The ALA Ad Hoc Rules Committee met to review various parts of the new Lacrosse Canada (LC) Rules and the necessary regulation changes required to implement those changes. Those recommendations were forwarded to the Board and the ALA Board has voted unanimously to adopt those changes. The new regulations can now be viewed here on the ALA website.
At ages U11 and up, the Board has approved Regulation changes that implement all of the changes that LC has put in place. These rules use two documents, the World Lacrosse Rulebook and the LC Age and Stage Modifications in order to specify the rules for each age group of lacrosse. There will be more training and educational materials on these changes made available to coaches and officials over the coming weeks. Many of the changes are in reorganizing or renaming similar concepts. Stakeholders will most likely notice the following key changes:
Crease play, including how and when offensive players may pick up a loose ball in the crease and how and when a player may interact with the crease while on offence
Face offs now have a standard ruleset across all age groups and floor line set ups are the same for all age groups
Contact rules now have different and more standard interpretations
U17 will be using the same size of nets as Major lacrosse
It is no longer prohibited for U17 teams to use the “offence-defence” substitution tactic.
The ALA will be supplementing these rule changes with additional coach and official learning materials to emphasize safe play and appropriate development considerations under these new Rules.
The ALA believes that this move to unify the rules of lacrosse all around Canada will enhance the development of coaches and officials in teaching players how to play fun, safe and exciting lacrosse. We look forward to working with you in enjoying this new enhancement of our game this season.