Injury Prevention & Conditioning Proper preparation using sport-specific training techniques, combined with knowledge of the rules, are essential to improving performance and preventing injury in lacrosse.

Overtraining and specialization are becoming serious issues in youth sports today. Athletes who overtrain can suffer serious injuries. It is important that coaches remember that young athletes are still growing. Each team will have athletes of varying levels on it and care must be taken to train each player at his or her appropriate level, using sport-specific and training techniques based on modern research.

Coaches should also encourage players to take some time off from lacrosse, especially if they've been playing in multiple leagues or consecutive seasons. This can prevent burnout and overuse injuries, which is extremely important at the youth level. The American Academy of Pediatrics' Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness recommends that children and adolescents play on only one team per season and take a vacation of 2-3 months from a specific sport (not all sports necessarily) each year.

Related Articles
♦ ACL Injury Facts & Summary  (USL Sports Medicine Symposium)
♦ Overuse Injuries, Overtraining and Burnout (American Academy of Pediatrics)
♦ Chronic Repetitive Injuries a Growing Concern (The Baltimore Sun)
♦ Lacrosse Training Requires Proper Preparation (The Baltimore Sun)
♦ More Youth Play Isn't a Winner for Everybody (The Baltimore Sun)
♦ Specialization May Have Higher Injury Risks (Loyola University)
♦ A New Breed of Knee Injury in Young Athletes (NY Times)
♦ America’s Obsession with Youth Sports and How it Harms Our Kids (SI)
♦ For Children in Sports, a Breaking Point (NY Times)
♦ Fitness and Training Tips from Lacrosse Magazine
♦ National Strength and Conditioning Association: Youth Resistance Training
♦ NFHS First Aid for Coaches Course 
♦ Preseason Heat Acclimatization Guidelines

Surgeon Discusses Lacrosse Injuries



Research Studies and Resources on Lacrosse Injuries

2009-10 NFHS Injury Surveillance Study
Data and analysis of high school injuries for all sports during the 2009-10 school year.

NCAA Injury Surveillance System (ISS)
Developed in 1982 to supply current and reliable data on injury trend in intercollegiate athletics.
   • Women's Lacrosse Injury Surveillance System 2006-07 (PDF)
   • Men's Lacrosse Injury Surveillance System 2005-06 (PDF)

Journal of Athletic Training
The following four articles from the Journal of Athletic Training are provided here in PDF format with permission. 

         • NCAA ISS Commentaries: Introduction and Methods 
         • Epidemiology of Collegiate Injuries for 15 Sports 
         • Descriptive Epidemiology of Collegiate Men's Lacrosse Injuries
         • Descriptive Epidemiology of Collegiate Women's Lacrosse Injuries 


STOP Sports Injuries
An online resource committed to keeping kids in the game for life by preventing athletic overuse and trauma injuries.
► Lacrosse Injury Prevention

National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research
Collects death and permanent disability sports injury data that involve brain and/or spinal cord injuries. 


Conditioning Video Resources from US Lacrosse




Additional Articles

Girls Lacrosse: New Rules Stress Safety First (The Baltimore Sun)
Protecting players from themselves is at the heart of the rule changes for the 2012 girls’ high school lacrosse season.

Girls Lacrosse: Yellow Cards Have Some Seeing Red (The Baltimore Sun)
In an attempt to rein in what some believe has become overly aggressive play and preserve the integrity of the women's game, officials will be calling it more tightly.

Head, Face, and Eye Injuries in Scholastic and Collegiate Lacrosse:
A 4-Year Prospective Study
This article was originally published online January 4, 2007 in the American Journal of Sports Medicine. Using sport-specific injury surveillance systems over four seasons, the authors identified the most common scenarios for head, face, and eye injuries.

Descriptive Epidemiology of Collegiate Men’s Lacrosse Injuries
Published in the Journal of Athletic Training in 2007, this report reviews 16 years of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) injury surveillance data for men’s lacrosse and identifies potential areas for injury prevention initiatives.

Descriptive Epidemiology of Collegiate Women’s Lacrosse Injuries
Published in the Journal of Athletic Training in 2007, this partner report to the men's report cited above, reviews 16 years of National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) injury surveillance data for women’s lacrosse and identifies potential areas for injury prevention initiatives.

Epidemiology of Lacrosse Injuries in High School-Aged Girls and Boys:
A 3-Year Prospective Study
Published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2005, the authors found that the overall injury rates for boys' and girls' high school lacrosse were significantly lower than those for collegiate play.