In a little over a month we will be starting games for the 2012 Spring Season. With games we cannot escape getting penalties. I assure you, at some point during the season at least one player, and probably more, will receive a technical or a personal foul. I have yet to ref a perfect game, and no player has yet played in a perfect game. Because penalties are a part of lacrosse, it is important to educate players, coaches, and parents about the various kinds of penalties.

Safety is the main goal of every official. At Atlanta Youth Lacrosse, we believe that if we keep the games safe and fair, that players will naturally have fun. For youth sports there is a strong emphasis on safety. In fact, here is how we want every official to focus on:

1. Safety
2. Safety
3. Safety
4. Fairness
5. All of the above when maintained = Fun!

So with my safety speech taken care of, lets dig into some previous posts regarding personal fouls. The following are all videos that I put together along with a few AYL players to teach everyone what the various personal fouls look like, particularly at the youth level.

• Illegal Body Check
• Unnecessary Roughness
• Tripping
• Slashing
• Crosschecking
• Warding Off - not a personal foul, but a good explanation of what a ward is versus what it is not.

Hopefully the videos above, and the posts associated with them, will help inform any new players and parents, and reinforce the information that some of our more experienced players know.

Next up are some posts I’ve written about avoiding penalties, what to expect from an official in youth games, and how to behave on a lacrosse field.

• Avoiding Penalties
• Retaliation
• Brush versus Slash

If anyone has any comments or questions, feel free to post them below. Or, you can find me at the field between games.

Featured Image Credit – www.laxallstars.com

Cheers,
Gordon