Goaltender (box lacrosse)

The goaltender or goalie is a playing position in indoor or box lacrosse. More heavily armoured than a field lacrosse goaltender, since the invent of indoor lacrosse in 1931, the box lacrosse goalie has evolved into a much different position than its field lacrosse cousin.

In Box Lacrosse, a goaltender is typically more heavily armoured than a field lacrosse goaltender. Box lacrosse goaltenders are known for their massive upper body gear, large shin guards known as "irons", and ice hockey-style helmets.

There are three types of lacrosse sticks in use right now by the modern box lacrosse goaltender. Traditional wooden sticks that are made from the bending of long strips of wood and pockets woven with leather and string. This variation goes back to the roots of the game and is still popular with goaltenders at the amateur levels (senior, junior, and minor) but is cost-inhibitive with new sticks ranging in price from $250–400 CAD. Another long-used goal stick type is the NCAA-head stick. Much smaller and covers less space between the legs, the NCAA-head is much easier for ball control. The newest make of goal stick is the "carbon triangle". Similar materials to the NCAA-style stick, the carbon triangle is sized to mimic the coverage of a wooden stick but the lightness of the NCAA-style. This style is becoming very popular in the minor and junior levels, but is banned in the National Lacrosse League. NLL goaltenders generally use NCAA-head sticks.

Although many goalies traditionally wear hockey gloves to protect their hands from high-velocity shots, many goalies have switched to a specialized gloves made specifically for box lacrosse. On the goalies free hand, there is potential for damage to the back of the hand, knuckles, and wrist from a hard shot. Lacrosse goalie gloves have an extra layer of padding on the outside of the glove to deflect damaging shots. This extra padding is on both gloves and serves to also protect the inner wrist of the stick-hand, which is often exposed in the crouch position when wearing hockey gloves as a lacrosse goalie. At the same time, lacrosse goalie gloves are required to give the goalie wrist mobility for when he must handle the ball.

Box goalies wear two different types of helmets. One type is the standard field lacrosse helmet, the other is the ice hockey mask. Field masks have strongly reinforced face masks, thick like the bars on a football helmet and also offer a wider range of vision than a hockey mask. Field helmets do little to protect the throat region. Hockey mask padding can be formed to the users head for comfort. Are very easy to remove quickly and are molded especially for shock absorption. Also, despite cutting down the range of vision of the user, actively protects the throat area from straight on shots. In recent years, baseball catcher-style masks have been offered as a medium between the two helmet types.

...
Wikipedia