| Lacrosse Stick Sizing Guide |
Your Definitive Lacrosse Stick Sizing Guide: Which Size Should You Choose?
If you’re looking to go into the world of lacrosse, you’ll need to be kitted out with the right gear for you, your team and your gameplay. Using our lacrosse stick sizing guide can help you get exactly what you need while allowing you to create adjustments to suit your height.
Here at The Hobby Kraze, we don’t just suggest hobbies or pair you with the perfect past-time, we also help you get the tools, equipment and knowledge you’ll need in order to strive and enjoy it, too.
With that said, this brief article will take you through the parts to a lacrosse stick before helping you understand how the lacrosse stick sizing guide will work with you to make the perfect sports tool to win.
Parts of a Lacrosse Stick
There are two parts to a lacrosse stick that should concern you throughout this lacrosse stick sizing guide; the shaft and the head.
And, when shopping around it can be useful and important to know that the length of the head of the lacrosse stick is universal. Sitting at the 10-inch size guide, the head of the lacrosse should be able to effectively catch, carry and cradle a standardized ball used within every match. Meaning, no matter whether it’s the NCAA, NFHS, or the box lacrosse matches, the head’s length is always standard.
The shaft, on the other hand, is the pole you hold throughout the game to carry the ball and head above you. In some places, players may call the shaft their “handles”. The shaft can differ in lengths depending on your position in the team, your age, gender and height.
For example; field hockey has two positions and two stick lengths. With their defenders carrying an average of 72-inches and their attackers holding an average of 42-inches, it’s very important to enter the shopping mind-set knowing your position requirements.
Again, box lacrosse has its own stick length of around 40-inches meaning it’s not often transferrable and this lacrosse stick sizing guide may suggest purchasing more than one stick if you intend to play both games.
What Shaft Material Should You Get?
Modern lacrosse sticks can be made of all sorts of materials. While they used to be hollow metal, their options for lightweight and sturdy materials can be an essential part throughout any player’s lacrosse stick sizing guide. Have a look at some of the common materials:
- Aluminium
- Titanium
- Scandium
- Carbon Fiber
- Wood
- Composite Mixtures
- Bamboo
With this, it must be said that the most common material used in a 2020 lacrosse player’s shaft is scandium. This is because it is tough, lightweight, durable and affordable.
What Length Should the Stick Be?
As we’ve mentioned throughout this lacrosse stick sizing guide, there are many factors that will affect your lacrosse stick’s sizing needs. However, for now, we’ll focus on the requirements of your position as a lacrosse team player.
The team at The Hobby Kraze has gathered a definitive guide to the lacrosse stick sizing needs depending on your position as an attacker, defender or goalie in a game of field lacrosse.
1. Attack and Midfield
If you play as a midfielder or attacker, your lacrosse shaft should only range between 30-inches and 45 depending on your height and gender. The taller you are, the longer your stick should be. And, through the women’s games of lacrosse, the shaft is often smaller than the equal counterparts in a men’s game.
Among all different lengths of shaft in the lacrosse industry, this is the shortest due to the nature of the attacker. The attacker and midfielder both need to be able to run fast, pick up balls from the ground and keep close guard while cradling. Any longer and the player would find it difficult to manoeuvre.
To ensure you’ve got the length right, the overall stick shouldn’t be longer than 42-inches when measured with the head.
As lacrosse will vary depending on location and age, there’s no surprise that it can also vary throughout the genders of the game. After the popularity of lacrosse increased over recent years, so has the field for the number of players and the number of women lacrosse players. With this, the game has changed to adapt for the differing body types. And, the sticks have shortened to account for height differences, too.
As an attacker or midfielder in the women’s lacrosse league, the shaft will often range from 26-inches to 37-inches.
And, much like the shaft sizes for the women’s league players, a youth player of lacrosse should have a shaft size no shorter than 26-inches. But, a top tip in this lacrosse stick sizing guide is to buy an adjustable stick which can be elongated as the player grows.
Check out our article; “Is Lacrosse the Best Sport for Your Kid?” for more information on the tools, equipment and know-how for a young lacrosse player entering the sport.
2. Defense
When it comes to playing defense, your stick will be considerably longer. This is to allow for the best defense and offense tactics. However, this length is very flexible. The best go-to for testing a stick is the right length is measuring it against yourself. Most lacrosse coaches would suggest a lacrosse stick (inclusive of the head) should be the same height of the player, yet this can be down to personal preference as some players like their stick to be slightly shorter for accuracy. With this in mind, the range of stick size for a defense player should remain within 52 to 72-inches.
The difference in opinion for the length of defense lacrosse stick stems from having no standardized rules across the varied lacrosse games and leagues. As long as it remains within the boundary, you are free to choose the length of your stick to best improve your performance as a defense lacrosse player.
A tip from the team at The Hobby Kraze is to think of the defense lacrosse stick as a tool to reach much farther than the attackers. Thus, meaning the longer the shaft, the better the defense.
If we look to the younger players of the lacrosse hobby, there’s no need for a full-sized lacrosse stick, however you should buy an adjustable stick to allow for growth spurts throughout young children and adolescents. This way you can always make sure the stick (inclusive of the head) is the same size of the young player. For an example, the average shaft lengths for a young player range between 26 and 60-inches.
3. Goalie
The goalie has the most flexibility when it comes to the choice of their stick. And, this works for both young players, adolescents and professional players, too.
This freedom may seem like a positive attribute to the position; however, it requires a certain level of experience atop considerable trial-and-error to find which stick works best for you as a goalie.
In this lacrosse stick sizing guide, we’ll let you into one tip of the trade. There are many goalies and lacrosse players who will agree that the ‘sweet spot’ for the length of the lacrosse stick of a goalie is 50-inches in total. And with the length of the head being a standardized 10-inches, it would make the shaft length 40-inches.
It must be noted that the shorter the stick, the more accurate your blocking can be as a goalie. Yet, the longer the stick, the more ground you can cover within the goal. Knowing how you play as a goalie will be the key to using this lacrosse stick sizing guide when finding your new stick.
How to Adjust the Shaft’s Length
One of the biggest pet peeves many lacrosse players will face is buying a lacrosse stick only to find that it doesn’t fit the bill. This can happen nearly instantly, or it can become a realization after a few games. Often the stick needs to be shortened to allow for ergonomic handling, lightweight maneuvering and precision catching.
So, here at The Hobby Kraze, we’ve got the ultimate lacrosse stick sizing guide to help you resize and adjust your new lacrosse stick. To begin with, here’s a list of the tools you’ll need:
- Your Lacrosse Shaft
- A Tape Measure
- A Permanent Marker
- A Hacksaw or Electric Blade
- A Visor
- Sandpaper
- Some grip Tape
The first step to adjusting the size of your lacrosse stick involves using your tape measure and measuring how long you’d like your shaft to be. Then, you can mark the length with your permanent marker. This step needs to be triple checked to ensure you’re not cutting too short. Because, unfortunately, the only tips we have here at The Hobby Kraze for a stick that is too short is to sell up and buy a new one.
When you’ve decided on a length for your lacrosse stick, you can think about the shortening process. There are two options from this point. You can either, take the cap off the butt-end, cut from the butt-end and re-apply the cap with some tape. Or, you could remove the head and cut from the head-end. However, as this is the lacrosse stick sizing guide, we highly recommend going from the butt-end. This is because removing the head end will require you to re-screw in the head which can often involve adding the temporary fix of a wine cork to the inside of the shaft.
After choosing the right end for you, re-mark the length, double check the sizing is correct and take your hacksaw to the shaft. Making sure you are wearing your visor for protection, you can cut through the hollow shaft, ensuring it is straight and smooth.
A top tip for using a hacksaw would be to not rush into the sawing action. You should begin slowly, allowing the teeth to sink into the shaft. Then, when the traction is gaining and you are nearly halfway through the shaft, you should flip the lacrosse stick and start sawing from that side. Doing this can allow you to remain level and smooth while also making sure the stick does not snap before you are finished.
When done, take your sandpaper grits and work your way through the sandpaper from the most-coarse grit to the smoothest. After smoothing the end of the new lacrosse stick, you can re-attach the cap or head and take out your grip tape to secure. Using grip tape, it will ensure the cap remains on the end of your shaft and can increase your overall grip of the shaft when playing. With the grip tape, you can either place it down the entire lacrosse stick for freedom grip or encapsulate small areas where your hands will normally sit.
Final Words
To end this insightful lacrosse stick sizing guide, it’s important to know that your lacrosse stick can make or break your performance within a game. So, if you’re choosing to go through a transition of sticks, make sure you do this throughout training season to make sure you don’t compromise league games.
With this lacrosse stick sizing guide, you now know how to size a lacrosse stick and that a growing child should have a stick allowing them to adjust. Where the lacrosse stick feels too small, it’s time to look into finding a new one. But, if your lacrosse stick is too long and there’s no more growing to be done, you can use our re-adjustment steps to help you achieve the right length for your game.
And with that, we hope you have enjoyed the lacrosse series of articles here at The Hobby Kraze. Don’t forget to look at the other fantastic articles by the team here at The Hobby Kraze, we have everything from lacrosse to volleyball and squash to yoga. Let us know your thoughts and don’t forget to share!
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