Lacrosse equipment, as the rule books and standards bodies set it out.

This section is a reference to the rules and standards on lacrosse equipment, not a buying guide or a coaching manual. A lacrosse ball or stick can cause head, face and eye injuries, and a ball to the chest has caused commotio cordis deaths, which is why helmet, eyewear and chest protector standards take up several pages here. None of them replaces a coach or a doctor, and no item of equipment is presented as preventing concussion or commotio cordis.

Men's and women's lacrosse are different games with different equipment, and these pages never merge them. Every figure is given with its game, its code (World Lacrosse, the NCAA, the NFHS, USA Lacrosse or Lacrosse Canada), the rule book edition and the rule number. Stringing, pocket-making, head-shaping, fitting and maintenance procedures are outside the site's scope.

Rule books and standards used

What is changing

• World Lacrosse, 12 May 2026: new equipment standards for its owned and sanctioned events, phased in from the 2027 Sixes and 2028 Box championships and, for field, from the 2029 Women's and Men's U20 championships or an earlier continental qualifier for the 2030 women's or 2031 men's championship: NOCSAE-standard goalkeeper chest protection, shoulder pads meeting NOCSAE commotio cordis standards in the men's games and in box, compulsory eyewear for women's field and women's sixes players, and soft-shell headgear permitted for them (for women's field headgear, World Lacrosse gives the 2029 Women's U20 Championship only). The 2025 field rule books still read differently until then.
• The ball: the NCAA's men's game ball is to be fluorescent green or yellow from 2027-28, and the NFHS boys' ball from 1 January 2029.

The pages in this section

1. Men's sticks: World Lacrosse men's field and sixes rules and the NFHS boys' changes.
2. Women's sticks: the crosse in Appendix H, the pocket tests and the NFHS and NCAA changes.
3. Box sticks: the indoor stick and Lacrosse Canada's 2026 wooden-stick memo.
4. Stick materials: what each book allows, and how the modern stick developed.
5. The ball: sizes, NOCSAE ND049 and the move to fluorescent balls.
6. Helmets and NOCSAE: ND041 and each body's helmet rule.
7. Women's headgear: ASTM F3137 and where headgear is allowed.
8. Protective eyewear: ASTM F3077 and the eyewear rules.
9. Chest protectors and ND200: the commotio cordis standard and who requires it.
10. Gloves and pads: what each game requires.
11. Mouthguards: the rules and the colour differences.
12. Goalkeeper equipment: required kit, box size limits and goalkeeper sticks.
13. Footwear and uniforms: shoes, numbers, colours and jewellery.
14. Recalls and decertification: government recalls and standards-body notices.
15. Care, named: practices named only, and the limits the rules set.

How the games themselves work is in learn, injury and safety rules in safety, and buying guides by category in guides.