he, sooner than any of his side, can prevent an opponent getting the ball away from the goal, he should certainly do it. It often happens that he can reach wide and over balls before any other man of his own side, and prevent an opponent pitching it away from the critical vicinity. Whenever he leaves his place, under any such circumstance, the nearest link should close to the goal-crease, ready to strike in any throw; while the other links dispose themselves to check the movements of adversaries who should run to the defence. ”

“ If you do not succeed, and the ball goes over your head, tun sharp around and dart after it, at the same time making a long full-length cut at either the ball or opponent’s crosse. If you get to it before your antagonist, tip it away; if your opponent reaches it first, you must check him according to his position. Few players have the art of wheeling quickly around. ”

“ If a checker is near, let your catch terminate by a curve or sweep of the Crosse from his direction, whether he is on your right or left. If in proximity to more than one, make a little leap upwards, and strike the ball away to one of your side, or to a point you can reach before any of your antagonists; or, if possible, frisk it in the air to one side and catch it. You may frisk with the head surface of the netting, at full length of your crosse, sweeping the ball over your head to one side without letting it fall to the ground, and terminating by a sinking and sweeping dodge to secure it. ”

“ When you block a ball near the edge of either flag pole it is liable to slip sideways; as these balls are generally stopped at arm-stretch, when you cannot bring to them a full face of the netting. The instant you block at either side spring to that side ; bring the nearest foot in line with your crosse, toe to the stick and follow with the next foot heels in line with each other. This gives a guard the width of your crosse and two feet together, and has often, in our experience saved games. ”

“ It may not be generally known, even by old players, that a goal-keeper can easier judge a thrown ball, if it starts from and leaves the same part of the netting, providing, of course, that he sees the beginning and end of the throw. We have proved this a hundred times; and believe the reason is that the ball does not twist the same, and sometimes not at all, when it leaves the spot it starts from, and that the line of vision between the goal-keeper's eye and it, as it originally lies on the stick in the action of beginning the throw, is less unbroken. ”

“ We would be the last, as goal-keeper, to object to any effort to get the ball in, but reminiscences of a black eye on one occasion, and a damaged os frontis on another, constrains us to plead for fellow-victims who may thus possibly be saved maltreatment. It is hardly "play," either, and by no means honorable to practice it. A more reasonable mode would be to try the same principle with a grounder or a straight ball below the hip; letting the ball off the crosse, and hitting it into goal. ”

“ If it is about to be struck from a nearer position, spring at your opponent, hit his crosse as it is striking at the ball, and either hit it, or kick it away with your foot when it falls. Practice in stopping these balls is essentially necessary.
Long, Medium and Short Throws.—Long throws are the easiest to stop; medium are more deceptive; short, bring out the science of goal-keeping. Miscalculation of any throw is liable, where strict attention is not given to the ball before it reaches the flags. ”