Sixes Lacrosse: Rules Overview & Suggestions

After having read the sixes rulebook cover to cover (https://worldlacrosse.sport/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Sixes-Rules-March-2021-1st-Edition-1-2.pdf) and studying almost every sixes lacrosse resource available on the internet, it’s time to take a look at the rules of the sixes discipline and offer up a few suggestions on improvements that could be made. At the beginning of the rulebook, on page 3, World Lacrosse encourages that “participants have an opportunity to provide any constructive feedback and inform the opinion of the members,” so here goes nothing. Keep in mind that despite the official rules of sixes lacrosse generally applying equally to both the Women’s and Men’s game, I will focus primarily on what I saw in the 2021 & 2022 World Sixes events. For more information on the differences between the men’s and women’s sixes lacrosse rules I encourage you to look at Appendix B of the rulebook in the link provided above.

The main focus points I will discuss in this blog will be: restarting play after a goal or missed shot, the implications of including a 2 point shot as experimented with in the PLL Championship Series and finally the mouthguard rule (which I can say for certain was not enforced in men’s).

Restarting Play After A Goal or Missed Shot

Probably the biggest change we have seen in lacrosse in our lifetime, outside of the creation of the sixes lacrosse discipline itself, is elimination of faceoffs after goals. In effect, this has made things much more similar to basketball where, after a basket is scored, the defending team simply starts with the ball from behind the end line and play is resumed.

Speaking to lacrosse, this rule is a great way to equalize the number of possessions in order to help support emerging countries in not getting dominated by a face-off specialist. In theory, teams should now have the ball 50% of the time, allowing teams to get back into a game easier if they are down and also to not slow the game down after every goal (of which there are many in the sixes discipline).

Of course as it stands, the goalie is able to just pull the ball out of the net and send a player on a breakaway the other way if the opponent is busy admiring their goal and not thinking about the next play. It seems to happen quite a bit in international sixes play currently and I feel like it looks chaotic and sloppy to the casual viewer, whether it’s an easy breakaway goal or a pass that is missed for a turnover. In basketball, they don’t just grab the ball when it drops through the hoop and send a pass immediately the other way? They have to step behind the end line for a reason and my suggestion is that the goalie (or ideally a player) should have to retrieve the ball and run it out of the crease and behind GLE (Goal-Line-Extended) before making a breakout pass. Of course, this would need to be a free clear behind GLE, with 3 metres of space being given as in all other change of possession scenarios.

If “speeding up the game” is truly at the heart of rules such as this, then the next rule consideration, which is more of a formality than a rule, needs to be what happens when the shooter doesn’t score and misses the net. Currently, you have the goalie running back behind the end line to pick up a new ball, which can take upwards of 5 seconds. Why not just do what we do in box lacrosse when the ball goes out of bounds, the referee just pulls a ball out of their pocket and hands it to the closest player on the opposite team of whoever touched it last; in this case the goalie. This would also negate the need to line the entire sideline and endline with balls as you see currently (providing balls and “ball persons” is currently the responsibility of the home team head coach). Most emerging lacrosse programs can’t afford to have this many brand new balls laying around and it would also be less work to set up a field; just saying. The main justification though, is to fit the ethos of speeding up the game. Otherwise, if a shot clock is running out of time and the ball carrier isn’t in the prime scoring area, I would just throw the ball out of bounds at the end line every time, to allow my team ample time to change and get back on defense. If the referee is right there to hand the goalie a new ball, it prevents this situation which could also result in many lost balls in forests and bushes on other lacrosse fields not so tightly enclosed as they are in dedicated lacrosse facilities where these international events are taking place. You’re either trying to speed up the game or you’re not, which is it?

The 2-point shot

In the PLL “Championship Series,” aside from having rosters of 16 players vs. 12 players (which was likely done to increase the action with more energized players), the next big difference was that they added a 2 point arc the same way they have in regular PLL games, except 2 yards closer (at 13 yards vs. 15 yards)! I don’t quite understand the logic of the arc being moved in by almost 2 metres when you have one less player on the field? I get that there are no long poles in sixes, but even if there were, wouldn’t you at the very least keep the arc where it was? With one less player, if anything shouldn’t you be putting the arc further back?

It was clearly a failed experiment, evidenced by the fact that the player that won the “golden stick” (MVP) with the most points at the tournament (Romar Dennis - all the power to you), had 15 2-point goals making up 30 of his 34 points. Don’t get me started on the fact that the majority of those were just alley shots and that the style of play was just field lacrosse, the same way Team USA played in Alabama.

In case you were wondering what percentage of goals in the entire PLL Championship Series were by way of 2-pointers: 414 total goals in the tournament, 135 of them were from 2 pointers (33%). Atlas led the way in this category, Romar Dennis' team, with 76 of 142 goals coming by way of 2-pointers (54%).

Mouth Guards

Rule 2.4.2 of the World Sixes Lacrosse rulebook states:

“All Players, including the Goalkeeper, must properly wear an intra-oral tooth and mouth protector (mouth guard) which shall be molded to the Player’s teeth and jaw, cover all teeth of the upper-jaw and protect the Player from injury. It is recommended that the mouth guard be visible in color.”

We have this same rule in Canada for minor lacrosse, that “all players/goalkeepers are required to wear an intra-oral mouthpiece, otherwise be assessed a two-minute penalty and a 10 minute misconduct.”

This rule never made sense to me considering one search in google scholar for “intraoral mouthguard in sports and concussions” will yield multiple studies that show no conclusive data supporting the claim that they prevent or reduce the likelihood of concussions. If they did, they would be mandatory at all levels, like a helmet. Yet, the NHL, NBA, NFL and professional soccer leagues all do not have it mandated.

They make sense in female lacrosse where players aren’t wearing helmets and are subject to getting smacked in the teeth with sticks on any given shift. This could also be an argument in other sports where helmets aren’t worn, as they clearly do have a prophylactic benefit against lacerated lips, knocked out or loosened teeth and other oral injuries. Of course the dental industry wants athletes to wear them, it is a major revenue generator for them!

Yet, despite mouthguards being mandated in the rulebook for Sixes lacrosse, watch any male game from the 2021 Super Sixes or 2022 World Championships and you will realize that there must have been some sort of “gentleman’s agreement” not to call it or not to enforce it because I wasn’t able to find one male player wearing them (although I’m sure there was at least a few wearing them on their own volition).

From a lacrosse coach's perspective, especially when it comes to teaching the next level of defense to aspiring players, the biggest issue becomes the ability for defenders to communicate. It is hard enough to teach players to communicate without mouthguards, let alone with them. When teaching defenders how to communicate often the biggest issue is teaching them what to say and when to say it, but after that it is getting them to speak loud and assertively. Add a mouthguard into the fold and what you usually get is a low tone of gibberish that nobody can understand.

Until the scientists can prove that there is a concrete benefit to using mouthguards, my coaching communication coaching strategy for practice will continue to be to practice without them until a few weeks before the major event of the season, allowing players at least some time to get used to them after proper communication has been learned. Likewise, I call upon the national and international governing bodies to eliminate their arbitrary use.

Other Rule Considerations

Some of the other notable rules that weren’t discussed in this article include:

Rule 12.2 EXAMPLES OF EXPULSION FOULS

12.2.5 The act of deliberately body checking an opponent in the head or neck area, or from behind.

Rule 11.7 UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT (MAJOR FOUL)

11.7.1 No Player, substitute, non-playing member of a team, Coach or anyone officially connected with a competing team shall:

i. Enter into argument with an Official as to any decision which has been made;

ii. In any way attempt to influence the decision of an Official;

Both of these rules were visibly not enforced in the championship game at the World Championships in 2022. I can’t speak for the rest of the games in the tournament.

The Team USA coach is upset in the clip above because he thought that the play should be stopped and the goal therefore disallowed because #42 on Canada Petterson’s helmet came off as a result of the high stick in the previous clip. However, the rule reads as follows:

2.4.4 STOPPAGE OF PLAY

Play must be suspended immediately if a Player does not have any of the required equipment, or if during the duration of play, equipment becomes dislodged compromising safety or increasing the risk of injury. The Official shall delay the sounding of their whistle as in the slow whistle technique, except that an arm signal is not made under these circumstances.

One other unsportsmanlike situation that bothered me, which presumably wasn’t called because of the score and time remaining in the game, was by number 22 on USA toward the end of the game.

Rule 11.7 UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT

iv. Commit any act considered unsportsmanlike by the Officials; or

I thought this incident was a total travesty and embarrassment. I’m not sure what he could possibly be talking about down 23-9 in a championship game, but up north (in box lacrosse) we have a way of dealing with guys that run their mouth like that, especially when it’s not addressed by the referees…

Concluding Thoughts

What’s great about the sixes rules is that they eliminate the high difficulty positions like long pole and face-offs. The biggest adjustments for field lacrosse players has clearly to do with playing 5-on-5 with all short sticks (playing 5-on-4 or 4-on-3 would also be a major adjustment). Whereas, the biggest adjustment for box players would be having to let up on picks, especially when the rule for setting illegal picks is a 30 second minor foul (rule 10.3). It’s also worth noting that body checking of an opponent in any form is illegal, constituting a 1 minute major foul (rule 11.1).

Another rule I would like to see changed is shots that go off the post be returned to the offending team, allowing them to keep the momentum and rewarding a shooter who takes a highly accurate shot that doesn’t miss the net. On the other side of the possession coin, I would like to see the “carry over rule” (rule 6.5.6) eliminated, which is a field lacrosse rule that allows whichever team that has possession at the end of the quarter, in a powerplay situation, to retain the ball at the start of the next quarter. To me, it would be much better fan-fare if the short-handed team is able to kill the penalty until the end of the quarter and then there is an ultra important face-off at the beginning of the next quarter. It looks brutal in a game where there’s already an abundance of goals that a team gets to just walk out with the ball on the powerplay at the start of quarter and score 5 seconds in like #51Teat did at the start of the 3rd quarter.

The 10 second rule is another rule that I feel needs to be added. As it currently stands, I would instruct my players to just run circles around the net if they get the ball on a penalty kill or after getting scored on, hucking the ball the length of the field if they get in trouble. Adding this rule would also make athletic teams with less skill, like some of the emerging countries, have an advantage. They would be more inclined to press (ride) an opponent trying to clear their half and also have an advantage while clearing the ball against a team trying to put up a press on them. At the very least it should be there 5-on-5. By comparison, on a much larger playing surface in the NLL, you only have 8 seconds to get the ball over half.

Lastly, it’s worth noting that you are allowed 2 time-outs per half, which makes sense considering the intensity of the cardio-vascualr requirements in Sixes lacrosse (as discussed in my “Science of Sixes” blog). In the championship game, Canada used 3 out of 4 timeouts and USA used none. Team USA is going to need to learn how to take advantage of rules like this if they are ever going to close the goal margin in the fast paced sixes discipline, which is much more similar to box lacrosse than field.

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