Have you ever heard of lacrosse?

Girls in the Game
Sep 4, 2018 · 4 min read

This article was written by a former Girls in the Game grants intern.

Have you ever heard of lacrosse?

And, no, I’m not talking about LaCrosse — the footwear company. I’m talking about the sport of lacrosse: the game first created by Native Americans that has since evolved into a sport loved by many across the nation.

For those who are unfamiliar with lacrosse, it is a sport played on a field similar to a soccer field, with a goal at each end. The major components of lacrosse include cradling, passing and catching, picking up ground balls and shooting. While these are important, I don’t want to harp on the skills needed to play lacrosse, nor do I plan to focus on them here. Rather, I want to share with you the many life skills that can be garnered by playing this incredible sport.

For beginners, lacrosse can be a difficult game — I know it was for me. Unlike soccer or basketball, where all newcomers can (in some degree) kick or dribble a ball, lacrosse necessitates skills that not everyone can master. For one thing, it is difficult to keep a lacrosse ball in your stick without it falling out, let alone to throw an accurate pass. Catching is even more challenging. After all, you have to make sure that the head of your lacrosse stick, which is at most nine inches in diameter, is positioned perfectly to catch a rubber ball that is a mere two and a half inches wide.

As you can imagine, this is often challenging for young girls. At the same time, this trial and error will build resilience and determination. When girls finally master the basic skills, they feel a sense of triumph compared to other sports where principles are more easily learned and implemented.

Through my experience guest coaching at Girls in the Game Summer Camp, I got to see girls succeed and feel that very sense of triumph first-hand. Though I only had 30 minutes with each group of girls, we were able to tackle a variety of basic skills.

The activity of picking up groundballs proved to be the girls’ favorite. Though they struggled at first to pick up the groundballs, they eventually got it and the sense of joy they felt when they did was self-evident. Many of them ran up to me exclaiming, “I did it!” or “Coach, I got it! Watch, I’ll show you.” Not only did it put a smile on their faces, it put a smile on mine too.

You must be an effective communicator to be successful at lacrosse. The best lacrosse teams aren’t those with a Michael Jordan-like all-star, but rather the teams that work well together. Although we did not attempt a full-field scrimmage, we did discuss the importance of communication. Girls were instructed to call out each other’s names before throwing a pass. Not only did this ensure that the girl about to receive the ball was paying attention, it also helped build camaraderie among the girls. Whether they realized it or not, they were in it together and needed to trust one another in order to complete a successful pass.

This is a valuable lesson to learn early on in life because workplaces, just like sports teams, function best when employees work together. The communication skills necessitated by the sport of lacrosse teach girls how to be effective communicators and team-players.

Thanks to the growth of the sport and the passage of Title IX, lacrosse offers girls a pathway to higher education. Playing college lacrosse does not have to be the end-goal for every aspiring lacrosse player, but it is important to know that it is an option. It can set you apart from the pack.

Whether you dream of playing collegiate sports or not, I would still recommend taking up lacrosse. It is a sport that builds resilience and teamwork, determination, communication and perseverance. It is also a sport that can help you chase your dreams. At least, it did for me.

It is a sport that builds resilience and teamwork, determination, communication and perseverance.

Girls in the Game

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We believe all girls have the power to be gamechangers. 50,000 leaders created since 1995. 👊 www.girlsinthegame.org

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