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.
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.