Lacrosse goalie gear: each code's rules, side by side.

What a chest protector can and cannot do

Nothing here says a chest protector is certified, safe or legal, and none is presented as preventing commotio cordis. NOCSAE says its ND200 standard is intended to significantly reduce the likelihood of commotio cordis, not that it prevents every case, and ND200 requires a warning that no protector can prevent all cardiac or other injury. A 2023 review in Sports Medicine (Peng and colleagues) says registry studies and animal models have not shown chest barriers to prevent the arrhythmia. Before the standard existed, Maron and colleagues (Pediatrics, 2009), reviewing a US registry of sudden deaths and cardiac arrests in high school and college lacrosse from 1980 to 2008, counted ten deaths after a blunt blow to the chest, and four of those ten were goalkeepers wearing commercially available chest protectors; how studies count differs, as deaths as published explains. A blow to the chest needs medical care at once. See commotio cordis.

NOCSAE ND200, in brief

• Dates: NOCSAE's Standards Committee finalised the standard on 27 January 2017, announcing it as the first such standard for baseball and lacrosse, to take effect in January 2018. The current document is ND200-22m25, marked "Modified December 2025".
• The test, named only: the maker picks a baseball or a lacrosse ball as the projectile, which strikes the NOCSAE Thoracic Surrogate at 30 mph and 50 mph over the heart and at random locations, with the protector tested as sold.
• Pass or fail only: NOCSAE says ND200 has no ranking or rating, and that it regards claims that one certified product protects more than another as unsupported by independent research. It also says a newer version does not void certification to an earlier one, and products certified to any ND200 version remain actively certified by SEI.
• The label: maker, model, size, month and year of manufacture, and the sport-specific seal on the outside of the main protective part; where that part sits in a garment, the garment must say the product is not compliant unless assembled as the maker instructs. USA Lacrosse says compliant products carry the NOCSAE lacrosse logo and the SEI certification mark on packaging and product.

Who requires ND200 for goalkeepers, and from when

Goalkeeper equipment by code

• Men's field (World Lacrosse 2025-2027, v1.0, Rules 17.1 and 18.3): a helmet designed for field lacrosse, a throat guard, a chest protector and a box or cup; soccer-style shin guards and conforming compression shorts or American football pants are allowed. Apart from the stick, all goalkeeper equipment must be solely for protecting the head and body and must not help stop the ball, and shin guards, throat guards and chest protectors may not exceed standard equipment.
• Women's field (World Lacrosse 2025-2026, v1.0, Rules 6.A.20 to 6.A.24): a chest or body pad, a field lacrosse helmet with fastened chin strap, a facemask and an attached throat protector hanging less than a ball's diameter from the helmet; padded gloves tied at the cuff with no webbing; shoulder or arm pads, shin guards and conforming shorts or pants allowed; padding no more than 3 cm thick; a shatter-resistant visor may be attached to the helmet.
• Sixes (World Lacrosse 2026-2028, v2.0, Rule 2.4.3): a chest or body pad, a field lacrosse helmet with fastened chin strap, facemask and throat protector, and padded gloves; shoulder or arm pads, leg pads and a box or cup allowed; from 2027 at World Lacrosse events, NOCSAE-certified (or comparable) helmets.
• Box (World Lacrosse 2026-2028, v2.0, Rules 2.7.1 to 2.7.8): arm and chest protector, goalkeeper pants, throat guard, cup or pelvic protection and shin guards, all solely for protection; a helmet and facemask approved by and marked by the CSA or NOCSAE with a throat protector. Size limits include a glove no more than 8.5 in wide and 14.5 in long, shin pads no more than 1.5 in thick, arm padding no more than 7 in across, and a chest protector extending no more than 2.5 in on each side.
• Lacrosse Canada (box): goalkeeper gear is sized by height, not age group, with adjustable straps required; exemptions go through its Safety and Equipment Review Committee on the 2026 form, due by 31 May each year, with no appeal. Its 2026 memo says goalies wear approved goalie masks and cat-eye masks are not permitted.

Under the NFHS boys' 2026 changes, a player who is not a properly equipped goalkeeper and enters the crease to block a shot commits a personal foul for illegal equipment (Rules 4-18-4 and 5-6-2). The NCAA's goalkeeper rules were not read for this site.

Goalie sticks

World Lacrosse men's field Rule 15.3 allows a goalkeeper head of 6 in up to 15 in inside at its widest and a stick of 40 in up to 72 in. The NFHS boys' 2024 rule (Rule 1-6-1 Art. 2) sets a goalkeeper crosse of 40 to 72 in with a head 10 to 12 in wide and no more than 16.5 in long, and removes stringing and pocket-depth limits except a 2 in limit on hanging strings. These are different codes, each for its own games. Women's field Appendix H B.2 allows 90 to 140 cm with a head up to 41.9 cm long and 15.24 to 38.10 cm inside; box Rule 2.3 allows 40 to 72 in, no more than 13 in wide outside and 16.5 in long, with no tape build-up on the shaft for undue help. Lacrosse Canada's 2026 memo says research on goalie sticks continues through the 2026 season with no changes in that period.

Recalls and alerts

On 26 February 2014 the US Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a recall of about 4,000 throat protectors for goalie helmets that could crack or break when hit by a ball. In November 2019 NOCSAE relayed SEI safety alerts including a recall of one maker's chest protectors released before SEI certification was complete; "recall" there is SEI's and NOCSAE's word, not shown to be a government recall. Both are on recalls and decertification.

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