Lacrosse safety, as the governing bodies, standards bodies and researchers publish it.

This section is a reference to what has been published about injury and risk in lacrosse. It is not a safety course. Playing is learned in person from a qualified coach, and injuries are a matter for doctors; nothing on these pages replaces either. A suspected injury, a blow to the chest or head, or a suspected concussion needs medical care.

How these pages are written

• Every rule carries its body, level and date. Concussion, eyewear, chest-protector and youth rules are given as World Lacrosse, USA Lacrosse, the NCAA, the NFHS or Lacrosse Canada published them. There is rarely a single answer: a World Lacrosse championship, a US college game, a US high school game and a Canadian box game each follow different documents.
• Men's and women's lacrosse are kept apart. They are different games with different equipment and rules, and no rule or figure from one is applied to the other.
• Equipment is not presented as prevention. No page says a helmet, headgear or chest protector prevents concussion or commotio cordis. The pages report what the NOCSAE and ASTM standards test and what bodies and researchers say, with who says it. NOCSAE says its chest protector standard is meant to reduce the likelihood of commotio cordis, not prevent every case.
• Claims without a named study are labelled. World Lacrosse's May 2026 figures for eyewear and headgear cite studies it does not name; the pages attribute them to World Lacrosse and say so.
• Deaths are given only in aggregate. Figures come from published medical studies, with their years and counting methods, and no individual is named or described.
• Injuries are named, not treated. The pages contain no first aid, CPR, AED, assessment, return-to-play or treatment steps.
• Disputes show each side. Where sources give different dates or figures, each version is given with who gives it.
• Gaps are admitted. On the research date every USA Lacrosse PDF returned an error, including its youth rule books and its concussion and lightning guidelines, and the current NCAA and NFHS rule books were not read. Anything that rests only on a search summary is said to be unconfirmed.

The pages in this section

1. Concussion by body: the rules of World Lacrosse, USA Lacrosse, the NCAA, the NFHS and Lacrosse Canada, side by side, and the laws that sit on top.
2. Commotio cordis: what NOCSAE, USA Lacrosse and medical reviews say, the ND200 standard's dates, and who requires it.
3. Eye injuries and the eyewear rule: the women's injury data, the disputed start of the US mandate and World Lacrosse's 2026 decision.
4. The headgear debate: ASTM F3137 soft headgear, who permits, requires or bars it, and what the studies found.
5. Deaths as published: the four-decade NCCSIR study, the 2009 registry study, and why their counts differ.
6. Injuries named: NCAA, High School RIO and world championship injury data, men's and women's kept separate.
7. Heat and lightning: World Lacrosse's heat policy and men's field lightning rule, the NFHS guidelines, USA Lacrosse and the NCAA.
8. Youth contact and checking rules: USA Lacrosse's boys' and girls' youth rules and Lacrosse Canada's 2026 box standard.
9. Safeguarding: the governing bodies' safeguarding policies, named with their dates.

Related reading

What each standard tests is in the equipment section: helmets and NOCSAE, women's headgear, protective eyewear and chest protectors and ND200. How each game's rules work is in learn, and the terms are explained in the glossary.