Article on fixing some women's LAX rules

[JoeWildcat]

Below is an opinion piece I saw about the slow pace of women's LAX, especially in overtime.

Copyright 2014 Capital Gazette Communications, Inc.
All Rights Reserved

The Capital (Annapolis, MD)

Gerry Jackson Sports Editor



Leave it to women's lacrosse to make the exciting dull.

If ill-timed shooting space and 3-second defensive calls weren't bad
enough, the sport gives us its version of watching paint dry with a
backward approach to overtime.

Instead of sudden death or victory - whatever you want to call it -
women's lacrosse gives us two full periods of overtime. Each team gets a
chance to attack in each direction with the highest score deciding the
outcome at the end of the two extra periods. If no one scores during
those two sessions, then they go to a sudden-victory format.

In almost any other sport, overtime is pure excitement; whoever comes up with the ball, tries to set up a play and score.

As happened in Wednesday's game between Navy and Lehigh, in many
women's lacrosse games, the team that wins the draw holds for the last
shot of the period. They work methodically for a scoring opportunity
since it's to their advantage to post the only goal of the extra
session. In the Navy game, the teams went nearly five minutes without a
shot.

As if the overtime rule weren't bad enough, teams can play stall ball
at will during regulation play. There's absolutely no stall infraction
in women's lacrosse; so teams can start slowing the pace of play any
time they like.

A few years ago, before the men's game put in rules changes to speed
the pace of play, the women's game had surpassed the men's version in
terms of fast-paced action. The men's game had the courage to take some
of the in-game control away from the coaches and give it back to the
players by getting rid of substitution horns. They also added quicker
restarts and tweaked the stalling rules. The result has been a much
better men's game the past two seasons.

The women's game needs to make a similar move and change its overtime rule and institute some sort of stalling penalty.

The athletes and spectators deserve better than what we have now.

 

[Chicago Josh]

I think some anti-stalling rules would work fine for the women's game. Let's put in some restraining lines on the sides of the offensive zone and make the offense keep the ball in a smaller area after a stall warning. Or, let's make them play 6-on-7 after a warning. Whatever the rule, if applied consistently, it would help with slow down issues during regulation and overtime.

I'm not wild about a hard and fast shot clock, because I'd rather see a team that wants to use slow play or stalling as a strategy be allowed to do so. The rules could change to help the defense out a bit to make that strategy a little more challenging and riskier.

 

[LookGoodInPurple]

The sport will have to address stalling at some point. But trying to about it methodically. More importantly they need stricter rules for midfield fouls. Currently there is very little incentive NOT to foul at midfield. I'm strongly anti-helmet, so adding stricter rules around checking fouls or adding the risk of fouling out makes sense to me. Lacrosse = Basketball in virtually every aspect of the game.

 

[Chicago Josh]

I would like to see the refs be a little less stingy with yellow cards for fouls that are obviously just time wasters, repeated fouling, or when players are out of control or use excessive force. Maybe that would deter some of the fouls away from net.

However, one of the things I love about women's lacrosse is the way they handle common midfield fouls -- take away the advantage earned by the foul and then let the fouled player keep on going unimpeded after a (sometimes not so brief) pause. I wish soccer would take a cue from this sport, rather than letting the defense commit a foul and then get the advantage of reseting with everyone behind the ball.

 

[docrugby1]

Women' lacrosse is one of the more boring sports to watch. The women demonstrate tremendous skills in their ability to catch and pass with their versions of sticks but the rules of the game - "shooting space" etc allow the referees to determine the outcome of too many games

I'll take the men's game with its warts any day. The contact, stick skills and 100mph shots make up for the relative disappearance of up tempo lacrosse that Syracuse and UVA used to favor

I remember when women' basketball was played with 6 players -3 offense and 3 defense. Players could only dribble twice before they had to pass etc. women now play essentially basketball the way men do