Physical Education Lacrosse
Physical education lacrosse, also known as soft-stick lacrosse, is a co-ed version of lacrosse that utilizes modified equipment and rules, and is designed for youth to achieve quick success executing the basics skills of lacrosse (cradling, scooping, passing, catching, and shooting). The rules of soft-stick lacrosse and the modified equipment also make it a version of the sport that does not require protective equipment to learn and enjoy.
It is our hope that the co-ed version of lacrosse can inspire participants to seek opportunities to play the traditional version of the game if they enjoy the soft-lacrosse experience.
Curriculum
Soft-stick lacrosse is well suited for youth in grades K-12. The US Lacrosse Physical Education Curriculum guide provides age specific unit plans, lesson plans, drills, games, educational handouts, cross-curricular activities and more.
The comprehensive teacher’s manual aligns with national standards and was developed in partnership with the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE). It contains three 10-day units for Elementary (grades 4-6), Middle School (grades 6-8) and High School (grades 9-12) students. All three grade levels are included in the manual so that teachers may customize and utilize resources from the entire curriculum to meet the unique needs of their students.
Each unit includes:
- Cognitive, psychomotor, and affective objectives
- Unit overview chart with National Standards identified
- 10 comprehensive lesson plans, including teaching cues
- Skill diagrams and illustrations
- Modified rules for safe play at all levels
- Reproducible handouts for students
- Cross-curricular connections and recommended resources for enhancing the unit
- Drills, games, assessment charts, quizzes, study guides and more
Video Library
The US Lacrosse Teaching Soft-Stick Lacrosse DVD provides a complete video-based instructional workshop on teaching and playing soft lacrosse, which complements the US Lacrosse Physical Education Curriculum. Video clips from this DVD are available free on the US Lacrosse YouTube site.
By watching these videos, viewers will learn:
- The origins of lacrosse and the variations of the game
- The basic skills of lacrosse
- How to teach these skills to players
- Fun drills and activities
- Rules and execution of soft lacrosse game play
Grants
US Lacrosse offers two (2) grant programs that help educators: the Soft-Stick Equipment Grant Program and the Physical Education Workshop Program.
We encourage individual schools seeking to start a lacrosse curriculum to apply to the Soft-Stick Equipment Grant Program. This grant provides a set of equipment to schools or community-based organizations that includes 30 soft lacrosse sticks, 30 soft lacrosse balls, a copy of the US Lacrosse Physical Education Curriculum and the Teaching Soft-Stick Lacrosse DVD.
If multiple schools from within a school district (i.e. all the elementary and middle schools) want to start a lacrosse curriculum in PE class, we encourage the school district to apply to the Physical Education Workshop Program.
Designed for adults educators with little to no prior lacrosse experience, the workshop provides a standard in-service-style training to teach adults how to introduce lacrosse to their students using the soft lacrosse equipment, rules, and skills. This fun, co-ed, high energy, non-contact, hands-on workshop teaches basic lacrosse fundamentals to help educators in understanding how to teach lacrosse in the physical education classroom.
The Physical Education Lacrosse Workshop is limited based on resources and trainer availability. US Lacrosse strives to award school districts that already approve of this workshop prior to applying. In addition, we prefer to work with whoever oversees the PE curriculum for the entire school district when hosting this workshop (i.e. the Health & PE Curriculum Specialist).