An Increase In The Number of Concussions in Sports

Lacrosse is not one of the more popular sports, but it is still very vigorous. It didn’t always go by that name, however. The rules and regulations have changed tremendously over time. In the article, “Origin & History”, Jane Claydon, says “Lacrosse was started by the Native American Indians and was originally known as stickball. The game was initially played in the St. Lawrence Valley area by the Algonquian tribe and they were followed by other tribes in the eastern half of North America, and around the western Great Lakes”.

When it first started, around the 1630s, they used wooden sticks, and balls made of either deerskin or wood as well. There were no positions and no specific rules other than not touching the ball with your hands, and not going out of bounds. In “The History of Lacrosse Timeline”, the author says they played the game to “settle disputes between different Native American Tribes and to prepare for war as a ritual.

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To get ready for these games, they would perform rituals like “dunking their sticks in spiritual water and receiving a blessing speech from their Shaman,” and covering themselves in paint. The games were much longer then, having lasted days at a time. There were anywhere between 100 and 100,000 players in a game. They had no protective equipment, and there were large rocks or trees that were used as goals. The goals were sometimes miles apart, and they used riverbeds or creeks as sidelines. The first- ever women’s lacrosse game was recorded in Scotland.

In the 1880s, the St. Leonard’s School in St. Andrews introduced the game into their school. The headmistress saw a game in Canada and she really appreciated the grace and beauty that was shown.

From there the rules and ways of doing things changed dramatically. In the past, the wooden sticks had a shallow pockets and were very bulky. Currently, the men’s pockets are deep and the sticks are all made of metal, and they can be many different colors. They have rubber on the bottom and sometimes around the stick for grip. For defense, the sticks are approximately 72 inches, versus the 42-inch offensive sticks. Every time that a goal is made, they have to do a face- off. That’s where they put their heads on the ground, place their stick pockets face to face, and push each other around until they can manage to scoop the ball away from the opponent. This is a very rough process, all so that their team can get the ball and go. Teams now have a set number of players on the field at each time. The male players have helmets, shoulder pads, cups, shin guards, and mouth pieces.

The balls are made of bouncy rubber material, instead of stale wood. The positions are attack, midfield, defense, and of course, the goalie. The goalie sticks are about a foot wide, much bigger than the rest of the players. This is of course so that they can actually have a chance at catching some balls. The women’s game is really different. The only protective equipment they have is mouthguards and eye goggles. In some areas, they wear helmets, and this is due to the rising number of concussions in the sport. In the article, As Concussion Worries Rise, Girl's Lacrosse Turns to Headgear, Bill Pennington talks about the dangerous rate of injuries that have happened over time in the sport. He states 'At Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School in Atlanta, Dana Patton and Diane Pagano, whose daughters had each sustained a concussion, spearheaded an initiative requiring every player in the program to wear headgear'.

Girls from all over have been getting injured due to not having the adequate equipment to protect them. Because of the standard gear, however, women are not allowed to be as rough as the men. If you so much as give someone the slightest, accidental love tap, you can get suspended from the game. The men are allowed to basically truck each other. Butting heads is literally how they start every round. The rules for the women’s game are very strict these days. The field is 120 yards long and 70 yards wide, compared to the men’s, which is 110 yards long and 60 yards wide. There are two arcs on the women’s field, one that is eight yards away from the goal, and one that is twelve.

The women’s sticks have very shallow pockets, forcing them to twist their stick in order to keep the ball in. It is very easy to hit someone’s stick and make them drop the ball, but you can’t hit another girl’s stick if it’s anywhere near her head, or you get a call. Then she gets to line up on the eight, with everyone else spread out so that she has a clear path to the goal, and she has to try to make a shot before everyone else runs in front of her to stop the goal. Some people would say that lacrosse can be slightly misogynistic. The women have to wear skirts and tank tops with very little coverage while the men have full football armor on.

It’s “tradition” for a woman to dress that way in this society. It even happens in tennis, track, and volleyball. Men are allowed to be extremely rough with each other, but why are the women’s standards different? Women focus more on skill while the men focus on physical strength, that’s a given. This could be because women’s lacrosse was developed by a woman in the 1800s, so maybe they believed that women were too fragile to be as rowdy as the men were. But why hasn’t that changed over the years? I feel like women today could definitely handle getting a little physical. I for one always wanted to push some girls out of my way. Both leagues have the same amount of head injuries, and the same amount of risks, so why is everything else so different?