The game is played on multiple skill levels from peewee leagues all the way up to the MLL (Major League Lacrosse). The sport has really been popular at the high school level with over 150,000 high school players. At the inter-collegiate level there are 236 NCAA approved teams. There are also more than 500 college club programs which compete. There consists of four main variations to the game that are competed today. They include Men 's Field, Women 's Field, Box Lacrosse and Inter Lacrosse.
Men 's Field Lacrosse is the most popular variation of the game, being played in High School and the Inter-collegiate level. It is played on a soccer sized field outdoors. It has many shifts in the game which involve long sprints up and down the field with abrupt starts and stops. Precision passes, dodges and intricate designed plays are a huge part of the offense.
Women 's Field is as you can tell played by women. In their variation of the game there is no body to body contact allowed. There game is much different from the men 's game. There play is heavily based on teamwork. Multiple passes are made before the ball is shot on goal. Also their game is most like the primitive Indian game in which there is no out of bounds. The ball is played until it reaches the first natural boundary.
Box Lacrosse is a fast game that is played indoors in an arena much like in
Cited: 1. Conover, Adele "Little Brother of War" Smithsonian Magazine December 1997/ November 2005 2. Culin, S. 1907. Games of the North American indian. In Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Washington: Bureau of American Ethnology 3. Masse, Larry. "Lacrosse Michigan 's First Team Sport." Michigan History Magazine, September/ October 1997: 80-81. 4. McCluney, E.B. 1974. Lacrosse: the combat of spirits. Southwestern American Indian Society. 1:34-42. 5. Vennum, Thomas Jr. American India Lacrosse: Little Brother of War. Washington, D.C. and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994.