How box lacrosse works, rule by rule.

The edition used

The box rule book used here is World Lacrosse's own upload, Box Lacrosse Official Playing Rules 2026-2028. Its cover reads May 2026, Version 2.0, while another line on the cover reads Version 1.0; this site treats it as version 2.0, the label World Lacrosse's playing rules page gives it. The book says it incorporates the changes members approved at the Box Rules Assembly. Rule numbers below are from it.

The box book does not split its rules by men's and women's play: the same text covers both. National bodies may vary it, as with every World Lacrosse book.

The floor

• The playing surface is enclosed by dasher boards 3 ft 6 in to 4 ft high, topped by safety glass or similar at least 3 ft high along the sides and 6 ft high at the ends (Rule 1.1.1).
• The floor is divided into three zones: defensive, centre and offensive (Rule 1.1).
• The goal crease is a circle of 9 ft 3 in radius to its outside edge, centred on the middle of the goal line (Rule 1.1.7).
• There is an 11 ft radius face-off circle and set face-off spots (Rule 1.1.9).

The overall size of the floor appears in the rule book's appendix diagram, which was not extracted for this site, so it is not given here.

The players

Box is played by two teams of six (Rule 3.1.1). No more than 20 players, goalkeepers included, may take part in a game (Rule 3.2).

Time

Face-offs and the shot clock

Play restarts with a centre face-off, under the rules in Section 6. The team in possession must shoot on goal within 30 seconds of gaining possession or lose the ball to the other team (Rule 6.6.1). A 30-second shot clock operator is one of the minor officials (Rule 4.2.3).

Penalties

• Minor penalty: any player except the goalkeeper goes off the floor for two minutes (Rule 7.2.1).
• Major penalty: five minutes off the floor. If the penalised team concedes two power-play goals it may put a player back on, but the offender still serves the full five minutes (Rule 7.3.1).

The officials

The box book calls its officials referees, and leaves the appointment of the officiating crew to the league, tournament, event or governing body (Rule 4.1.1). See officials.

The stick

The box stick is a fixed overall length of 40 to 42 in, with a head 4.5 to 7 in wide inside at its widest point, both except for the goalkeeper's stick (Rules 2.2.1 and 2.2.2). Pocket depth may not exceed 5 in (Rule 2.2.4).

On materials, World Lacrosse and Lacrosse Canada disagree for 2026. World Lacrosse's Rule 2.4.1 allows only sticks of hollow synthetic or metal type material, with the head attached directly to the handle, and says all other sticks are illegal. Lacrosse Canada's memo of 28 January 2026 permits wooden sticks for both players and goalies in the 2026 box season, unless a technical package or tournament contract says otherwise. Each applies to its own competitions. The box sticks page has the full rules.

What players wear

Rule 2.5.1 requires all players to wear protective gloves, shoulder or vest pads, rib pads, a helmet with an attached facemask and chinstrap, and a mouthguard. Rule 2.5 requires the helmet and facemask combination to be approved by NOCSAE or the CSA and to pass a ball and stick test, in which neither may pass through the mask and touch the face, and the mask must cover the whole face, chin included. A mouthguard must be worn at all times during a live ball (Rule 2.5.5). From the 2028 Box Lacrosse World Championships, all players must wear lacrosse shoulder pads carrying NOCSAE certification or a comparable standard, and commotio cordis prevention certification (Rule 2.5.1); World Lacrosse's 12 May 2026 announcement gives the same 2028 start for men's and women's box.

Lacrosse Canada sets its own equipment rules. Its equipment regulations page allows three helmet set-ups: a NOCSAE-approved field lacrosse helmet, a CSA-approved hockey helmet with a CSA-approved hockey facemask, or a CSA-approved hockey helmet with a CSA-approved lacrosse facemask. Its 2026 memo adds that helmets must have at least four points of contact. No rule here says any product is safe or legal in itself: the standard and the body's rule decide, and certification marks are checked by the officials and the governing body. See helmets and NOCSAE and goalkeeper equipment.

Box in Canada

Canada's National Sports of Canada Act (S.C. 1994, c. 16) declares lacrosse the national summer sport, and Lacrosse Canada names box among its disciplines. Its memo of 28 January 2026 says the World Lacrosse box rule book, together with Lacrosse Canada's Age and Stage Modifications, applies to the 2026 box season except where the memo says otherwise, as a phased adoption of the World Lacrosse book. The memo also says research on goalie sticks continues through 2026 with no changes in that period.

For 2026 Lacrosse Canada also introduced a single national standard on contact, cross-checking and equal pressure for every age group, from no cross-checking at U7 up to the full World Lacrosse ruleset at U17 (Box Lacrosse Safety Standards: Contact On and Off Ball). Lacrosse Canada says its aim is not to remove contact from box lacrosse but to introduce it at the right stages. The age-by-age detail is on the youth contact and checking rules page; this site does not describe how contact is made.

Elsewhere

USA Lacrosse lists a 2023 box rule book among its rules documents; it was not read. The National Lacrosse League is a professional box league; Wikipedia, a secondary source, records that its 2025-26 season ran from late November 2025 to May 2026; the league's own announcement confirms that its 2026 Finals were scheduled for May 2026, but the start date rests on Wikipedia alone.