Like basketball
Picks, cutters, a three-second rule in the paint, and in IAAM games a possession clock. Spacing matters more than speed.
You know football, basketball and maybe the boys' game with the helmets. This is none of those. Nobody gets hit, the shots come from a painted arc, and the whistle means everybody freezes. One read and you will know what you are watching. Keep it on your phone for the bleachers.
Picks, cutters, a three-second rule in the paint, and in IAAM games a possession clock. Spacing matters more than speed.
Play goes on behind the goal, the goalie has a crease nobody else may enter, and the cage is a six-foot box.
Same idea of a stick and a pocket, but the pocket is shallow, there is no body checking, and there is no helmet.
Fouls in front of the goal turn into an 8-meter free position, everyone freezes on the whistle, and the closest player to a wide shot gets the ball.
It is a big field, bigger than the soccer pitch it is often painted on top of. Almost everything that matters happens inside the 12-meter fan in front of each goal. Learn that fan and its 8-meter arc and you can skip most of the rulebook.
The women's pocket is shallow by rule. Held horizontally at eye level, the top of the ball has to show above the sidewall. Before a game, after a goal, at quarter breaks and at timeouts a coach can ask the officials to check an opponent's stick. If it fails, the goal she just scored is wiped out and she gets a card. So when your daughter walks over to an official after a goal and hands over her stick, that is normal. The 2026 rule change limits when a coach can ask, precisely so games stop being paused for it.
Goggles and a colored mouthguard are required. Soft headgear (ASTM F3137) is optional under Maryland rules and is a family and team decision. The goalie is the only one in a helmet, and she has a chest protector and throat guard to go with it.
Twelve players, three groups, one goalie. Ask your daughter what she plays. Do not ask the internet, because half of it still uses the old names (first home, cover point, third man) that her coach may or may not.
They live inside the fan and behind the goal. Watch for the feed from behind the cage ("X") to a cutter in front. Attackers also draw the fouls that turn into 8-meter shots, which is a skill, not luck.
They run the full 110 yards, take the draw, carry the clear and drop back to defend. The center takes the draw; many teams sub in a draw specialist for that one moment and sub her right back off.
They mark, they slide, and they cannot just stand in front of the goal (that is shooting space). A clean defender makes controlled stick checks and keeps her feet moving. Coaches love a defender who never gets carded.
The only helmet on the field. She may use her hands inside the circle, has 10 seconds to clear the ball once she has it in there, and often starts the offense with a long outlet pass. Every save is a big deal, because the shots come from eight meters.
The whistle just blew and you have no idea why. Pick what you saw. Add where it happened if you know, and the signal the official made if you caught it. The list narrows to what it probably was. Frequency tiers are a judgment call, not statistics.
Every call on one table, for the drive home. Major fouls are the dangerous or unfair ones and the fouled player gets a free position where it happened, or on the arc if it was in the arc. Minor fouls are procedural and the ball just changes hands, four meters of space and go.
| You saw | What it is called | Why it is a foul | Result |
|---|
Delay of game. First one is a warning to the team: somebody did not move four meters, or a player walked away from a foul, or the team dawdled out of a timeout. A second delay costs the team two minutes with a player down.
A dangerous check, a shove, a check to the head, or mouthing off. Two minutes of playing time in the penalty area and her team plays a player down. A second yellow to the same player and she is done for the day.
Flagrant or fighting. Ejected, and her team plays short before it can replace her. Under IAAM rules any ejection also means a suspension of at least one game, the team's next scheduled contest.
There is no penalty shot in girls lacrosse. What there is instead is the 8-meter free position: a major foul by the defense inside the arc, and the fouled player gets the ball on the arc, eight meters from the goal, with a lane cleared in front of her. Games swing on these.
When a player draws illegally, any player on the other team may now take the resulting free position, not just the center. On goal circle fouls the offender is placed four meters away instead of behind. After a timeout with the goalie holding the ball in the circle, play restarts at the nearest dot and anyone may restart it. Stick checks may only be requested at breaks, timeouts, before draws and right after goals. And no on-field player may wear a microphone or camera. All of it aimed at pace of play.
An 8-meter from the center hash is about as good as it gets, and coaches will tell you it still misses more than it scores at the high school level. From the outside hashes the angle is worse and the goalie has a real chance. The 12-meter version, for minor fouls in the fan, is a direct shot too since 2025, but from farther out. Nobody gets a breakaway on the goalie in this game.
The whole ball crosses the goal line, before the horn, off the shooter's stick or a defender. It does not count if it comes off an attacker's body, if the shooter or her stick lands in the goal circle, if the shot was dangerous or came after the whistle, if her team was offside, or if her stick fails the check right after. A shot that hits the goalie and rolls in is a goal. A shot that hits an attacker's foot and rolls in is a free position for the defense.
Four 12-minute quarters, and the clock mostly runs. Budget about an hour and a half, more if it is close. Most of the stoppages you notice are goals and cards.
NFHS procedure. Five-minute rest, coin toss for ends, then sudden victory: overtime periods of up to six minutes of stop-clock time, played as two three-minute halves with a change of ends in between and no coaching during the switch. Still tied after six minutes, three-minute rest, change ends, and another six-minute sudden-victory period, until somebody scores. Each team gets one timeout in overtime.
IAAM. The league prints its own game clock and overtime rules in its handbook, and playoff and championship games must be played to a result. Regular season leagues in Maryland do vary on whether a tie stands after one overtime, so ask the coach before the first close game rather than during it.
Officials hear everything. Coaches hear everything. Your daughter hears you specifically, from anywhere on a 120-yard field. Here is what to shout, what not to, what the gear costs, and what dads learn the hard way.
| Gear | Notes | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Stick | Required. Women's stick, 35.5 to 43.25 inches, shallow pocket, must pass the ball-above-the-sidewall check. A complete stick is fine to start; the pocket matters more than the shaft. | $60 to $250 |
| Goggles | Required. Must meet ASTM F3077. The ones that fog are the cheap ones. | $30 to $80 |
| Mouthguard | Required, and it must be a visible color, not clear or white, so the official can see it. Buy three. She will lose two. | $5 to $40 |
| Cleats | Required in practice. Soccer or lacrosse cleats both work. Turf shoes if her home field is turf. | $50 to $130 |
| Headgear | Optional in Maryland (ASTM F3137). Some states require it; IAAM does not. Team policies vary, so ask. | $120 to $170 |
| Gloves | Optional. Thin, for March mornings and bruised knuckles. | $30 to $70 |
| Goalie kit | Helmet, throat guard, chest protector, gloves, pads, big stick. Usually school-owned. If she volunteers to be the goalie, say yes before anyone changes their mind. | School provides, mostly |
| Balls | Yellow, NOCSAE stamped. A bucket of them for the backyard is the best money you will spend. | $2 to $4 each |
Six plays that trip up parents every season. Pick an answer, get the verdict. Nobody is keeping score, including us.
Words you will hear from the bench, the bleachers and the car ride home.