What type of lacrosse player are you?

You can make a name for yourself in lacrosse regardless of your size, speed or strength. Of course being naturally athletic helps anywhere on the field but men’s lacrosse is a sport where the big guy does not always get the upper hand of over the little guy. Here’s our breakdown for the characteristics of players in different positions. What type of lacrosse player are you?

Goalkeeper

We’ll keep this one simple… you’ve just got to be a little bit crazy.

Power Defender

Your highlights reel consists of putting attackers on their backs. You slide early, and hit the body, even if sometimes a little late and get a minute penalty. In a 100m sprint race, you’ll be at the back, but the furthest you have to run in lacrosse is the 5 meters across the crease to go help a team mate.

Hustling Defender

You have fast feet and quick reactions. Your checks may not come crashing down but they are accurate and as soon as the ball is stripped, you hoover up the ground ball and get the ball across transition to set up the fast break. You are great as both a close defender or long stick midfielder. You love one-on-one drills at practice.

Covering Defender

You have natural defensive instincts to be in the right place, at the right time. You are the main talker in defence, barking out the orders to keep things organised. You get a nosebleed if you cross the halfway line.

Endurance Midfield

Your gift is your internal engine. You can run up and down the field all day. Your stick skills and dodging could always improve but your defence skills are solid. You are the player who’s always moving, creating space for others or providing the easy pass option. When the ball is lost, you are first back to the halfway line to stop the fast break.

Midfield Terrier

You live for the ground ball battle. You may be below average height, but that helps when the ball is on the floor. You take a fair share of slashes, but give plenty too. You scoop the ball, roll dodge the oncoming opponent and the run into the space. You are comfortable playing with both hands and score your fair share of goals as you don’t mind getting inside the defence where the shot percentages increase but also the risk of getting whacked. You’ll pick a fight with anybody.

Power Midfield

You love the physical aspects of offence and defence. You may not be the quickest in your team but you get stuck in and understand team defence. You rely on the bull dodge to get past defenders and don’t mind getting hit.

Dodging Midfield

You are a natural athlete, comfortable playing with both hands. You have mastered all the dodge techniques but your quick feet favour split dodging to get inside to either shoot yourself or draw the slide and pass to the open attacker. You probably also have the cleanest kit and pull those socks up high.

Power Attacker

You have some extra layers of skin (fat) to soften the checks, slashes and hits from the defence. You don’t mind getting hit provided the ball ends up in the back of the net. You know the odd dirty trick the referee might not see, maybe a hold or off-ball push, but all you need is a little space to take a catch, turn and shoot in one motion.

Dodging Attacker

You are much like a dodging midfielder except have no interest in defending. You score at will against weaker teams who don’t slide effectively. Most of your good work is done from behind the goal. You watch YouTube videos of crease dive goals and practice them in your back garden.

Finishing Attacker

When you realised you could shoot with power and accuracy you were hooked on lacrosse. You rarely move more than 10 metres from the goal and NEVER back to the halfway line. You rarely need to dodge, just wait for your defender to switch off, or slide to help a team mate, then you move into the passing lane, stick up, take the pass and find the corner of the goal. If you lose the ball, someone else will run back and get it. It’s not because you are lazy, it’s because you are in the team to score the bulk of the goals.